The US Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit on Tuesday reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit against Nestle, Cargill Cocoa and other companies accusing them of aiding and abetting child slave labor in the Ivory Coast. The lawsuit was brought by former child slaves who worked on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. Nestle and [...]
Melissa and Aaron Klein, the former owners of an Oregon bakery asked the US Supreme Court Tuesday whether the state of Oregon violated the couple’s First Amendment rights by compelling them to make a custom wedding cake to for a same-sex wedding, which they claim is against “their sincerely held religious beliefs.” The petition for writ [...]
A judge for the Superior Court of California County of San Francisco on Monday upheld a jury verdict finding Monsanto liable in the case of a groundskeeper who claims to have developed cancer as a result of prolonged use of Monsanto products, but reduced the amount of damages from $298 million to $78 million. The plaintiff, Dwayne Johnson, a former pest [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled Friday that annotations that were “made an inextricable part of Georgia’s laws” cannot be copyrighted by the state. The court said that in general, laws cannot be copyrighted because they are “authored by the People.” After examining the identity of the authors, the authority of the annotations, and [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday blocked the deposition of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a lawsuit challenging the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion where he explained that the district court’s decision to focus on a showing of “bad faith” by Ross was unusual and that [...]
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) called Sunday for the Trump administration to reverse plans to rollback protections for transgender people, in light of a New York Times report on a draft proposal. According to the report, the Trump administration intends to redefine “sex” to exclude transgender individuals from non-discrimination protections. The report stated that the [...]
US Chief Justice Roberts on Friday ordered a temporary hold on a climate change lawsuit until the plaintiffs provide a response to the government. The plaintiffs have until Wednesday to provide a response to the Department of Justice’s stay request. The case, Juliana v. US, was originally filed in the US District Court for the [...]
The US Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint on Friday charging Russian national Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova for her role in a conspiracy to interfere with US elections, starting in 2014 and through the upcoming November 6 midterms. The charges allege Khusyaynova took part in a massive Russian influence campaign, through her role as chief accountant [...]
A group of environmental advocacy organizations filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday over concerns that the border wall will result in detrimental environmental impacts to the areas surrounding the wall construction sites. The Secretary of Homeland Security’s office issued waivers, dubbed the “Lower Rio Grande Valley Border Wall Waivers”, that would [...]
Online retailer eBay filed a lawsuit Wednesday in California’s Santa Clara County Superior Court alleging that fellow online vendor Amazon has, over the past several years, “perpetrated a scheme to infiltrate and exploit eBay’s internal member email system.” This follows a cease-and-desist letter sent by eBay to Amazon two weeks ago, which went unanswered. Now, [...]
