The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a final rule on December 4, 2020, that revises its responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Previously, under NEPA, liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport license applications required an environmental review, but only sometimes. If the shipments were going to countries with... Read More »
The former adviser to President Trump and co-founder of Breitbart Steve Bannon is now fighting criminal fraud charges with a new attorney: Steve Costello, who also happens to represent Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney for the president. Bannon’s prior attorney, William Burck, withdrew from the criminal case on November 5... Read More »
In a unanimous vote of 8-0, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the United States in U.S. v Briggs. The decision means that the military will now be able to prosecute cases of sexual assaults committed between 1986 and 2006. The ruling overturns a loophole that applied a... Read More »
On December 8, the Associated General Contractors of America filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) regarding loan forgiveness for the Paycheck Protection Program loans. According to the complaint, the SBA is making it harder for businesses to seek forgiveness for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans that... Read More »
The pathway to becoming a U.S. citizen will now be a little more difficult for new applicants than it was in the past. The citizenship test taken during the naturalization process is now lengthier, with more civics questions added. The new U.S. citizenship test is a two-part test consisting of... Read More »
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week in a unanimous vote that three Muslim men who were put on the no-fly list after they refused to act as informants can now officially sue federal agents for monetary damages. The case of Tanzin v. Tanvir began when three Muslim men, Muhammad... Read More »
Los Angeles-based musician Tahliah Barnett, who is known professionally as FKA Twigs, has filed a lawsuit against celebrity actor Shia LeBeouf for a “relentless” abusive relationship. Charges include sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress. Barnett is seeking a trial by jury. The actor, the star of “Transformers” and... Read More »
On December 7, 2020, the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract and Compliance Program (OFCCP) released a finalized rule that allows federal contractors to cite "religious freedom" as their reasoning behind not hiring certain applicants. The rule expands the definition of religious organizations to now include for-profit organizations, which... Read More »
In a staggering lawsuit brought against Facebook, the US Federal Trade Commission along with 46 states accused the tech company of being a monopoly with a "buy or bury" edict to disrupt competition. The only states and US territories not to participate in the lawsuit are Washington, D.C., Guam, Alabama,... Read More »
While the world remains focused on the coronavirus pandemic, the American Bar Association (ABA) is generously reminding everyone that another virus, HIV/AIDS, is still negatively impacting the lives of millions of people who still need legal help. On World AIDS Day, December 1, members of the ABA’s HIV/AIDS Impact Project... Read More »
On December 1, 2020, Judge Beryl Howell of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the partial unsealing of a memorandum opinion and order dated August 28 of this year. The result, redacted to omit the names of all parties concerned and all of the case’s... Read More »
In 2015, a police sergeant from Cumming, GA, accepted money from a widower he’d previously arrested and who was apparently known for frequenting prostitutes. The money was a loan, given on condition that Sergeant Nathan Van Buren use the license plate database to find out if a girl the widower had... Read More »
As part of the COVID-19 vaccination procedures, the CDC will require states to sign an agreement that allows the CDC to collect information from those who receive the vaccine. The CDC states that the information collected will include names, birthdates, ethnicities, and the address of where a vaccine recipient lives.... Read More »
When Bayer purchased Monsanto in 2018, they could not have predicted the legal hurricanes that would follow. Just weeks after the purchase, a jury in California awarded Dewayne Johnson, a groundskeeper at a school where he used Roundup, $289 million. They found that glyphosate in the product caused his non-Hodgkin’s... Read More »
November was a busy month for litigation against Johnson & Johnson (J&J); lawsuits are coming in all shapes and sizes, and so are the settlements and jury verdicts. Among the results are staggering million-dollar and billion-dollar awards, including individual cases and class-action lawsuits. According to a ruling last month, J&J... Read More »
