A federal judge on Thursday said oil giant BP acted with gross negligence ahead of the catastrophic 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, paving the way for the corporation to pay perhaps billions of dollars in fines. “BP’s conduct was reckless,” United States District Judge Carl Barbier wrote in a decision handed down early Thursday from a federal courthouse in Louisiana. [...]

Last week, a US military lawyer on the defense team for self-proclaimed 9/11-attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed resigned from the Army in protest of the "show trial" conducted by the US at Guantanamo Bay. Maj. Jason Wright resigned on Aug. 26, according to NPR. He accused the US government of “abhorrent leadership” on human rights and due process at the military detention center at G [...]

Microsoft has been told it must handover emails stored abroad to US prosecutors by a New York court. However, the software giant says it will fight the ruling, saying that an email deserves the same privacy protection as a paper letter sent by mail. The company says they will not release any emails to US authorities, while it appeals the ruling, made by Chief Judge Loretta Preska of the US Dist [...]

Palestine will ask the UN Security Council to set a "timetable" for Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories, a senior official said. If the request is denied, Palestine will take senior Israeli officials to the ICC over the killing of thousands. The Palestinian leadership is going to submit the application to the UN Security Council on September 15, Ma'an News Agency reported, citin [...]

Following revelations of America's National Security Agency's global internet surveillance system, combined with a desire to enhance domestic production, China is beating a path towards unveiling its own operating systems in October. The Chinese-made substitutes would first be introduced on desktop devices, later expanding to include smartphones and other hand-held devices, Ni Guangnan heads an [...]

Facebook has been given four weeks to respond to a class action, launched against it by an Austrian activist and supported by 60,000 users. The suit claims Facebook violated users' privacy, by cooperating with the NSA's PRISM program. The class action initiated by Max Schrems, an Austrian lawyer, data privacy activist and founder of Europe vs. Facebook group has passed its first review in the V [...]

The officer-involved shooting death of teenager Michael Brown this week and the subsequent protests across the United States have rekindled interest in another case of alleged excessive force blamed on the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department. Nearly four years to the day before Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson opened fire and killed Brown, 18, a complaint filed in federal court accused th [...]

A petition with over 100,000 signatures backing Pulitzer-winning journalist James Risen was handed to the Department of Justice in Washington, urging an end to legal action against him for refusing to reveal a source about a CIA operation in Iran. The petition demands that the US government not pursue an “illegal case” against Risen, an author and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Ti [...]

Washington has refused to allow the UN International Court of Justice (IJC) to hear Argentina's claims that US court decisions on the country's debt have violated Argentina's sovereignty. “We do not view the ICJ as an appropriate venue for addressing Argentina’s debt issues, and we continue to urge Argentina to engage with its creditors to resolve remaining issues with bondholders,” the U [...]

Fourteen Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists issued strong individual statements Monday that voiced emphatic support for New York Times reporter James Risen and urged the Justice Department to stop threatening him with harsh fines or imprisonment. Many of the statements from the Pulitzer winners included scathing criticisms of the Obama administration for a range of policies related to freedom o [...]

For the first time in American history, a chamber of Congress has authorized its leader to sue the President of the United States. In a 225-201 vote, the House of Representatives backed Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in his decision to file a lawsuit against President Obama over his handling of the Affordable Care Act. Boehner and other Republicans allege that Obama has flouted his constitutiona [...]

In a landmark gun control case, a federal judge in Washington DC has overturned the city's total ban on carrying handguns outside the home, saying it is unconstitutional. "There is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia's total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny," Judge Fr [...]

Closing arguments ended and a jury began deliberating in former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's defamation lawsuit against the estate of "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle. Both men were US Navy SEALs. [...]

Civil liberties groups are making a legal challenge against the alleged use of mass surveillance by UK intelligence services. The tribunal follows revelations about UK and US surveillance practices by former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden. The groups involved intend to challenge the legality of alleged “interception, collection and use of communications” by GCHQ. [...]

The US has condemned the beating and detention of a 15-year-old Palestinian-American by Israeli police after a massive social media campaign exploded in cyber space decrying the actions and hypocrisy of Israeli authorities. [...]

The Supreme Court of the United States said Wednesday that police officers must have a warrant before searching the cell phone contents of an individual under arrest. In a unanimous ruling announced early Wednesday, the high court settled two cases surrounding instances in which law enforcement officials scoured the mobile phones of suspects in custody and then used information contained therein t [...]

US federal authorities have been increasingly involved with local police departments and criminal trials in an attempt to keep details of vast domestic surveillance policies under wraps, according to a new report from the Associated Press. [...]

A senior Russian MP has suggested the Commonwealth of Independent States set up its own Court of Human Rights to investigate the events that led the current Kiev regime taking power and the actions of pro-Maidan radicals against federalization supporters. [...]

Serious issues regarding constitutional law rose to the surface on Friday as a US federal judge dismissed a court case against the US government by families of three Americans killed in US drone strikes in Yemen. [...]

In a unique hearing next week, the Israeli Supreme Court will be presented with a petition that reportedly contains evidence implicating a number of high ranking officials in war crimes during military operations in Lebanon and Gaza, Al Jazeera reports. [...]

€‹A United States military veteran who was critically injured by the police during an Occupy Wall Street protest in October 2011 will be awarded $4.5 million by the city of Oakland, California. Attorneys for the man, 26-year-old Scott Olsen, said on Friday this week that city officials have agreed on a multi-million dollar settlement that will resolve a federal lawsuit filed after the Oct. 25 [...]

An effort to put a ballot initiative in front of Colorado voters regarding the labeling of genetically modified foods was allowed to proceed after the state Supreme Court dismissed a challenge by biotech and food industry outfits. For Initiative #48 to make it on the November ballot, supporters must now gather 86,105 petition signatures and turn them into the state by early August... [...]