UN human rights expert Margaret Satterthwaite condemned on Friday the purges of US Department of Justice officials, including individuals who worked on or assisted with criminal investigations of President Donald Trump, and individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Examples of actions that Satterthwaite denounced included reassignments, transfers, or dismissals of lawyers involved [...]

South Carolina is set to carry out the first execution by firing squad in 15 years. The US Supreme Court denial Friday of an emergency petition to stay clears the way for the state to carry out the death penalty. The execution was delayed for 13 years due to the availability of supplies to perform [...]

Conservative advocacy group Right on Crime urged lawmakers to reform the “criminal mental state” requirement in federal criminal codes in a report published on Thursday. The report also criticized the proliferation of laws that require no specific mental state as contributing to over-criminalization in the country. Right on Crime contends that “there has been an [...]

US Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday blocked a district court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) that implemented a midnight deadline to release over a billion US dollars in funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The TRO had originally been granted by Judge Amir Ali from the US District Court for the District [...]

The US Senate on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump’s appointee Kash Patel as the new director of the FBI with a party-line vote of 51-49. Only two Republican senators voted against confirmation. Arkansas Senator Lisa Murkowski and Maine Senator Susan Collins both voted nay, following through on vows to reject the nomination based on Patel’s partisan [...]

Media companies tied to US President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against Brazillian Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, accusing him of violating a US-based far-right commentator’s right to free speech when issuing orders suspending social media accounts for spreading disinformation. The lawsuit, filed by Rumble Inc. and Trump Media & Technology Group, [...]

US Federal District Judge Brendan A. Hurson issued a temporary restraining order Thursday blocking a Trump administration executive order aimed at eliminating federal funding to transgender medical care for minor youths. The judge’s order restrains executive officials from “conditioning or withholding federal funding based on the fact that a healthcare entity or health professional provides [...]

US District Court Judge George O’Toole Jr. issued an order Thursday afternoon blocking a buyout ultimatum issued by President Trump to employees of federal agencies shortly before that night’s deadline to accept the offer. The order stays a deadline set by President Trump for federal employees to decide whether to accept a “deferred resignation” offer [...]

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday a new $7.5 billion settlement with Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler Family for their role in the ongoing US opioid crisis, with the funds to be distributed among the individuals, tribal governments, and the states who participated in the suit. It is the second time a settlement [...]

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday criticized social media company Meta’s decision to end fact-checking programs created to battle the spread of misinformation on social networks, stressing the “real world consequences” of unregulated online spaces. Türk cited the immense power of social media to “fuel conflict, incite hate and threaten [...]