Judge Michael Barrett of the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio signed an order on Wednesday that blocks Ohio from enforcing a new law that would have banned most abortions beginning as early as the sixth week of pregnancy. Senate Bill 23 was signed into law by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in [...]
In a country visit report published Friday, Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Polish government needs to do more to preserve judicial independence, citing “wide-ranging judicial reforms have met with serious concern” from stakeholders. The Commissioner’s report is the culmination of a five day visit in which “the Commissioner [...]
US President Donald Trump issued an order to eight agency officials on Thursday directing full cooperation with Attorney General William Barr’s probe into activities relating to the 2016 presidential election. The order was addressed to the following agency heads: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, acting Secretary of Defense Patrick [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Wednesday reversed the district court’s dismissal of a class action lawsuit against French bank BNP Paribas over aiding atrocities in Sudan. The lawsuit was brought in 2016 by 21 refugees from Sudan’s ethnic-cleansing campaign alleging that the bank conspired with and aided and abetted the [...]
Oklahoma’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a state law that restricts access to drug-induced abortions unconstitutional. The decision overturns a 2014 state law that banned “off-label” use of mifepristone, a medication used for abortions, also referred to as RU-486, which made Oklahoma the only state to have such a ban. The statute required physicians to comply [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Bolivia on Monday of undermining judicial independence in the country by arbitrarily dismissing nearly 100 judges since 2017 and called for the Organization of American States (OAS) to address the issue. The organization called for OAS to convene a meeting of its Permanent Council to address the ongoing changes to the Bolivian [...]
A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Monday that Chelsea Manning will remain in jail on a contempt charge for her refusal to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange was arrested last week by British authorities after in asylum at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for seven years. [...]
US President Donald Trump delivered a speech in front of an audience of operating engineers in Crosby, Texas, on Wednesday and promised to make it easier for them to construct oil and gas pipelines before signing two executive orders. Trump said that the US has “made a lot of progress in the last two and [...]
The US House of Representatives voted to approve a joint resolution on Thursday to cease US Military aid with respect to the civil war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis in Yemen. The resolution was approved by a vote of 247-175 and invokes Section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution. If confirmed into law, it would direct [...]
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG must face a US government lawsuit accusing it of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to doctors in exchange for its drugs being prescribed, according to a ruling released Monday. A federal judge in Manhattan denied a motion for summary judgment by Novartis, holding that the US government provided enough evidence of [...]
