Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed House Bill 1514 into law on Wednesday, prohibiting racial discrimination based on hair. The new law, taking effect July 1, clarifies that discrimination based upon race includes “traits historically associated with race, including hair texture, hair type, and protective hairstyles such as braids, locks, and twists.” The law is identical to [...]

Amid a struggling global stock market, the Supreme Court of India ruled Wednesday against the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban on cryptocurrencies. The initial ban originated in 2018 after financial regulators and the Indian government began to examine the emerging cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ripple, and ethereum. At that time they had “concerns of [...]

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday unanimously approved an investigation into allegations of war crimes committed on both sides of the Afghanistan conflict. The investigation will focus on “alleged crimes committed on the territory of Afghanistan in the period since 1 May 2003, as well as other alleged crimes that [...]

Chief Justice John Roberts released a statement Wednesday denouncing Senator Chuck Schumer’s comments made during a rally in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The rally was an abortion rights rally coinciding with the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo. Schumer called out Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, [...]

Hong Kong’s highest court ruled Wednesday that a Housing Authority policy preventing same-sex couples from applying for public housing within the city limits is unconstitutional. The spousal policy specifically excluded same-sex couples who married abroad from obtaining public housing in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Court of Appeals stated that the policy violated the region’s [...]

An Iraqi court on Monday sentenced to death a former Islamic State militant who repeatedly raped a Yazidi captive. The case marks a landmark transition for the prosecution of Islamic State in its prominent advocacy for an individual victim and its specific acknowledgment of the Yazidi minority treatment under Islamic State. Ashwaq Haji Hamid Talo, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Tuesday that Ohio election officials do not have to provide absentee ballots to inmates arrested after the deadline to request a ballot. Police arrested Mays and Nelson Sr. the weekend before Election Day 2018. They sued Ohio’s Secretary of State for access to absentee ballots [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in June Medical Services v. Russo over a Louisiana abortion law adopted in 2014 that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. June Medical Services claims the law places an undue burden on women seeking abortions and is similar to a Texas law that [...]

The Arizona House of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday that would prohibit transgender women and girls from playing on female school sports teams. House Bill 2706 would require interscholastic or intramural sports teams sponsored by educational institutions to be expressly designated, based on biological sex, as male, female or mixed sex. Athletes who are [...]

A Russian court ruled Tuesday that facial recognition technology does not violate the privacy rights of its citizens. The Russian government has partnered with Ntechlab to provide facial recognition software. Ntechlab created the app FindFace, which can be used to identify random individuals with 70 percent accuracy. All that is needed is an individual’s photograph [...]