President Donald Trump Friday granted a full pardon to prison reform advocate Alice Johnson after she spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention (RNC). Trump had previously commuted Johnson’s life sentence back in 2018. Convicted in 1996 for eight federal criminal counts relating to involvement in cocaine trafficking organization, Johnson was sentenced to life [...]

Five nonprofit organizations, including Rock the Vote, Voto Latino, Common Cause, Free Press, and Maplight, have jointly filed suit in the US District Court of the Northern District of California against the Trump administration in connection with US President Donald Trump’s executive order from May expanding the government’s power over social media organizations. Trump passed [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against federal officers for excessive force and unlawful arrests in Portland, Oregon. The suit was filed Wednesday on behalf of multiple veterans and several demonstrators who were protesting against police brutality. The defendants named include the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security, [...]

The Supreme Court of Israel ruled on Thursday that a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank had been built on land that had been privately owned by Palestinians, and as a result, the settlement had to be removed (case # בג”ץ 953/11). The case involved the settlement of Mitzpe Kramim, an outpost in the [...]

The Chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs announced Friday that the Committee would begin contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, amid his refusal to comply with a subpoena for records into his “transparently political misuse of Department resources.” Three separate House committees sent Pompeo multiple letters in September [...]

The Third Industrial Revolution, which precipitated the digital age that we live in today, is now paving the way for the Fourth Industrial Revolution: the age of smart technology, artificial intelligence, and automation. The dynamic shift that these waves of technological advancements have brought is so great that no aspect of life is untouched by [...]

An August 5, 2020 webinar organized by the University of Miami received a great deal of attention for remarks made by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) president Judith Gunderson suggesting that NCBE critics might encounter difficulties with their character and fitness evaluations. I was equally struck, though, by a remark made later in [...]

The US Department of Justice on Wednesday executed Lezmond Mitchell, a 38-year-old member of the Navajo Nation who had been sentenced to death for the murder of Alyce Slim and her granddaughter, Tiffany Lee, in 2001. Mitchell’s death marks the fourth federal execution since the revival of federal capital punishment earlier this year. However, Mitchell’s [...]

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Legislative Assembly passed the Sexuality and Gender Identity Conversion Practices Bill on Thursday, banning the practice of conversion therapy on LGBTQ persons. Sexuality or gender identity conversion practices are “treatment or other practice the purpose, or purported purpose, of which is to change a person’s sexuality or gender identity.” However, [...]

The Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security issued a report on Wednesday suggesting that secrecy offenses should still be applicable to journalists who publish sensitive national security information. The Australian Parliament created the report as the result of an inquiry in press freedom following the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raids on the national [...]