US Legal News

A US federal court ruled Thursday that a retired officer’s sexual assault case against Air Force General John Hyten is allowed to proceed to the next phase. Hyten, the second-highest-ranking US military official, was accused of sexually assaulting a female officer in 2017. Retired Army Colonel Kathryn Spletstoser accused Hyten of engaging in unwanted sexual [...]

Three federal judges in California have ruled against a presidential executive order aiming to exclude people in the US illegally from the 2020 census count and subsequent congressional district reapportionment. A similar lawsuit filed by the state of New York is already before the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs that brought the suit consisted of individuals, [...]

California Court of Appeal Associate Justice Jon Streeter has upheld a trial court decision ordering Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers in California as employees. The ride-sharing companies were first sued for their alleged violation of California state law AB-5, which classifies workers as employees rather than independent contractors “unless the hiring entity demonstrates that [...]

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration acted within the law when it delayed implementing Obama administration-era rules intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, from the nation’s landfills. The state of California in conjunction with the Environmental Defense Fund, along with several other states, sued to force the EPA to promulgate [...]

In a unanimous ruling Friday the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court held that a voter’s absentee or mail-in ballot cannot be rejected based solely on a comparison of the signature on the ballot with the voter’s signature on their registration form. The ruling came as a result of a King’s Bench petition by Kathy Boockvar, Secretary of [...]

In a unanimous ruling on Friday, a three-judge panel of the Texas Third Court of Appeals ruled against Governor Greg Abbott’s order limiting the number of ballot drop boxes to one per county. On October 1, the governor, citing both ballot security and health concerns, issued an order restricting ballot drop boxes to one location [...]

The US District Court for the District of New Jersey Thursday dismissed  the Trump campaign’s lawsuit challenging newly passed mail-in voting provisions from the New Jersey Legislature. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Jersey Legislature enacted Assembly Bill No. 4475, which expanded the state’s mail-in voting initiatives. The Trump campaign challenged this legislation, [...]

On Thursday the United States and the governments of Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda co-sponsored the so-called Geneva Consensus Declaration urging member states to achieve (1) better health for women, (2) the preservation of human life, (3) the strengthening of family as the foundational unit of society, and (4) the protection of every nation [...]

US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe said in a press conference Wednesday that Russia and Iran have obtained voter registration information which can be used to communicate false information to registered voters. The Treasury Department has responded to the interference by instituting sanctions solely targeting Iran. Ratcliffe asserted that Iran is distributing “spoofed” [...]

The California Court of Appeal First Appellate District has ordered San Quentin State Prison (SQ) to reduce its population by half. The move is intended to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Tuesday order follows a writ of habeas corpus filed by Ivan Von Staich, an inmate in the prison. Staich, 64, suffers from respiratory problems. [...]