Republican lawmakers in Kentucky moved on Wednesday to pass House Bill 451, which would expand the power of Kentucky’s attorney general to seek civil and criminal penalties for violations relating to abortions and abortion facilities. The move places the bill in the hands of Governor Andy Beshear, the state’s new Democratic governor. Under current Kentucky [...]
The most senior Chinese official in Hong Kong, chief of the Liaison Office Luo Huining, said Wednesday that the city should introduce new national security legislation “as soon as possible” in reaction to protests last year that undermined mainland China’s influence in the region. These remarks came during a speech for China’s National Security Education [...]
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared on Thursday that the cost of regulating mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants is not “appropriate and necessary.” This conclusion stems from the EPA’s revised cost-benefit analysis. The new analysis only includes benefits from regulating hazardous air pollutant emissions; it does not account for benefits from [...]
Judge Brian Morris, a US District Judge for the District of Montana, canceled a key permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline on Wednesday. In 2017 the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) reissued Nationwide Permit 12. The permit authorizes “discharges of dredged of fill material into jurisdictional waters” and is necessary for the water-crossings [...]
In a time where people are getting seriously ill and dying (and not from a zombie apocalypse), society is faced with the moral question of whether we should release individuals from jails so that we can protect them from contracting, and dying from, COVID-19. It is no secret that jails are a hotspot for COVID-19 [...]
In Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980), the Supreme Court of the United States wrote, “People in an open society do not demand infallibility from their institutions, but it is difficult for them to accept what they are prohibited from observing.” It’s easy to visualize, ahem, colorful presidential press conferences and vigorous congressional debates on [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday commented on “issues of national importance regarding the interplay between the government’s compelling interest in protecting public health and safety from COVID-19 and citizens’ fundamental right to free exercise of religion,” ultimately siding with a Mississippi church. On April 7, the city of Greenville issued an “Executive [...]
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act into law Wednesday to establish an emergency insulin program for struggling Minnesotans. Walz, who spent months advocating for and negotiating this bill, said that “espite resistance from the pharmaceutical industry, the grit and determination of Minnesotans moved this bill forward.” Walz’s virtual signing ceremony [...]
Judge Tim Sulak, a Travis County District Court judge in Texas, ruled Wednesday that Texas voters could mail in their votes during the COVID-19 outbreak. The hearing, which took place on Zoom, concluded with a ruling that Texas voters could vote by mail in the upcoming July and November elections. The application for mail-in voting [...]
The Turkish parliament passed a legal amendment on Tuesday to release thousands of prisoners in an effort to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The bill was introduced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party), as well as the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The same day that the law was [...]
