President Trump followed through on threats to veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Wednesday, complaining that it “fails to make any meaningful changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, despite bipartisan calls for repealing that provision.” In his memo communicating his veto to the House he said that Section 230, absolving [...]
Former college entrance exam administrator Niki Williams was sentenced Monday to one year of probation for her role in the fraudulent admissions scandal involving wealthy parents like Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Rick Singer has been identified as the scandal’s architect. Wealthy parents hired him to get their children into schools they were not qualified [...]
![ICJ rules it has jurisdiction to intervene in historic boundary dispute between Venezuela and Guyana](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/06/icj-1.jpg)
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Friday that it has jurisdiction to intervene in a historic boundary dispute between Venezuela and Guyana. Venezuela refused to participate in the hearing but submitted 200 pages of evidence in its defense. In the 1890s, when Guyana was still a British colony, the UK and Venezuela both claimed certain [...]
![Trump administration finalizes rule to transfer asylum seekers to El Salvador](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/08/immigration_1596837317.jpg)
The Trump administration finalized a rule on Tuesday allowing the US to send people seeking asylum to countries they pass through on their journey to the border. The most recent deal to come out of the Asylum Cooperative Agreement (ACA) is with El Salvador. Similar agreements also exist with Guatemala and Honduras. But critics say [...]
Despite the recent spate of federal executions, a report released Wednesday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals record-low state executions and new death sentences in 2020. Seventeen people were executed this year, of whom 10 were executed by the federal government. This is the first time in American history that federal executions exceeded state [...]
![US Senate passes defense budget with bipartisan support despite Trump threat to veto](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/02/us_senate_1580565572.jpg)
The US Senate passed the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Friday with veto-proof majority support amidst President Trump’s threats to reject the legislation. The defense bill, through which Congress authorizes the Pentagon budget, has passed every year for 59 consecutive years. The legislation garnered widespread bipartisan support in the Senate and passed [...]
![Second US federal prisoner executed in two days despite intellectual disability](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/800px-Execution_chamber_Florida-768x512-1.jpg)
Alfred Bourgeois, who had been on death row for 15 years, was executed by the US government Friday after the US Supreme Court rejected a last-minute application for a stay. He was the second federal prisoner to be executed by federal authorities in just two days. Both cases were surrounded by uncertainty. Bourgeois’s appeal claimed [...]
![Labor Department implements rule allowing employers to discriminate to protect ‘religious liberty’](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/08/US_Dept_of_Labor.jpg)
The US Department of Labor implemented a new rule Monday that allows federal contractors to discriminate against employees under the guise of religious freedom. This ruling could affect more than four million employees. The rule expands the definition of religious organizations to include for-profit organizations as well as traditional religious charities and churches. It also allows [...]
![New York mayor sued for failing to provide internet to students in shelters](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/11/laptop_1606335601.jpg)
A class action lawsuit on behalf of New York City’s houseless families was filed against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration on Tuesday for their failure to provide stable internet to city shelters. This suit comes within days of the city’s announcement that any in-person education would be suspended amidst a spike in COVID-19 cases. Local [...]
![Federal appeals court allows Texas, Louisiana to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid plans](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/06/Planned-Parenthood.jpg)
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on Monday that Texas and Louisiana are allowed to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid programs. The decision overturned a lower court ruling that prevented states from banning Medicaid coverage for Planned Parenthood patients. The case to disqualify Planned Parenthood was first brought in 2015 when [...]