The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in Missouri state court against Secretary of State John Ashcroft on Thursday after Ashcroft rejected the ACLU’s petition to allow the people of Missouri to approve or veto the state’s recently passed abortion legislation in a public referendum. Missouri’s Constitution provides citizens with a right to [...]

A bipartisan mix of senators on Wednesday issued 22 separate resolutions to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The Arms Export Control Act typically allows Congress 30 days to review potential international arms sales. The Trump administration, though, indicated last month that it intended to use an emergency provision of the act that would bypass [...]

US President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he had signed the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019, which provides aid to areas struck by natural disasters over the last three years. The House passed the bill, HR 2157, on Monday by a vote of 354-58 over the opposition of some Republican holdouts. [...]

Maine’s legislature approved the Death with Dignity Act this week, sending the bill to Governor Janet Mills on Wednesday for her signature. If enacted, the bill would add a new care option for individuals who are terminally ill and have fewer than six months to live. State residents would be able to request and voluntarily self-administer [...]

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a state law prohibiting candidates for state political offices from running as candidates for more than one party in the same election. In April 2016 Christopher Rabb secured the nomination for the Democratic Party’s candidate for state representative in the 200th legislative district. A local third party, the [...]

New Hampshire Superior Court Judge David Ruoff ruled Wednesday that lawmakers are violating the New Hampshire Constitution by not funding an appropriate education for students in the state’s districts. However, he also stated that the legislature was the proper governing body to rectify this issue. Ruoff did not specify to the legislature what the formula [...]

The Washington State Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously that a florist’s refusal to provide her commercially marketed wedding services for a same-sex wedding constituted a violation of the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD). This decision reconsidered Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington, a case that was decided before the US Supreme Court heard Masterpiece Cakeshop v. [...]

Oregon Senators on Wednesday approved SB 870, which would update the state’s electoral college process to reflect the will of the nation. “Prior to the time set by law for the meeting and voting by the presidential electors, the chief election official of each member state shall determine the number of votes for each presidential [...]

A spokesperson for the US Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) said in an email statement Wednesday that because the number of unaccompanied children being detained is placing a strain on ORR resources, ORR is scaling back programs at the shelters where the children are detained. The programs that will be reduced are the English language [...]

North Carolina’s House of Representatives failed on Wednesday to overturn a veto of a bill that would have required doctors to try to preserve the life of any infant born alive during an attempted abortion. The override effort fell short of the required three-fifths majority by only five votes. The bill, titled the Born-Alive Abortion [...]