Leaders of the House and Senate Agricultural Committee reached a bipartisan compromise and released the text of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 on Monday evening, which Congress will vote on as early as Wednesday. The bill notably eliminates a work requirement for beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) proposed by the House and [...]

In the last 3 years, the Hungarian Government, especially with its support from the recently obtained 2/3 majority in the Parliament, has introduced several legislative changes which seriously undermine the essential elements of the rule of law. Criminalization of “facilitating or supporting illegal immigration”, banning homelessness and the Government’s continuing interference in the higher education are [...]

Delegates from 164 UN member states assembled in Marrakech, Morrocco, to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration on Monday. The compact reaffirms the signing nations’ commitment to protecting the human rights of migrants and acknowledges that migration is an issue that requires collective, multinational action. While the compact does not create new [...]

The US Supreme Court declined to review two cases on Monday about a state’s ability to defund Planned Parenthood. By denying certiorari in Andersen v. Planned Parenthood and Gee v. Planned Parenthood, the Supreme Court let decisions from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Tenth Circuits stand. Both held that 42 USC § 1396a(a)(23)  allows Medicaid [...]

The US Supreme Court agreed to add Kisor v. Wilkie to its docket on Monday. The court will limit its review to the first question presented by the petition for certiorari, which asks the court to reconsider precedent from Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand that directs courts to defer to [...]

In a referendum held on Friday, October 26, 2018, the people of Ireland voted to amend the Irish Constitution to remove the word blasphemy from Article 40.6.1, which declared that “he publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.” This constitutional amendment enables [...]

Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in a court filing Friday that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort lied about his contacts with the Trump administration after President Donald Trump took office. In the heavily redacted document, Mueller also said that Manafort lied about his communications with Konstantin Kilimnik, an alleged Russian intelligence agent. As summarized [...]

Federal prosecutors filed a sentencing memorandum Friday seeking a “substantial” prison term for US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. As set forth in the Probation Department’s Presentence Investigation Report … the applicable United States Sentencing Guidelines … range is 51 to 63 months’ imprisonment. This range reflects Cohen’s extensive, deliberate, and serious criminal [...]

US District Judge Royce Lamberth on Thursday ordered a reexamination of the Hilary Clinton private email lawsuit. In his 10-page opinion, he ordered a discovery plan focused on three issues, “whether Clinton used a private email to evade , whether attempts to settle the case despite knowing the inadequacy of its initial search constituted bad [...]

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), a judicial body that adjudicates environmental matters in India, on Friday imposed a penalty of 500 million Indian Rupees (approximately USD $7 million) on the state government of Karnataka for failing to protect lakes in its capital city of Bangalore. The tribunal also directed the government to deposit 5 billion [...]