The Archdiocese of Wisconsin filed suit Friday against the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC), alleging that the department’s COVID-19 policy restricting ministers’ access to prisoners violates state law. To address COVID-19 concerns, the Wisconsin DOC adopted a policy temporarily suspending all visits. This blanket ban also prevents all volunteer religious ministers from visiting inmates. There [...]

On April 20, 2021, a jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd. Following the trial, Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw reflected that “until the very moment the verdict was read, it was an entirely open question whether, to paraphrase the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott, Black people had rights that anyone [...]

The Supreme Court of India on Saturday formed a 12-member national task force to formulate a scientific, rational and equitable methodology for the allocation of medical oxygen to states and union territories. Since the beginning of the second wave of coronavirus infections in India the country has been facing an acute shortage of supply of [...]

Almost five years ago I contributed to a Commentary to JURIST entitled, “Guantanamo: An Unnecessary Presidential Legacy,” which focused on former President Barack Obama’s unsuccessful attempt to shut down the Guantanamo prison facility because of missed opportunities, faulty decision making, internal administration opposition and ultimately partisan political division that resulted in an unnecessary presidential legacy.  [...]

Amnesty International on Friday announced its decision to re-designate Alexei Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opposition critics, as a “prisoner of conscience,” apologizing for its decision to revoke his status earlier this year. Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, is currently serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence, which he received in [...]

The South Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that would enable convicted individuals to elect for execution by firing squad, rather than electrocution or lethal injection. The bill passed by a vote of 66-43 and requires that, if an individual waives his right to choose, execution will be administered by electrocution. A similar [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a proposed regulation on Friday that would update the definition of “firearm” to close a regulatory loophole regarding unmarked firearms, known as “ghost guns.” The definition of “firearm” has not been updated in the US Code since 1968. Unmarked firearms are increasingly found at crime scenes, with law [...]

A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Derek Chauvin and three other former Minneapolis policers on federal civil rights charges for the death of George Floyd. Derek Chauvin, Tao Thao, Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lang all face three-count indictments alleging that, while acting under color of law, they willfully deprived Floyd of his constitutional right [...]

The US Department of Labor (DOL) announced Wednesday that it would be ending a Trump-era rule that would allow businesses to classify certain workers as independent contractors rather than employees. The end of the independent contractor rule is expected to permit so-called “gig workers” to be entitled to minimum wage and overtime compensation benefits under [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the final case of its term on Tuesday in Terry v. United States, about reductions of prison sentences for certain crack cocaine offenses. In 2008 Tarahrick Terry was arrested and charged under 21 USC § 841(a)(1) for carrying just shy of 4 grams of crack cocaine, and [...]