A good-government group is suing Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for refusing to remove dead registrants from her state’s voter rolls and for refusing to provide documents regarding her agency’s efforts to remove them from those lists. The Indianapolis-based Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed a federal lawsuit on Nov. 3 against Benson, a Democrat in office since 2019, for alleged violations of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Section 8 of the NVRA requires the state to “conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to … Continue reading Michigan secretary of state sued for failing to remove dead from voter rolls

A student gymnast at the University of Minnesota is suing the school for sex-based discrimination after it cut the men’s varsity gymnastics team because it believes too many men participate in campus sports, given that female students outnumber males. The complaint initiating the lawsuit, Ng v. Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota, was filed on Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court in the District of Minnesota. Evan Ng is being represented pro bono by Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a Sacramento-based nonprofit public interest law firm, with the assistance of attorney Samuel Diehl of CrossCastle PLLC. Ng, 19, has been a competitive gymnast since he … Continue reading Male gymnast sues University of Minnesota for sex-based discrimination after school cancels team

The Supreme Court seemed receptive to arguments that New York state’s tough concealed-carry gun permitting system violates the Second Amendment during a court hearing on Nov. 3. The legal challenge is important because it could result in a nationwide recognition of the right of Americans to possess guns outside the home, and carry guns in public places such as parks, schools, shopping malls, and churches. The Supreme Court has been strengthening Second Amendment protections in recent years and observers say the court’s 6-3 conservative supermajority could help expand gun ownership protections. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court held … Continue reading Supreme Court takes aim at restrictive New York concealed-carry gun law

There was skepticism on both sides as the nine justices of the Supreme Court heard the arguments of opposing counsel this week in a challenge to Texas’s unique new fetal-heartbeat abortion law that relies on citizen participation for enforcement. The high-profile case moved at lightning speed, by Supreme Court standards, finding its way to oral arguments at the high court exactly two months after the controversial law took effect in the Lone Star State. Observers see the case as a way to test the cohesiveness of the court’s 6–3 conservative supermajority that’s been in place since 2020 when Justice Amy Coney Barrett replaced … Continue reading Skeptical Supreme Court hears challenge to Texas abortion law

The Supreme Court ordered an appeals court in New York to reconsider its ruling forcing religious charities to provide abortion coverage against their religious beliefs in their employee health insurance packages. The case is Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany v. Emami, court file 20-1501. The Supreme Court granted the diocese’s petition for certiorari, or review, on Nov. 1 and immediately vacated—without hearing oral arguments—the ruling of the New York court and remanded it to that court for further consideration in light of its pro-religious-freedom ruling earlier this year in Fulton v. Philadelphia. Apart from citing the previous ruling, the unsigned order didn’t provide reasons for the … Continue reading Supreme Court orders NY court to revisit ruling forcing Catholic diocese to cover employee abortions

A Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy that authorizes anyone to sue when an illegal abortion is performed violates decades-old Supreme Court precedents, the Biden administration told the high court Nov. 1. Texas designed the statute “to thwart judicial review by offering bounties to the general public to carry out the state’s enforcement function,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices. “And it structured those enforcement proceedings to be so burdensome and to threaten such significant liability, that they chill the exercise of the constitutional right altogether.” The Supreme Court actually heard two related cases the same day. The first … Continue reading Texas ‘heartbeat’ abortion law is unconstitutional, Biden administration tells Supreme Court

The Supreme Court stayed a lower court’s order on Oct. 27 that would force a Michigan company to hand over documents to a Chinese manufacturer that’s disputing the value of the assets of the company’s German parent company that it purchased in 2017. In the case, ZF Automotive U.S. Inc. v. Luxshare Ltd., court file 21-401, the high court is being asked to resolve a split between federal courts of appeal on whether parties in private arbitration outside the country remain able to avail themselves of U.S. courts’ power to compel the production of evidence. The Supreme Court was recently poised to consider … Continue reading Supreme Court blocks order compelling company to hand over documents to Chinese manufacturer

This week, the Supreme Court will consider whether it will hear a request from 13 states to be allowed to defend in court a rule designed to screen out would-be immigrants unable to support themselves, a regulation that the Biden administration refuses to defend. The public charge rule, which has been heavily litigated in federal courts, requires applicants hoping to immigrate to the United States to be able to make their own way financially. The case is Arizona v. City and County of San Francisco, court file 20-1775. The petitioners are the states of Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, … Continue reading Supreme Court may consider reviving immigrant self-sufficiency rule

A Montana man convicted of multiple counts of violating an electronic harassment law is asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the state law, arguing that it’s so sweeping that it violates free speech rights. Montana’s electronic harassment law is similar to laws in other states, meaning if the Supreme Court were to strike it down, those other states’ laws could be in jeopardy. The case, Lamoureux v. Montana, court file 21-427, is an appeal from the Montana Supreme Court. William Frederick Lamoureux was found guilty by the 11th Judicial District Court, Flathead County, of three felony counts under the state’s Privacy in … Continue reading Montana man challenges electronic harassment law in Supreme Court

A national parents’ group filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against a public school district in Massachusetts for allegedly violating the U.S. Constitution by racially segregating students into “affinity groups” and imposing a student speech code. The lawsuit comes as parents and the education establishment across the United States are battling over critical race theory and the systemic racism that leftists argue plagues the nation. Almost 70 years ago, Supreme Court precedent established that “public schools cannot segregate students by race, and students do not abandon their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” states the legal complaint in Parents Defending Education … Continue reading Parents’ group sues Mass. school district over racial segregation, abuse of students

More than 200 U.S. citizens, family members, and estates of deceased U.S. citizens are asking the Supreme Court to revive their lawsuit against a foreign bank for allegedly processing hundreds of transfers moving millions of dollars for terrorist group Hamas’s principal European fundraiser, Interpal, over a decade. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the petitioners in the case known as Weiss v. National Westminster Bank Plc, court file 21-381. Among those senators are Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). The petitioners were injured or killed in … Continue reading Supreme Court urged to allow suit against UK bank over terrorism complicity

Parents opposed to critical race theory-based indoctrination in public schools should be treated as adversaries, teachers in Washington State have been told by their labor union. Critical race theory (CRT) holds, among other things, that white people are inherently racist and calls for engaging in racial discrimination in the name of combating it. Leftists claim CRT promotes racial equality by highlighting the harm they claim white people have done to society. An Oct. 19 report by the Olympia, Washington-based Freedom Foundation states the largest union in the Evergreen State, the Washington Education Association (WEA), representing 100,000 teachers and support staff in Washington’s K-12 system, is … Continue reading Teachers’ union tells members to treat complaining parents as enemies: report

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the Constitution’s ban on double jeopardy bars the prosecution of a defendant in federal district court after he has been convicted in a Court of Indian Offenses. In the case Denezpi v. U.S., Merle Denezpi first received a prison term of less than 5 months, but was later given a 360-month sentence for the same criminal act. The unsigned order, dated Oct. 18, didn’t provide reasons for the decision, consistent with Supreme Court customs. Courts of Indian Offenses are courts created by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which is part of … Continue reading Supreme Court to hear challenge to double jeopardy rule from Indian country in Colorado

The Supreme Court agreed to wade into a long-running dispute between Texas and a Native American tribe over the tribe’s right to run gaming operations on its land in the state. If the Texas tribe were to win the high court case, there could be a ripple effect across the nation, spurring more tribe-controlled casinos and gaming operations. In the unsigned order on Oct. 18 in Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo v. State of Texas, court file 20-493, the justices, as is their custom, offered no explanation for their decision. The Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, sometimes called simply the Pueblo, is one of only three federally … Continue reading Supreme Court agrees to hear Indian gambling dispute from Texas

The executive director of California’s largest labor union has resigned from her post after the state charged her and her husband with embezzlement, tax fraud, perjury, and failure to pay unemployment insurance taxes. Then-Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California Executive Director Alma Hernandez and her husband, Jose Moscoso, were charged in a seven-page felony complaint filed with the Sacramento County Superior Court earlier this month. Hernandez had held the position since 2016. The charges, which came about as a result of a multiagency investigation led by California’s Tax Recovery in the Underground Economy Task Force, were made public this week by California Attorney General … Continue reading Leader of California’s largest labor union quits after tax, embezzlement charges

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Colorado agency from distributing pandemic relief funds based on the color of an applicant’s skin. Attorney Wen Fa of Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) told The Epoch Times in an interview the day after the ruling: “This is a great day for equality. It’s a great day for opportunity, and it’s a great day for the Constitution.” Fa previously stated that “Colorado cannot use racial preferences to grant COVID-19 relief,” as reported by The Epoch Times. “Equality before the law is a vital part of the Constitution, and discriminating against individuals based on arbitrary classifications like race is always wrong,” … Continue reading Federal court blocks racially discriminatory pandemic relief in Colorado

Kentucky’s Republican attorney general should be allowed to defend the state’s abortion law in court after the state’s Democratic governor refused to do so, the Supreme Court heard Oct. 12. Although it was the court’s first abortion-related case since Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s addition to the bench last year gave its conservative wing a 6–3 majority, Kentucky’s abortion law itself wasn’t at issue at the hearing. The high court examined only whether Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron should be allowed to intervene in the case on behalf of his state after the trial court invalidated the law and its decision was … Continue reading Kentucky AG asks Supreme Court to allow him to represent state in abortion case governor doesn’t want to pursue

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is asking the Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling extending the application of California’s wage-and-hour laws, because flight attendants who report to a California airport to begin their multi-day, multi-state work shift actually spend the lion’s share of their workweek outside of the state. The case is Delta Air Lines v. Oman, court file 21-396, an appeal from the often-reversed U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The respondents, who are four current or former flight attendants who seek to represent a class of Delta Air Lines flight attendants who have performed work in California, have until … Continue reading Delta asks Supreme Court to limit scope of California wage-and-hour laws