The UN Human Rights Committee two decisions Friday finding Finland violated the political rights of representatives to the Sámi parliament by improperly enlarging the electoral roll of eligible candidates. The two claims were submitted separately by President of the Sámi Parliament Tiina Sanila-Aikio and 25 other persons as members of the indigenous Saami people. The [...]
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed more than 100 criminal charges Friday against the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority for failure to notify residents of potential health risks when replacing lead pipes. The AG has filed 161 charges (one for each affected household) of third degree criminal misdemeanors for violating the Pennsylvania Safe Drinking Water [...]
Defense lawyers from the Federal Defenders of New York filed suit on Monday against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the warden of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for its inadequate response to a fire that resulted in limited heat and power for inmates. A fire broke out in the West Building of the [...]
President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Saturday announced that Russia would suspend its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in response to the US suspension of the treaty a day prior. The INF Treaty, a principle act of the Cold War disarmament pacts, required the destruction of US and Soviet ground-launched ballistic and cruise [...]
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued a stay on Friday on behalf of the other justices in June Medical Services LLC., et al v. Gee, a case reviewing Louisiana Act 620, the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act. Act 620 was passed in 2014 and required any doctor performing an abortion to have admitting privileges at [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday for force-feeding detained migrants. According to a report released on Thursday by the Associated Press, detained men in the El Paso Processing Center have been participating in a hunger strike since early January. ICE officials said that 11 men are striking, but AP reports the [...]
Sri Lanka announced on Thursday that it is lifting a 43-year moratorium on capital punishment and will start executing prisoners with drug trafficking convictions who are on death row. The Justice and Prison Reforms Ministry has issued a timeline on the process it has adopted to implement the death penalty. In July the country’s cabinet [...]
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Inspector General Daniel Levinson proposed a rule on Thursday to eliminate safe harbor for companies engaging in kickbacks associated with prescription drug rebates. Such discounts are currently protected from liability under section 1128B(b) of the Social Security Act, commonly called the “Federal anti-kickback statute.” Instead of permitting pharmaceutical [...]
New York Attorney General Letitia James, and a coalition of five other states and New York City, on Wednesday, filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for failure to comply with certain provisions of the Clean Air Act. According to a press release from James’ office, the EPA is obligated to provide Federal Implementation [...]
The US Court Of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a San Francisco law requiring health warnings on advertisements for soda and other sweetened drinks is an violation of the First Amendment. The suit, which was led by the American Beverage Association (ABA), was first filed in 2015 to contest the “burdensome disclosure requirement” [...]
