The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Wednesday ruled against junior shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who challenged the Treasury Department’s right to all profits in perpetuity after bailing the institutions out during the 2008 financial crisis. The case dates back to the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which, [...]

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement on Thursday outlining a policy framework aimed at curbing sources of youth nicotine addiction. Planned policies include limiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes to in-person, age-restricted locations such as tobacco shops. The FDA also intends to ban combustible menthol cigarettes, and to ban future introduction of [...]

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his support for the FIRST STEP Act, which aims at reforming the prison system to better rehabilitate individuals upon re-entering society. The Act “uses a targeted approach toward a specific population of Federal prisoners who will eventually be released,” and aims to “promote prisoner participation in vocational training, [...]

The Supreme Court of New Jersey on Tuesday struck down the admissibility of breathalyzer tests used for nearly 20,667 drunk driving convictions due to a former officer’s misconduct in calibrating the devices. New Jersey State Police’s Alcohol Drug Testing Unit coordinator Marc Dennis was indicted in 2016 for failing to properly calibrate the Alcotest breathalyzers used to charge [...]

New Jersey’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, for misleading patients and prescribers about the addictive risks associated with the use of its drugs. The complaint alleges that Janssen is actively contributing to the opioid crisis by aggressively and inaccurately marketing their opioid drugs. New [...]

The US Supreme Court denied certiorari Tuesday in the appeal of five Baltimore city police officers who sued Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby alleging she had illegally and maliciously prosecuted them following the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. In January 2017 US District Judge Marvin Garbis ruled that charges, including malicious prosecution, defamation and invasion [...]

The FBI released its 2017 Hate Crimes Statistics on Tuesday that document 8,437 criminal offenses motivated by bias against race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, religion, disability or sexual orientation that occurred in 2017. This marks a substantial increase over the previous year’s 7,321 offenses. The bureau’s report indicates that a total of 7,106 single-bias [...]

The Justice Department filed a memorandum in response on Wednesday to CNN’s lawsuit over the revocation of Jim Acosta’s access, stating that the White House reserves the right to select which journalists receive interviews and are called upon during press conferences. “No journalist has a First Amendment right to enter the White House,” lawyers said in [...]

The Department of Justice (DOJ) released a memo Wednesday defending the constitutional basis for the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General. The memo was written by Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel of the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel. The Office of Legal Counsel serves as the principle legal interpretation body within the DOJ. [...]

Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging Maine’s ranked-choice ballots in his race against Democratic opponent Jared Golden. The suit claims Maine’s Act to Establish Ranked-Choice Voting (RVC Act), which replaced the single-election system used in Maine for 140 years, undermines an individuals right to vote, and vote effectively. The RVC Act altered [...]