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

A Colorado businessman has filed a class-action lawsuit against the state to block it from distributing pandemic relief funds based on the color of an applicant’s skin. The civil rights lawsuit, Collins v. Meyers, was filed on Oct. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The defendant, Patrick Meyers, is being sued in his official capacity as executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Resort Meeting Source, the event-planning business of plaintiff Stephen E. Collins, sustained revenue losses that can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a … Continue reading Colorado sued over discriminatory pandemic relief program

The Supreme Court won’t consider a challenge by Cal Cartage Transportation Express, a trucking company, to California’s unusually restrictive worker-classification law that virtually outlaws independent contracting. Independent truckers say the California law known as AB5, which took effect Jan. 1, 2020, will kill their industry by preventing companies from hiring them. The statute, which was pushed by organized labor to crack down on the hard-to-unionize so-called gig economy represented by companies such as Uber and Lyft, was enacted ostensibly to help workers by preventing their “misclassification.” The law is unpopular in California’s business community. The Supreme Court has yet to decide if it will take up … Continue reading Supreme Court declines to hear trucker challenge of California anti-gig law

A Muslim terrorist’s lawyer asked the Supreme Court to allow his client to depose two former Central Intelligence Agency contractors about waterboarding at CIA black sites in connection with a Polish criminal investigation into that nation’s involvement in the CIA’s clandestine detention and interrogation program. Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, 50, also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Zubaydah, was “an associate and longtime terrorist ally of Osama bin Laden,” according to the government. Respondent Zubaydah is “the first high-value terrorist captured after the 9/11 attacks,” according to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “Although … Continue reading Terrorist asks Supreme Court to let him depose ex-CIA contractors for Polish criminal probe

District of Columbia residents aren’t entitled to voting representation in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Supreme Court ruled, affirming a lower court decision. The ruling came after the House approved legislation in April to make D.C. the 51st state; the bill stalled in the Senate. Democrats support the measure, arguing that all U.S. citizens should be represented in Congress, while Republicans oppose it because they believe the framers of the Constitution didn’t want D.C. to become a state, and because the new state’s two senators would almost certainly be Democrats in the Democratic Party stronghold. The case is Castañon v. United States, court file … Continue reading Supreme Court upholds constitutional ban on DC voting rights