The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the cases of Torres v. Madrid and Pereida v. Barr. The court heard the arguments by telephone with live-streamed audio. The petitioner in Torres was operating a vehicle under the influence, and in the process of trying to get away, endangered the two officers pursuing her. In the process, [...]
A suit brought by Democratic lawmakers in 2017 against US President Donald Trump has ended with the Supreme Court declining to hear the case on Tuesday. The suit alleged that Trump violated the emoluments clause of the US Constitution by profiting from the presidency. The emoluments clause “prohibits any person holding government office from accepting [...]
The spread of fake news and misinformation during the pandemic has been unprecedented. Governments have been prompted to take measures to curb this spread in order to quell panic amongst the public. One such measure was taken by Mumbai Police by promulgating a prohibitory order under Section 144 of India’s Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). [...]
In the present confirmation hearings, I would like someone to ask Judge Barrett a question left unanswered by Justice Scalia, her mentor: 1. What influence does the fact that many of the founders and framers were slave owners have on your originalist views? And then I would like to ask a follow-up: 2. What is [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday struck down Texas Senate Bill 8, a statute that sought to impose additional burdens on women seeking a common second-trimester abortion procedure, effectively banning it. Further, the bill required that fetal tissue be disposed of only through burial or cremation, prohibiting donation. The bill [...]
Freedom House, a human rights watchdog group, released a report on internet freedom in the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday criticizing government internet freedom violations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report outlined three recent, prevailing issues over internet freedom: Three notable trends punctuated an especially dismal year for internet freedom. First, political leaders used [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the cases of United States v. Briggs and Chicago v. Fulton. The court heard the argument by telephone with live-streamed audio. The Briggs case was consolidated with United States v. Collins in November 2019 and another case. In all three cases, the respondent is a man in [...]
A federal appeals court on Tuesday reversed a lower court’s extension of the Indiana mail-in ballot deadline. The original deadline extension allowed for ballot submission up to 10 days after the election. However, the appeals court’s reversal mandates that all mail-in ballots arrive at Indiana elections offices by election day. The court found that the deadline [...]
The US Senate Judiciary Committee continued confirmation hearings on Tuesday for President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the seat of the late Justice Ginsburg, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Senator Lindsey Graham, the Judiciary Committee Chair, started the day with a line of questioning on Barrett’s judicial philosophy, textualism, which led to a civics lesson on [...]
The US Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear South Carolina’s appeal to restrict public funding for Planned Parenthood. The case stems from a 2018 executive order from South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, in which he declared that abortion clinics should be excluded from serving as a family planning service and that the South Carolina Department [...]
