Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 3979 into law Wednesday, banning Texas public schools from being able to teach students critical race theory. Critical race theory is a social theory that asserts that racial issues in society are influenced, created, and maintained by societal structures and cultural assumptions. It focuses on the intersections between gender, [...]
Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards signed a new law on Tuesday that eliminates prison time for the possession of modest amounts of marijuana. The new law is the latest move away from Louisiana’s traditionally strict stance on the drug. The bill makes the possession of 14 grams or less a misdemeanor in all cases and [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ruled Tuesday that the Biden administration does not have the constitutional right to temporarily pause issuing new oil and natural gas leases for offshore and public lands. For now, the federal court has blocked Biden’s executive order issued on January 27. The [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s decision to strike down North Carolina’s statewide abortion restrictions. For the past 140 years, North Carolina has criminalized the “procurement or administration of abortion as a felony.” In 1967, the state enacted an exception to the abortion ban that permitted [...]
The US Senate unanimously passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Tuesday to commemorate the end of slavery in the US by establishing Juneteenth as a legal public holiday. Juneteenth was celebrated as “Emancipation Day” in some southern states after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to declare “all persons held as slaves” in [...]
The US Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal by a group of oil companies challenging a California state court ruling permitting two California cities to sue for damages related to climate change, meaning the case will be heard in state court. The cities of Oakland and San Francisco claimed that fossil fuel [...]
An American father and son duo pleaded guilty on Monday to aiding former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn’s escape from Japan, while he faced charges of financial misconduct. Japanese authorities indicted Michael Taylor, a US Army Special Forces veteran, and his son Peter Taylor on charges of harboring or enabling the escape of a criminal. They [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday limited new trials for felons convicted for being in possession of a firearm, limiting the retroactive application of its 2019 decision Rehaif v. United States. The issue in Greer v. United States involved 18 USC §922(g), the federal law prohibiting felons from possessing firearms. Under the 2019 decision in Rehaif, the [...]
The Biden administration announced Friday that it intends to restore environmental protections to the Tongass National Forest. This would reverse a Trump administration rule that allowed logging and road construction in over half of the forest. According to the US Forest Service, the Tongass is the “largest intact temperate rainforest in the world.” More than [...]
The US Supreme Court held on Monday that sentence reduction under the First Step Act is available only if an offender’s prior conviction for a crack cocaine offense triggered a mandatory minimum sentence. In 2018 Congress passed the First Step Act, which made previous sentencing reforms that reduced the sentencing disparity to 18 to 1, retroactive. Under [...]
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