Britain’s Queen Elizabeth signed the European Union Withdraw Act on Tuesday, giving royal assent to withdraw the UK from the EU. House of Commons Speaker John Bercow announced the Queen’s assent to the legislation. At the forefront, the Act repeals the European Communities Act of 1972 (ECA) , withdrawing the UK from the EU. The [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Tuesday upheld Ohio’s rules for judicial campaigns, saying the rules “strike the delicate balance between the Constitution’s commands and the state’s desire to protect judicial integrity.” Canon 4 of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct places restrictions on judicial candidates’ funding and conduct. Among other [...]
The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that heterosexual couples may now enter into a civil partnership rather than marriage. Prior to this decision, civil partnerships were held exclusive to same-sex couples. In 2004, marriage was not an option for same-sex couples, and so the Civil Partnership Act was passed. This gave these couples the option [...]
US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement Wednesday, effective July 31. In a letter to President Donald Trump, Kennedy wrote: For a member of the legal profession it is the highest of honors to serve on this Court. Please permit me by this letter to express my profound gratitude for having had the [...]
The General Court of the EU held Tuesday that the privately owned website “france.com” cannot be registered as a private trademark. The court found that the “conceptual similarity” with a French trademark of the same name prohibited the domain name from being considered a valid trademark. The decision comes after the private domain owner appealed [...]
East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld was charged with criminal homicide Wednesday after fatally shooting Antwon Rose Jr. on June 19 during a traffic stop. The complaint , filed by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office cited multiple witness reports, a video of the shooting uploaded to various social media outlets, and Rosfeld’s reputation as reasons for [...]
Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, filed an appeal on Monday requesting a federal appeals court to review an order by District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia that requires Manafort to be detained in jail while he awaits trial on several felony [...]
A coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its policy to separate immigrant children from their families and refusal to allow asylum applicants entry along Southwestern border ports. The complaint describes reports of families who have sought asylum only to be unlawfully refused at [...]
A three-judge federal panel ruled 2-1 on Tuesday that the Virginia General Assembly violated the Equal Protection Clause by engaging in racial gerrymandering. The plaintiffs alleged that the General Assembly “predominantly relied on race” when drawing up 12 majority African-American voting districts for the 2011 election. The US Supreme Court previously upheld the voting plan [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in Janus vs. AFSCME that public sector unions cannot collect what the court calls “agency fee i.e., a percentage of the full union dues” from non-members. In a 5-4 ruling, the court, citing the First Amendment, held that the payment of agency fees forces nonmembers to “endorse ideas they [...]
