A federal judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ordered the release of Chelsea Manning from jail Thursday, explaining that her appearance in court is no longer needed. Last year, Manning had been subpoenaed to testify in a federal case involving Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. Manning refused to [...]

The enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (NDAA) was undoubtedly a historic moment – one ceasing perpetuation of the nearly 70 years of disparate treatment to which certain military personnel suffering the harms of medical malpractice incident to their service had previously been subjected as the result of an archaic, [...]

The US Supreme Court has struggled for decades with how colleges and universities may use racial and ethnic preferences in admissions. At present, the law is this: (1) an institution of higher education may consider the race and ethnicity of applicants as a factor in admissions decisions for purposes of “diversity,” provided that it is [...]

The House passed a COVID-19 emergency package early this morning. The bill’s approval comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spent Friday negotiating the details of the measure. The “Families First Coronavirus Response Act” (H.R. 6201) includes numerous provisions to directly combat the spread of COVID-19. The bill requires testing of the [...]

UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee urged the Myanmar Government Tuesday to embrace human rights and democracy during her last Human Rights Council report in Geneva. In her report Lee called on Myanmar to amend its constitution, change citizenship and land laws, and overturn laws that violate fundamental human rights. “… t is not too late [...]

The US Supreme Court announced that beginning on Thursday, at 4:30 PM, it will close until further notice over concerns for health and safety amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. The Court briefly announced on its website that it will remain open for “official business” but case filing deadlines will not be extended under Rule 30.1. Cases [...]

Zyad el-Elaimy, a leader within the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, despite his strong legal defense was sentenced by the Mokattam Misdemeanor Court on Tuesday.  El-Elaimy was sentenced to one year in jail with a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (around $1,200 USA dollars) for violating Egypt’s Assembly Law. More specifically, he was sentenced for “spreading [...]

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo named China, Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela as some of the worst human rights violators in his remarks while presenting the State Department’s 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Wednesday. The reports cover internationally recognized individual, civil and political rights in almost 200 countries and territories, including all [...]

President Trump declared a national emergency today in a press conference at the White House Rose Garden. Trump did not cite the provision he would use to declare the emergency but did state that under the Stafford Act he had “very strong emergency powers…and if I need to do something, I’ll do it.” If the [...]

US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle proposed a bill Wednesday, entitled the “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” to restrict goods from China. The legislation, co-sponsored by Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Representative James McGovern, would require importers to get certification from the US government stating that their goods were not produced using [...]