US Legal News Round Up for Saturday, 12 August 2017 News
US Legal News Round Up for Saturday, 12 August 2017

Here’s the domestic legal news we covered this week:

The Oklahoma Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] against a state cigarette tax [text] on Thursday.
[more]
[JURIST] The Washington Supreme Court [official website] upheld Seattle’s tax [ordinance, PDF] on guns and ammunition sales on Thursday.
[more]
[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] ruled Wednesday [opinion, PDF] that Judge Scott Silliman [official profile] should have recused himself in a case concerning multiple defendants who were charged with aiding in the 9/11 attacks.
[more]
[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Texas [official website] on Wednesday dismissed [order, PDF] a case concerning Senate Bill 4 [text, PDF], a bill intended to penalize so-called “sanctuary cities.” The action was filled by the state of Texas seeking to have SB 4 declared constitutional before the bill was scheduled to take effect.
[more]
The Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill [text, PDF] that would prohibit health insurance plans from providing coverage for elective abortions.
[more]
A federal judge in Louisiana ruled [text, PDF] against the state on Tuesday in a constitutional challenge to a law [text] that requires naturalized citizens who were born outside the US to present a valid birth certificate from their home country before they can obtain a marriage license.
[more]
Five unnamed transgender military servicemembers filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against President Donald Trump [official website] and various officials in his administration on Wednesday, claiming the president’s declaration on Twitter [text, part 2, part 3] that transgender individuals would no longer be accepted or allowed to serve in the military violated the Due Process and Equal Protection components of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution [text].
[more]
[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Tuesday struck down [opinion, PDF] an Obama-era rule that banned certain gases from being used in air conditioning and refrigeration appliances.
[more]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Tuesday reversed its position in a key voting rights case [opinion, PDF] that will be before the Supreme Court later this year.
[more]
A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Washington [official website] on Monday denied a motion for summary judgment [opinion] filed by two psychologists who devised the torture techniques used on three former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisoners, allowing the case to proceed to trial.
[more]
Mayor Rahm Emanuel [official website] and the City of Chicago sued [press release] the Trump administration Monday to stop the implementation of policies that would withhold federal funds from so-called “sanctuary cities.” The complaint [complaint, PDF] claims that the the new policies would require Chicago to choose between individuals’ constitutional rights and funding for law enforcement.
[more]
[JURIST] Nonreligious anti-abortion organizations must follow the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contraceptive mandate, ruled [opinion, PDF] a split panel in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] on Friday.
[more]
THIS DAY @ LAW

US Supreme Court decided Dartmouth College case

On February 2, 1819, the US Supreme Court decided Dartmouth College v. Woodward, ruling that the charter of a college was a contract that a state could not alter arbitrarily.

New Amsterdam incorporated

On February 2, 1653, the City of New Amsterdam was incorporated by the Dutch Republic. After the British conquest, the city was renamed New York after the Duke of York.

Breviary of Alaric put into effect by Visigoth king

King Alaric II of the Visigoths put the Breviary of Alaric, a collection of Roman laws, into effect on February 2, 506. The breviary contains constitutions and laws of the newly fallen Roman Empire, including the Theodosian code, and parts of the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes. The Breviary of Alaric predated the Byzantine Empire's Code of Justinian by 23 years.  Read an entry on the Breviary of Alaric from the Encyclopaedia Brittanica.