The US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear an appeal in Balow v. Michigan State University, which asked whether disbanding the varsity women’s swim team was discriminatory and violated Title IX. In 2020, Michigan State University (MSU) discontinued its varsity women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams due to budget cuts. Members of the women’s [...]

Japan’s House of Councillors Saturday passed a law to tighten restrictions on the solicitation of donations by religious and secular groups. The legislation is intended to prevent Japan’s controversial Unification Church, or the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, from using emotional manipulation to garner donations. Under the law, organizations also cannot ask potential benefactors [...]

Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service told the BBC on Sunday that Libyan national Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is in US custody. Mas’ud was allegedly involved in making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. A spokesperson said the Crown Office has [...]

Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake Friday filed a lawsuit against Arizona election officials challenging the certification of November 8 election results naming Katie Hobbs the Governor-elect. Lake’s lawsuit expressly names Hobbs, Stephen Richer of the Maricopa County Recorder and other officials in Maricopa County as defendants. In the complaint Lake argues that she “eceived [...]

A Hong Kong district court Saturday sentenced pro-democracy activist and media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai to almost six years of imprisonment on fraud charges. Lai is already serving a 20-month prison sentence in Hong Kong for his participation in a vigil commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Lai also has a separate trial still [...]

The Canadian province of Alberta’s legislature Thursday passed Premier Danielle Smith’s Sovereignty Act, empowering the provincial government to dismiss federal law, programs, and policies. The Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act allows for the provincial government of Alberta to, ​if the cabinet considers a federal law “unconstitutional or harmful to Albertans,” be empowered by [...]

A Texas state court Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed against a physician who violated Texas’s state law that bans abortions after six weeks. A lawsuit was filed against Dr. Alan Braid claiming he violated the Texas state law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The six-week abortion ban took effect in September of last year. [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Friday issued a permanent injunction against the enforcement of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would require medical providers to provide gender-affirming medical services to transgender individuals. Two groups of Catholic employers and health care providers, the Religious Sisters of Mercy and the [...]

The US House of Representatives Thursday passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which sets appropriations for the defense budget for fiscal year 2023. In total, the 3,854-page NDAA authorizes $857.9 billion in expenditures. Controversially, the bill would lift the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the armed services. The Biden administration implemented the mandate [...]

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) Thursday filed a class action lawsuit to challenge Section 510(3) of the New York Judiciary Law, which disqualifies people convicted of felonies from serving on juries, no matter the nature of the offense or how long ago the convictions occurred. The civil rights action challenges what the NYCLU [...]