Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law on Monday a bill to limit detention of immigrants and another to simplify voter registration. The first, Senate Bill 31, also known as the TRUST Act , limits local local law enforcement’s authority in detaining immigrants based on citizenship status. Critics of the bills say this will make [...]
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Since the Kenyan presidential election on August 8, more than 12 people have been killed and more than 100 have been badly injured due to serious human rights violations , Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Monday. Following the announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta’s reelection, protests broke out in Nairobi, Coast, and the western counties of Kisumu, [...]
A Kenyan ban on plastic bags officially went into effect Monday, six months after it was announced in February. The ban applies to Kenyans producing, selling or using plastic bags and carries a punishment of up to USD $40,000 or imprisonment of up to four years. Although the ban has a wide target audience, it [...]
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that will lift an Obama-era directive that restricted local police agencies’ access to military equipment. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke Monday morning to the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) outlining the president’s new executive order. The FOP and other law enforcement groups have led the [...]
Kenya Supreme Court ordered the election commission on Monday to allow Raila Odinga’s National Super Alliance (NASA) and Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party limited access to its computer servers and electronic devices to assess the vote-count for themselves to verify the election’s integrity. According to the election commission, Kenyatta won a second five-year term, which was [...]
Civil rights groups on Monday filed two separate lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the US military. Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of a current army Staff Sergeant, two transgender individuals who [...]
Guatemala’s Constitutional Court issued an order Sunday blocking the expulsion of the lead UN anti-corruption official only hours after President Jimmy Morales ordered his expulsion. Morales argued that Ivan Velasquez, head of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) misused his authoritative position by pressuring the legislative process and publicly accusing Guatemalans of violations [...]
Here’s the international legal news we covered this week: A South Korean court sentenced billionaire head of Samsung Lee Jae-yong to five years in jail for bribery on Friday. Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra failed to appear in court to hear the verdict in her trial Friday, amid reports that she had fled the [...]
Here’s the domestic legal news we covered this week: US President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio . A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Wednesday blocked Texas from enforcing a revised voter identification law . Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos had previously [...]
US President Donald Trump on Friday directed the Secretaries of the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) to continue prior policies banning transgender individuals from military service. The ban had been lifted by the Obama administration last July, reversing a long-standing policy that prevented transgender persons from serving in the military and made [...]
