Supreme Court allows truck driver's lawsuit against CBD maker
In a 5-4 ruling, the justices upheld an appeals court decision that allowed Douglas Horn to take legal action against Medical Marijuana, Inc., under a landmark federal law that is better known as a tool used by prosecutors to target organized crime.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US condemns Brazil supreme court judge for ordering house arrest of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro
In a move immediately condemned by the US, a Brazilian supreme court judge has ordered the house arrest of former president Jair Bolsonaro for breaching 'preventative measures' that were imposed ahead of his trial for an alleged coup attempt. According to the ruling on Monday by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the far-right leader breached a ban on using social media which was imposed last month, when he was also ordered to wear an electronic ankle tag. Moraes wrote that as demonstrators took to the streets in several cities across the country on Sunday in support of the former president, Bolsonaro used the social media accounts of allies to share messages containing 'clear encouragement and incitement to attack the Supreme Federal Court, and overt support for foreign intervention in Brazil's judiciary'. Related: 'Classic tinpot dictator': Trump exports his assault on democracy to Brazil 'There is no doubt the precautionary measure was breached,' Moraes wrote. The justice, who was sanctioned by the US last week over his role in the Bolsonaro case, ordered that Bolsonaro be placed under house arrest in the palm-lined compound where Bolsonaro rents a mansion in the south of the capital, Brasília, with visits restricted to close family members and lawyers. Federal police were instructed to collect all mobile phones available at the property. Visitors authorised to see the former president will not be allowed to use mobile phones, take photos or record videos. A press representative for Bolsonaro confirmed he was placed under house arrest on Monday evening at his Brasilia residence by police who seized his mobile phone. Bolsonaro's lawyers said in a statement they would appeal against the decision, arguing the former president had not violated any court order. The US state department, in a statement issued by its bureau of western hemisphere affairs on X, condemned the judge's ruling and said it would 'hold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct'. 'Justice Moraes, now a US-sanctioned human rights abuser, continues to use Brazil's institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy,' the bureau said. 'Putting even more restrictions on Jair Bolsonaro's ability to defend himself in public is not a public service. Let Bolsonaro speak!' Moraes has said Trump's tariffs on Brazil and the 'spurious' sanctions targeting him and other supreme court justices were part of an 'illegal and immoral' ruse to obstruct justice that was being engineered by a group of Brazilian 'traitors' who had lobbied foreign authorities to carry out 'hostile acts' against the country's economy. In his ruling on Monday, Moraes noted that despite being banned from using social media, the far-right leader took part by phone in a pro-Bolsonaro demonstration on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. During the rally, one of his politician sons, senator Flávio Bolsonaro, held a phone to the microphone so the crowd could hear the former president speak. The senator himself had posted a video on social media showing Bolsonaro addressing supporters by phone – but later deleted the footage. Moraes argued that the deletion was a 'blatant' attempt to conceal the breach of court-ordered restrictions. 'The flagrant disregard for the preventative measures was so obvious that – it bears repeating – the defendant's own son, senator Flávio Nantes Bolsonaro, decided to delete the post from his Instagram account in order to conceal the legal transgression,' Moraes wrote. The arrest order is part of an ongoing supreme court case in which Bolsonaro is accused of leading a plot to overturn the results of the last election, in which current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated the former army captain. The trial is expected to conclude later this year, with Bolsonaro facing a potential sentence of more than 40 years in prison. 'Bolsonaro is being arrested gradually,' said political commentator Fernando Gabeira on GloboNews. 'The supreme court, consciously or not, is leading him to prison in stages – to avoid a major shock.' In Brasilía, the political temperature has been rising in recent days, with thousands of Bolsonaro supporters on Sunday rallying outside the central bank to offer their support. Many of those protesters urged the US president Donald Trump – who recently hit Brazil with 50% tariffs in retribution for the alleged 'witch hunt' against Bolsonaro – to take further action to help save their embattled leader. 'I'd like to give Trump a hug and tell him: thank you for worrying about us,' said Álvaro Junior, 64, one Bolsonaro supporter who was carrying a sign that read: 'Thank you, Trump'. Metal barricades have been erected around the supreme court, foreign ministry and congress in anticipation of possible rightwing protests or violence. Trump further stoked the political flames last week by slapping sanctions on Moraes, who the US secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, accused of being 'responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights and politicized prosecutions – including against former president Jair Bolsonaro'. Lindovaldo Ribeiro Paulo, a 43-year-old in a red Maga cap, hailed the sanctions on Moraes, saying: 'We feel even more admiration and even love for the American people now.' In Monday's ruling, Moraes said Bolsonaro had 'repeated his unlawful conduct in an even more severe and defiant manner', continuing to 'urge and incite a foreign head of state to take measures aimed at unlawfully interfering with the normal course of judicial proceedings – in an attempt to generate social pressure on Brazilian authorities, in flagrant violation of national sovereignty'.
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Tennessee man with heart device to be executed despite concerns it may shock him
A Tennessee death row inmate is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday morning despite concerns from his lawyers that his heart device could repeatedly shock him and expose him to unconstitutional suffering. Byron Black is poised to be put to death at 10 a.m. at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville after the U.S. Supreme Court and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declined Monday to intervene. Lawyers for Black had petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the procedure based on a claim that he is mentally incompetent and therefore should not be executed because it would violate his constitutional rights. In addition, the lawyers asked the high court to review whether proceeding with his execution without first deactivating his implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD, would defy the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court denied the requests Monday. Kelley Henry, one of Black's lawyers, called on Lee to step in to prevent "risking a grotesque spectacle by executing Byron Black." The governor said he would not show leniency. "The courts have universally determined that it is lawful to carry out the jury's sentence of execution given to Mr. Black for the heinous murders of Angela Clay and her daughters Lakeisha, age 6, and Latoya, age 9," Lee said in a statement. "Accordingly, I do not plan to intervene." Last month, the Davidson County Chancery Court ruled in favor of Black, 69, to have his device disabled before his execution after his lawyers argued that the ICD — which is designed to deliver electric shocks to those with dangerously fast heartbeats — might try to restore his heart to a regular rhythm as he is put to death by the drug pentobarbital. Black could be "subject to the severe pain and suffering of having his heart repeatedly shocked back into rhythm during his execution," they said in a court filing. But the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the ruling Thursday, finding that the chancery court did not have the authority to issue a decision that would effectively halt an execution. Still, the state justices said, there was nothing to stop the state and lawyers from working out a plan to deactivate the ICD. However, state Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti vowed in a statement last week to move ahead with the execution. He also disputed that Black is intellectually disabled or would suffer severe pain if he were executed. "Our office will continue fighting to seek justice for the Clay family," Skrmetti said, "and to hold Black accountable for his horrific crimes." Black was convicted in the 1988 fatal shooting of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, 29, and daughters Latoya and Lakeisha. At the time of the killings, Black had been on work release as part of his jail sentence for shooting Clay's estranged husband, Bennie Clay, about 15 months earlier. Angela Clay's sister told Nashville police that Black had threatened to harm her sister because she was considering ending their relationship and reuniting with her husband. Bennie Clay told The Tennessean newspaper last week that he has forgiven Black and intends to witness the execution of the man who killed his family. "God has a plan for everything," Clay said. "He had a plan when he took my girls. He needed them more than I did, I guess." Amid decades of appeals, Black faced three execution dates, but the procedures were delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic and, more recently, a pause in Tennessee's executions due to issues in testing its lethal injection drugs. Tennessee resumed executions in May under a new lethal injection protocol using pentobarbital, a sedative. In testimony last month in Davidson County Chancery Court, medical experts for the state and Black argued over whether his ICD, which was installed last year, would, in fact, cause prolonged pain. "Mr. Black will not be feeling the shocks as he will be in a coma" brought on by the lethal injection process, testified Dr. Litsa Lambrakos, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. But Dr. Gail Van Norman, an anesthesiology professor at the University of Washington who specializes in heart surgery, suggested otherwise. She testified that using a potent amount of pentobarbital, which can cause death from respiratory failure, could unnecessarily trigger Black's defibrillator. "ICDs sometimes deliver shocks when they're not needed," she said. "This is devastating to patients." The potential disabling of Black's defibrillator had brought up larger questions about whether a medical professional could even be found who would be willing to assist the Tennessee Department of Correction. Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology, have adopted ethical codes that generally promote the health and welfare of patients and do not explicitly condone their members' participating in executions. Advocates for Black say his case, given his unique position surrounding his defibrillator, as well as his documented mental impairments, warrants the governor's granting clemency. Black's lawyers say he uses a wheelchair and suffers from several ailments besides congestive heart failure, including dementia, kidney disease and prostate cancer. "His body is failing, and his mind is deteriorating," Henry wrote to Lee in a clemency request last month. "His execution would not serve justice — it would mark an irreversible act of cruelty against a profoundly physically and mentally impaired man who poses no threat to anyone and would leave his entire family, who cherish him, devastated."
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro put under house arrest ahead of coup trial
BRASILIA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court put former President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest on Monday ahead of his trial for an alleged coup plot, underscoring the court's resolve despite escalating tariffs and sanctions from U.S. President Donald Trump. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the target of U.S. Treasury sanctions last week, issued the arrest order against Bolsonaro. His decision cited a failure to comply with restraining orders he had imposed on Bolsonaro for allegedly courting Trump's interference in the case. Bolsonaro is on trial before the Supreme Court on charges he conspired with allies to violently overturn his 2022 electoral loss to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Trump has referred to the case as a "witch hunt" and called it grounds for a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods taking effect on Wednesday. The U.S. State Department condemned the house arrest order, saying Moraes was using Brazilian institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy, adding the U.S. would "hold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct." It did not provide details, though Trump has said the U.S. could still impose even higher tariffs on Brazilian imports. The Monday order from Moraes also banned Bolsonaro from using a cell phone or receiving visits, except for his lawyers and people authorized by the court. A press representative for Bolsonaro confirmed he was placed under house arrest on Monday evening at his Brasilia residence by police who seized his cell phone. Bolsonaro's lawyers said in a statement they would appeal the decision, arguing the former president had not violated any court order. In an interview with Reuters last month, Bolsonaro called Moraes a "dictator" and said the restraining orders against him were acts of "cowardice." Some Bolsonaro allies have worried that Trump's tactics may be backfiring in Brazil, compounding trouble for Bolsonaro and rallying public support behind Lula's leftist government. However, Sunday demonstrations by Bolsonaro supporters — the largest in months — show that Trump's tirades and sanctions against Moraes have also fired up the far-right former army captain's political base. Bolsonaro appeared virtually at a protest in Rio de Janeiro via phone call to his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in what some saw as the latest test of his restraining orders. Moraes said that the former president had repeatedly made attempts to bypass the court's orders. "Justice is blind, but not foolish," the justice wrote in his decision. On Monday, Senator Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil that Monday's order from Moraes was "a clear display of vengeance" for the U.S. sanctions against the judge, adding: "I hope the Supreme Court can put the brakes on this person (Moraes) causing so much upheaval." The judge's orders, including the restraining orders under penalty of arrest, have been upheld by the wider court. Those orders and the larger case before the Supreme Court came after two years of investigations into Bolsonaro's role in an election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that rocked Brasilia in January 2023. That unrest drew comparisons to the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol after Trump's 2020 electoral defeat. In contrast with the tangle of criminal cases which mostly stalled against Trump, Brazilian courts moved swiftly against Bolsonaro, threatening to end his political career and fracture his right-wing movement. An electoral court has already banned Bolsonaro from running for public office until 2030. Another of Bolsonaro's sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman, moved to the U.S. around the same time the former president's criminal trial kicked off to drum up support for his father in Washington. The younger Bolsonaro said the move had influenced Trump's decision to impose new tariffs on Brazil. In a statement after the arrest on Monday, Congressman Bolsonaro called Moraes "an out-of-control psychopath who never hesitates to double down." Trump last month shared a letter he had sent to Bolsonaro. "I have seen the terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you," he wrote. "This trial should end immediately!" Washington based its sanctions against Moraes last week on accusations that the judge had authorized arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppressed freedom of expression. The arrest could give Trump a pretext to pile on additional measures against Brazil, said Graziella Testa, a political science professor at the Federal University of Parana, adding that Bolsonaro seemed to be consciously provoking escalation. "I think things could escalate because this will be seen as a reaction to the Magnitsky sanction" against Moraes, said Leonardo Barreto, a partner at the Think Policy political risk consultancy in Brasilia, referring to the asset freeze imposed on Moraes last week. (Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Writing by Andre Romani and Brad Haynes; Editing by Kylie Madry, Leslie Adler and Lincoln Feast)
