Legal News

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Wednesday to invalidate the order by Wisconsin Department of Health Services executive Andrea Palm to remain at home in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Palm also ordered any “non-essential” businesses to remain closed as stated in Emergency Order 28. Palm issued the order on April 24 to remain in [...]

Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, was released from a federal prison in Pennsylvania Wednesday due to the COVID-19 pandemic following a request by his attorney Kevin Downing. Manafort was convicted of five charges of tax fraud, two of bank fraud, and one of failure to disclose a foreign bank account in [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan issued a preliminary injunction Monday barring the Small Business Administration from enforcing a rule preventing “sexually oriented businesses that present entertainment or sell products of a ‘prurient’ (but not unlawful) nature,” from receiving emergency federal loans. The rule also prevents banks, certain [...]

In a lawsuit filed on Monday, several community colleges in California alleged that community college restrictions on COVID-19 aid violate the Constitution and exclude more than half of all of the students in the California community college system, “including many identified as economically disadvantaged.” The CARES Act allocated 580 million dollars to aid community colleges [...]

Colombian airline Avianca filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York on Sunday, following financial difficulty during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second largest airline in Latin America, Avianca has been grounded since March amidst regulations set out by the president, resulting in more than 20,000 jobs under threat of furloughed leave. The company [...]

Harold Frazier, the Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council, refused Friday to remove health checkpoints established at the entrances to the reservation. President Bear Runner of the Oglala Sioux have also refused to remove the checkpoints. The Cheyenne River Sioux and the Oglala Sioux have both erected health checkpoints at entrances to the [...]

A lawsuit was filed in federal district court for the middle district of Florida against governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday. The suit was filed on behalf of several plaintiffs who either own or manage vacation rental properties in the state. They allege that a ban on vacation home rentals due to the COVID-19 pandemic has [...]

The 112-year-old, Dallas-based luxury retailer Nieman Marcus Group filed for bankruptcy Thursday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston. At the time of filing, Nieman Marcus said it has “funded-debt obligations of approximately $5.5 billion.” The filing stated that the need for bankruptcy comes in the “face of unprecedented [...]

The UN Network on Migration has released a guide suggesting states and relevant stakeholders “top new detentions of migrants for migration – or health-related reasons and introduce a moratorium on the use of immigration detention.” The Network released the 12-page guide as part of a series highlighting how the spread of COVID-19 affects migrants and [...]

A federal judge ruled Monday against Kentucky Governor Andrew Beshear’s ban on out-of-state travel for Kentucky residents. The ban, which was issued in executive order 2020-258, prohibited Kentucky residents from traveling to any other state in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. It did, however, provide an exception for certain out-of-state travel, including [...]