Reuters released a comprehensive report Wednesday on women’s deaths in jails across the US. The report collected data from more than 500 jails from 2008 through 2019 and documented 914 female inmate deaths. The report cited suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, deficient medical care for inmates detoxing from opioids, and inadequate medical standards for treating pregnant [...]
The European Commission proposed two new pieces of legislation on Tuesday that will impact the regulation of digital services in the EU, especially those offered by big tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook. The Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act were proposed with the aim of creating “safer digital space” [...]
The US Food and Drug Administration filed a supplemental brief on Tuesday requesting that the Supreme Court lift a preliminary injunction “barring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from enforcing longstanding safety requirements with respect to medication abortions effected through the use of Mifeprex (or its generic equivalent). This pill is approved for use to [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the state’s COVID-19 mask mandate. The court found that the complaint was a “shotgun complaint.” It criticized the complaint for supplying “irrelevant factual allegations and legal conclusions,” having “arguments that stray from the statutory and constitutional underpinning [...]
The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in three new cases Wednesday, including two cases about compensation for student-athletes. The court consolidated the cases National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston and American Athletic Conference v. Alston. In the 1984 case National Collegiate Athletic Ass’n v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, the court held that the [...]
Environmental and Alaska Native groups on Tuesday requested the blocking of an auction of oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and “a court order barring permits sought for seismic operations.” The plaintiff groups include the National Audubon Society, the Gwich’in Steering Committee and the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, among [...]
Pakistan approved a new anti-rape law Tuesday to allow for speedy trials and chemical castration of convicted serial offenders. The law will also create specialized rape courts designed to deal exclusively with rape and sexual assault cases. President Arif Alvi approved the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020 and said that it will “help expedite cases of sexual abuse [...]
The Abolitionist Law Center published a report Tuesday highlighting racial disparities in Pittsburgh policing. The report shows that in 2019, Black people accounted for 43.6 percent of traffic stops and 71.4 percent of all frisks, though Black people only account for 23.2 percent of the city’s population. The report also shows that Black people also [...]
An Iranian court sentenced British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady to nine years in jail on Sunday for “subversive” research work. Iran has arrested dozens of dual nationals in the past few years. Many rights activists and organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, have been critical of and reported on many of the arrests. Ahmady is an [...]
The Hungarian National Assembly, the country’s parliament, passed a bill amending the Hungarian Fundamental Law on Tuesday, which stipulates that a mother is a woman and a father is a man. The bill, which is “intended to strengthen the protection of Hungarian families” and protect children, protects individuals’ rights to self-identify “according to their sex [...]
