The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Friday allowed the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to implement a controversial policy to restore the northern spotted owl habitat by killing a limited number of barred owls from Oregon. Northern spotted owls have been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) [...]

The European Center for Digital Rights (noyb) filed a complaint on Friday against a German payment platform for processing sensitive personal sexual and health information without customer consent, allegedly violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Giropay is an integrated payment processing service that many retailers use to process customer payment. A giropay customer [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissed a challenge on Friday to Governor Larry Hogan’s 2017 executive order banning government contractors from engaging in boycotts against Israel. Plaintiff Saqib Ali argued that this requirement violated his First Amendment right to free speech, but the appellate court upheld the lower court’s finding that [...]

Tunisia President Kais Saied on Sunday issued a decree replacing the country’s judicial independence watchdog with his own council and giving himself near-unilateral power over the appointment and dismissal of judges. Protests followed shortly after as citizens denounced Saied’s most recent step toward authoritarianism. In July, Saied dismissed the sitting prime minister and suspended parliament, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday struck down a law prohibiting speech that encouraged undocumented immigrants to “enter or reside” in the US. The court held that the law was an unconstitutional infringement on the freedom of speech. The Ninth Circuit found that 8 USC § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv), barring the encouragement [...]

A Tennessee police officer was convicted Saturday of use of excessive force in violation of an arrestee’s civil rights on multiple occasions. Former Tracy City police chief Anthony “Tony” Bean’s sentencing will take place in June, and the former officer could face up to 10 years for each of the three charges. The Civil Rights [...]

The US Supreme Court Thursday denied Texas abortion providers’ request to send their challenge to the nation’s most restrictive abortion law to the federal district court as was previously ordered, instead permitting it to languish in the Fifth Circuit where resolution will likely take several more months. After the Supreme Court allowed a portion of [...]

A lawsuit challenging the construction of a master-planned community on an undeveloped, environmentally sensitive plot of land approximately 65 miles north of downtown Los Angeles was revived on Friday, even as a settlement in a companion case was reached this week. The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) and the Center for Biological Diversity (“the plaintiffs”) [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Friday concerning whether agencies under the Biden administration had the authority to require large employers and medical care facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid to mandate employee vaccinations. The first case, National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) v. Department of Labor (DOL), addresses the administration’s authority to [...]

Colorado Governor Jared Polis on Thursday reduced by a century the sentence of 26-year-old truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, whose brakes failed, resulting in four deaths. Originally sentenced to 110 years for an offense with no criminal intent, public outcry against Aguilera-Mederos’ harsh treatment prompted the governor’s and the district attorney’s offices to reconsider the sentence. [...]