In the Courts

Alabama’s far-reaching abortion restrictions have set off fervid speculation about the future of Roe v. Wade, but two abortion cases are already pending before the Supreme Court. One case involves Indiana laws which require women to have ultrasounds 18 hours before termination, impose rules on the disposal of fetal remains, and ban abortion based on sex, race, or disability. Another ...

A group called Florida Carry filed a lawsuit Monday against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), alleging the agency is slow-walking gun background checks. The gun-rights group is accusing the FDLE of delaying some gun pre-purchase background checks, which state law requires be performed within 24 working hours, or three days, beginning March 2018. Some applicants have been forced ...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that iPhone users can bring an antitrust lawsuit against Apple alleging the tech giant has monopolized the market for software applications. Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the 5-4 decision, joined by the high court’s liberal bloc. Justice Neil Gorsuch led the conservatives in dissent. “The plaintiffs seek to hold retailers to account if the retailers engage ...

U.S. District Court Judge Robin L. Rosenberg has ruled that a Florida-based company, RM Broadcasting LLC (RM Broadcasting), was acting as an agent of a foreign principal and must register as such under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA). The Department of Justice contended in a civil counterclaim that RM Broadcasting has been acting as an agent of ...

A federal judge in Washington D.C. is speeding up a dispute between congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump over a subpoena for records from the president’s accounting firm, Mazars USA. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said in a new order that he will decide the case after a May 14 hearing, far earlier than initially anticipated. The accelerated pace could ...

An indictment was unsealed today charging a former intelligence analyst with illegally obtaining classified national defense information and disclosing it to a reporter. Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, was arrested this morning and will make his initial appearance today at the federal courthouse in Nashville. According to the indictment, Hale was enlisted in the U.S. Air Force from ...

A majority of Americans oppose expanding the Supreme Court, according to survey data which comes as Democratic presidential candidates float proposal to change the Court’s composition. Though opposition to court-expansion is high, voters are quite receptive to less aggressive reform measures like term limits. A Rasmussen telephone and online survey of 1,000 likely voters found 51 percent of respondents opposed ...

Democratic lawmakers can proceed with their lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump is violating an anti-corruption provision of the Constitution, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected the president’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit, allowing the case to proceed to an evidence-gathering phase — called discovery — in which Democrats hope to gain ...

A judicial ethics panel has been asked to review orders dismissing misconduct complaints against Justice Brett Kavanaugh relating to his emotionally charged testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The petition, from New York attorney Jeremy C. Bates, was sent to the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making entity of the federal judiciary. The Conference’s Committee on Judicial Conduct ...

A federal three-judge panel ruled Thursday that 34 state and federal district lines in Michigan are unconstitutionally gerrymandered to the benefit of Republicans. The decision comes as the Supreme Court contemplates a pair of cases from Maryland and North Carolina, which ask whether and how the federal courts should police partisan line-drawing. “Federal courts must not abdicate their responsibility to ...

Justice Stephen Breyer shared mixed reactions to recent reform proposals for the Supreme Court, saying term limits might be desirable while an expanded Court would not be. The remarks, delivered Monday in Washington, D.C., come as a growing number of Democratic presidential candidates have entertained proposals to remake the nation’s highest judicial tribunal. “I think it would be fine to ...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana sued the state Thursday less than a full day after its governor signed into a law a ban on dilation and evacuation abortions. The ACLU, a nonprofit legal and advocacy group, filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging House Enrolled Act 1211 (HEA 1211), which bans dilation and evacuation abortions. The group filed its ...

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority put additional limits on class-wide arbitration Wednesday, handing business interests a victory over a vigorous dissent from the four liberal justices. The decision is the latest in a sequence of pro-arbitration decisions from the Supreme Court, which the liberal bloc believes have seriously undermined the rights of workers. “The Court, paradoxically reciting the mantra that ...

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seems ready to approve the Trump administration’s bid to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census form.  Democratic states, municipalities, and civil rights groups are challenging that move, warning a citizenship question will inevitably diminish minority participation. The census is used to apportion seats in Congress among the states, draw district lines, and award ...

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday over the Trump administration’s bid to append a citizenship question to the 2020 census questionnaire. Democratic states and city governments are challenging the citizenship question, fearing that diminished noncitizen participation will deprive them of federal funding and seats in Congress. The Justice Department, on the other hand, says citizenship questions have regularly appeared ...