A judge in El Salvador has ordered Ruth Leonora López, a prominent human rights and anti-corruption lawyer, to be jailed for six months pending trial on charges of illegal enrichment. López, head of the Anti-Corruption Unit at Cristosal, has been a vocal critic of President Nayib Bukele’s emergency powers and alleged government corruption. Her arrest …
President Trump has issued executive orders aimed at restricting certain law firms that have challenged his administration or represented controversial clients. Some firms have settled, while others are fighting back in court. The NPR Politics Podcast highlights how these orders—some already struck down—raise serious legal questions about executive overreach and the weaponization of government power …
On June 1, 2025, Mexico held its first national judicial elections, a sweeping reform led by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and current President Claudia Sheinbaum. Voters selected 2,600 judges and magistrates, including all nine Supreme Court justices, in an unprecedented move aimed at combating judicial corruption and increasing public accountability. However, the election …
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico publicly attacked a judge who fined central bank chief Peter Kazimir €200,000 for bribery, claiming the decision may be politically motivated. Kazimir, a former finance minister and current member of the European Central Bank’s policymaking council, denies wrongdoing and plans to appeal. Fico suggested the judge might have committed criminal …
The Trump administration has unveiled a new visa restriction policy targeting foreign officials accused of censoring online speech, with language closely mirroring complaints against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Known for ordering the removal of hundreds of right-wing social media accounts in defense of Brazil’s democracy, Moraes is hailed by the left and …
Arnon Nampa, a Thai human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist, has been repeatedly sentenced under Thailand’s lèse-majesté law for peacefully advocating for monarchy reform. As of May 2025, he is serving over 24 years in prison, with more charges pending that could raise his sentence to 140 years. His convictions stem from public speeches, online …
As threats against federal judges surge amid escalating rhetoric from President Trump, calls are growing to transfer authority over judicial security from the U.S. Marshals Service to the federal judiciary itself. In a PBS NewsHour interview aired on May 27, 2025, former federal judge Jeremy Fogel described the unprecedented atmosphere of hostility, stressing the psychological …
In a landmark ruling, a federal court struck down a 2025 Executive Order issued by President Trump targeting WilmerHale, a prominent law firm, as unconstitutional. The court found that the Order—part of a broader pattern of Executive actions against law firms perceived as adversarial—was a retaliatory measure that violated WilmerHale’s First and Fifth Amendment rights. …
Despite increasing authoritarian control over the judiciary, Turkish activist lawyers such as the Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği strategically engage with the legal system as a form of grassroots resistance that challenges and redefines state-imposed legal boundaries.
A United Nations expert has raised concerns over the growing use of criminal law by Guatemala’s Prosecutor General’s Office to target opponents of the current justice system. Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, reported that former prosecutors, judges, human rights defenders, and journalists are increasingly facing criminal charges, …