Legal News

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared a state of emergency Sunday after a new spike in COVID-19 infections in the country. Sánchez further imposed a nighttime curfew on citizens and prohibited meetings of more than six people. Regional travel may also be limited under the order. After facing relatively a higher number of cases early [...]

Wisconsin’s Court of Appeals District III temporarily blocked Emergency Order #3 Limiting Public Gatherings Friday, preventing enforcement of the directive designed to limit public indoor gatherings to 25 percent of a building’s total capacity. The limit had not applied to schools, polling locations, and churches. The administration of  Governor Tony Evers had issued the order [...]

The California Court of Appeal First Appellate District has ordered San Quentin State Prison (SQ) to reduce its population by half. The move is intended to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Tuesday order follows a writ of habeas corpus filed by Ivan Von Staich, an inmate in the prison. Staich, 64, suffers from respiratory problems. [...]

The US Supreme Court voted 5-3 to uphold Alabama’s ban on curbside voting Wednesday evening, drawing a sharp dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who claimed the requested injunction “lifts burdensome requirements rather than imposing them.” The one-paragraph order released Wednesday evening stemmed from a lawsuit disputing the curbside voting ban imposed by Alabama Secretary of [...]

Several separate lawsuits have been filed in opposition to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule and Department of Labor (DOL) rule on H-IB visas, both announced by the Trump administration on October 8. The DHS rule, set to become effective December 7, sets out revisions and clarifications to the regulatory definition and standards of [...]

Judge James Babler of the Barron County Circuit Court in Wisconsin Monday reinstated Governor Tony Evers’s emergency order setting in place precautions to help slow the spread of COVID-19 as Wisconsin experiences a surge in new cases. Judge Babler denied the Tavern League of Wisconsin’s motion to continue blocking the order, originally issued on October 6. [...]

A US federal judge for the District of Columbia Sunday struck down a Trump administration rule that would have ended food stamps for 700,000 Americans. The court struck down the rule after finding it arbitrary and capricious for its failure to account for the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on food stamp recipient numbers. The [...]

A US district court judge denied a motion for a preliminary injunction Friday from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn to exempt its parishes from New York state’s restrictions on religious gatherings in coronavirus hotspots. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s public health order on October 6 shut down non-essential businesses and placed restrictions on gatherings [...]

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling Thursday denying an extension to Arizona’s mail-in ballot deadline for members of the Navajo Nation. Six members of the Navajo tribe filed the lawsuit in the federal district court for the district of Arizona on August 26, alleging that Arizona’s requirement that mail-in ballots be [...]

UN Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana is urging the international community to lift sanctions on North Korea to lessen the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns, according to a report published Thursday. There have been no officially confirmed cases of COVID-19 in North Korea. The borders went on complete lockdown at the beginning of the year. Because [...]