Here’s the domestic legal news we covered this week:
The US
Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website]
announced [press release] Thursday that it has begun distributing compensation to victims of Bernie L.
The legal world is a busy place.
A federal judge, on Thursday signed a
settlement agreement [text] ending a land dispute between private citizens and Texas officials against the US
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) [official website] over territory on the Red River.
The US State Department
announced [press release] Wednesday that it will end the Central American Minors (CAM) refugee program, an Obama-era immigration initiative that sought to resettle “children and eligible family members who are nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.”
CAM was established as a response to the thousands of unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central American countries in order to seek asylum in the US.
Ohio voters on Tuesday approved an
amendment [text, PDF] that will give Ohio crime victims more Constitutional rights.
The US
Supreme Court [official website] on Monday
overturned [opinion, PDF] a lower court’s decision to enforce an original plea bargain in accordance with contract law principles, finding such application was not supported by federal law.
The case arose from a California criminal conviction.
The US
Supreme Court [official website] unanimously
concluded [decision, PDF] on Monday that Alabama may execute a death row inmate, Vernon Madison, who claims to be mentally incompetent and unfit to be executed under the
Eighth Amendment [text] due to several strokes and vascular dementia.
The US Supreme Court on Monday
declined to hear [order list, PDF] Samsung’s appeal in a patent case against Apple over Smartphone features.
A Pentagon official on Friday
ordered [POLITICO report] the release of a Marine Corps general, who was sentenced last week
to 21-days confinement [JURIST report] to his quarters by Guantánamo Bay military commissions judge Air Force Col.