Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan made a rare appearance before Congress on July 14 as the Court requested increased funding to protect justices and their families. Barrett described having to wear a bulletproof vest and explain the precaution to her children, while Kagan said the security environment had changed dramatically since …
On July 16, the IAPL Monitoring Committee reported that lawyer Čedomir Stojković’s trial was scheduled to begin on July 17 in a criminal case arising from social-media posts and online commentary critical of President Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian government. Stojković was arrested earlier in 2026 and spent more than four months in detention or …
On July 15, President Trump fired Roger Rogoff, a former judge and veteran prosecutor, less than an hour after all 17 active and senior federal judges in the Western District of Washington unanimously appointed him as the district’s U.S. Attorney. The appointment followed the administration’s use of unusual personnel maneuvers to keep its preferred interim …
In a July 10 report, The Washington Post described a bus tour of retired federal and state judges, dubbed “Justice in Motion,” traveling from suburban Pittsburgh through Ohio to outside Detroit to warn the public that judicial independence and the rule of law are in grave danger as the nation marks its 250th anniversary. The …
On July 13, 2026, the New York City Bar Association urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Todd Blanche’s nomination as U.S. Attorney General, ahead of his confirmation hearing scheduled for July 15. The letter, signed by City Bar President Matthew Diller and Rule of Law Task Force Chair Susan J. Kohlmann, argues that Blanche’s …
On July 10, the Associated Press reported that the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo had removed the professional licenses of potentially hundreds or thousands of lawyers from the Supreme Court’s official registry, without notice or explanation. Those affected included exiled human rights lawyers, attorneys with no political practice, Nicaraguans living abroad, and even …
The IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers reported on July 10 on the continued detention of Erias Lukwago, a prominent lawyer, human rights defender, and opposition figure arrested on June 15 by armed security operatives while acting as legal counsel for opposition leader Kizza Besigye. Lukwago was charged with “misprision of treason,” an offense …
Marking the eleventh anniversary of the July 2015 “709 Crackdown” on rights lawyers, Chinese Human Rights Defenders reported this week on a draft amendment to China’s Lawyers Law, published by the National People’s Congress on June 26, that would require lawyers to “uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China” and its “socialist rule …
The IAPL Monitoring Committee reported on July 10 that human rights defenders and lawyers Nazanin Salari, Mahmoud Taravat-Roy, and Massoud Ahmadian face imminent arrest and detention in Iran. On June 8, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz had sentenced the three to a combined three years’ imprisonment on charges of “assembly and collusion …
Human Rights Watch published a July 8 analysis warning that, five years after President Kais Saied seized extraordinary executive powers, Tunisia’s systematic repression now centrally targets the legal profession and judiciary. Saied dismantled the independent High Judicial Council in 2022 and replaced it with a body under executive control, granting himself powers to dismiss judges. …