A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4–3 to take up a lawsuit from Wisconsin voters over the state’s redistricting process that may lead to the court drawing up the state’s new electoral map for 2022 if the Democratic governor and Republican state legislature fail to agree on one. The lawsuit, Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, was filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Aug. 23 invoking the court’s original jurisdiction. Although the state legislature and the governor, currently Tony Evers, normally approve new legislative maps, some Wisconsinites fear that a divided government will lead to an impasse that will require a judicial plan … Continue reading Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees to consider redrawing state’s electoral map

A barbeque food truck operator in North Carolina is suing a local government after it enacted protectionist regulations that increased food truck permitting fees by close to 8,000 percent. The lawsuit, Shirley v. Town of Farmville, was filed Sept. 21, in state court in Pitt County, North Carolina, on behalf of plaintiff Mark Shirley by Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm based in Sacramento, California. Shirley resides in Walstonburg, just west of Farmville. “Many restaurants faced difficulties throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Jessica Thompson, a PLF attorney representing Shirley, told The Epoch Times. “And when so many small businesses are fighting to … Continue reading North Carolina food truck operator fights protectionism

The Supreme Court sided with Ohio in putting on hold an appeals court ruling from June that threw out a conviction and death sentence imposed on prisoner August Cassano, who complained that a trial court denied him his Sixth Amendment right to represent himself. An execution date had not yet been scheduled. Late on Sept. 20, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ordered that the June 17 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit was stayed, giving Cassano’s jailer time to file a petition for certiorari, or review, of the appeals court decision with the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh did not provide … Continue reading Supreme Court sides with state, stays retrial order in death-penalty case

The legal team seeking an emergency injunction to prevent Maine from enforcing a new CCP virus vaccine mandate that requires healthcare workers to get the jab or lose their jobs is optimistic that a federal judge will rule against the state because the mandate does not allow religious exemptions. The case comes after a federal judge on Sept. 14 granted an emergency injunction blocking the state of New York from enforcing a new virus vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, as The Epoch Times previously reported. Seventeen medical health professionals had asked the court to enjoin enforcement of New York’s mandate that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Aug. 16. … Continue reading Federal judge may rule soon on Maine vaccine mandate for healthcare workers

Enrollment at U.S. community colleges suffered a steep decline after the arrival of the CCP virus last year, falling 11.3 percent in the spring of 2021 compared to the year-earlier period. In the same time frame, among community college students aged 18 to 20, enrollment plunged an even bigger 14.6 percent, Caleb Rider reports at The College Fix, drawing upon data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Columbia University’s Community College Research Center, and EducationData.org. Community college students in that age range make up more than 40 percent of all undergraduates. Davis Jenkins, a senior research scholar and research professor … Continue reading Community college enrollment plunges following onset of pandemic

President Joe Biden earlier this month quietly fired two presidential appointees from the Trump administration who had sued the Department of Education for refusing to deliver their signed presidential commissions. The two men, economics professor Steve Hanke and law professor John Yoo, were appointed by then-President Donald Trump to the National Board for Education Sciences (NBES) when he signed their respective commissions in December 2020. Hanke is at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Yoo is at the University of California–Berkeley. The appointees stayed in touch with the department about the paperwork when the Trump administration was in power and after the … Continue reading Biden admin quietly fires Trump education appointees who filed lawsuit

A private investigator is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a decision by the Maine Department of Public Safety denying him a license to practice his profession because he criticized a Maine State Police officer’s conduct in a fatal shooting. The investigator, Joshua Gray, claims that the denial of the license constitutes a violation of his right to free speech under the First Amendment, according to his attorneys at the Institute for Justice (IJ), a public interest law firm with a special interest in occupational licensing issues. “When the government retaliates against people because of their speech, it violates the … Continue reading Citing First Amendment, private investigator asks Supreme Court to review license denial

A federal judge on Tuesday granted an emergency injunction blocking the state of New York from enforcing a new CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. Seventeen medical health professionals had asked the court to enjoin enforcement of New York’s mandate that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Aug. 16. The mandate required staff at hospitals and long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, adult care facilities, and other congregate care settings, be vaccinated for COVID-19 to continue to be employed. The plaintiffs, including doctors, nurses, a medical technician, and a physician’s liaison, were facing termination, loss of hospital admitting privileges, and the destruction of … Continue reading Federal judge blocks New York state health care worker vaccination mandate

The online learning environment hastily imposed on students during the ongoing pandemic has accelerated the growth of cancel culture at U.S. universities, according to a new report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). Relying on empirical data taken from student surveys along with insights from faculty and higher education leaders across the nation, the Sept. 8 report “Building a Culture of Free Expression in the Online Classroom” asserts that the sudden, widespread adoption of virtual education in this country worsened the free-speech crisis on college campuses, further limited diversity of viewpoints, and encouraged more self-censorship among students. “The lifeblood of the liberal arts is debate, dialectic, inquiry, … Continue reading Remote learning advances cancel culture, report says

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is taking his fight against what he calls the “patently unconstitutional practice” of proxy voting in the U.S. House of Representatives to the Supreme Court. In the early days of the pandemic in May 2020, the House approved a resolution allowing members to cast votes on the House floor by proxy on the theory that it was advisable to limit attendance in Congress to combat the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said at the time the new absentee voting protocol was needed because the virus posed a “mortal danger.” House Democratic … Continue reading House GOP leader asks Supreme Court to end proxy voting

The Supreme Court late on Sept. 8 granted a last-minute reprieve to a convicted murderer in Texas who wants his pastor physically by his side, touching him, and praying aloud for him at the time of his execution. The case, Ramirez v. Collier, was filed with the Supreme Court on Sept. 7. The condemned man is John Henry Ramirez. The respondent is Bryan Collier, executive director of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. On July 19, 2004, a 20-year-old Ramirez, seeking money to buy drugs, robbed and murdered Pablo Castro, 46, stabbing him 29 times in a convenience store parking … Continue reading Supreme Court stays execution of Texas inmate who wants preacher with him, agrees to hear appeal

An estimated 27,000 mail-in ballots in Georgia were returned as undeliverable by the post office during the 2020 election, according to a research brief by a good-government group. The number is more than double the margin of victory—12,000 votes—by which President Joe Biden won the state. The new report from the Indianapolis-based Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) raises questions about the efficacy of voting-by-mail policies that were hurriedly adopted across the nation in the early days of the pandemic last year, purportedly to arrest the spread of the CCP virus that causes the disease COVID-19. PILF describes itself as “the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated … Continue reading Undeliverable mail-in ballots in Georgia were double the official margin of victory, report says

The Biden administration is siding with two Native American tribes against Texas in a long-running dispute over the tribes’ right to run gaming operations on their tribal land in the state. The case before the U.S. Supreme Court is known as Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo v. State of Texas. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled against the tribes, finding that the state was within its legal rights to bar gaming startups by the tribes. Gaming is an industry euphemism for gambling. The tribes, the Tigua in El Paso and the Alabama–Coushatta Tribe of East Texas, are … Continue reading Biden administration sides with Indian tribes over Texas in gambling dispute

Parents and a civil rights group are suing California over its imposition earlier this year of a novel public school curriculum that reportedly has students praying to Aztec gods. “The curriculum’s unequivocal promotion of five Aztec gods or deities through repetitive chanting and affirmation of their symbolic principles constitutes an unlawful government preference toward a particular religious practice,” Frank Xu, president of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, said in a statement. “This public endorsement of the Aztec religion fundamentally erodes equal education rights and irresponsibly glorifies anthropomorphic, male deities whose religious rituals involved gruesome human sacrifice and human dismemberment.” “The Aztecs regularly performed gruesome … Continue reading California requires Aztec prayer in schools, and civil rights group sues

After six years of litigation and a Supreme Court ruling, California has acknowledged that a state law that allowed labor unions to trespass on private property to recruit workers was unconstitutional. Commentators say the ruling is likely to have major repercussions for labor and property law well beyond agribusiness, which brought the litigation. The Cato Institute, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, called the high court ruling the “biggest Supreme Court win for property rights in a long, long time.” On Sept. 1, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California formally ruled that the state can’t enforce the union access rule … Continue reading California concedes allowing union recruiters to trespass is unconstitutional

California officials have agreed to pay $800,000 in prevailing-party attorneys’ fees to a popular Christian megachurch in Los Angeles after state and federal courts in California issued permanent injunctions barring government officials there from ever again imposing discriminatory restrictions on houses of worship. In the United States, unsuccessful litigants only rarely have to pay their opponents’ legal fees, even when their cases are weak. Although it’s common in other parts of the Anglosphere such as the United Kingdom and Canada for the unsuccessful party in civil litigation to be required to pay the legal costs of the successful litigant, it’s “very rare” … Continue reading Governments must pay $800,000 in legal fees to church for COVID-19 overreach

Parents in Billings, Montana, who say parents should decide whether their children wear masks, are demanding the immediate resignation of the local school district superintendent. He had abruptly announced the local K–12 mask mandate would be reimposed because the reported number of COVID-19 infections among students was rising. Meanwhile, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, is holding firm in his opposition to mandatory masking in enclosed spaces. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending that vaccinated people in areas with high COVID-19 caseloads should resume wearing face masks indoors. Greg Upham, superintendent of Billings Public Schools, announced that effective Aug. 22 he … Continue reading Montana moms demand school district ouster over mandatory masking

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) in Virginia must reinstate gym teacher Tanner Cross, who was suspended after speaking out in public against a proposed policy that would force him to go against his conscience by professing that a boy can be a girl and vice versa, the Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled. The Aug. 30 ruling in the case, known as Loudoun County School Board v. Cross, record number 210584, upheld a June ruling by Judge James E. Plowman. The state circuit judge stayed Cross’s suspension, finding that if the case went to trial, the school district would be … Continue reading Virginia supreme court orders school district to reinstate teacher who objected to transgender policy