JURIST Guest Columnist L. Ali Khan of the Washburn University School of Law discusses the battle over public education funding in Kansas… Since 2010, Kansas has been litigating the funding of K-12 public education. The Kansas Supreme Court has rendered four decisions repeatedly instructing the state legislature to provide adequate and equitable funding for Kansas [...]
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit Thursday in the Middle District of Pennsylvania against Navient Corporation over unlawful student loan origination and servicing practices. The lawsuit alleges that Navient violated Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law and the Consumer Financial Protection Law. These allegations include “peddling risky and expensive subprime loans [...]
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Senator Bob Casey sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Wednesday requesting that the FCC implement rules to target and eliminate unlawful robocalls. The FCC has previously proposed such rules in March with CG Docket No. 17-59 . The letter requests that these rules be finalized and [...]
Judge Susan Bolton of the US District Court for the District of Arizona upheld President Trump’s pardon of former Arizona Sherriff Joe Arpaio and dismissed the contempt case against Arpaio during a hearing Wednesday. In a brief filed last month, the Department of Justice stated that there was no prior precedent addressing whether a court [...]
A bipartisan group of US senators introduced a bill on Wednesday that aims to reduce prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders. The bill, sponsored by 10 senators from both sides of the aisle, seeks to reduce rather than to fully eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for certain non-violent drug crimes while simultaneously giving federal judges more [...]
Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday passed bill S-226 , the “Magnitsky Act,” which would allow for the Canadian government to take “restrictive measures in respect of foreign nationals responsible for gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” These actions include sanctioning, freezing assets, or denying entry of foreign citizens of countries with human rights [...]
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a memo to US Attorneys Wednesday stating that Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination does not extend to discrimination based on gender identity. Accordingly, Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender [...]
Spain’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered the suspension of Catalonia’s planned parliamentary session on independence next week warning Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell and other members of his speakers’ board that they will be subject to prosecution if they proceeded with the session. There was no immediate reaction from Catalan leaders, but Catalan’s local officials [...]
A divided US Supreme Court on Wednesday vacated an injunction granted by the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit , clearing the way for the State of Alabama to execute Jeffrey Lynn Borden. Borden was sentenced to death for murdering his estranged wife, Cheryl Borden, and her father on Christmas Eve. Borden’s challenge [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed on Thursday affirmative action in university admissions is currently under investigation. The confirmation came via a refusal by the DOJ to honor Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by American Oversight and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law . The request was made to due reports alleging [...]
