Legal News

Led by Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis, twenty-one states filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Center for Disease Control’s public transportation mask mandate. The current CDC order, in place since February of last year, requires those traveling on “conveyances” within the United States, including airplanes, trains, and buses, to wear a mask. It also requires [...]

The Ottawa Police Service Monday arrested a member of Ontario’s provincial parliament for his participation in the “Freedom Convoy” protests in February, according to a statement. Randall Hillier represents Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, an area east of Toronto at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River. The Ottawa police said they began receiving complaints about “social media posts [...]

The US Supreme Court Friday ruled that the Navy and Department of Defense can reassign Navy SEALs who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Earlier this month, the Pentagon asked the Supreme Court to allow it to stop the deployment of unvaccinated SEALs. The court’s decision temporarily blocks the January ruling from a Texas federal [...]

District Judge Norman K. Moon of the Western District of Virginia Wednesday granted preliminary injunctions for 12 families to request mask requirements for their immunocompromised children in school. The complaint challenged Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order that allows parents of students attending Virginia public schools to choose for their children to not be subject to [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, in his presentation at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Monday urged the international community to revive engagement with North Korea because “leaving North Korea in isolation and maintaining the status quo offers no solutions to [...]

The Australian government granted Australia’s media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), new powers Monday to combat disinformation and misinformation on digital platforms like Facebook and YouTube. ACMA is a regulatory government body that oversees communication and media services in Australia. As a part of their mission, the Australian Government asked ACMA to [...]

New Zealand police Wednesday stormed parliament grounds in riot gear reclaiming the space where anti-vaccine mandate protesters had camped for 23 days. Hundreds of police began moving across parliament grounds early Wednesday morning, breaking up the protester’s camp, dressed in riot gear and equipped with pepper spray. The police towed vehicles obstructing roads as they pushed [...]

Uganda’s Parliamentary Health Committee stated Tuesday that it is considering proposed legislation that will impose fines on those who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and possibly jail terms for those who fail to pay. A statement released on the parliament’s website states that the “Parliament’s Committee on Health has started the consideration of the [...]

The House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament approved Monday in a 185-151 vote the declaration of a public order emergency as proclaimed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week in response to the “Freedom Convoy” protests. Under the Emergencies Act (“the Act”), the federal government wields exceptional power to limit the rights and freedoms [...]

Ian Profiri is JURIST’s Chief Correspondent for Canada. He files this dispatch from Calgary. To say that it’s been a busy week in the Canadian legal world is an understatement. For the first time in its history, the Emergencies Act was invoked by the Prime Minister, recognizing that policing efforts to date in the capital [...]