A federal judge on Thursday denied bail to Reality Leigh Winner, the Georgia woman who is accused of leaking classified information to the media. Prosecutors successfully argued [AP report] that she remains a flight risk and a threat to the public after presenting a notebook in which she wrote, "I want to burn the White House Down ... find somewhere in Kurdistan to live. Ha-ha!" Winner, who operated under Pluribus International Corporation in Georgia at the time she is alleged ...

The Republican-led US House of Representatives [official website] voted on Thursday to lift many of the constraints that were put into place following the 2008 financial crisis. This vote is likely the beginning of a debate over deregulation of the ...

[JURIST] Attorneys for Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah have filed a lawsuit against the two psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who developed the harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA, including waterboarding and sleep deprivation ...

The US Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday refused to block [docket] a finding that a Texas county's bail system discriminates against the poor. Officials of Harris County petitioned the court on Tuesday [AP report] for an emergency order to ...

Former FBI [official website] director James Comey testified on Thursday in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [official website]. During more than two hours of testimony, Comey recounted [prepared remarks] nine encounters with President ...

The Connecticut General Assembly [official website] on Tuesday passed HB 5743 [text, PDF], an anti-hate crime bill that could be the strongest in the country. The legislation makes any hate crime an automatic felony rather than a misdemeanor. The bill ...

The US Supreme Court [official website] lifted the stay of execution [order, PDF] granted last week by the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] for Robert Melson late Tuesday. The brief order was issued by [AL report] Justice ...

The Delaware legislature [official website] approved a bill [SB5 materials] on Tuesday that guarantees access to abortion. The bill, which was previously approved by the state Senate, was approved by a vote of 22-16 after five hours of debate and ...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott [official website] signed a series of abortion regulations into law on Tuesday. Senate Bill 8 [materials] will require the burial or cremation of fetal tissue and bans the donation of fetal tissue. The legislation also bans so called "partial-birth abortion," which is already banned by federal law, as well as the dilation and evacuation procedure, a common second trimester abortion technique. Also, Tuesday Abbott announced a special legislative session to take up additional abortion-related measures, as ...

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced [statement] charges [complaint, PDF] against a federal contractor Monday for leaking classified material to a media source. Reality Leigh Winner operated under Pluribus International ...

The New York Court of Appeals ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that a 2001 New York zoning ordinance that banned "adult" establishments from residential and most commercial and manufacturing zones was not a violation of the owners' First Amendment rights. The zoning ordinance classified adult eating and drinking establishments as "regularly featuring live performances characterized by an emphasis on specified anatomical areas or specified sexual activities in any portion of the establishment." The ordinance classified adult bookstores as establishments with ...

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday in Kokesh v. Securities and Exchange Commission [SCOTUSblog materials] that claims for disgorgement in an SEC enforcement action are held within the five-year statute of limit ...

The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday in Town of Chester v. Laroe Estates, Inc. [SCOTUSblog materials] that as-of-right intervenors must have independent Article III standing to intervene under Rule 24(a)(2) [LII materials ...

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday in Honeycutt v. United States [SCOTUSblog materials] that forfeiture is limited to property the defendant actually obtained as a result of the crime or "tainted property." The court held that the Comprehensive Forfeiture Act of 1984 [text] limits property to the definitions within the act and rejected the government's argument that the standard should be the background principle of conspiracy liability that the conspirators be responsible for each other's ...

The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday in Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton [SCOTUSblog materials] that a church-affiliated hospital's pension fund is exempt from the federal pension law. The court held that under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) [materials], a defined-benefit pension plan maintained by a church-affiliated organization qualifies as a "church plan," even though it was established by the healthcare facility, not the church. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court: ERISA provides (1) ...

The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday affirmed [order list, PDF] a lower court decision striking down a North Carolina state House and Senate redistricting effort as racial gerrymandering that disproportionately impacted black voters. The ...

[JURIST] Eric Schneiderman [official website], New York's top prosecutor, accused ExxonMobil [corporate website] in a court filing [text, PDF] Friday of misleading investors about climate change risks and demanded the corporation turn over internal documents. Schneiderman, Attorney General for New York, said in the filing that he had evidence of "potential materially false and misleading statements by Exxon" that could have led investors to believe that the oil company had accurately assessed environmental impact when it had ignored its internal ...

The Kansas legislature [official website] approved SB 235 [text, PDF] on Thursday exempting state mental hospitals, community mental health centers and the University of Kansas Health System's [official website] hospitals from a previously passed law ...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott [official website] signed a law Thursday night that significantly loosens voter identification requirements. Senate Bill 5 [materials, text] is intended to salvage portions of a 2011 law that was found to be discriminatory ...

The Trump administration filed a petition [text, PDF] Thursday asking the Supreme Court [official website] to temporarily lift injunctions that block the president's executive order suspending visa issuance to individuals traveling to the US from six ...