The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that the Greenwood Village Police Department acted lawfully when they destroyed Leo Lech’s home. The police pursued a suspected criminal, Robert Seacat, to Lech’s house, where they entered into a 19-hour standoff with the police that left the home uninhabitable. The police used increasingly aggressive tactics [...]
The US District Court for the Middle District of Georgia ruled Tuesday that a county sheriff cannot post a “no trick or treat” sign outside of sex offenders’ homes during the Halloween season, a practice that the court held to be in violation of the First Amendment. Plaintiffs are sex offenders who are subject to [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) filed a complaint on Thursday seeking more transparency from the FBI over its use of facial recognition software. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about the use of the software, but the Department of Justice did not respond to the request. The ACLU [...]
Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced a resolution on Wednesday calling for the US to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty with Russia, which allows Russia and the United States to fly observation flights over each others’ territory. The resolution called for withdrawal on the grounds that the treaty allows Russia to [...]
A Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge on Wednesday enjoined the tallying of votes on Marsy’s Law, a proposed state constitutional amendment for crime victims’ rights. The lawsuit was filed by the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, it alleges that the ballot question violates Article XI, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, does not contain the [...]
The US House voted on Thursday to formalize its impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, who is accused of using the influence of his office to persuade Ukraine to harm his political rival, Joe Biden. The vote of 232 in favor and 196 against fell largely along party lines, with only two Democrats, Representative Jeff [...]
The USDA announced an interim final rule for the establishment of a domestic hemp program on Tuesday. The program was required by the 2018 Farm Bill to create consistency and regulation around domestic hemp production in the US. The interim final rule: “includes provisions for maintaining information on the land where hemp is produced, testing [...]
A bill introduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday would authorize a referendum on Puerto Rican statehood, to be voted on by the commonwealth’s citizens on November 3, 2020. Such a referendum would mark the third time Puerto Ricans have voted on statehood since 2012. Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative Jenniffer González-Colón says that statehood [...]
A hundred and fifty representatives hailing from the Syrian government, the opposition, and broader Syrian civil society met Wednesday in Geneva to discuss the drafting of a new constitution. According to the procedural rules of these UN-facilitated discussions, meetings of the 150-member Committee will take place in parallel with a smaller “drafting group,” made up [...]
Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who serves as a director on the National Security Council (NSC), testified on Tuesday before the House committees overseeing the impeachment hearings about President Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In his prepared remarks, Vindman expressed concern that the president and members of his administration were risking US national security [...]
