Americans believe race relations between blacks and whites are at their lowest point in more than two decades, according to a survey by the polling organization Gallup. For the second consecutive year, U.S. adults’ positive ratings of relations between black and white Americans are at their worst in years of measurement. At present, 42 percent of Americans say relations between the two groups are “very” or “somewhat” good, while 57 percent say they are “somewhat” or “very” bad. At the same time, only a third of black Americans currently view race relations in a positive light and hopes “for a solution to … Continue reading Black-white race relations remain at a low point, pollster says

Voters in the nation’s capital made history by electing a convicted murderer who is still behind bars for his crime to an Advisory Neighborhood Commission, or ANC, which counsels the local government on neighborhood issues such as garbage collection, police patrols, liquor licenses, zoning, and parking. Joel Caston, 44, has been imprisoned for 26 years following a first-degree murder conviction in the August 14, 1994 killing of 18-year-old Rafiq Washington. Victim and shooter knew each other and there was some unspecified animus between them that cannot easily be divined from online court records. Caston, who was elected June 15, will … Continue reading D.C. elects imprisoned murderer: What could go wrong?

A home music studio owner in Nashville, Tennessee, is taking his long-running appeal of aggressive local zoning restrictions against home-based businesses to the Tennessee Supreme Court after the court recently agreed to hear his case. The court decided on July 12 to hear the appeal from record producer Elijah “Lij” Shaw and hairstylist Pat Raynor, who sued the city in 2017 after it ordered their home businesses shuttered. The two plaintiffs are represented by the Institute for Justice and the Beacon Center of Tennessee. For years, Shaw, a Grammy Award-winning music producer, had run his Toy Box Studio recording business … Continue reading Nashville home studio ban goes to Tennessee Supreme Court

A Seattle-area high school football coach who was banned from praying on the football field after games is taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing in a federal appeals court. The Supreme Court previously refused to take the case, but four of the five conservative justices on the nine-member court expressed discomfort at that time with lower court decisions in the case. Since then, another conservative, Amy Coney Barrett, has joined the high court, giving conservatives a 6–3 advantage over liberals. Moreover, the Supreme Court issued rulings this past term bolstering protection for religious freedoms. Coach Joseph … Continue reading Former football coach appeals 9th Circuit prayer decision to Supreme Court

A California appeals court struck down as unconstitutional a state law that penalized elder-care workers for using pronouns inconsistent with elderly long-term care patients’ claimed gender identity. Gender identity is a disputed concept. A lack of linguistic clarity has clouded the issue in recent years as the concepts of sex and sexual identity, or gender, a politically and scientifically contentious concept whose definition isn’t universally agreed upon, have become difficult to separate. Despite the distinct meanings of the two words, many institutions and individuals use “gender” to mean biological sex, especially on fillable forms and documents. Failing to use gender in its new … Continue reading California appeals court overturns anti-misgendering law on First Amendment grounds

Two appointees from the waning days of the Trump administration are suing the U.S. Department of Education for refusing to deliver their signed presidential commissions, citing the seminal 218-year-old Supreme Court precedent that created judicial review. The 18-page legal complaint in the case, known as Hanke v. Cardona, was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 15. Miguel Cardona is secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. The lawsuit was filed by Sacramento, California-based Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a national public interest law firm. One plaintiff is Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University … Continue reading Trump appointees sue over presidential commissions withheld by Biden administration

The San Diego Unified School District is being sued by parents who say cancel culture is to blame for dropping the name of a Roman Catholic saint who figured prominently in California’s history from a high school’s name. The school at issue is Junipero Serra High School. Officials recently voted to rename the school, which was founded in 1976, as Canyon Hills High. The lawsuit, known as Cox v. Renfree, was initiated July 14 at a San Diego office of the Superior Court of California by the Thomas More Society, a national public interest law firm specializing in religious freedom issues. … Continue reading California district sued over dropping Catholic saint’s name from school

A watchdog group is suing the U.S. government in federal court over its ongoing mask mandate that it says is based on medical quackery and needlessly forces travelers to don face masks that do little to combat the CCP virus that causes the disease COVID-19. The lawsuit came the day after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas rejected an emergency application from air traveler Lucas Wall seeking a preliminary injunction against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over its mandate requiring travelers to wear face coverings. Thomas didn’t explain in the July 13 order why he turned down the application. Wall is also … Continue reading Health advocacy group asks federal court to strike down CDC’s traveler mask mandate

A passenger prevented from boarding a Southwest Airlines flight has filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court seeking a preliminary injunction against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over its mandate requiring travelers to wear face coverings. “This is an authoritarian policy that has no basis in law and has to come to an end,” Washington resident Lucas Wall told The Epoch Times in an interview. Wall is fully vaccinated, but says he refuses to wear a face covering because doing so precipitates a feeling of panic and claustrophobia. “I’ve been stranded at my mother’s in Florida because I … Continue reading Supreme Court asked in emergency application to lift air travel mask mandate

After it had already paid out hefty fines for rigging its cars to cheat on federal emissions tests, Volkswagen said in court papers that it will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court last month’s Ohio Supreme Court ruling that allows the state to sue for hundreds of billions of dollars more over the same claim. The news comes after European regulators fined German automakers Volkswagen and BMW a total of 875 million euros ($1 billion) for colluding to prevent the use of emissions-reducing technology they pioneered. Volkswagen will pay 502 million euros; BMW, 373 million euros. “This is a first,” European Union … Continue reading Volkswagen to appeal Ohio court ruling on ‘Dieselgate’ emission test cheating scandal

The Republican National Committee (RNC) and National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) will intervene in the Biden administration’s lawsuit against a popular election reform law Georgia adopted earlier this year, the leaders of two of the organizational and fundraising arms of the Republican Party said on July 8. The government lawsuit in which they plan to participate was filed on June 25 in federal court in Atlanta. The legal complaint alleges that several provisions of the Georgia statute, known as the Election Integrity Act, are racially discriminatory and calculated to suppress black voter turnout. President Joe Biden and other Democrats have, at times, used inflammatory … Continue reading Republican committees to intervene in DOJ lawsuit challenging Georgia election law

A still-incarcerated convicted murderer made history in the nation’s capital when voters recently elected him to one of the District of Columbia’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, which advise the local government on neighborhood issues such as police protection, parking, zoning, liquor licenses, and trash collection. Joel Caston, 44, has been imprisoned for 26 years after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the Aug. 14, 1994, ambush slaying of Rafiq Washington, 18. He is expected to be released from the D.C. Central Detention Facility either this or next year. Getting elected while behind bars is difficult, but not impossible. For … Continue reading Convicted murderer wins election to office in DC from behind bars

This fall, the Supreme Court will grapple with the issue of whether federal civil rights laws allow compensatory damages for emotional distress in a case that may clarify what legal responsibility federally-funded health care providers have to provide accommodations to patients with disabilities. The lawsuit was brought by a deaf-blind woman denied an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter by a health care provider. “It really is important that the deaf community has access to services that they’re entitled to under the law, and that’s an important part of this case,” the woman’s attorney, New York-based Andrew Rozynski, told The Epoch … Continue reading Supreme Court to consider emotional distress damages for disabled patients