US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr denied a request Thursday to block the current federal mask mandate for US airports and domestic air travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael Seklecki filed the lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for himself and his son, who is autistic. [...]
California prosecutors on Friday charged Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) — one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the US — with involuntary manslaughter, finding a connection between the utility’s equipment and the deaths of four people in the 2020 Zogg Fire. “We have sufficient evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that is [...]
A Colorado grand jury on Wednesday formally indicted three police officers and two paramedics in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who died while in police custody after he was stopped when walking home from a store. One former police officer and two current officers of the Aurora Police Department as well [...]
A US federal judge invalidated permits approved during the Trump administration for a large oil development project on Alaska’s North Slope on Wednesday. In a 110-page ruling, Judge Sharon Gleason vacated the permits granted to ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s largest crude oil producer, by the Bureau of Land Management (the Bureau) because they violated the National Environmental [...]
Royal Dutch Shell (Shell), one of the world’s six “supermajor” oil companies, on Wednesday announced it will pay N 45.9 billion (naira) (US $111.6 million) in settling a decades-long legal dispute concerning an oil spill that occurred during the Biafran-Nigerian civil war. A coalition of ten Ogoni community members led by Chief Isaac Agbara in [...]
The Court of Appeal of Samoa on Friday ruled that the Faatuatua ile Atua ua Tasi (FAST) (‘Samoa United in Faith’) political party was the official winner of April’s national election, thus confirming the party’s leader, Fiame (honorary title) Naomi Mata’afa, as the country’s first female prime minister. Mata’afa won the majority in the April [...]
The French Council of State (Conseil d’Etat) ordered the country’s federal government to take accelerated action against climate change on Thursday, threatening possible fines for noncompliance. The Council—which provides legal advice to the executive and acts as the Supreme Court for Administrative Justice—agreed on three important matters. First, France is exceeding its emissions budgets. Following [...]
A Brazilian Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal) justice, on Thursday, issued an order revoking the passport of former Environment Minister Ricardo Salles. Minister Carmen Lúcia’s order comes just over a month after the Court ordered an investigation into allegations that Salles was involved in—and helped cover up—a multi-million dollar illegal timber trafficking scheme. The order [...]
The US House of Representatives on Friday voted 229-191 to rescind a 2020 rule promulgated by the Trump administration which removed limitations on methane emissions under the Clean Air Act from the oil and natural gas sector. The Senate voted 52-42 to do the same in April. The House passed the resolution using the Congressional Review [...]
The European Parliament on Thursday officially endorsed the Climate Law (also known as the European Green Deal), with member states voting 442-203 to transform the legislation’s political commitment into a legal one. The law “gives European citizens and businesses the legal certainty and predictability they need to plan for the transition to climate neutrality,” according [...]
