The US Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a pair of consolidated cases that could reshape the legal landscape for state-run transportation systems operating across state lines. The court granted limited certiorari to determine whether the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) qualifies as an “arm of the state” entitled to interstate sovereign immunity [...]

New York City filed an amicus brief in a federal habeas corpus proceeding on Tuesday, supporting a former high school student who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after attending his mandatory immigration hearing in lower Manhattan. The city filed the brief in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New [...]

A US federal judge in the Eastern District of New York on Monday blocked an attempt by President Donald Trump’s administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians five months earlier than scheduled. The court decision affects an estimated 521,000 Haitians who have received TPS protections allowing them to live and work legally in [...]

The Supreme Court of Wisconsin ruled Wednesday that a 1849 statute that banned nearly all abortions is unenforceable. The majority held that the state legislature “impliedly repealed” the statute through its comprehensive abortion care legislation over the past 50 years. Justice Rebecca Frank Dallet wrote that the court agreed with plaintiff Attorney General Josh Kaul’s [...]

A federal judge in Rhode Island issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday blocking the Trump Administration’s plans to undertake a sweeping reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would have terminated approximately 10,000 employees and drastically restructured critical public health programs. On March 27, HHS announced plans to “streamline the functions” of [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Tuesday demanded that Turkish authorities release four staff members of the LeMan magazine who were arrested for a cartoon purportedly depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Police in Türkiye detained the cartoonists on Monday. The publication depicted Muhammad, Islam’s prophet, and Moses, a critical prophet of Judaism, shaking hands in [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday ruled that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) contractors who designed enhanced interrogation techniques do not fall under the jurisdiction of US federal courts in civil claims. The three-judge panel unanimously affirmed the dismissal of Abu Zubaydah’s claims against two psychologists who designed enhanced interrogation techniques [...]

A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit Friday to prevent the federal government from opening a migrant detention center at an airstrip in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. The detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” because the alligators, panthers, and pythons in the surrounding swamp would deter escapes, was set to open next week. The [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision Thursday that a Texas death row inmate has the right to sue over the state’s laws governing DNA testing. The majority opinion was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Ruben Gutierrez was convicted of capital murder in 1998. Since 2010, he has been unsuccessfully requesting DNA testing [...]

Rights groups have criticized recent US sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC), its staff, and those cooperating with it, including the ICC prosecutor and four judges. The coalition of international legal organizations, consisting of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, Judges for Judges and Lawyers’ [...]