The Federal Anti-Solitary Taskforce (FAST) released its Blueprint for Ending Solitary Confinement on Monday, detailing how the government can end solitary confinement of inmates in federal custody through executive, administrative and legislative action. On any given day, more than 10,000 people are in a form of solitary confinement in federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities, [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court decision to block enforcement of a Missouri law that would place tight restrictions on access to abortion. House Bill 126, the “Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act,” includes a gestational age provision and a Down syndrome provision. The first bans [...]
Ohio’s attorney general on Tuesday filed a lawsuit asking the court to declare Google a public utility and/or a common carrier under Ohio common law. In the complaint, Attorney General Dave Yost argues that Google’s dominance of the internet search market necessarily leads to it being categorized as a common carrier or public utility under [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Monday that Republican members of the North Carolina General Assembly are not allowed to intervene in a voter identification lawsuit on behalf of the state of North Carolina. The lawsuit, North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v. Berger, focuses on voter ID requirements and [...]
Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) signed a bill Monday expanding universal mail-in voting to the state’s general elections. Vermont Sen. Cheryl Hooker (D) initially introduced the bill, S. 15, after the state opted to automatically send voters ballots in fall 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at polling places. The move proved effective with 75 [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday that it seized 63.7 Bitcoins—currently valued at roughly $2.3 million—in ransom payments made to the hacking group Darkside, following the targeted cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline in May. According to an anonymous FBI agent’s affidavit, law enforcement tracked several transfers of Bitcoin and ultimately found that 63.7 [...]
The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a second case involving the scope of the government’s ability to invoke state secret privilege and declined to hear a case challenging the male-only military draft on the basis of gender discrimination. When the court last reviewed the male-only draft rule in the 1981 decision Rostker v. [...]
The Louisiana Senate voted 20-17 Monday to lift certain penalties for people charged with possessing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, specifically noting that they should not be jailed. Originally introduced by Rep. Cedric Glover (D), House Bill 652 “amends the penalty for distribution or possession with intent to distribute narcotic drugs,” including marijuana and [...]
US Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled two new gun safety measures Monday. First, the Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed rule 2021R-08, which would alter the definition of a rifle to include any weapon that “has objective design features and characteristics that indicate that the firearm is designed to be fired from the shoulder.” These “objective [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday on an immigrant status case regarding noncitizens seeking to change their immigration status from temporary protected status (TPS) to lawful permanent residency. The court decided that noncitizens with temporary humanitarian relief from deportation cannot partake in the “adjustment of status” process to obtain lawful permanent residency in [...]
