In January 2026, a wave of resignations swept the U.S. Department of Justice following its handling of the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE officer. At least four senior leaders from the Civil Rights Division unit responsible for investigating police killings resigned in protest after the department declined to open a …
Kureshi, Y. (2022). Seeking supremacy: The pursuit of judicial power in Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. The emergence of the judiciary as an assertive and confrontational center of power has been the most consequential new feature of Pakistan’s political system. This book maps out the evolution of the relationship between the judiciary and military in Pakistan, explaining …
Human rights organizations have condemned the arrest and continued detention of Sarah Bireete, a prominent Ugandan human rights defender, calling it unconstitutional and emblematic of a broader crackdown on civic space ahead of Uganda’s January 15, 2026 general elections. The Uganda Women’s Movement (UWM) warned that her detention reflects a pattern of arbitrary arrests targeting …
In January 2026, 38 international human rights and legal organizations urged Turkey to drop terrorism charges against the leadership of the Istanbul Bar Association ahead of an expected final court ruling. Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of three to 12 years for the bar’s president and 10 board members, accusing them of spreading terrorist propaganda …
Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans are urging the US House to impeach two federal judges over rulings they argue were politically motivated and harmful to the Trump administration. The effort targets Washington, DC Chief Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg, who authorized secrecy orders tied to subpoenas in the investigation of efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and …
In this Bloomberg Law commentary (Jan. 5, 2026), attorney Abbe David Lowell argues that authoritarian-leaning leaders often target lawyers first because lawyers are essential to protecting rights and checking executive power. He reframes Shakespeare’s “let’s kill all the lawyers” as a warning: eliminating lawyers makes it easier to undermine democracy. Lowell says President Donald Trump’s …
Vieira, O. V. (2024). Battle of powers. Wilson Center & FGV São Paulo Law School. n the epilogue of Battle of Powers, Oscar Vilhena Vieira argues that Brazil’s democracy survived the Bolsonaro era because constitutional institutions—above all the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) and the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE)—embraced a role of defensive democracy. From 2019 …
In early 2026, the legal fight over President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting major U.S. law firms is moving into a new phase. The orders sought to restrict lawyers’ security clearances and encouraged federal agencies to scrutinize government contracts connected to firms’ clients, citing firms’ political ties or high-profile adversarial hires. Four firms—Perkins Coie, …
Landau, D., & Dixon, R. (2019). Abusive judicial review: courts against democracy. UC Davis L. Rev., 53, 1313. Both in the United States and around the world, courts are generally conceptualized as the last line of defense for the liberal democratic constitutional order. But this Article shows that it is not uncommon for judges to issue decisions …
Helmke, G. (2004). Courts under constraints: judges, generals, and presidents in Argentina. Cambridge University Press. This study offers a theoretical framework for understanding how institutional instability affects judicial behavior under dictatorship and democracy. In stark contrast to conventional wisdom, the central findings of the book contradict some assumptions that only independent judges rule against the government …