Former Venezuelan judge María Lourdes Afiuni has been granted full freedom, closing a case that ran more than 16 years and became emblematic of the collapse of judicial independence in Venezuela. The ordeal began in December 2009, when Afiuni ordered the release on bail of banker Eligio Cedeño, who had been held in pre-trial detention …
Amnesty International issued a follow-up Urgent Action on August 7, 2026, calling on Zimbabwean authorities to drop all charges against human rights defender Bhekimpilo Mbedzi. Mbedzi was arrested on July 15 after posting a video on Facebook urging the public to join a demonstration planned for July 31 against Constitutional Amendment Act No. 3; authorities …
Uganda’s Directorate of Public Prosecutions is seeking criminal contempt charges against Eron Kiiza, a lawyer on the defence team for opposition figure Kizza Besigye and co-accused Obeid Lutale, over posts he made on social media, the Daily Monitor reported on August 6, 2026. The State is asking the court to find Kiiza guilty of criminal …
A sweeping New York Times investigation published the weekend of August 2, and analyzed in the legal press, reconstructed how the elite law firm Paul, Weiss chose to strike a deal with the White House rather than litigate against an executive order targeting it — an order issued because the firm had employed attorneys involved …
On August 8, the Senate narrowly confirmed Todd Blanche — President Trump’s former personal defense attorney — as U.S. Attorney General by a 50–49 vote, with only Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski crossing the aisle. Blanche had served as acting head of the Justice Department since April and, in that role, aggressively advanced the …
A Minnesota man was convicted by a federal jury in St. Paul on August 7, 2026, on all three counts related to writing and distributing a lengthy manuscript threatening federal judges, Reuters reports. Robert Phillip Ivers, 73, was found guilty of mailing threatening communications and of threatening to murder a federal judge; he had already …
In an August 5 profile, The Washington Post reported on Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island, who spoke publicly about credible death threats and harassment he and his family have received after ruling against the administration. McConnell described the doxxing of his daughter and impeachment efforts launched by members of …
In an urgent appeal dated August 4, 2026, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders — a joint programme of FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture — condemned an appellate ruling against the Thai pro-democracy activist and human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa. On July 16, 2026, the Court of Appeals Region 5 …
A New York Times investigation by Michael S. Schmidt and Jessica Silver-Greenberg examines how Paul Weiss — a firm long identified with civil rights litigation and, during Trump’s first term, with organized legal opposition to the administration — came to settle rather than fight when it was hit with a punitive executive order in March …
This July 31 report (United States) describes the Trump administration’s dismissal of two additional judges at the Chicago Immigration Court, which has become the national leader in deportation orders. The article notes that the administration has fired more than 100 of the roughly 750 immigration judges in place at the start of the term while …