Scottish lawmakers on Tuesday voted 69-59 in favor of holding an independence referendum. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had pushed for a referendum between 2018 and 2019 following the UK’s move to leave the EU. Speaking about her plans last week, Sturgeon stated , “Scotland stands at a hugely important crossroads. On the eve of Article [...]
In a settlement agreement announced on Monday, the state of Michigan has agreed to allot $87 million to replace lead water pipes in the city of Flint. Among other things, the settlement provides that residents of Flint can receive lead testing of their water four times per year, are entitled to bottled water deliveries, and [...]
An anonymous Canadian government official on Monday announced the country’s intention to legalize recreational marijuana by July 2018. The news follows public declarations from both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to introduce legislation legalizing and strictly regulating the substance. Canada is expected to incorporate the advice of the marijuana task force, [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Moore v. Texas that the factors considered by Texas in determining a defendant was not intellectually disabled do not comport with the Eighth Amendment or court precedent. The case arose when Petitioner Bobby James Moore fatally shot a store clerk during a botched robbery when he was 20 [...]
The UK Court Martial Appeal Court on Tuesday reduced the sentence of former Royal Marine Alexander Blackman, who was convicted of killing an injured Taliban militant in Afghanistan in 2011. His murder conviction that carried a sentence of life imprisonment was reduced to manslaughter this month, and this sentencing decision reduces his imprisonment to only [...]
The Columbia University Knight First Amendment Institute on Monday filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the Trump administration seeking release of data on how often US citizens and others had electronic devices searched at border crossings. The lawsuit , filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [...]
Former Bosnian prison guard Slobo Maric was stripped of his US citizenship and sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after failing to disclose his membership in the Bosnian Army and war crimes he committed during the Bosnia-Herzegovina Conflict , according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement . Maric became a US citizen in [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday condemned the recent loss of civilian life in Mosul as a result of airstrikes and actions by Islamic State (IS) militants. Information from the UN Human Rights Office indicated that at least 307 people were killed, with another 273 wounded, between February 17 [...]
Nine Arkansas death row inmates, including eight scheduled for lethal injections next month, jointly filed suit against Governor Asa Hutchinson and Department of Correction Director Wendy Kelly on Monday to stop the executions. The suit is in response to an Arkansas Supreme Court decision earlier this month that stated there was no stay in place [...]
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers on Monday adopted Rules of Procedure and Evidence , less than two months after the justices were appointed. The adoption of the rules brings the court to the brink of being operable. The matter now shifts to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo to decide the legality of the adopted procedures. The [...]
