The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday that partisan gerrymandering cases cannot be decided by federal courts. Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the court in Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek, a consolidated partisan gerrymandering case. Voters from Maryland and North Carolina brought the claims alleging that the gerrymandering violated the [...]

Two major Pittsburgh health systems, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Highmark Health (Highmark) struck a deal on Monday allowing Highmark patients to utilize UPMC’s facilities. The agreement prevents expiration of a previous agreement between the two systems set to occur on June 30, 2019. Originally, a consent agreement governed the relationship between [...]

The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal on Wednesday quashed former Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s conviction and sentence for misconduct in public office. This case arose when Tsang failed to declare certain dealings with a business tycoon. Tsang was arranging to live in a Shenzhen apartment owned by a company controlled by the business tycoon, but [...]

The US House Committee on Oversight and Reform voted 25-16 Wednesday to subpoena Kellyanne Conway in an attempt to compel her to testify about her alleged Hatch Act violations. Earlier this month, the Office of Special Counsel wrote to the White House claiming that Conway had committed multiple Hatch Act violations by using her government [...]

The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) ruled Wednesday regarding how member states should interpret air quality regulations set up by the Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 (Directive 2008/50) on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe. The judgment is in regard to [...]

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted Wednesday to reinstate the Russian delegation to the Assembly despite criticism over human rights abuses. Russia’s voting rights had been stripped in 2014 in response to the Russian Federation’s annexation of Crimea. Russia in turn paid only one-third of its membership dues that year and has [...]

June 26 is a day designated by the United Nations as International Day in support of victims of torture. The General Assembly resolution creating the date imagined this as a day stakeholders – member states and their citizens – would unite in support of those that have endured torture and cruelty and recommit to ending [...]

No current or former President of the United States has faced criminal charges after leaving office. Two Presidents, Richard Nixon and William Clinton, have come close and one Vice-President, Spiro Agnew, plead nolo contendere to charges on the day he left office. With ten ongoing federal and eight ongoing state criminal investigations into Donald Trump, [...]

Self-driving technology is being actively tested all over the world shaping the future of transportation. Companies including General Motors, Tesla, Uber, and Google are some of the major automakers and researchers who have already begun to implement this revolutionary technology. But for all the confidence surrounding self-driving cars, there’s an equal amount of skepticism and concern. [...]

I. American Border Concentration Camps and the Family Separation Policy as a Crime Against Humanity As noted by Ben Ferencz, the last surviving Nuremberg Prosecutor, the intentional and unnecessary suffering under the family separation policy can easily be viewed as a crime against humanity under Article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal [...]