The US Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments this week in a landmark case that will determine whether states are entitled to remove former president and current Republican frontrunner Donald Trump from election ballots over his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when the US Capitol was stormed by protesters. In anticipation of the [...]
Search Results for: First Circuit
Oral Arguments Underline Importance of Supreme Court’s Chevron Cases
Even especially attentive Supreme Court watchers might underestimate the importance of a pair of cases the Court subjected to three and a half hours of argument on January 17. In a term full of cases pitting gun rights against domestic violence victims, determining access to medical abortion, and injecting the justices into presidential election politics, [...]
Federal judge overseeing Trump election interference case indefinitely postpones trial start date
A DC federal judge indefinitely postponed the trial date in former US President Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan vacated the trial date, originally set for March 4, since both parties are still awaiting a decision from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on Trump’s claim of [...]
A federal court in Washington DC sentenced former trade advisor to former US President Donald Trump, Peter Navarro, on Thursday on two counts of contempt of Congress related to the January 6 insurrection to four months prison. Navarro was previously found guilty of the two counts following a September 2023 jury trial in the Federal [...]
Alabama executes Kenneth Smith by nitrogen gas after US Supreme Court rejects final appeal
Alabama inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed Thursday night by nitrogen hypoxia after the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, declined to intervene in the state’s second attempt to execute an inmate who had previously survived a botched lethal injection. The court’s three liberal justices expressed their willingness to hear Smith’s claims of cruel [...]
US appeals court denies wrongful arrest claim from Texas journalist
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied Tuesday the appeal of Texas citizen journalist Priscilla Villarreal, who claimed that her arrest for misuse of information was unconstitutional. Villarreal had brought a civil rights claim against the city of Laredo, Texas over her 2018 arrest. Villarreal, known online as “La Gordiloca,” is a [...]
Mengele-Like Logic Underpins Alabama’s Plan to Gas a Man to Death
Barring the unlikely success of last-minute litigation, today, at 6 p.m. CST, Kenneth Eugene Smith is scheduled to become the first person in history to be executed by forced nitrogen gas inhalation. In Smith’s final minutes, personnel at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama will strap an industrial-grade mask to his face. Secured [...]
US Supreme Court and federal appeals court refuse to stay Alabama nitrogen hypoxia execution
The US Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Wednesday refused Kenneth Smith’s application for a stay of his execution by nitrogen hypoxia. Kenneth Smith is scheduled to be executed by way of nitrogen hypoxia on Thursday night at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. According to the Alabama execution [...]
US federal appeals court rejects Trump’s request to review gag order
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected former US president Donald Trump’s appeal to have a gag order against him reviewed by the entire bench—a process known as en banc rehearing—on Tuesday. Originally imposed by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on October 16, the gag order restricts Trump from making public statements [...]
Explainer: US District Court Thwarts Latest Bid to Halt Alabama Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution
A US district court on Wednesday dismissed concerns about Alabama death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith potentially choking on his own vomit during his planned execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a novel and untested method of capital punishment. Smith’s legal team is urgently trying to stop the execution, which is scheduled for Thursday. They argue that [...]