North Carolina Superior Court Judge Jeff Foster rejected bids on Wednesday to publicly release bodycam footage in the shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. The ruling is accompanied, however, by an order for the sheriff to allow Brown’s immediate family members and lawyers to view the footage independently. Under North Carolina law, while anyone may request [...]
A commission of human rights experts asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague on Tuesday to investigate the pattern of systemic police violence against Black people in the US. This comes shortly after the commission released a 188-page report detailing the crimes against humanity committed by police and prosecutors in the US. Commissioners [...]
A bipartisan group of US senators on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to impose more sanctions on the military regime that has taken over Myanmar. The letter was signed by senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Susan Collins (R-ME), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Ed Markey (D-MA), and addressed to Treasury Secretary [...]
The US Supreme Court reversed an appeals court ruling Monday, allowing an inmate’s federal post-conviction challenge to his state conviction after he had completed his state sentence. The three-page unsigned per curiam opinion came in the case of Alaska v. Wright. Sean Wright had been previously convicted of sexual abuse of a minor in a [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta and Guam v. United States. In Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, the plaintiffs, two conservative nonprofits, are “challenging the constitutionality of California’s requirement that charities and nonprofits operating in the state provide the state attorney general’s office with the [...]
The European Parliament passed the first post-Brexit trade deal with the UK Wednesday—the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The deal was agreed to on December 31, 2020, and was ratified by the European Parliament on April 28 by a vote of 660 for, five against. This deal was provisionally enacted in January in order to minimize [...]
US President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday establishing the “Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment,” charged with increasing union density and promoting workplace organizing. The task force will be lead by Vice President Kamala Harris, who has advocated for public sector unions and co-sponsored legislation supporting the right to organize while serving [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in HollyFrontier Cheyenne Refining, LLC v Renewable Fuels Association, a case regarding exemptions for small refineries from the Renewable Fuel Standards Program, and United States v Palomar-Santiago, which involves immigration law and noncitizen re-entry. HollyFrontier concerns the Clean Air Act‘s biofuels mandate to replace crude oil with [...]
The Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG) recorded the largest-ever number of Austrian anti-Semitic incidents in 2020, detailing more than 580 incidents in its 2020 annual report released Monday. These incidents ranged from physical attacks and vandalism to verbal abuse and anti-Semitic commentary online, and notably included incidents linked to coronavirus lockdowns. The IKG uses the [...]
California Governor Gavin Newsom faces a special recall election after a Republican-sponsored petition to remove him from office surpassed its signature goal Monday. Backers submitted 1,626,042 voter signatures, exceeding the minimum number needed to trigger a recall election. On Monday, California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber announced that the valid signatures contained in the [...]
