New Hampshire governor, Chris Sununu, has signed a criminal justice reform bill. This bill comes in response to the George Floyd killing, which sparked nationwide protests. House Bill 1645 will effectively prohibit the use of chokeholds, ban private prisons throughout the state, requires mandatory reporting of police misconduct, and provides the police department with the [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) carried out the third federal execution in four days on Friday, executing Dustin Lee Honken for the murder of five people, including two children. Honken’s execution is the third in a string of federal executions in the past four days. A jury in Iowa found Honken guilty of five [...]

The US Attorney for the District of Oregon Friday called for an investigation into allegations that unidentified federal agents are arresting people in the city of Portland. US Attorney Billy Williams noted that federal agents have been in the city for the past fifty nights, defending the federal courthouse and other federal buildings from protestors. [...]

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper issued guidance on public displays of flags on Friday, effectively banning Confederate flags in military displays. Esper enumerated flags permitted to fly, including flags of allies, flags of international organizations of which the US is a member and Senate-confirmed civilian flags. Esper left Confederate flags off the list, however. [...]

US Representative John Lewis passed away late Friday from pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old. He was born in Alabama in 1940, the son of sharecroppers. As a student at Fisk University in Tennessee, he organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. He was one of the original thirteen Freedom Riders, Black and white activists [...]

In an escalation of tension over the COVID-19 response on Thursday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is suing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over a mask mandate. Kemp claims that his July 15 executive order made it clear that masks are strongly encouraged but not mandated. Kemp’s order prohibits local governments from instituting mandates more restrictive [...]

The Michigan Court of Appeals denied a request Wednesday to require the counting of absentee ballots received after the polls close on election day. In November 2018 Michigan voters approved Proposal 3, which allows all Michigan voters the constitutional right to vote by absentee ballot without stating a reason. This was incorporated into 2018 PA [...]

The US Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency, has advised that federal employees may express support for Black Lives Matter (BLM) in the workplace without violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty or in the federal workplace. The Office of Special Counsel had [...]

The New York Board of Law Examiners announced late Thursday that the bar exam scheduled for September 9-10 is canceled due to COVID-19. The New York Court of Appeals issued an order that the Appellate Division of the Court of Appeals has the discretion to temporarily license certain law graduates for supervised law practice. These [...]

In a 5-4 decision issued on Thursday morning, the US Supreme Court vacated a preliminary injunction that had halted the execution of Wesley Purkey, clearing the way for the second federal execution of the week. Purkey was convicted in federal court and sentenced to death in 2004 for the kidnapping and killing of 16-year-old Jennifer [...]