The Michigan State Capitol Commission voted unanimously Monday to ban the open carry of firearms within the state Capitol building in Lansing. This decision was motivated by the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, as well as armed protesters storming the Michigan state Capitol building last April. The commission manages the Capitol building and its [...]

The US Supreme Court refused Monday to expedite the remaining Donald Trump campaign election challenges in an order unaccompanied by further comment or explanation. The justices’ refusal to consider the petitions before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration may render the claims moot. The Trump campaign sought to expedite eight separate petitions over the election results in [...]

Voters in Kyrgyzstan opted to increase presidential powers in a referendum conducted Sunday in parallel with the snap presidential election that saw the victory of populist politician Sadyr Japarov. Preliminary results published by the Central Election Commission revealed Japarov to be leading with almost 80 percent of the vote, and his closest competitor Adakhan Madumarov significantly [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski to determine whether a plaintiff may recover nominal damages for an unconstitutional government policy when the government has changed the policy since the plaintiff originally filed the suit. In 2016 Chike Uzuegbunam, a student at Georgia Gwinnett College and an evangelical Christian, had [...]

The Colorado Supreme Court updated the definition of common-law marriage to include LGBTQ+ individuals with three rulings handed down on Monday. The decisions also retroactively recognize same-sex common-law marriages entered into before the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Common law marriages are relationships that resemble marriage but lack official records to verify that union. Whether [...]

Law school deans from 157 law schools across the US issued a collective statement on Tuesday addressing the 2020 election and condemning the attack on the US Capitol on January 6. Because law school deans usually do not collectively speak on issues outside of legal education, this was an unusual occurrence. The deans who signed the [...]

More than 9,000 children died in Ireland’s mother and baby homes, according to the final report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation published Tuesday by the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth. The Commission, which was created in February 2015, was established by the Irish Government to [...]

The US Department of State once again designated Cuba as a state that sponsors terrorism Monday. In 2015, the Obama administration removed Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, which currently includes North Korea, Iran and Syria. In a press statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the State Department accused Cuba of “repeatedly [...]

A federal judge in Indiana on Monday stayed federal death row inmate Lisa Montgomery’s execution. Judge James Halan of the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, granted the stay in order to allow the court to conduct a hearing to determine Montgomery’s competence to be executed. Protection from execution for incompetent individuals [...]

The Indian Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a stay on implementation of the new agricultural reform laws that have seen continuous protests by farmers at New Delhi’s highways since November. The order was made in the proceedings of a batch of civil writ petitions dubbed Rakesh Vaishnav & Ors. v Union of India challenging the constitutional [...]