A federal district court judge in the southern district of Texas ruled Friday that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was illegally created and issued a permanent injunction against the program. The ruling is the result of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of nine states which argued that the Department of Homeland [...]
In a split decision on Tuesday a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that federal statutes and regulations restricting gun sales to persons 21 years old and older are unconstitutional. The plaintiffs, Natalia Marshall and Tanner Hirschfeld, filed suit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) [...]
The Federal Court of Australia ruled Thursday that the environment minister has a duty of care to persons under the age of 18 when it comes to decisions about projects that will release greenhouse gases (GHG). The case was brought by eight schoolchildren and a nun who sought to stop the expansion of a coal [...]
A UN human rights investigator announced Friday that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem meet the definition of a war crime. Special rapporteur Michael Lynk addressed a meeting of the Human Rights Council, in which he gave a report about whether the settlements violated the 1998 Rome Statute of the International [...]
The US State Department announced new sanctions on Friday against 22 individuals connected to the military regime in Myanmar, as well as against four entities that provide monetary or material support to the regime. The announcement noted that the US Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added seven members of the regime to [...]
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced on Thursday that 130 nations have agreed to a plan to reform taxation rules regarding multinational corporations. The plan involves two pillars. The first pillar would reallocate some taxing rights over multinational enterprises (MNEs) from their home countries to regions where they operate and earn profits [...]
The State Department on Wednesday issued a statement that it is working to add a gender marker for nonbinary, intersex and gender non-conforming individuals to U.S. passports. The statement by Secretary Antony Blinken affirmed the department’s commitment “to promoting the freedom, dignity, and equality of all people.” Starting immediately, passport applicants will be able to [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an unsigned order maintaining a federal eviction moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The dispute, Alabama Association of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Services, involves an eviction ban ordered by the CDC. The moratorium was part of the government’s [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court held in a 6-3 ruling on Friday that small oil refineries that received an exemption from the Renewable Fuel Program (RFP) could continue to receive extensions of that exemption even if they had a lapse in the exemption the previous year. The RFP requires most domestic refiners to blend certain amounts [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday in a 6-3 ruling held that Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) are eligible to receive some of the $8 billion made available to Native American tribes by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. ANCs are companies created by Congress in 1971 and owned by Alaska Natives. In [...]