Explainer: The Complex Legacy of Leonard Peltier's Half-Century Behind Bars
Today I am finally free. They may have imprisoned me, but they never took my spirit. –Leonard Peltier, Feb. 18, 2025 Native American activist Leonard Peltier, one of the longest-serving federal prisoners in US history, was released to home confinement on Tuesday after spending nearly five decades behind bars. His imprisonment stems from a controversial [...]
Beyond Hunter: Biden Must Use Pardon Power to Protect Democracy's Defenders
On December 1, President Joseph Biden announced a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, on charges of gun and tax violations, reversing his pledge not to pardon him if convicted. In his statement, the president wrote: Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter … The charges in his cases came about only after [...]
New Jersey data shows state bias incidents increased in 2023
Reports of bias incidents in New Jersey increased by 22 percent from 2022 to 2023, according to preliminary data released by the state’s attorney general Thursday. The preliminary data shows there were 2,699 bias incidents reported to New Jersey law enforcement in 2023. Anti-black and anti-Jewish bias remained the most common motivations for racial and [...]
The US House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance held a hearing Wednesday with US Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis to discuss the agency’s response to threats against federal judges one day after Davis revealed to Reuters that threats against federal judges have skyrocketed across the country in the last year [...]
Federal judge rules in favor of creating Mississippi state-run court in capital city
A federal judge ruled Sunday that Mississippi officials can create the planned state-run court in Jackson, the state capital, where the majority of residents are Black, despite objections from the NAACP. The decision is part of a more significant legal battle over Mississippi’s expansion of state power in Jackson, which the NAACP has sued against. [...]
Justin Lindsay is a US National Correspondent for JURIST, and a 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He previously served 10 years as an Officer in the United States Army. January 6th forced many Americans to confront domestic political violence for the first time. Visceral images on social media, cable, and broadcast [...]
The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York announced on Tuesday that it charged and arrested Patrick Dai, a Cornell University student, for posting threats online against Jewish students. The announcement stated that Dai posted threats to kill or injure other students at Cornell. The posts that led to the arrest state, [...]
On Wednesday, two people targeted a Berlin, Germany synagogue with molotov cocktails, a type of homemade firebomb, and rioters in Tunisia burned down the historic El Hamma synagogue. The attacks came as tensions continue to boil over in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent siege of Gaza. Berlin police [...]
White House advisory board report calls for reforms to intelligence gathering procedures
The US President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) released a report Monday in support of the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) while also recommending restrictions to prevent abuse. Section 702 is a controversial provision of FISA that allows for “the targeting of persons reasonably believed to be located outside the [...]
US magistrate rules evidence cannot be made public in Trump classified documents case
A federal magistrate in Florida ruled in favor of a protective order, forcing former President Donald Trump and his attorneys not to release evidence in the federal criminal case surrounding Trump’s storage and maintenance of classified documents. District Court Southern District of Florida Magistrate Bruce Reinhart ordered: Defendants and Defense Counsel shall not disclose the Discovery Materials [...]
