The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that unaccompanied minors detained for immigration offenses are entitled to bail hearings. According to Politico, the Justice Department had been arguing that a 2002 law transferring responsibility for unaccompanied immigrant minors to the Department of Health and Human Services ‘superseded a 1997 settlement under which the government
City Of Chicago Under Heat For Civil Rights Violations
Happy Independence Day to our American Legal Readers! Such interesting times in which we find ourselves this year. As I write this post on our national holiday, my country seems closer to disintegrating than it has in a long, long time. At the heart of the matter lie two competing worldviews for the heart, soul, and vision of the future of the United States of America.
Officials in Scott County, MS, settled a lawsuit Wednesday after being accused of jailing impoverished Mississippians for up to a year without legal representation or formal indictments. The American Civil Liberties Union announced the settlement earlier in the week, after having spent two years representing former inmates Josh Bassett and Octavious Burks. Both men had
Bill Seeks To Protect The Sexual Rights Of Women
Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, was a busy man last month. Not only did he sign 33 different bills into law during the month of June, but he made sure that one of those laws would allow “victims of terrorism to recover legal fees and damages.” The particular law is known as HB 65, and will provide “a civil remedy for terrorism, providing at least $1,000 in damages and covering attorney fees to those who are victims.” The author of the bill was first-term Rep. Jason Fischer, a Republican from Jacksonville.
A Seattle judge gave the go-ahead to a class action lawsuit challenging a once-secret government program which delayed Muslims’ citizenship and immigration applications. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones denied a Justice Department motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Wednesday. The Star Tribune reports the case was originally brought to court by the American Civil Liberties
A U.S. judge heard arguments against the deportation of around 100 Iraqis arrested in the Detroit Metropolitan area. The arrests were undertaken by immigration authorities nationwide, seeking to detain Iraqi immigrants who had committed ‘serious crimes’ and had their final deportation orders approved. The move came after the Republic of Iraq agreed to begin accepting
A Rhode Island town owes one family tens of thousands of dollars after its police department spent hours interrogating a third-grade girl. The lawsuit against Tiverton, RI, was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island on behalf of a local family in 2015. On Tuesday, Tiverton announced it’d settle for $40,000 in
Black residents of Hamtramck, MI, are back in court for a second time. The plaintiffs were evicted from their homes a half-century ago, as the city pursued an aggressive campaign of urban renewal and revitalization. Finally allowed to return to newly-constructed homes in Hamtramck some forty years after an initial, victorious lawsuit, residents say they’re