A US appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court’s ruling that police in Phoenix, Arizona, used excessive force against protesters outside a Donald Trump rally. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that qualified immunity applied to the police interactions because the protestors did not cite a case that “could have ‘clearly [...]

On Friday, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (ABC) agreed to pay $15 million to a “presidential foundation and museum” for US president-elect Donald Trump as a settlement for Trump’s defamation lawsuit. ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos interviewed Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) on March 10, after she endorsed Trump for the presidency. Stephanopoulos questioned how Mace as [...]

Minnesota and New Jersey sued Glock, Inc. (Glock) and its parent company Glock Ges.m.b.H. in their respective states on Thursday for selling semi-automatic handguns that are easily convertible to machine guns. The two states are seeking an injunction that would prevent Glock from selling such handguns, and Minnesota specifically seeks an order for Glock to modify [...]

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the odor of raw cannabis is sufficient to justify a warrantless vehicle search. The appellant, Vincent Molina, was a passenger in a car stopped by a police officer for speeding on the highway. The officer searched the car solely based on smelling raw cannabis and found several rolled [...]

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) approved an optional Bible-centered curriculum for elementary schools on Friday. The curriculum passed with an 8-7 Republican majority. The board approved the Bluebonnet Learning material, which provides a curriculum for teaching mathematics for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and teaching language arts for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. [...]

Against the backdrop of abuse-of-power warnings from leading civil rights groups, the US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that, if enacted, would grant the Treasury Secretary the discretion to designate certain nonprofits as “terrorist supporting organizations” and thus strip their tax-exempt status. The so-called Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages [...]

A New York statute sealing certain criminal records took effect on Saturday, one year after Governor Kathy Hochul signed it into law.  The Clean Slate Act automatically seals criminal records for individuals’ convictions after they complete any resulting “incarceration, parole, probation, or post-release supervision” and avoid subsequent criminal convictions. Under the law, criminal records for [...]

A US federal appeals court on Friday temporarily lifted a lower court’s blocking of a Louisiana law mandating public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit limited the trial court’s earlier ruling, ensuring that the order applies to only the schools of the school [...]

On Sunday, the Arizona Supreme Court denied a voter rights groups’ emergency petition to extend the deadline to fix mail-in ballot issues for the 2024 US general election. The last day for voters to correct inconsistent signatures was on Sunday. The voters rights groups claimed that administrative issues prevented 350,000 voters from having time to [...]

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Executive Order No. GA-46 takes effect on Friday, requiring Texas public hospitals to collect information on and report healthcare costs of undocumented immigrants. Governor Abbott issued the executive order on August 8,  finding that the Biden-Harris administration is running an “open border policy” that is costing Texans by imposing higher taxes [...]