The US Supreme Court on Monday limited new trials for felons convicted for being in possession of a firearm, limiting the retroactive application of its 2019 decision Rehaif v. United States. The issue in Greer v. United States involved 18 USC §922(g), the federal law prohibiting felons from possessing firearms. Under the 2019 decision in Rehaif, the [...]

The Biden administration announced Friday that it intends to restore environmental protections to the Tongass National Forest. This would reverse a Trump administration rule that allowed logging and road construction in over half of the forest. According to the US Forest Service, the Tongass is the “largest intact temperate rainforest in the world.” More than [...]

A crowd of 60,000 Spaniards took the streets of Madrid Sunday in order to protest the government’s pardon of 12 Catalan separatist politicians who led the 2017 unilateral independence movement. The demonstrators in attendance mainly came from the far-right populist party Vox, while representatives from the conservative popular and center-right parties were also present together [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned Friday of intensifying violence across Kayah State, Chin State and Kachin State in Myanmar, calling for increased regional diplomacy from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other influential states to insist on the immediate cessation of violence and ongoing human rights violations. Bachelet reported [...]

The US Supreme Court held on Monday that sentence reduction under the First Step Act is available only if an offender’s prior conviction for a crack cocaine offense triggered a mandatory minimum sentence. In 2018 Congress passed the First Step Act, which made previous sentencing reforms that reduced the sentencing disparity to 18 to 1, retroactive. Under [...]

Swiss citizens voted against three environmental laws Sunday, rejecting proposed initiatives that sought to improve their long-term quality of life. The first initiative sought to ensure clean drinking water and healthy food by eliminating subsidies for the use of food pesticides and antibiotics. The second initiative proposed banning all synthetic food pesticides. Nearly 61 percent [...]

A UN rights expert expressed serious concern on Thursday with the 10-year imprisonment of five human rights defenders in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), calling for their immediate release. The imprisoned individuals (Mohamed al-Mansoori, Hassan Mohammed Al-Hammad, Hadif Rashed Abdullah al-Owais, Ali Saeed Al-Kindi and Salim Hamdoon Al-Shahhi) are part of the “UAE94,” a group [...]

A federal judge in Texas dismissed a lawsuit Saturday by 117 hospital employees who sued Houston Methodist over its requirement that all employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The hospital employees who refused to be vaccinated were placed on unpaid suspension on Monday. The employees were told that they would be fired if they were not [...]

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed executive orders (here and here) on Friday to lift emergency restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. As of June 15, restrictions including such as physical distancing and capacity limits will be lifted as cases and deaths from coronavirus continue to decrease. Of the 58 Californian executive orders related [...]

The German Parliament passed a law on Friday requiring large and medium-sized businesses to do their due diligence in combating human rights violations along their supply chain. The law introduces a shift to mandatory compliance with international norms on labor exploitation. The Bundestag adopted the draft law by a large majority. The law introduces obligations [...]