Search Results for: Iowa

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Bill 4156 on Thursday by a vote of 77-20, which proposes the creation of the criminal act of impermissible occupation, targeting individuals who willfully enter and remain in Oklahoma without legal authorization to be in the United States. Under the provisions of HB 4156, impermissible occupation is defined as [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled against former Republican campaign consultant Jesse R. Benton on Friday, upholding Benton’s conviction for allegedly funneling $100,000 in campaign donations from a Russian businessman to his consulting firm. Of the $100,000, Benton was convicted of keeping $75,000 of the donation for himself and giving the [...]

The Tennessee Senate passed a bill Thursday that would require public schools to show a fetal development video comparable to one produced by an anti-abortion group to its students. SB 2767 will require public schools’ family life curriculum to include a three-minute “high-quality, computer-generated animation or high-definition ultrasound” that shows the development of vital organs [...]

The Florida Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the state constitution does not protect the right to abortion. The ruling in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida vs. State of Florida allows the current 15-week abortion ban to be upheld and triggers the Heartbeat Protection Act to take effect. The Act, signed into law [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday that a controversial Texas law, Senate Bill (SB) 4, will remain on hold as litigation continues. SB4, the controversial Texas law that is the subject of this continued litigation, was originally signed into law in December 2023. If enforced, it would [...]

Iowa lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday that would make it a crime to enter the state after being deported or denied entry into the US. The passage puts the midwestern state on track to join Texas in enforcing state immigration laws that operate independently of the federal immigration system, meaning they are not directly [...]

The American Library Association (ALA) announced on Thursday that censorship demands and book ban attempts in public libraries and schools hit a record high in 2023. The ALA documented 1,247 demands to ban 4,240 different books. This is a 65 percent increase from 2022, when 2,571 books faced censorship demands. In 17 states, book ban [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia filed two lawsuits Thursday against the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) on behalf of two transgender students challenging the department’s 2023 model policies. Virginia law authorizes VDOE to issue model policies regarding the treatment of transgender students, and the policies are required to reflect “evidence-based best practices” for [...]

Iowa lawmakers declined to advance a piece of legislation on Wednesday that would have removed gender identity as a protected class under the state’s civil rights law. In a 3-0 tally, a subcommittee of the Iowa legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted against moving the bill forward. Although the bill sought to add a new category to [...]

Immigration is one of the hottest hot button issues going into the 2024 US presidential election. It has divided Americans, and the Republican party continues to go to extremes on the matter, with some 81% of GOP voters in the Iowa primary agreeing with former president Donald Trump’s description of immigrants as “poisoning the blood [...]