The Supreme Court continued oral arguments by conference call on Wednesday, hearing both Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania and Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants Inc. The first case involves the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) birth control mandate, which requires employers to provide health insurance that includes [...]
The UN Network on Migration has released a guide suggesting states and relevant stakeholders “top new detentions of migrants for migration – or health-related reasons and introduce a moratorium on the use of immigration detention.” The Network released the 12-page guide as part of a series highlighting how the spread of COVID-19 affects migrants and [...]
The Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany ruled Tuesday that the European Central Bank’s (ECB) 2015 bond-buying program partially violates the German constitution. The court granted the ECB a three-month “transitional period” to prove the proportionality of its program before the Deutsche Bundesbank (central bank of Germany) may cease its participation. The [...]
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with attorneys from three of the state’s largest cities, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. claiming their misclassification of workers as independent contractors violates state law and places a burden on California taxpayers. The suit, filed by Becerra and city attorneys for San Francisco, [...]
A federal judge ruled Monday against Kentucky Governor Andrew Beshear’s ban on out-of-state travel for Kentucky residents. The ban, which was issued in executive order 2020-258, prohibited Kentucky residents from traveling to any other state in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. It did, however, provide an exception for certain out-of-state travel, including [...]
Dr. Rick Bright filed a whistleblower complaint Tuesday, stating the administration removed him for opposing the use of COVID-19 treatments promoted by President Donald Trump. Bright joined the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in 2010 and was appointed to lead the agency in 2016. He has worked on numerous viral outbreaks, including Zika, [...]
The US Supreme Court held its second virtual oral argument Tuesday morning in a First Amendment dispute. In Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc., parties are arguing whether Congress can require foreign recipients of HIV and AIDS relief funds to have explicit policies opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. The case [...]
A federal judge on Monday granted 3M a preliminary injunction against a New Jersey-based company accused of federal trademark violations and flagrantly increasing the price of highly-coveted N95 face masks. The order marks the first win in a string of price-gouging suits filed by 3M. 3M initially filed suit against Performance Supply, LLC on April [...]
A group of voters filed a lawsuit Monday challenging several North Carolina mail-in ballot voting requirements. This lawsuit comes from concerns about voting due to the COVID-19 public health crisis. In their complaint, the plaintiffs challenge several North Carolina mail-in ballot voting requirements in an effort to ensure that everybody in North Carolina may be [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral argument via teleconference the case of United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V. The case presents the question of “hether, when the Lanham Act states generic terms may not be registered as trademarks, the addition by an online business of a generic top-level domain (‘.com’) to an [...]
