Federal judge rules baseless searches of electronic devices at border are unconstitutional
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled Tuesday that the increasing searches of electronic devices at border crossing points by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) violate the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure because the searches are not based on reasonable suspicion. District Judge Denise Casper issued [...]
British Prime Minister Teresa May issued a statement Wednesday committing to passing legislation aimed at reducing the UK’s climate change emissions to net zero by 2050. The UK government has been under increasing pressure to address its role in global climate change in recent weeks, as a series of highly public protests and sit-ins disrupted [...]
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed an executive order on Tuesday that places new goals and restrictions for the state regarding greenhouse gas emissions. When announcing the executive order, the governor stated “In the absence of leadership from the federal government, states and cities are stepping up and doing their part to reduce emissions.” By 2050, the [...]
Academic Freedom in Hungary: A Fundamental Principle or Just a Pipe Dream?
In the last 3 years, the Hungarian Government, especially with its support from the recently obtained 2/3 majority in the Parliament, has introduced several legislative changes which seriously undermine the essential elements of the rule of law. Criminalization of “facilitating or supporting illegal immigration”, banning homelessness and the Government’s continuing interference in the higher education are [...]
Ireland’s Vote to Remove Blasphemy from its Constitution and the Case of Asia Bibi
In a referendum held on Friday, October 26, 2018, the people of Ireland voted to amend the Irish Constitution to remove the word blasphemy from Article 40.6.1, which declared that “he publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.” This constitutional amendment enables [...]
The Belgrade Higher Court on Monday sentenced former Serb soldier Ranka Tomic to five years in prison for allegedly participating in the torture and execution of a Bosnian nurse during the 1992 war. While in this verdict some judges requested a seven-year sentence, Tomic instead received five years. She can appeal at an undisclosed time. [...]
On October 24, 2018, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued Exxon for defrauding investors about the business risks of climate change. Of course, Exxon will probably deny that it committed fraud. But, in anticipation of this day, the oil giant has spent the last two years preparing a far more insidious legal defense: that its fraud is actually protected [...]
North Carolina’s Democratic Party, voting rights group Common Cause and individual voters filed suit against the state government Tuesday claiming excessive partisan gerrymandering of legislative maps. In their complaint, filed in the Wake County Superior Court, plaintiffs that the 2017 state House and Senate redistricting maps were construed in favor of the Republican party. Common Clause claims [...]
History Repeating Itself: The First Amendment in the Era of “Fake News”
Following a combative news conference with reporters the day after the 2018 midterm elections, President Trump took the exceptionally rare act of suspending the White House credentials of long-time CNN Chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. The announcement came the day after Acosta confronted President Trump with a series of questions about the President’s portrayal [...]
Will Congress’s Omnibus Opioids Bill Turn the Tide on America’s Drug Epidemic?
Earlier this month, Congress sent a sweeping legislative package aimed at curbing the opioid epidemic to President Trump’s desk for signature, and the President has said he intends to sign it. Despite the increasing rancor that has poisoned so much our political discourse, the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) [...]
