Legal News

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has announced that it will release 8,000 inmates from prisons to prevent further COVID-19 spread in prison populations. The CDCR and Governor Gavin Newsom have agreed to release the prisoners despite earlier court rulings that held that California was under no legal obligation to do so. The [...]

A federal judge in Indiana Friday temporarily stayed the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee due to COVID-19 concerns expressed by members of the victims’ families who planned to attend the execution. Lee was scheduled to be the first of five federal prisoners set to be executed after US Attorney General Bill Barr ordered a return [...]

Several health care providers and LGBTQ advocacy organizations have filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), challenging the new HHS rule eliminating protections for the LGBTQ community in health care. The suit was filed on Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts and is seeking [...]

Johns Hopkins University filed a lawsuit Friday against the Trump administration’s July 6 announcement from the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that international students enrolled only in online classes this fall will be removed. The lawsuit highlights that this directive singles out universities that are deciding not to host a “hybrid model—a mixture [...]

A Kentucky Circuit Judge granted a temporary restraining order on Thursday against Governor Andy Beshear’s COVID-19 executive orders. Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and Evan Orchard and Cider Mill, LLC, filed a complaint against the Governor alleging numerous unconstitutional orders issued by the executive. The complaint argues that Beshear’s orders bypass the administrative process and infringe [...]

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Thursday that the state of California is filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s new rule that international students must leave the US if all of their classes are online.  The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Student Exchange and Visitor Program (SEVP) announced Monday that international students would [...]

Five US states, as well as the District of Columbia (DC), filed a 46-page lawsuit against Betsy DeVos in her role as the Secretary of Education on Tuesday, asking a federal court to declare a recent Department of Education (DOED) rule interpreting the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) unlawful. Michigan, California, [...]

Applicants to the Illinois Bar filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Illinois on Monday seeking admission by diploma privilege instead of taking a bar exam. The state of Illinois has put forth several measures to mitigate the harmful effects of COVID-19. In addition, the Illinois State Bar association has begun administering continuing legal [...]

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Student Exchange and Visitor Program (SEVP) announced Monday that foreign students will not be allowed to remain in the country if they take entirely online classes during the fall semester. Foreign students who are attending schools operating entirely online will not be allowed to remain in the US. [...]

Recent law school graduates of Tennessee law schools filed an emergency rule waiver with the Supreme Court of Tennessee on Tuesday seeking diploma privilege for eligible applicants currently registered to sit for the Tennessee Bar in July 2020, September 2020 and February 2021. This waiver comes as many state bar associations have adapted how the [...]