The US Supreme Court wrapped up its January sitting with two oral arguments Wednesday morning. At issue in Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania is whether a plaintiff must use up state court remedies prior to bringing a Fifth Amendment takings claim. In this case, the township, after finding burial markers on the petitioner’s land, said that the [...]
Special Agent Jeffrey Weiland on Tuesday filed a 31-page declaration in DC District Court to support finding that Paul J. Manafort, Jr.‘s testimonial statements in the DC grand jury last year were false. The 31-page document is a redacted version due to the law regarding grand jury secrecy. The information in the document, which is [...]
More than two centuries ago Mary Wollstonecraft laid the foundations for feminist thought with a simple premise: lack of equal opportunity diminished individual self-worth and hobbled social progress. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Wollstonecraft made a “wild wish” for equality between the sexes. When women are treated as less than equal [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday denied Apple’s appeal of a patent infringement case involving VirnetX. The ruling upholds a $302.4 million jury verdict, which has since ballooned to $439.8 million after adding interest, costs and additional damages. The court entered the judgment pursuant to Federal Circuit Rule 36, which allows [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday denied a motion from the National Treasurer Employees Union (NTEU) to force the federal government to pay employees working without pay during the ongoing shutdown. The motion included statements from two federal workers who are having financial trouble continuing to work since [...]
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signed an executive order Tuesday making it easier for people in Brazil to buy guns. The order removes the requirement that persons seeking to purchase a gun must declare why they need the gun. It also loosens restrictions around owning guns. A person may now own up to four guns—up from the [...]
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Michael Graffeo issued an order Monday rendering the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017 void. Graffeo determined that the Memorial Preservation Act was unconstitutional in his resolution of Alabama v. Birmingham, a case that arose in August 2017 when Birmingham city officials requested the removal of the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument from Linn Park. Then-mayor [...]
The New York State Assembly passed two bills on Tuesday protecting transgender and gender non-conforming individuals from discrimination and banning “conversion therapy.” The first bill, Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), protects individuals from discrimination based on gender identity or expression. The bill adds gender identity and expression to the list of classes protected against discrimination in [...]
The UK House of Commons on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to withdraw the country from the EU. The plan was defeated by a margin of 230 votes, with 432 Members of Parliament voting no and only 202 voting in the affirmative, marking the largest defeat for a sitting government proposal in [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in two cases. The first, Home Depot v. Jackson, asks whether a class action defendant can remove the case from state to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), despite the now plaintiff and former defendant not agreeing to removal. Petitioner Home Depot argued [...]
