US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock on Monday announced that the agency will allow abortion pills by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic—a departure from a Trump-era rule requiring patients to go in-person to a medical clinic or hospital. Woodcock’s communication came via a letter sent to two leading non-profit organizations representing [...]

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson on Monday vetoed a state bill prohibiting medical treatment for transgender youth, calling it “a vast government overreach.” HB1570, titled the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, bans healthcare professionals from providing gender transition procedures to youth under 18 years old, even with parental consent. Among other treatments, it covers puberty [...]

US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a 30-day expedited review to determine how the Department of Justice can “deploy all the tools at its disposal in support” of the effort to prosecute hate crimes on Tuesday. The communication came via a two-page memorandum addressed to Department employees. It is Garland’s first since the US Senate [...]

The murder trial of Derek Chauvin—the white former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd—began on Monday, 10 months following Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests it sparked across the nation. In May, Chauvin, along with two other police officers, arrested Floyd for allegedly using a counterfeit bill in Minneapolis, Minnesota. During the arrest, [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral argument Tuesday in United States v. Cooley, a case about whether tribal police officers have the authority to detain non-Indians on Indian land. The case stems from a 2016 incident wherein a police officer of the Crow Nation—a federally recognized tribe with an Indian reservation located in south-central Montana—detained [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassaid to consider a California agricultural union organizing law. The case concerns whether “the uncompensated appropriation of an easement that is limited in time affects a per se physical taking under the Fifth Amendment.” Under California law, agricultural businesses must allow labor organizations [...]

The US House of Representatives passed two separate bills Thursday aimed at immigration reform, marking the first time Congress has voted to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The first bill, HR 6, the American Dream and Promise Act (Dream Act), seeks to establish a permanent legal path for over two million undocumented [...]

The European Parliament Wednesday adopted a legislative initiative report calling on the European Commission to create a “binding EU law that ensures companies are held accountable and liable when they harm—or contribute to harming—human rights, the environment, and good governance.” Despite the global nature of many European companies’ operations, there are currently no EU-wide laws [...]

Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill announced on Thursday that former police officer Derek Chauvin will face an additional charge of third-degree murder. The decision came on the third day of the much-anticipated trial for the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Chauvin already faces second-degree manslaughter and unintentional murder charges. The original [...]

Twitter launched a lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday, alleging he “abused his authority as the highest law-enforcement officer in the state” by unconstitutionally retaliating against the social media site for its decision to permanently ban former president Donald Trump from its platform following the January insurrection in Washington, DC. The 19-page [...]