FedEx agreed Monday to a settlement of $35.4 million to end three lawsuits brought by the city and state of New York over untaxed cigarettes. The lawsuits allege that FedEx shipped millions of untaxed cigarettes to residents of New York over the last decade on behalf of cigarette suppliers. Both the city and state of [...]

A federal judge in Pennsylvania issued a nationwide injunction on Monday preventing the enforcement of rules allowing employers to deny women health insurance including contraceptive coverage based on moral or religious reasons. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) currently has a requirement detailing that employers must provide their employees with birth control coverage in offered health insurance [...]

A Chinese court on Monday retried Canadian defendant Robert Lloyd Schellenberg for smuggling drugs and sentenced him to death. In November the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Schellenberg to 15 years in prison for smuggling drugs and confiscated personal property of RMB 150,000 for deportation. On Schellenberg’s appeal, the Liaoning Provincial Higher People’s Court held that [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted an injunction in the jurisdictions that challenged new rules that would have made it easier for an employer to opt-out of providing health insurance that cover female birth control. The rules were scheduled to go into effect Monday. The injunction is [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Saturday for its major donor nations to issue sanctions against Asadullah Khalid, the Defense Minister of Afghanistan, pointing to “redible evidence of serious human rights abuses and war crimes” that have accumulated “throughout government career.” HRW cited 2007 internal Canadian documents describing Khalid’s human rights violations as “numerous and consistent.” The violations [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in eight cases Friday, covering a wide range of issues from civil rights to the rights of intoxicated drivers in custody to the Freedom of Information Act. Rehaif v. United States is a case that asks whether a noncitizen under prosecution for violating a federal law must be shown [...]

Four UN special rapporteurs and experts on human rights said on Friday that they are “extremely concerned” by extrajudicial police killings in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state. The experts have sent a letter containing information to the Indian Government on 15 cases, most of which concern individuals from poor Muslim families. The UN officials say [...]

An independent monitor has found that despite the adoption of improved policies and new training material, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) is still not performing as it should to reduce the incidence of unconstitutional stops and arrests. In a status report filed in federal district court on Friday, Peter Zimroth discussed the department’s [...]

The High Court of Myanmar on Friday rejected the appeal of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were sentenced to seven years in jail for violating the Official Secrets Act in September. The journalists were arrested in 2017 while investigating military operations in northern Rakhine State. Judge Aung Naing, in making his [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday struck down a restrictive law that prevented Canadian citizens living outside the country from casting ballots in national elections. The question before the court revolved around a section of the Canada Elections Act that stated that citizens of Canada have the right to vote as long as they [...]