Two Native American communities filed a lawsuit  in the US District Court for the District of Montana on Tuesday alleging President Donald Trump’s administration will violate the tribes’ treaty rights when it permits TransCanada to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. Former president Barack Obama rejected  the pipeline in 2012 and 2015 on climate change grounds, but [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Tuesday dismissed part of a lawsuit brought by protesters attacked during a 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign rally, finding that Trump’s comment did not rise to the level of inciting a riot under Kentucky law . On March 1, 2016, protestors at a rally in [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) stated Tuesday that it will continue its investigation into potential war crimes in Afghanistan despite threats from the Trump administration on Monday. On Monday, John Bolton, a national security advisor to the Trump administration, stated that the US would use any means necessary to protect both their citizens and their [...]

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday refused to retry a 1978 case regarding the torture of Irish “hooded men.” In 1971 14 men affiliated with the IRA were arrested and allegedly subject to inhumane interrogation methods inside the Ulster Constabulary. In 1976 the Irish government took the men’s cause [...]

California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 100  into law on Monday, which mandates a goal of a 100 percent renewable energy supply by 2045. Brown said , “This bill and the executive order put California on a path to meet the goals of Paris and beyond. It will not be easy. It will not be immediate. But [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Monday reversed a lower court’s decision that had blocked Missouri laws imposing certain requirements on abortion providers. Missouri law required that clinics set up to provide abortions be designated as ambulatory surgery centers and that doctors who provide abortions must have admitting privileges at local [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit  on Monday affirmed a lower court ruling  that Missouri cannot ban contributions between political action committees (PACs). In Free and Fair Election Fund v. Missouri Ethnics Commission, the district court had ordered a permanent injunction of a recently enacted provision of the Missouri Constitution, Art. VIII, § 23.3(12) . [...]

The recent prosecutions of journalists in Myanmar have had the effect of self-censorship , according to a UN report  released Tuesday examining freedom of the press in Myanmar. The report dissects the freedom of the press in Myanmar since the National League for Democracy (NLD) came into power and the effects it has had on [...]

A group of UN human rights experts on Tuesday expressed concern regarding Hungary’s new immigration measures. Hungary adopted legislation in July that further restricts asylum claims and criminalizes “supporting and facilitating illegal immigration.” The experts have observed that, as a result of the legislation, “hreats against human rights defenders in Hungary are now regular and [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) held  Tuesday that a Catholic-run German hospital was discriminatory in its dismissal of a Catholic doctor that had recently remarried. The head doctor of the clinic lost his job at the Catholic St. Vinzenz Hospital in Düsseldorf in 2009 after divorcing his wife and subsequently marrying a new partner in [...]