The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) of the Republic of Ireland Sunday initiated a public consultation on a code of practice to protect employees by giving them the right to disconnect from their work outside of regular working hours. The consultation for an updated code of practice comes as a response to the dramatic change in [...]
Spain’s Supreme Court Friday ordered lower courts to investigate deaths caused by COVID-19 in the country’s nursing homes. The Court additionally ordered probes into possible misuse of government funding to purchase flawed or fraudulent medical equipment. The instructions follow a previous ruling that complaints filed by unions, professional organizations, relatives of COVID-19 victims, and a [...]
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF) decided Thursday that it is constitutional for the State to order compulsory vaccination against COVID-19. The State cannot forcibly immunize its citizens. But fines, bars on attending certain places and on enrollment in school may be imposed upon vaccination refusal. Brazil has been one of the nations [...]
The US Supreme Court Thursday denied a request to allow in-person classes to continue in the face of an order by Kentucky’s governor shuttering schools because of a surge in Covid-19 cases. Kentucky Democratic governor Andy Beshear issued two executive orders on November 18, the first requiring limitations on persons in restaurants, bars, gyms, and [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is detaining hundreds of migrants, mainly Ethiopian, in degrading conditions at a deportation center in Riyadh. Migrants alleged to HRW that authorities are keeping them in overcrowded rooms for extended periods. Migrants also alleged that guards have beaten and tortured them with rubber-coated metal rods, which has [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that Nevada’s 50-person cap on religious gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic is unconstitutional because it places harsher attendance limits on religious gatherings than on casinos and other secular businesses. The ruling relates to Directive 021, one of the many COVID-19 directives issued by Nevada Governor [...]
The US Food and Drug Administration filed a supplemental brief on Tuesday requesting that the Supreme Court lift a preliminary injunction “barring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from enforcing longstanding safety requirements with respect to medication abortions effected through the use of Mifeprex (or its generic equivalent). This pill is approved for use to [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the state’s COVID-19 mask mandate. The court found that the complaint was a “shotgun complaint.” It criticized the complaint for supplying “irrelevant factual allegations and legal conclusions,” having “arguments that stray from the statutory and constitutional underpinning [...]
Despite the recent spate of federal executions, a report released Wednesday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals record-low state executions and new death sentences in 2020. Seventeen people were executed this year, of whom 10 were executed by the federal government. This is the first time in American history that federal executions exceeded state [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions for religious gatherings in New Jersey and Colorado until district courts can hear the cases. In both cases, petitioners challenge restrictions imposing stricter limitations on religious gatherings as violations of the First Amendment. The petitioners argue that the restrictions on religious institutions are harsher [...]
