The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) announced Wednesday that it would postpone the release of the verdict in the case of four men accused of being involved in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri “out of respect for the countless victims of the devastating explosion that shook Beirut , and the three-day [...]

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported Monday that Volkswagen has successfully repaid buyers more than $9.5 billion under orders resulting from a targeted, misleading “clean diesel” advertising campaign. According to the FTC’s original complaint, Volkswagen USA advertised and marketed more than 550,000 “clean diesel” cars to consumers between 2008 and 2015; ultimately becoming “the [...]

A 23-year-old law student filed a federal lawsuit against the Australian government on Wednesday alleging that it failed to disclose climate change-related risks to investors of government bonds. According to her lawyers, it is “the first legal action that seeks to hold the Australian Government to account over climate change risks.” Kathleen (Katta) O’Donnell, a [...]

President Trump Wednesday announced his administration’s final rule in a multi-year “modernization” of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the nation’s foundational law for environmental protection. A press release from the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) stated that “the announcement comes after a multi-year review of its NEPA regulations, and after receiving over 1.1 [...]

A Pennsylvania-based environmental nonprofit filed suit Monday against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning the agency’s interpretation of a section of the Clean Water Act. Established in 1988, the Deleware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) works to “protect and restore the Deleware River, its tributaries, habitats and resources” throughout Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Deleware. [...]

US District Judge Steven Jones on Monday struck down Georgia’s latest anti-abortion law as unconstitutional. The Georgia General Assembly approved House Bill 481, also known as the Living Infant Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, in March 2019. HB 481 changed several aspects of already existing Georgia abortion law, including the definitions of “natural person” and [...]

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves on Tuesday signed a bill into law removing the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi state flag. The state legislature fast-tracked House Bill No. 1796 over the weekend and forwarded it to the Governor’s office on Monday. With his signature, Reeves established a new Commission for the “sole purpose of developing, [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the city of Seattle violated the constitutional rights of protesters throughout the city by allowing Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers to “deploy unnecessary violence against peaceful demonstrators who speaking out against discriminatory police brutality.” The protests follow the May 25 murder of [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Friday that the majority of the public officials named as defendants in the federal Flint water crisis lawsuit should remain in the case. The opinion affirms the district court’s denial of several motions to dismiss with respect to former public officials like Michigan Governor Rick [...]

The European Union Court of Justice on Thursday ruled that Hungary’s confinement of third-country asylum seekers subject to a “return decision” in transit zones at the Serbian-Hungarian border “must be classified as detention.” Additionally, it found that those detained for no reason must be released immediately, following a judicial review by a national court. The [...]