A federal district court judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to improve its measures for protecting the health of detainees in the agency’s facilities and consider releasing those most at risk of contracting COVID-19. Numerous individual detainees and two advocacy organizations have sued ICE, arguing that its relative [...]
The US Supreme Court issued its decision in Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Christian Monday, settling technical questions in a dispute between Montana landowners and a mining company over liability for hazardous materials cleanup within—and beyond—the scope of the federal law governing “Superfund” sites. Under the law, called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal patent law does not allow for an appeal of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to institute a procedure for challenging the validity of a patent after a finding that a one-year time bar does not apply. Inter partes review is a process established by [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that defendants on trial in state courts for serious offenses must be convicted by a unanimous jury, under the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, which is incorporated to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in Apodaca v. Oregon that the [...]
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) filed three lawsuits Monday challenging the failure of the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and two hospitals to protect the health and safety of nurses treating COVID-19 patients. The NYSNA claimed that the DOH, Montefiore Medical Center and Westchester Medical Center compromised the health and safety of [...]
The Massachusetts Senate on Friday approved a bill that imposes a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill was then sent to Governor Charlie Baker for approval. “ purposes, which are to establish forthwith a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during the governor’s COVID19 emergency declaration … necessary for the immediate [...]
Maryland governor Lawrence Hogan signed an executive order on Saturday allowing the expedited release of hundreds of eligible inmates in an effort to enable social distancing and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within the state’s prisons. Hogan’s order authorizes the Commission on Correctional Standards and the Maryland Parole Commission to expedite the release of eligible categories of [...]
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filed a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court on Friday requesting that the court weigh in on a case on media ownership that has lasted almost two decades. The issue first rose in 2002 during one of the reviews the FCC is required to conduct every four years [...]
A federal judge ruled Friday against Twitter revealing the scope of Department of Justice (DOJ) surveillance requests. The suit concerned Twitter’s Draft Transparency Report that describes the amount of security processes that Twitter received from the DOJ between July 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers decided the case. Rogers concluded that [...]
A federal judge on Friday blocked Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s executive order to limit surgical abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Abortion providers, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit after Lee promulgated Executive Order 25 on April 8. The order aimed to limit non-essential procedures to ensure abundant personal protective equipment (PPE) [...]
