The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Tuesday that countries are not required to issue visas to refugees on humanitarian grounds even if they are facing torture or inhumane treatment. The case arose surrounding a Syrian family seeking asylum in Belgium. The court stated that while states may choose to grant asylum under their own [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Monday that the city of New Orleans could remove three statues honoring members of the Confederacy, rejecting the appeal of several historic preservation organizations and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The court stated that the appellants failed to show “irreparable harm” to the statues and [...]
The Israeli Knesset passed legislation Tuesday that would limit or eliminate entry visas or residency rights for those groups who call for economic, academic, or cultural boycotts of Israel or its West Bank settlements. The legislation could limit the entry of Palestinians who are temporary residents in Israel while their applications for permanent residency are [...]
The European Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that EU member states may not charge less than the standard value-added tax (VAT) on electronic publications. The court held that while physically printed books and materials may be taxed at the lower VAT rate, solely electronic publications must be subject to the standard VAT rate, with the [...]
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday in an attempt to clarify his response to a question from Senator Al Franken regarding connections between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign team and a Russian ambassador. In response to a question from Franken during his January 10 [...]
The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) referred Turkey to the UN Security Council on Monday for failing to release one of its judges. Turkey has detained Judge Aydin Sefa Akay on suspicion of being involved in last July’s failed coup . In a public ruling the court’s president condemned Turkey’s actions. “Turkey’s non-compliance materially [...]
The New York Police Department (NYPD) reached a new settlement on Monday over its surveillance of Muslims after a federal judge rejected an earlier deal in October. The new settlement would create greater oversight of the NYPD’s intelligence-gathering programs by a civilian representative. In the original rejection of the case, the judge stated that the [...]
Republican representatives in the House Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee released two separate bills on Monday that, if passed, would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act through a process called reconciliation. The new law, tentatively referred to as the American Health Care Act, would eliminate the individual mandate that [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday reversed a case due to the lower courts’ analysis that focused on the presence of actual bias as opposed to an objective probability of actual bias. In Rippo v. Baker , Michael Rippo discovered that the judge hearing his criminal case was the subject of a federal bribery investigation, [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that the US Sentencing Guidelines (USSG) are not subject to challenges under the void-for-vagueness doctrine. The focus in Beckles v. United States was on §4B1.2 of the USSG, which includes the residual definition of “crime of violence.” The case came after the court’s 2015 decision in Johnson v. United [...]
