US Supreme Court upholds civil forfeiture without immediate hearing
The US Supreme Court decided Thursday that police officers may continue to seize cars that defendants allegedly use to commit a crime, without an immediate hearing. States often allow that kind of seizure—known as civil forfeiture—when officers believe that the car is connected to a crime in which the owner is not involved. Justice Kavanaugh, [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in a 6-3 decision that copyright owners may recover damages for copyright infringement that occurred more than three years before the filing of a lawsuit. Music producer Sherman Nealy initiated what would become Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy in 2018 on the basis that Warner Chappell Music violated the [...]
Lawsuit alleges New York prisons flout state law by isolating inmates with disabilities
A class action complaint filed this week accuses New York prison officials of holding disabled inmates in solitary confinement in violation of state law. Solitary confinement has been a core feature of the US penal system since the 18th century — dating back to the earliest state prisons, where the inmates seen as most depraved [...]
US District Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed the classified documents criminal trial of former president Donald Trump on Tuesday, moving the trial date back at least two months. Cannon vacated the previous May 20 trial date, finding that various pre-trial motions and issues regarding the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) need to be addressed first. She [...]
Poland security agency investigates judge claiming asylum in Belarus
The Internal Security Agency of Poland announced Monday that it initiated an investigation into former judge Szmydt Tomasz, who fled to Belarus and claimed asylum earlier that day. The investigation is regarding the former judge’s access to classified information. Tomasz communicated his resignation from a Warsaw Provincial Administrative Court in a press conference run by [...]
Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that a gag order imposed against him ahead of his ongoing New York hush money trial was unconstitutional. The comments came a day after the former president was held in criminal contempt for the second time in a week and threatened with incarceration. In the weeks leading up to Trump’s criminal trial for [...]
Updated: An Evolving Explainer of the Trump Hush Money Trial
The 2024 US presidential election will be historic on several fronts. It will be the first rematch between presidential candidates since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower faced down Democrat Adlai Stevenson in 1956. At 81 and 77 respectively, incumbent candidate Joe Biden and his adversary Donald Trump are the oldest major party frontrunners in the history [...]
HRW: UN member states should press Cambodia government amid human rights decline
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Sunday urged UN member states to press the Cambodian government to enact significant reforms amid the ongoing deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. According to the organization, Prime Minister Hun Manet’s government continues to impose increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and of the press, labor rights [...]
The Arizona State Senate voted 16 to 14 to repeal an abortion ban dating back to 1864, leaving it to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs to sign the repeal into law, which she has committed to do. The State Senate’s debate was contentious, with lawmakers delivering theatrical monologues frequently punctuated by cries of protest in the [...]
Trump held in contempt for violating gag order in New York hush money trial
Former US President Donald Trump was held in criminal contempt and fined $9,000 Tuesday for multiple violations of a gag order imposed last month in his New York hush money trial. In the weeks leading up to Trump’s criminal trial for alleged hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, New York’s supreme [...]
