More than 200 Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) judges were unconstitutionally appointed, but the problem may be cured by having by having the board’s director exercise greater supervision of them, the Supreme Court ruled in a splintered decision. The decision in the case of U.S. v. Arthrex Inc., court file 19-1434, which was consolidated with two other cases involving Arthrex, came June 21. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion of the court. In the decision, Roberts wrote that the patent adjudication system is administered by the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), an executive agency within the Department of Commerce. The … Continue reading Supreme Court rules patent judges’ appointment unconstitutional

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) regulations that restrict benefits that may be given to student-athletes violate federal antitrust law. The June 21 ruling, which opens the door for student-athletes to receive greater compensation, could reshape college sports throughout the country. The case is actually two cases that were heard together: NCAA v. Alston, court file 20-512, and American Athletic Conference (AAC) v. Alston, court file 20-520. Former football player Shawne Alston, one of a group of football and basketball athletes challenging the NCAA, was a running back for the West Virginia University Mountaineers from 2009 to 2012. The Biden … Continue reading Supreme Court rules NCAA went too far in cracking down on student-athlete pay

White Illinois farmers are challenging part of the recent COVID-19 stimulus law in court because it allocates federal benefits based on skin color. The civil rights suit, Kent v. Vilsack, was filed in federal court June 7 by Sacramento, California-based Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a national public-interest law firm. Tom Vilsack is being sued in his official capacity as U.S. secretary of agriculture. The firm has filed two other such lawsuits against Vilsack and expects to file more. One of the plaintiffs, Ryan Kent of Centralia, Illinois, is a white man who grows soybeans, wheat, and corn on a 5,000-acre farm started by his father. … Continue reading White Illinois farmers sue over race-based farm loan relief program

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a Roman Catholic charity in Pennsylvania may refuse on religious-freedom grounds to place children with same-sex couples. The case is Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, court file 19-123. Although the June 17 decision was 9–0, the Supreme Court didn’t speak with one voice. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion of the court, which Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined. Justices Barrett, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch each filed a separate opinion concurring in the judgment. The Trump administration backed the charity, Catholic Social Services (CSS), … Continue reading Supreme Court: Catholic charity may deny foster children to same-sex couples

By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—commonly known as Obamacare—for the third time, ignoring the question of its constitutionality by ruling that those challenging it lacked the required legal standing to do so. In a tweet, President Joe Biden said the decision was “a big win for the American people.” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a medical doctor who has worked to repeal the law, lamented the ruling. “The failed Obamacare system will stagger on as a result of this decision,” he said in a statement. “Every American’s health care has been harmed … Continue reading Supreme Court tosses Obamacare challenge by 18 states on grounds of legal standing

The Biden-Harris administration is promising to press on with a blatantly unconstitutional $4 billion farm relief program that deliberately excludes white people even after a federal judge ruled it was racially discriminatory and temporarily blocked it. Democrats view the explicitly racist government program as a down payment on the slavery reparations package they want to force on Americans a century and a half after Abraham Lincoln’s Republicans took Democrats’ slaves away from them. Twelve plaintiffs in nine states sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a case called Faust v. Vilsack to enjoin officials from implementing a loan-forgiveness program for farmers … Continue reading Biden’s racist farm reparations: The blatantly unconstitutional Pigford 2.0 excludes white farmers

Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court established an important precedent by ruling in Tyson Timbs’s favor, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled last week that after an eight-year legal odyssey, the man is entitled to get back his vehicle after it was seized when he used it to sell illegal drugs. The case is of legal significance because the nation’s highest court used it to apply the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive fines to all U.S. states. In February 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Indiana Supreme Court’s finding that the state was entitled to keep a white … Continue reading Indiana court orders Land Rover returned, ending long legal battle over asset forfeiture

A divided Supreme Court sided with a criminal defendant, ruling that a federal law that imposes strict mandatory penalties on federal gun offenders with three prior violent convictions can’t be invoked in crimes that require a reckless mental state. The 5–4 ruling in the mandatory minimum sentences case known as Borden v. U.S. came on June 10. The frequently litigated Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) mandates a 15-year minimum sentence for people found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm who have three or more prior convictions for a “violent felony.” A violent felony is defined by the statute as one … Continue reading Fractured Supreme Court rules reckless crimes don’t make a career offender

The often-censored Prager University has been dropped from service by yet another technology company, apparently because of its conservative, pro-American educational videos that it says have attracted more than 5 billion views over 10 years. New York-based JW Player, which claims to “have a global footprint of over 1 billion unique users,” kicked the nonprofit off its video hosting platform, while it continues to serve left-wing media outlets The Young Turks and Vice, which generate videos that, according to PragerU, divide the country and teach young people to resent America. The move came after JW Player blindsided PragerU, claiming to have updated … Continue reading PragerU censored by video platform

The fact that U.S. government policy allows aliens from troubled nations—including those who enter the country illegally—to remain in the United States for humanitarian reasons doesn’t mean they are entitled to apply for green cards, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously. The 11-page opinion in Sanchez v. Mayorkas, court file 20-315, was written by Justice Elena Kagan. The decision came June 7 as the federal government finds itself overwhelmed by a rush of would-be immigrants flooding the nation’s border with Mexico. The White House wants the Mexican government to do more to curb illegal immigration to the United States. President Joe Biden ended the Trump-era … Continue reading Temporary Protected Status not a gateway to green card, Supreme Court rules

Alabama and Georgia real estate agents have asked the Supreme Court to block a federal moratorium on evictions that was imposed last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) amid the pandemic. Congress enacted a nationwide moratorium on evictions and extended its life through Jan. 31, 2021. The Atlanta-based CDC, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, then imposed its own moratorium at the behest of then-President Donald Trump, the current iteration of which is set to run out on June 30. The theory was that uprooting tenants would spread the virus, … Continue reading Supreme Court asked to halt CDC eviction moratorium

Loudoun County, Virginia, has become “ground zero” in the fight against critical race theory-based indoctrination in schools nationwide, according to the co-founder of a parents’ group taking on the local education establishment. Critical race theory (CRT) must be uprooted because it “seeks to view everything through the lens of race and believes all institutions, traditions, language, and history of this country are systemically racist,” said Ian Prior, a parent who helped to found and is executive director of Fight for Schools, which is registered in Virginia as a political action committee. Prior was principal deputy director of public affairs at the Justice … Continue reading Virginia county now ‘ground zero’ in fight against critical race theory, parent activist says

Unanimously ruling against a Chinese asylum claimant, the Supreme Court reversed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, finding that immigration judges don’t have to explicitly state that an asylum seeker’s story isn’t credible when finding against him. The court’s opinion in the case, Garland v. Dai, court file 19-1155, was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch. “The Ninth Circuit has long applied a special rule in immigration disputes,” Gorsuch wrote. “The rule provides that, in the absence of an explicit adverse credibility determination by an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals, a reviewing court must treat a petitioning alien’s testimony as … Continue reading Supreme Court rules asylum applicants bear burden of proof, reversing 9th Circuit

In order to encourage American workers to get vaccinated, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has suspended the legal requirement for employers to report work-related injuries resulting from vaccinations aimed at combating the CCP virus, which causes the disease COVID-19. OSHA enforces the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The statute covers “most private sector employers and their workers, in addition to some public sector employers and workers in the 50 states and certain territories and jurisdictions under federal authority. Those jurisdictions include the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Wake Island, Johnston Island, and the … Continue reading OSHA suspends requirement that employers report vaccine-related injuries