The US Supreme Court ruled 5-3 Thursday in Mathis v. United States that a prior crime can be used for imposing enhanced federal sentences in a new conviction under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), “but only if its elements are the same as, or narrower than, those of the generic offense.” The court also [...]
The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a state law Thursday that allows for the type, manufacturers and sellers of drugs used for lethal injections to be kept confidential. This ruling would allow the execution of eight death row inmates if the stays on their execution dates can be lifted before one of the drugs in the [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 7-1 Thursday in Birchfield v. North Dakota that governments can require suspected drunk drivers to undergo breath tests without first obtaining a warrant, but cannot require them to take a more invasive blood test. The case came to the Supreme Court through three unrelated cases in Minnesota and North Dakota. [...]
Baltimore Police Officer Caesar Goodson, Jr. was acquitted Thursday of all charges in relation to the 2015 death of Freddie Gray. The case was presided over by Baltimore Circuit Associate Judge Barry Williams, who stated that “in order for there to be a conviction, the state must show, not that the defendant failed to do [...]
The US Supreme Court split 4-4 Thursday in United States v. Texas , allowing an order blocking enforcement of the Obama administration’s immigration police to remain in place. The per curiam opinion read simply, “The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court.” The question before the court was whether a state that provides subsidies [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Thursday in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin that the university’s race-conscious admissions program is lawful. Abigail Fisher brought suit against the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), alleging that its race-conscious admission program violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Fisher was denied admission [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on Tuesday declined to block Mississippi’s HB 1523 , which would allow clerks to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples citing “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” The law, set to take effect July 1, recognizes and protects three beliefs: that [...]
A UN human rights adviser called on Bahrain Wednesday to ensure human rights are respected following protests triggered by the decision to strip Sheikh Issa Qassem, a prominent Shia religious leader, of his nationality. The protesters were also urged to exercise their rights peacefully and avoid violence. UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Wyoming ruled Tuesday that the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “lacked Congressional authority to promulgate” regulations concerning fracking on federal and Indian lands. The court came to this conclusion by applying the test, as formulated in Chevron USA [...]
US President Barack Obama signed legislation Wednesday granting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) power to regulate thousands of everyday substances. The law makes major changes to the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) , which has not been modified since it was passed in 1976. The law provides the EPA a new risk-based safety standard to [...]
