Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Tuesday a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. over the company’s unauthorized collection and use of biometric data from millions of Texans. This settlement is the largest ever obtained by a single state and marks the first settlement under Texas’s Capture the Use of Biometric Identifier Act [...]
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered federal agencies to coordinate and intensify efforts to disrupt the supply chain of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. He wrote in a national security memorandum addressed to federal agencies ranging from the FBI to the Postal Service: Tackling the deadly scourge of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids has [...]
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced the Restoring Confidence in the World Anti-Doping Agency Act of 2024 on Tuesday, threatening to withhold funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) amid allegations that the organization has helped cover up widespread anabolic steroid use by Chinese swimmers competing in the Olympic Games. The proposed bill was [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia and law firm Butler Curwood filed a lawsuit in Lynchburg, Virginia against Liberty University on Monday for firing former employee Ellenor Zinski after she disclosed that she was transgender. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. The ACLU [...]
On Monday, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found in Miller v. Ziegler that a Missouri law banning lobbying for two years after an official leaves elected office was unconstitutional. The law in question, Article III, Section 2(a) of the Missouri Constitution, was enacted through a ballot initiative in 2018. It states [...]
US President Joe Biden called for the reform of Supreme Court terms limits and presidential immunity on Monday as part of a three-part plan to Congress ahead of the upcoming 2024 presidential election in November. The plan, which had been laid out in an op-ed published by the Washington Post, reveals a strategy to overhaul [...]
The Maricopa County Superior Court of Arizona on Friday barred the wording of an abortion-related ballot initiative pamphlet explaining a constitutional amendment proposal. Arizona Proposition 139 would enshrine the right to abortion into the Arizona Constitution, protecting abortion from state interference up until the point of “fetal viability” unless there is a “compelling reason” and [...]
California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Thursday setting guidelines for the removal of homeless encampments by state agencies and departments while requesting that local governments adopt the policies as well. The order will require state agencies under Newsom’s authority to address homeless encampments on state property and set five explicit policies to follow [...]
A US federal court Wednesday blocked the Department of Education’s Final Rule prohibiting sex discrimination against LGBTQ+ students from taking effect in six states. The plaintiffs in the suit were Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. The states sought to block revised regulations which expanded Title IX discrimination protection to LGBTQ+ students. [...]
US President Joe Biden signed into law the Federal Prison Oversight Act Thursday which established an inspection process and ombudsman in the Department of Justice. The act warrants that inspections conducted may be announced or unannounced, where each facility is assigned a risk score. Higher-risk facilities will receive more frequent inspections than other facilities. After [...]