US President Donald Trump granted Tuesday full pardons to 15 individuals and commuted part or entire sentences of another five individuals. Among those pardoned are George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, both convicted of making false statements to the FBI as part of the Mueller investigation. The White House emphasized that these were “process-related crimes” and [...]
Several large tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, and LinkedIn filed Monday an amicus brief in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Facebook’s lawsuit against Israeli surveillance company NSO. NSO creates cyber-surveillance tools, which it then sells to foreign governments and other customers. Those customers can use the tools to track individuals’ [...]
A Texas-led coalition of nine states urged Tuesday a federal judge to invalidate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), arguing that DACA was unlawfully created by former President Barack Obama. The DACA program has enabled thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to work, pursue higher education, live without risk of [...]
Following a death row inmate testing positive for COVID-19, several US senators Tuesday sent a letter to the Department of Justice’s Inspector General requesting that he open an investigation into why the Trump administration resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. The US federal government has executed 10 people since July, and three more are [...]
The US Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it had filed a nationwide lawsuit against Walmart, Inc., alleging that the retailer had unlawfully dispensed opiates from its national pharmacy chain in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. The DOJ’s suit includes a request for injunctive relief in addition to complaints of hundreds of thousands of Controlled [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Sunday rejected a lawsuit by the Republican Party that attempted to modify absentee ballot rules ahead of Georgia’s US Senate runoffs. The Georgia Republican Party, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Perdue for Senate, and Georgians for Kelly Loeffler brought suit in the US District Court for the [...]
The US Congress Monday passed a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package that provides support for individuals, businesses, and vaccination efforts. The House of Representatives voted 359-53 in favor of the bill, and the Senate voted 92-6 to pass it. The White House has stated that President Trump will sign the bill when it reaches his desk. The [...]
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced Monday updates to the state’s Excellence in Policing initiative, a set of the guidelines which govern the use of force for New Jersey’s nearly 40,000 police officers at the state, county, and local levels. The updated policy is comprised of seven core principles, the first being “the sanctity of [...]
US Attorney General William Barr announced Monday that Libyan national Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi has been charged for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988 that killed citizens from 21 countries, including 190 Americans. It was considered the deadliest terror attack on the United States and [...]
President Trump issued an executive order Monday to make federal buildings more “beautiful.” The executive order promotes neoclassical architecture and criticizes the modernist style for federal buildings. Throughout the order, the President admonished the General Services Administration for its policy of encouraging contemporary architectural designs throughout the last several decades: For approximately a century and [...]
