Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Tuesday called on Iranian authorities to halt the execution of Ahmedreza Djalali and revoke his death sentence. Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian doctor and academic, is scheduled to be executed by May 21, 2022. Though they are still considering Djalali’s request to postpone the execution, Iranian [...]
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont Tuesday attended a ceremonial signing of House Bill 5414, the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act (RFDA). RFDA, which Lamont officially signed into law on May 5, provides significant protections to individuals providing or seeking abortions in Connecticut from restrictive abortion laws in other states. The bill includes the following protections: Expands which [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in Siegle v. Fitzgerald and United States v. Washington. In Siegle, the Court is considering whether the 2017 Amendment to the Bankruptcy Judgeship Act, which increased quarterly fees for Chapter 11 cases in the Trustee program but not the Bankruptcy Administrator program, violates the uniformity requirement [...]
Two doctors joined two parents on behalf of their minor children to file a complaint Tuesday in federal court against the governor and the district attorneys of Alabama, Shelby County, and Jefferson County, to block Alabama’s Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (“VCCPA”) from going into effect on May 8, 2022. The VCCPA, signed into [...]
The Oklahoma House of Representatives voted Tuesday to enact a law that makes it a felony to perform or attempt to perform an abortion, except to save the life of the pregnant woman in a medical emergency. S.B. 612 makes performing or attempting to perform an abortion punishable by a fine of $100,000 or up to [...]
The US Supreme Court Monday heard oral arguments in two pending cases, Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. and Berger v. North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. In Morgan v. Sundance, Inc., the court must consider whether a requirement to prove prejudice when one party subject to an arbitration clause argues another party waived arbitration violates [...]
The City of Los Angeles Monday announced that it filed a lawsuit against the Monsanto Company and two other related companies who are potentially liable for the continued production of a toxic chemical used in paints. The public nuisance lawsuit alleges that Monsanto knew the industrial chemical they manufactured, polychlorinated biphenyl (“PCB”), was highly toxic [...]
The Court of First Instance of the Hong Kong High Court dismissed the appeal Tuesday of US corporate lawyer Samuel Bickett, upholding his conviction and jail sentence for assaulting an off-duty police officer in December 2019. Bickett’s appeal centered on the lower court not giving enough weight to the defense’s video evidence (an annotated version [...]
A federal judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of California sentenced John T. Earnest, a California resident, Tuesday to life in prison plus an additional 30-year sentence for opening fire in the Chabad of Poway synagogue and for attempted arson of the Dar-ul-Arqam mosque in 2019. In June, Earnest pleaded guilty [...]
The District of Columbia (DC) filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday against Proud Boys International, LLC and The Oath Keepers, a non-profit organization. DC is seeking compensatory, statutory and punitive damages from the organizations for their involvement in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. The alleged aim of the attack was to prevent Congress [...]