JURIST Guest Columnist Andrew Perlman of the Suffolk University Law School argues that government surveillance programs have adversely affected lawyers’ efforts to safeguard confidential information and that lawyers should consider various options to address these new risks …

The US government on Monday filed a lawsuit against Sprint Communications, Inc., alleging the company overcharged them for telephone wiretapping services. The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California , asserted that Sprint knowingly submitted false “reimbursement of expenses” claims from January 1, 2007 to July 31, 2010, amounting [...]

Lawmakers in the Georgia House of Representatives on Monday approved a bill that would legalize the administration of medical marijuana by pill, liquid or injection to treat certain seizure disorders. The Georgia House approved the bill on Monday by an overwhelming majority of 171-4. Rep. Allen Peake (R) of Macon, Georgia, sponsored the bill, and [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday in Law v. Siegel that a bankruptcy court improperly exceeded its authority by ordering legally exempt funds to be used to pay attorney’s costs. The case revolved around a Chapter 7 bankruptcy claim filed by California resident Stephen Law, in which his home was valued at over $300,000, [...]

A Cairo court ruled on Tuesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is a terrorist organization and banned all activities by the group in Egypt. The ruling was based on connections between Hamas, the Islamist ruling party of Palestine, with the Muslim Brotherhood , a similar Egyptian organization from which it split in the 1980s [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Lawson v. FMR LLC that the whistleblower provision 18 USC § 1514A of the Sarbones Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) protects employees of private contractors and subcontractors performing work for a public company, just as it shelters employees of the public company. The opinion references the “mischief” that [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled 2-1 Monday that British Petroleum (BP) must adhere to the terms of its Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement agreement with Gulf businesses and pay for damages regardless of whether causation can be proved. BP had argued that the settlement agreement allowed many business to collect [...]

The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office said Monday that it would comply with a court order enjoining it from enforcing the controversial “show me your papers” provision of the state’s recently enacted immigration law . In what is being called a victory for immigrants’ rights, the state will no longer defend the provision that allowed [...]

The twenty-fifth session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) opened Monday amid calls for stronger protections for activists calling out human rights violations. In her opening remarks , the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged states to take a proactive approach to the protection of human rights, especially in light of [...]

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama Bin-Laden , went on trial Monday in New York for his role in the 9/11 attacks. Judge Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York instructed Abu Ghaith to face prospective jurors, in order to determine whether any of the prospective jurors [...]