The US House of Representatives voted 217-213 Thursday to repeal portions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace them using the proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA) . The AHCA would no longer impose a tax penalty for those who don’t have insurance, but would allow insurance companies to charge a penalty when someone [...]
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday relaxing enforcement of rules prohibiting tax-exempt religious groups from engaging in certain kinds of political speech. An existing federal law called the Johnson Amendment prohibits tax-exempt religious organizations from campaigning for particular candidates. But interpreting what crosses the line between advocating for certain policies, which is [...]
Prominent Thai human right lawyer Prawet Prapanukul was charged Wednesday with 10 counts of breaking Article 112 and 3 counts of breaking Article 116 of Thailand’s criminal code for allegedly insulting members of the royal family. If found guilty of all the charges, Prapanukul faces up to 171 years in prison. Article 112 prohibits defaming, [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist David M. Crane and Catherine Read discuss the Supreme Court’s decision on denying cert in the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit… Last Monday, 24 April, it was easy to miss the important news that the Supreme Court denied cert in the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to make public the [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism Ben Emmerson said Thursday that Saudi Arabia’s anti-terrorism laws are too broad and post a threat to individual rights. He said that Saudi Arabia’s definition of terrorism, which includes “endangering ‘national unity’ or undermining ‘the reputation or position [...]
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill into law on Wednesday that will allow religious adoption agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex couples if such relationships violate the religious beliefs of the organization. Alabama House Bill 24 , now the Alabama Child Placing Agency Inclusion Act, reads “This bill would prohibit the state [...]
The National Security Agency (NSA) published a report Tuesday saying that the agency had collected and stored more than 1.5 million civilian phone records in 2016. This report is the first that has been issued since the implementation of the USA Freedom Act in 2015, which was designed to reduce the number of phone records [...]
The Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico on Wednesday filed for bankruptcy protection for the territory following the expiration of provisions that had shielded it from litigation. The filing comes under Article 3 of PROMESA , a special law passed last year to allow Puerto Rico to manage its significant debt. The territory [...]
European Commission Brexit Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier on Wednesday published the European Union’s proposed directives for the UK’s departure from the EU, saying the highest priorities were citizens’ rights, financial settlement and border regulation. EU Treaty Article 50 governs the departure of a member state from the union, and Barnier emphasized the importance of both [...]
Advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday that it has found new evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in at least four recent attacks targeting civilians. The groups said that local residents and activist in Khan Sheikhoun identified at least 92 people who likely died from chemical exposure. It also named [...]
