Judge Dabney Friedrich of the US District Court for the District of Columbia held Monday that the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller was constitutional. The opinion denied the motion to dismiss by defendant Concord Management and Consulting LLC. Concord’s motion argued that Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein lacked the power to appoint a special counsel. In addition, [...]
Several leaders of the outlawed Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced to life in prison on Sunday by the Cairo Criminal Court on charges of incitement to murder and violence. Among the sentenced, include head Mohamed Badie, Mohamed al-Beltagi and Essam al-Erian. Badie and other prominent leaders of the party were previously convicted and sentenced to life [...]
The UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and the UN Human Rights Office released a joint report on Monday advising Somalia to take precautions to ensure that the human rights violations that occurred last year would not have a negative impact on their peace efforts or future elections. According to UNSOM, these violations had a direct [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein warned in an interview with The Guardian on Monday that Trump’s attacks on the press are “very close to incitement to violence.” Zeid fears that the current President’s designation of the press as an “enemy of the people” could have dire consequences: We began to [...]
A jury in the Superior Court of California found Monsanto liable on Friday in a lawsuit filed by a former groundskeeper who alleges the company failed to warn him of cancerous side effects from a possible carcinogen, glyphosate, in their weedkiller, RoundUp . The jury ordered the major corporation to pay $289.2 million in damages, $250 [...]
In some personal injury cases, juries award considerable sums for compensation. This often occurs when the plaintiff suffers serious and painful injuries, and the jury decides to award a significant amount of non-economic injuries. If the defendant’s actions are deemed egregious or malicious, the jury may also award a large amount of punitive damages. Yet [...]
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the government to return two asylum seekers to the US after they were put on a flight to El Salvador. Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on behalf of the mother and daughter and other women and children who [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated the ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos on Thursday, overturning the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) order that allowed continued use of the pesticide. Environmental and farm-worker advocacy groups took charge in the petition for review by the court of the EPA order, citing studies showing links to [...]
The Supreme Court of Costa Rica on Thursday found the country’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional and discriminatory. This decision follows opinion given just seven months ago by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that same-sex couples have the same rights to marry as any opposite-sex couple.< The decision is a significant one for Costa [...]
UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced Wednesday that former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet will succeed Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights . Bachelet completed her second four-year term as the Chilean president earlier this year. Upon her initial election in 2006, she became the first female to assume the Chilean [...]