Legal News

The US Supreme Court Monday rejected a challenge by Republicans to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s proxy voting rules introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rules allow a member of the House to designate another member as a proxy. The proxy may cast the floor votes of members who are unable to physically attend [...]

The National Council of Austria Thursday passed a bill making Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for all adults in the country. If approved by the upper house and signed into law by the President, the bill will come into force on February 1, making Austria the first European country to introduce a vaccine mandate. The Austrian government first announced [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas Friday blocked the Biden administration’s federal employee vaccine requirement. US President Joe Biden signed an executive order in September requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. A lawsuit was filed in December. In blocking enforcement of the order Friday, Judge [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Thursday ruled that two California counties violated the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms when the counties forced gun shops and firing ranges to close in 2020 to limit the spread of COVID-19. The National Rifle Association and pro-gun groups sued California in [...]

JURIST is launching a new series of dispatches from major US states written by JURIST correspondents “on the ground” in those jurisdictions. JURIST Operations Director Ram Eachambadi files this report from Los Angeles. Earlier this month, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed California’s highly ambitious 2022-23 state budget proposal. Titled “The California Blueprint,” the proposed budget aims [...]

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) formally announced Tuesday that it needs more than $1.6 billion in funding from the international community in order to meet budgetary shortfalls in 2022. In a statement, UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillipe Lazzarini said that 2022’s deficit was the most recent of a [...]

A three-judge bench of the Victoria District of the Federal Court of Australia on Sunday unanimously upheld Immigration Minister Alex Hawke’s decision to cancel the visa of 20-time grand slam and nine-time Australian Open tennis champion Novak Djokovic, setting the stage for the tennis legend to leave Australia immediately. The decision comes only two days [...]

A Wisconsin county judge Thursday granted an injunction against the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in statewide elections. The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) issued guidance to county clerks about the use of drop boxes in March and again in August of 2020, in light of the growing COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance permitted, but did not [...]

A federal grand jury in the US District Court for the District of Maryland Thursday indicted Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore City, with separate counts of perjury and submitting false mortgage applications. The four counts are for events taking place between May 2020 and February 2021, during which Mosby allegedly received pandemic relief [...]

The Australian Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke formally canceled Friday Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic’s temporary visa to Australia, only days after an Australian judge had ordered Djokovic’s visa reinstated and his passport returned. Hawke stated that the decision to cancel Djokovic’s visa was made on “health and good order grounds” and that it was in [...]