The Florida House of Representatives voted Wednesday to pass a Consumer Protection Bill that would require transparency from companies regarding their data collection and use practices. The bill, which passed with bipartisan support in the Houses, would require businesses that collect a consumer’s personal data to “disclose certain information regarding data collection and selling practices [...]

The United States House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill to establish Washington DC as the the nation’s fifty-first state in a 216 to 218 vote. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia and its 700,000 residents, introduced HR 51 in January. As the District of Columbia’s representative, Norton can serve [...]

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Wednesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ)  will open an investigation into the Minnesota Police Department (MPD) to determine whether there is a “pattern or practice” of excessive force and discriminatory, unconstitutional policing. The probe comes a day after MPD officer Derek Chauvin was convicted for the murder of [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday in Jones v. Mississippi that when sentencing juvenile defendants to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole, judges need not make a separate factual finding concerning the defendant’s youth. The challenge came from Brett Jones, who was convicted in 2004 of killing his grandfather at age 15. Jones argued [...]

US President Joe Biden announced Thursday at the Leaders Summit on Climate that the US will aim to reduce carbon emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030. Climate experts have urged world leaders to cut carbon emissions in order to limit the warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees celsius. Scientific research has shown [...]

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided Wednesday to retain its longstanding contract-bar doctrine. In a unionized workplace, employees can file decertification petitions if they are dissatisfied with union representation and seek to no longer be represented by that specific union. However, under the NLRB’s current application of the contract-bar doctrine, a valid collective-bargaining agreement bars [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday denied certiorari in three cases involving the restoration of gun ownership rights. The cases all involve a federal law (USC § 922(g)(1)) that imposes a lifetime ban on the ownership of firearms for persons convicted of crimes punishable by prison terms of more than one year, which includes many [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Monday: Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and Sanchez v. Mayorkas. These cases will determine which Alaskan native groups are eligible to receive COVID-19 relief funds and will impact tens of thousands of immigrants living and working in the US under a [...]

In an announcement Tuesday, the US Department of Energy reversed a last-minute ban on the import of certain electrical equipment from China. This announcement comes as part of a push to increase electrical grid security. China is one of the world’s major manufacturers of electrical grid equipment, and energy regulators cite the need to modernize [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Monday in a Confrontation Clause case involving a man convicted for the 2006 shooting death of a child. The Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution gives a criminal defendant the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” This is also known as the Confrontation Clause, and it [...]