Amnesty International released a global report on the judicial use of death sentences and executions Monday, finding that death sentences decreased worldwide last year. The report includes 20 countries and covers January to December of 2019. Overall, confirmed executions decreased by 5 percent from 2018. In 2019 there were approximately 657 executions. Amnesty explained this [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Texas’ COVID-19 pandemic abortion ban Monday. The ban includes medication-induced abortions. Texas has banned the abortions citing concerns over the procedures causing a personal protection equipment (PPE) shortage during the COVID-19 crisis. Texas Governor Greg Abbot issued Executive Order GA-09 on March 22, 2020. The [...]
The US Supreme court granted certiorari Monday for a case concerning whether accessing authorized computer information for improper purposes is a crime. The case, Van Buren v. United States, involves police sergeant Nathan Van Buren of Cumming, Georgia. Van Buren contacted a local man associated with criminal activity for a personal loan. In a sting [...]
A federal district court judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to improve its measures for protecting the health of detainees in the agency’s facilities and consider releasing those most at risk of contracting COVID-19. Numerous individual detainees and two advocacy organizations have sued ICE, arguing that its relative [...]
The US Supreme Court issued its decision in Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Christian Monday, settling technical questions in a dispute between Montana landowners and a mining company over liability for hazardous materials cleanup within—and beyond—the scope of the federal law governing “Superfund” sites. Under the law, called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal patent law does not allow for an appeal of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to institute a procedure for challenging the validity of a patent after a finding that a one-year time bar does not apply. Inter partes review is a process established by [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that defendants on trial in state courts for serious offenses must be convicted by a unanimous jury, under the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, which is incorporated to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in Apodaca v. Oregon that the [...]
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) filed three lawsuits Monday challenging the failure of the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and two hospitals to protect the health and safety of nurses treating COVID-19 patients. The NYSNA claimed that the DOH, Montefiore Medical Center and Westchester Medical Center compromised the health and safety of [...]
The Massachusetts Senate on Friday approved a bill that imposes a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill was then sent to Governor Charlie Baker for approval. “ purposes, which are to establish forthwith a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during the governor’s COVID19 emergency declaration … necessary for the immediate [...]
Maryland governor Lawrence Hogan signed an executive order on Saturday allowing the expedited release of hundreds of eligible inmates in an effort to enable social distancing and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within the state’s prisons. Hogan’s order authorizes the Commission on Correctional Standards and the Maryland Parole Commission to expedite the release of eligible categories of [...]
