The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal of a 2017 environmental ruling authored by the court’s newest member, Brett Kavanaugh. The opinion, issued by a three-judge panel of Kavanaugh’s former court, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, struck down a regulation issued by the Obama administration’s [...]

Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the US Supreme Court Tuesday to hear oral argument in two cases challenging the mandatory sentencing enhancement provision of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). Both cases concern the “mandatory minimum 15-year prison sentence on any federal firearms offender who previously has been convicted of three ‘violent’ felonies.” The previous provision imposed a [...]

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the state’s lethal injection protocol over a challenge by several death row inmates who argued the three-drug injection inflicted unnecessary pain. In July the Tennessee Department of Corrections revised the protocol to eliminate pentobarbital, providing for a three-drug injection now including midazolam to provide pain relief. The 33 [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced alarm Tuesday over the current use of solitary confinement as the court declined to hear a case challenging the practice. Although she agreed with the decision to not hear this case, the justice expressed her overall concerns about the extreme mental anguish caused by solitary confinement and the [...]

Officials for the UK government, which had been objecting to the death penalty in the case of the extradition of two British Islamic State (IS) fighters who killed Americans in Syria, dropped its case, allowing the pair to be extradited to the US and face American courts. El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey were two [...]

Legal counsel for the US government on Monday presented preliminary objections urging the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to dismiss a case filed by Iran seeking recovery of approximately $2 billion in frozen assets awarded to victims of a 1983 bombing attack against US barracks. In 2016 the US Supreme Court ordered about $2 billion of [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on Friday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) conditions for Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants (Byrne JAG) targeted at so-called “sanctuary cities” are unconstitutional. The Byrne JAG “support law enforcement efforts by providing additional personnel, equipment, supplies, training, and other [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that it has indicted seven officers of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) with hacking. The charges stem from a coordinated effort by the DOJ, the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The seven defendants were charged with computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. The actors [...]

California man Thomas Emens filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles on Tuesday against Catholic bishops in California and the Archdiocese of Chicago, saying they conspired to commit and conceal sexual abuse. Emens was sexually abused by his priest, Monsignor Thomas Joseph Mohan, from 1978 to 1980 when he was 10 to 12 years [...]

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter Tuesday that he has directed the city’s Department of Finance to “immediately investigate tax and housing violations and to work with NY State to find out if appropriate taxes were paid” hundreds of millions of dollars US President Trump inherited from his father. De Blasio [...]