The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases Thursday. The court granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in District of Columbia, et al. v. Wesby, Theodore, et al. and granted a motion of International Municipal Lawyers Association, Inc. for leave to file a brief as amicus curiae. The qualified immunity case comes [...]

Western Union Co. on Thursday agreed to pay $586 million after admitting to turning a blind eye to criminals who used their service for fraud and money laundering. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that Western Union has admitted “to aiding and abetting wire fraud.” Western Union was found to have allowed criminals to [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Michel Forst on Thursday condemned the execution of Raramuri indigenous activist Isidro Baldenegro Lopez. Lopez was an environmental activist in Mexico who fought to for indigenous land rights and protections from looters. He was murdered on Sunday by an unknown assailant. His death prompted Fors [...]

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday ordered Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (Citigroup) to pay over 25 million dollars for engaging in deceitful business trading practices. The CFTC found that Cigroup would place bids on the futures market with the intent to prematurely withdraw bids. This practice is called spoofing and violates the [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and international sanctions Idriss Jazairy on Thursday praised US President Barack Obama’s recent decision to lift all US sanctions on Sudan. He noted that he decision acknowledges the fact that the Sudanese government has adopted positive actions in the last six months. “By lifting sanctions on Sudan, after [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Thursday upheld the conviction of former Massey Energy co-CEO Donald Blankenship for conspiracy for his role in a 2010 West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29. Blankenship had argued that his conviction should be overturned on procedural errors, including incorrect jury instructions and that the [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), Cecilia Jimenez-Damary on Thursday sharply condemned bombings in Nigeria as a means of counter insurgency against Boko Haram. The bombings struck a camp housing IDPs, and initial reports from the government indicated that as many as 50 people had been killed and [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Wednesday that the Department of Defense must release a cache of photos taken at Abu Ghraib and other sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. The court ruled against Defense Secretary Ash Carter, with the judge stating , “my complaint is that [...]

A New Jersey appeals court on Wednesday upheld the firing of corrections officer Linda Tisby, who was terminated for wearing a hijab to work as an expression of her religious beliefs. Tissuey, who had worked for the jail for 13 years, argued that her beliefs required her to wear the religious headscarf while she was [...]

Seventy-seven advocacy groups penned a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday asking for transparency in the social media website’s censorship of speech. The groups are concerned with Facebook’s censorship of people of color’s posts, mainly regarding political speech and law enforcement. The letter was backed by 77 different groups, including the American Civil Liberties [...]