The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday in Simmons v. Himmelreich that an inmate’s lawsuit against a prison guard may proceed. The court held that the dismissal of the inmate’s claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) does not preclude a parallel Bivens claim. Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered the opinion of the court: The [...]

READ MORE

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Ross v. Blake that an inmate could not file a court challenge against a prison guard without exhausting all administrative remedies. The question before the court was whether there is a “special circumstances” exception under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) , which requires inmates to exhaust all [...]

READ MORE

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Monday in two death penalty cases. In Moore v. Texas the court will decide (1) whether it violates the Eighth Amendment and the Supreme Court’s decisions in Hall v. Florida and Atkins v. Virginia to prohibit the use of current medical standards on intellectual disability, and require the use [...]

READ MORE

A Cairo appeals court on Saturday acquitted 33 protesters previously sentenced to two years in prison. The protesters were among 300 others who were arrested in April for holding a large scale public demonstration against the surrendering of the Red Sea Island to Saudi Arabia. While the government cracked down on the demonstration, one of [...]

READ MORE

An Associated Press (AP) investigation has found that thousands of police agencies across the country do not submit hate crime reports to the FBI. Although many agencies and departments would only file zeros, federal guidelines call for reports to be submitted. Underreporting may mask the extent of bias crimes nationwide and may also show the [...]

READ MORE

A Chinese official said Saturday that China will ignore a decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague over the South China Sea dispute. The Philippines filed a case against the People’s Republic of China with the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2013 disputing the latter’s territorial claims in the South [...]

READ MORE

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday filed a complaint in the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (STJ) accusing National Assembly opposition leaders of partaking in international relations contrary to constitutional law. Assembly leaders previously reached out to the Organization of American States (OAS) to help resolve current political and economic issues. Maduro stated that the National [...]

READ MORE