The UN General Assembly elected China to the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Tuesday, despite the country holding about one million Uighur Muslims in detention camps. The General Assembly also elected Cuba, Russia, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, all of which were also accused of human rights violations. UNHRC membership is limited to 47 countries, and council members [...]
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Monday that reforms Michigan’s criminal expungement laws by allowing people with low-level marijuana convictions to have their records expunged. She also approved other “clean slate” criminal justice reform bills that will expand record expungement for other convictions, including certain traffic offenses. Whitmer signed House Bills 4980, 4981, 4982, 4983, [...]
The US Supreme Court granted an emergency petition Tuesday to stay an injunction issued by a federal district court against the Census Bureau, effectively permitting the Trump administration to immediately halt the national census. A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted the preliminary injunction against the Census Bureau [...]
Bangladesh’s Cabinet on Monday approved instating the death penalty as the maximum punishment for those convicted of rape and sexual assault. Previously, a life sentence served as the maximum punishment a convicted person could receive. In an effort to stand against the “government’s failure to provide security for women and the surge of rapes,” Bangladeshi [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Monday reinstated Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s order limiting absentee ballot drop boxes to one location per county, regardless of population. In response to COVID-19, Abbott issued various proclamations pertaining to the November election. This included allowing early voting six days earlier than normal and allowing [...]
The Supreme Court granted certiorari on Tuesday in United States v. Arthrex Inc and two other consolidated cases to address the appointment of administrative patent judges. The question before the court is whether administrative patent judges are considered “principal officers” under the US Constitution’s Appointment Clause or are instead considered “inferior officers.” If administrative patent judges are [...]
Cyprus announced via Twitter on Tuesday that it will abolish a citizenship-through-investment passport scheme that grants citizenship and guarantees visa-free travel throughout the EU to individuals who invest €2 million minimum. This announcement followed an investigation by news source Al Jazeera revealing that high-ranking politicians issued passports to convicted criminals. Allegedly, high-ranking Cypriot officials, politicians, [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday lifted a stay issued in August, reinstating the district court injunction barring federal agents from targeting journalists and legal observers at protests. The injunction sets out that press passes, standing to the side of protests and carrying professional-grade photographic equipment should be used to [...]
A Florida appeals court on Friday overturned the trial court’s ruling in favor of Florida teachers challenging the order that they argued “forced” school districts to reopen. The court held that the union’s case was not strong enough to qualify for the injunction issued by the trial court and that the trial court “exceeded the [...]
Chinese officials announced Monday that Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been charged with espionage. Yang was detained by Chinese authorities in January 2019 and has not been released since. A former Chinese diplomat and spy novelist, Yang wrote on Chinese politics for several years. He became an Australian citizen in the early 2000s. Yang claims his spy [...]
