The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced Wednesday that it will no longer allow prison chaplains of any faith to accompany inmates into execution chambers. The policy change closely follows the Supreme Court’s stay of execution for Patrick Murphy, a Texas inmate whose request that a Buddhist spiritual adviser be present in his execution chamber was denied by the [...]

A court in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has directed the government to ban a popular smartphone video app known as “TikTok,” ruling that the app was “encouraging pornography.” Wednesday’s order also tells the media to refrain from telecasting videos made using the app. The Madurai-based bench of the Madras High Court comprising judges [...]

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill Wednesday to reduce the penalties for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. The bill makes possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a petty misdemeanor instead of a criminal charge. However, possession of larger amounts could still result in a felony charge. The reduced penalty [...]

The US House of Representatives voted Wednesday to condemn the “Trump Administration’s Legal Campaign to Take Away Americans’ Health Care.” The non-binding resolution, H Res 271, starts by outlining a legal battle that began on February 26, 2018 when “18 State attorneys general and 2 governors filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court [...]

In a report released Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recommended that the UN launch a full scale response to the growing economic collapse in Venezuela because the government of Nicolás Maduro has proven unable to manage the crisis. The report focused on the effect of the economic crisis [...]

The Arkansas legislature passed a bill Wednesday that would ensure the confidentiality of certain capital offense procedures including the drug ingredients used in the state’s lethal injection. After pharmaceutical companies faced backlash for their drug products ending up in lethal injection formulas, the Arkansas Department of Correction has been unable to obtain the ingredients from [...]

Governor Lou Leon Guerrero of Guam signed a marijuana legalization bill for the US territory Thursday. Although Guam approved medical marijuana in 2014 and allowed for home grown marijuana last year, the regulated industry has been off to a slow start. Known as the Guam Cannabis Industry Act of 2019, the new bill allows for adults [...]

A bipartisan group of US Senators introduced a bill Wednesday known as the DETER Act to prevent Russia from meddling in future US elections by threatening sanctions on their major industries. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Marco Rubio are reintroducing a bill that they previously raised last year, but failed to reach a vote. The [...]

Six female associates brought a $200 sex discrimination suit Wednesday on behalf of themselves and other female associates of Jones Day, an international law firm.  Plaintiffs allege the law firm engaged in sex discrimination, including pregnancy and maternity discrimination. The suit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs said that [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday reported that conditions in the Alabama’s State Prisons for Men may violate the Eighth Amendment.  The DOJ wrote, “In particular, we have reasonable cause to believe that Alabama routinely violates the constitutional rights of prisoners housed in the Alabama’s prisons by failing to protect them from prisoner-on-prisoner violence [...]