Deadline Approaches for California Wildfire Victims to Apply for Federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance

Deadline Approaches for California Wildfire Victims to Apply for Federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance

In October, a series of raging wildfires caused multiple fatalities and injuries and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in California. Although the fires are now contained, many communities are just beginning to pick up the pieces in places like Santa Rosa, Napa, and Sonoma. It also means that thousands of Californians are out of jobs. The federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) program provides financial assistance to employees who have lost their jobs due to a major natural disaster. DUA…

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Georgia Supreme Court: DUI Suspects Have the Right to Refuse Breath Tests

Georgia Supreme Court: DUI Suspects Have the Right to Refuse Breath Tests

The United States Constitution provides everyone in the country with certain rights. States have their own constitutions, which can provide people in those jurisdictions with additional—or broader—rights. That dynamic is why, on October 16, Georgia became somewhat of an exception in the realm of DUI law. Right Against Self-Incrimination The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a right against forced self-incrimination. So does Paragraph XVI of the Georgia Constitution. In Olevik v. State, the Georgia Supreme proved that it interprets…

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More New Parents Have Access to Job-Protected Leave in California

More New Parents Have Access to Job-Protected Leave in California

Late last week, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that will expand job-protected leave for new parents. Over 2.5 million California employees will now have the right to be reinstated to their jobs after taking up to 12 weeks of unpaid bonding leave. The law takes effect on January 1, 2018. Until now, only employees who worked for employers with 50 or more employees could be eligible for job-protected leave to bond with a new child in…

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Is AG Sessions Confusing Denied Asylum Applications With “Fake” Ones?

Is AG Sessions Confusing Denied Asylum Applications With “Fake” Ones?

Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions wasn’t short on opinions regarding people who apply for asylum in the United States, as set forth in an October, 2017 speech to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (commonly known as U.S. Immigration Court). Unfortunately, much of the information he presented was baseless or wrong. Let’s start with Sessions’s assertion that the immigration court system is becoming “overloaded with fake claims.” Mr. Sessions provided no source for this information. Indeed, finding statistics on fake claims…

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Five Practical Things EVERYONE Should Know About Trump’s DACA Termination

Five Practical Things EVERYONE Should Know About Trump’s DACA Termination

I was tempted to put this entire title in capital letters, as hysterical as that might look. But for thousands of people in the United States today, the recently announced ending of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) feels like a true emergency. And indeed, the decision will eventually mean that huge numbers of undocumented young people, students, and workers—who came forward, were vetted, and applied for a temporary work permit—may (unless Congress acts) see that grant stripped…

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