The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected former US president Donald Trump’s appeal to have a gag order against him reviewed by the entire bench—a process known as en banc rehearing—on Tuesday. Originally imposed by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on October 16, the gag order restricts Trump from making public statements [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case challenging a Mississippi felon voter disenfranchisement law. Several voters who were previously convicted of felonies challenged the law on the basis of it being an unconstitutional example of cruel and unusual punishment under the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. The [...]

Kansas lawmakers urge the state’s attorney general on Tuesday to release a report containing information on an August 11, 2023 police raid on a local weekly newspaper in the state. A local prosecutor previously determined that Marion County police lacked sufficient evidence to conduct a raid on the Marion County Record office. In House Resolution No. 6032, [...]

The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Tuesday a lower court order and ruled against a trailer park in a case involving the application of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The issue involved Waples Mobile Home Park, which had required all adult tenants to provide proof of their legal status in the US in [...]

The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held Tuesday that a Maryland county regulation requiring firearms dealers to provide suicide prevention literature at the point of sale is constitutional under the US Constitution’s First Amendment. Anne Arundel County, Maryland, declared suicide a public health crisis and in January 2022 passed an ordinance directing the county’s [...]

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the seizure of 700 safety deposit boxes under the process of civil asset forfeiture went beyond the warrant issued and violated the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. The case began in 2021, when the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) obtained a warrant to [...]

A bipartisan group of US Senators, led by Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Senator Todd Young, sent a letter to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday, expressing concern over the alleged harassment of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, who was convicted by a Bangladesh labor law court in early January. The letter [...]

Amnesty International reiterated its calls to stop the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama by nitrogen hypoxia. The date for execution has been set for January 25, 2024. In urging Alabama to cancel the execution, Justin Mazzola, a researcher at Amnesty International, stated: The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment, [...]

US District Judge Thomas Schroeder issued an opinion on Sunday finding unconstitutional and blocking a new North Carolina provision designed to tighten restrictions on same-day voter registration. The decision pertains to Senate Bill (SB) 747, a collection of election provisions that became law on October 10, 2023, when the state legislature overrode a veto from [...]

A coalition of 25 US states sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday over a final rule entitled “Adoption and Submittal of State Plans for Designated Facilities: Implementing Regulations Under Clean Air Act Section 111(d),” arguing that the EPA did not have the authority to institute the new rule. The case is in the US [...]