Labor unions and related organizations took in $36.7 million in federal taxpayer funds through the Paycheck Protection Program for which they were legally ineligible, according to a new report from the Freedom Foundation. Legislation creating the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was signed by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020, as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The PPP authorized $349 billion in guaranteed U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loans for eligible individuals, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations to cover payroll, rent, and utility payments. Some loans were forgivable if specific criteria were met. SBA … Continue reading Ineligible unions collected nearly $37 million in federal COVID-19 relief: Report

Fourteen states are urging the Supreme Court to reject a lower court’s ruling that a new congressional electoral map approved by Alabama’s Legislature last year be returned to state lawmakers for redrafting because it supposedly disadvantages black voters. The move comes after a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama issued a preliminary injunction on Jan. 24 against John Merrill, Alabama’s Republican secretary of state, temporarily forbidding him from conducting any congressional elections in the state, as The Epoch Times previously reported. The district court found that instead of having one predominantly black congressional district, as … Continue reading 14 states urge Supreme Court to block new Alabama redistricting ordered by lower court

Records that show foreigners registered to vote—and actually voted in North Carolina elections—will be disclosed by the state’s board of elections as a result of its legal settlement with an electoral integrity group. The Jan. 31 announcement that a settlement (pdf) had been reached came weeks after Garbant Piquant of Garner, N.C., was arrested and charged with falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen in order to register to vote, voting by an alien, and passport fraud. Authorities say the Bahamas native, who is not a U.S. citizen, voted in every primary and general election from 2018 through 2020, as The Epoch Times previously reported. The … Continue reading North Carolina agrees to release records showing foreigners voted

A mathematics professor at St. Joseph’s University is suing the school after it canceled him for an anonymous tweet mocking a controversial policy proposal that would have the government pay monetary reparations to the descendants of slaves. Professor Gregory V. Manco, who was subsequently demoted, claims that he was accosted by an online mob for engaging in legally protected speech that expressed his personal opinions, and that the school made things worse. Manco might be called a libertarian. According to Legal Insurrection, he “has written op-eds on political topics expressing such views,” including one stating that people should combat racism with “individualism, … Continue reading Professor sues after being canceled for tweets about reparations, racial bias training

Parents of schoolchildren in New York state have filed a challenge with the Supreme Court contesting the state’s 2019 repeal of a law that exempted those with sincere religious objections from having to accept the vaccinations that children are normally required to receive in order to attend school. The petition comes as courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, are considering the separate, more specific issue of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations and becoming increasingly receptive to arguments that governments are overstepping their lawful, constitutional authority in combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The case is F.F. v. State of New York, Supreme Court … Continue reading Challenge to New York revoking religious exemptions for school vaccinations reaches Supreme Court

Virginia’s new Republican attorney general is urging the Supreme Court to overturn its 49-year-old ruling in Roe v. Wade and return the regulation of abortion to the states, as observers await the court’s imminent decision in a challenge to a Mississippi abortion law. Against this backdrop, the Supreme Court has denied requests to stay the Texas “heartbeat” law which bans abortions after six weeks of gestation and crowdsources enforcement to members of the public. Litigation is continuing in the case involving Whole Woman’s Health, which runs abortion clinics in Texas and five other states. Whole Woman’s Health sued to overturn the new Texas law, … Continue reading New Virginia attorney general urges Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade

The Supreme Court agreed on Jan. 24 to hear a challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s long-controversial claim that the presence of surface water on private property makes it a protected wetland subject to federal regulations. The National Association of Home Builders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had urged the court to take up the case. A ruling against the EPA could limit the reach of the Clean Water Act and allow Americans to relieve pressure on the red-hot housing market by building more new houses without becoming entangled in federal bureaucracy. The high court agreed in an unsigned order … Continue reading Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to controversial EPA wetlands rule

The Supreme Court announced Jan. 21 that it would consider whether its 2020 decision expanding tribal authority in Oklahoma should cancel out a non-Indian man’s conviction for abusing his part-Indian stepchild. The high court will consider whether states may prosecute non-Indians for crimes against Indians on Indian reservations but specifically refused to reconsider its 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which stripped Oklahoma courts of the ability to hear criminal cases against Native Americans for crimes taking place on Indian lands. The case, an appeal from the Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, is Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, court file 21-429. The Jan. 21 … Continue reading Supreme Court agrees to consider if states can prosecute non-Indians for crimes on Indian land

The Supreme Court has overturned the murder conviction of Darrell Hemphill, a New York man, on Sixth Amendment grounds after state prosecutors cut corners and used the transcript of a witness’s testimony from another trial against him instead of having the witness testify in person. The new ruling strengthens the right of criminal defendants to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. The relevant language in the Sixth Amendment, which became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1791, states, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” The vote in the high court’s ruling (pdf) in Hemphill … Continue reading Supreme Court overturns New York man’s murder conviction, strengthens defendants’ rights

The Supreme Court was skeptical of Biden administration arguments that striking down a campaign finance rule regulating the repayment of loans by a candidate to his own campaign would open the door to bribery in elections. The case arose after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) lent his campaign committee money and the committee deliberately failed to categorize the unrepaid part of the loan as a campaign contribution in order to launch a First Amendment-based challenge to the rule. The appeal to the Supreme Court was brought by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia unanimously … Continue reading Supreme Court appears receptive to Ted Cruz’s lawsuit against campaign finance rule

Allowing national flags and flags about historic events, causes, and organizations while refusing to raise a Christian flag outside a city hall is an unconstitutional example of government censorship, a seemingly sympathetic Supreme Court was told on Jan. 18. The hearing came as the high court has been becoming increasingly protective of religious freedoms since conservatives gained a 6–3 majority on the bench in October 2020, when Justice Amy Coney Barrett replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The case, Shurtleff v. Boston, court file 20-1800, comes from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. Petitioner Harold Shurtleff runs … Continue reading Boston flew Communist Chinese flag, but refused Christian flag—case now before Supreme Court

Virginia’s new Republican governor is moving to withdraw his state from a regional carbon emissions-trading exchange to which 10 coastal and New England states currently belong, a move that promises to be a major setback for the left-wing environmentalist agenda. On Jan. 15, the day he took office, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed Executive Order 9, which directs state officials “to re-evaluate Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and immediately begin regulatory processes to end it.” Youngkin said last month he would take Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, as The Epoch Times previously reported. The RGGI—some pronounce the acronym as … Continue reading Virginia governor begins withdrawing state from 10-state cap-and-trade scheme