The EPA announced on Wednesday that it had finalized a new rule to replace stringent emissions limits imposed under the Obama administration on coal-burning power plants. The new regulation, dubbed the Affordable Clean Energy rule (ACE) by EPA chairman Andrew Wheeler, aims to relax pollution standards from the stringent limits established under the Clean Power [...]
Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, a Pittsburgh resident and a recent graduate of a Pittsburgh public high school, was arrested on Wednesday based on a federal complaint charging him with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), and two counts of distributing information relating to [...]
The Supreme Court held in a 6-3 decision on Thursday that the statute of limitations for a 42 U. S. C. §1983 fabricated-evidence claim does not begin until the criminal proceedings against a defendant have finished. The plaintiff in McDonough v. Smith was a commissioner of the county board of elections who processed ballots in [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously vacated and remanded a decision from the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, sidestepping a determination about whether a 2006 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order and other such agency orders bind lower courts. The case revolved around a faxed advertisement sent by PDR Network, a healthcare communications [...]
New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed on Monday the Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, also known as the “Green Light Bill”, which amends the Vehicle and Traffic Law (VTL) to allow undocumented immigrants access to driver’s licenses. The bill authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue standard drivers’ licenses and restricts what [...]
The Supreme Court of the State of Colorado ruled on Monday that an initiative to repeal the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (“TABOR”) is a single subject that can be voted on in one referendum. The case arose when the Title Board declined “to set a title for proposed Initiative 2019-2020 #3”, which would be asking [...]
The Supreme Court of Alaska ruled on Friday that Alaska’s sex offender registration statute violated the due process rights of out of state offenders by requiring them to register as sex offenders without allowing them to be heard. The court addressed the question of whether Alaska Sexual Offender Registration Act (ASORA) registration requirements violated due [...]
On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) does not preempt Virginia Law from prohibiting the mining of Uranium. The Supreme Court, in a 6-to-3 plurality judgment, sided with the State of Virginia’s right to regulate the Uranium industry. “But both courts found missing from the AEA [...]
The Supreme Court ruled against the Virginia House of Delegates in a new racial gerrymandering case. The case began in 2011 when a group of citizens in twelve districts sued the State asserting that the districts had been created with intentional racial disparities. The District Court ordered the House of Delegates to draw up a [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that a public access television provider is not a state actor. The case, Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, was brought by two producers who alleged that a Manhattan public access television station violated their First Amendment rights. They claimed that the news station restricted their access after an [...]