During the summer of 2004, I was about to enter fourth grade. That summer was one of discovery and basic understanding of disability identity for me. My parents told me I was autistic in a way that I believed I had magic within me, and the Americans with Disabilities Act existed. I didn’t quite grasp [...]

When President George H.W. Bush signed the historic Americans with Disabilities Act 30 years ago, he proudly declared, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.” In a recent decision, the Supreme Court tossed another brick on the wall. The ADA was enacted to level the playing field for people with disabilities and [...]

The Supreme Court late Friday denied an emergency application for an injunction submitted by a Nevada church alleging infringement of their First Amendment rights by Governor Steve Sisolak’s executive order limiting church capacity to no more than 50 persons in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley church asked the court to intervene [...]

Jun Wei Yeo, also known as Dickson Yeo, pled guilty on Friday to acting within the US as an illegal agent of a foreign power without first notifying the Attorney General, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 951.  Yeo pled guilty via videoconference before the US District Court for the District of Columbia.  Yeo admitted [...]

A US federal judge for the Middle District of Tennessee issued a preliminary injunction blocking parts of Tennessee’s so-called “heartbeat” abortion ban on Friday. The ban, signed into law by Tennessee governor Bill Lee on July 13, would ban abortions performed after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. Heartbeats can be detected as early as [...]

The Indian Government has issued a formal Government Sanction Letter to grant Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers in the Indian Army. The letter, written by the Ministry of Defense on Thursday, permits the grant of commissions to women across the entire Indian Army. A permanent commission allows the officers to work until they retire. [...]

The US Senate has passed a bill to rename US military bases named after officers of the Confederate Army defeated in the Civil War. If signed into law, the legislation would affect some 10 US Army installations located in the American South, most of which were given their current designations between the end of World [...]

UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell warned US officials Friday that unnecessary and disproportionate use force by authorities in response to Black Lives Matter protests violates international human rights standards. Throssell said in a statement that: Peaceful demonstrations in cities in the US, such as Portland, really must be able to continue without those participating [...]

A Russian court has sentenced Yuri Dmitriev, a Gulag historian, to prison for allegedly sexually abusing his adopted daughter.  The judge sentenced Dmitriev to prison Wednesday for a period of 3 years and 6 months.  Dmitriev denies the allegation. Dmitriev is head of the Karelian Memorial Society, which is part of the larger International Historical [...]

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and his wife Kellie May Chauvin have been charged with nine counts of tax fraud. The complaint filed Wednesday by the State of Minnesota alleges that Derek Chauvin and his wife filed a late tax return in 2014 and failed to file tax returns in 2016, 2017 and 2018. [...]