A California jury heard opening statements on Monday in one of several thousand lawsuits accusing Johnson & Johnson of selling talc-based products contaminated with asbestos and for failing to warn about the dangers of mesothelioma. Plaintiff Terry Leavitt filed the lawsuit in the Alemeda County Superior Court in 2017 after she was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Unlike [...]
Several news outlets reported Monday that US citizen Mohamed Jubair Monir, 62, of Bangladeshi descent was arrested in Bangladesh in late December for allegedly committing war crimes, including rape and murder, during the country’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, though Monir was only 13 years old during the war. Monir’s family offered pictures and [...]
On Monday morning Governor Haslam granted executive clemency to Cyntoia Brown, commuting her life sentence. Brown is to be released August 7, at which point she will have served 15 years of her life sentence. This decision comes after Brown was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery following the murder of Johnny Allen in [...]
The Supreme Court began its 2019 term Monday with oral arguments for two cases: Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht and Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus. In Merck v. Albrecht, the justices must determine whether a state failure-to-warn law claim is pre-empted when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected the drug manufacturer’s [...]
The US Supreme Court reversed and remanded in part an excessive use of force case against two police officers from Escondido, California who were responding to a domestic violence 911 call in April 2013. Marty Emmons, who was arrested by Officer Robert Craig, later sued both Officer Craig and Sergeant Kevin Toth, another officer at [...]
Guatemala’s Constitutional Court on Monday ordered the release of Colombian Yilen Osorio, a member of the United Nation’s International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) which is charged with investigating allegations of corruption in the country. Osorio had been held in detention at the La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City since his arrival on Saturday. For the past decade, the [...]
The San Diego District Attorney’s (DA) Office announced their plan Monday to challenge Senate Bill No. 1437, amending the murder accomplice law. The DA’s Office claims that they have grounds to challenge or question the new law’s constitutionality, arguing that “the Legislature didn’t have the authority to change the law without asking voters first.” The [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Friday ruled against the city of Flint and several Michigan state officials for violation of its residents’ rights to bodily integrity as guaranteed by the Substantive Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court found that defendants’ decisions during the Flint Water Crises caused [...]
The Supreme Court of Florida rejected a lawsuit on Friday that claimed the state was failing to provide constitutionally mandated “high quality” education for all. The lawsuit, which was filed nearly a decade ago by parents, students and advocacy groups, claimed the state wasn’t properly funding schools as outlined in a 1998 amendment approved by [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Monday that blocking a critic on a politician’s public Facebook page is a violation of the First Amendment. Brian Davison brought suit against Phyllis Randall, the Chair of the Loudoun County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors, for removing his comment on the politician’s official Facebook page. After [...]
