Lambda Legal filed a complaint in US District Court on Tuesday against the Social Security Administration in response to the agency’s denial of benefits to the surviving partner of a lesbian couple. The plaintiff in the case, Helen Thornton, applied for survivor benefits in 2015. Despite extensive documentation of the 27-year relationship between Thornton and [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Court on Monday blocked a lower court ruling  that expanded the types of documents voters could use to prove their identity for elections in North Dakota, siding with state officials over Native American tribal members. North Dakota’s legislature passed a law in 2017 that required voters to [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Monday reversed a district court order that required the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)  to dig up and remove a large amount of coal ash at one of its power plants, holding that the Clean Water Act (CWA) does not regulate pollutants that reach navigable waters through [...]

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow older victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to seek legal redress. The legislation would lift a limitation for accusers over the age of 30 from seeking legal action for abuses suffered when they were children. The bill also lifts entirely the [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Montana, ruled  Monday that a US Fish & Wildlife Service decision to remove protections on the grizzly bear in the greater Yellowstone area was arbitrary and capricious and could impact the lower states’ grizzly populations. Conservation groups and local tribes brought the suit after [...]

Egypt’s highest court, the Court of Cassation , on Monday upheld death sentences for 20 individuals previously convicted  of a fatal attack on a local police station in August 2013. The incident stemmed from a pro-Muslim Brotherhood  demonstration outside the capital, in which armed forces killed hundreds. Earlier this month another Egyptian court sentenced 75 people to [...]

Amnesty International wrote a letter  to US senators on Monday asking them to postpone the vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh . Amnesty wants to halt the vote  on Kavanaugh’s nomination until information regarding his alleged involvement with human rights violations post 9/11 are disclosed to the public. Amnesty’s Executive Director Margaret Huang wrote: Amnesty [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request  on Monday seeking information related to comments made by US National Security Advisor John Bolton on the US policy towards the International Criminal Court (ICC) . The FOIA request specifically asks for communications from January 20, 2017 to the present, which [...]

George Soros’ Open Society Foundations announced on Monday that it has filed  a suit in the European Court of Human Rights  against Hungary over “Stop Soros laws.” The laws enacted in Hungary include “a 25 percent tax on funding for any activities and organizations that promote or positively portray migration” and making it illegal for [...]

The EU on Monday referred  Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU due to a new law that would force 27 Supreme Court judges to retire. Poland’s new law lowers the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 70 to 65, which would require that 27 out of 72 sitting Supreme Court judges [...]