The US Supreme Court denied certiorari Tuesday in the appeal of five Baltimore city police officers who sued Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby alleging she had illegally and maliciously prosecuted them following the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. In January 2017 US District Judge Marvin Garbis ruled that charges, including malicious prosecution, defamation and invasion [...]
The FBI released its 2017 Hate Crimes Statistics on Tuesday that document 8,437 criminal offenses motivated by bias against race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, religion, disability or sexual orientation that occurred in 2017. This marks a substantial increase over the previous year’s 7,321 offenses. The bureau’s report indicates that a total of 7,106 single-bias [...]
The Justice Department filed a memorandum in response on Wednesday to CNN’s lawsuit over the revocation of Jim Acosta’s access, stating that the White House reserves the right to select which journalists receive interviews and are called upon during press conferences. “No journalist has a First Amendment right to enter the White House,” lawyers said in [...]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) released a memo Wednesday defending the constitutional basis for the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General. The memo was written by Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel of the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel. The Office of Legal Counsel serves as the principle legal interpretation body within the DOJ. [...]
Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging Maine’s ranked-choice ballots in his race against Democratic opponent Jared Golden. The suit claims Maine’s Act to Establish Ranked-Choice Voting (RVC Act), which replaced the single-election system used in Maine for 140 years, undermines an individuals right to vote, and vote effectively. The RVC Act altered [...]
The state of Maryland filed a motion for preliminary injunction on Tuesday seeking to restrain and enjoin former Chief of Staff to the Attorney General Matthew Whitaker from “appearing in the official capacity of the Acting Attorney General.” Instead, the motion seeks the appointment of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the acting Attorney General, replacing [...]
The US Department of Justice on Tuesday announced that former CEO of a Missouri charity, Marilyn Nolan, pleaded guilty on Friday to crimes related to bribery and unlawful campaign contributions for elected public officials in Missouri and Arkansas. Nolan admitted to conspiring “to misapply millions of dollars of the charity’s funds for substantial, undisclosed payments to lobbying [...]
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered that mail-in absentee ballots in Gwinnett County, Georgia, should be counted after they were originally rejected for an omitted or incorrect birth year. Under Georgia law, an eligible voter can request an absentee ballot by completing an application 180 days before the election date. Once the application is received, [...]
North Carolina’s Democratic Party, voting rights group Common Cause and individual voters filed suit against the state government Tuesday claiming excessive partisan gerrymandering of legislative maps. In their complaint, filed in the Wake County Superior Court, plaintiffs that the 2017 state House and Senate redistricting maps were construed in favor of the Republican party. Common Clause claims [...]
The US Supreme Court added two cases to its docket Tuesday, including a Virginia gerrymandering case. Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill is racial gerrymandering case in which 12 state legislative districts in Virginia are being challenged. The court wants briefs on whether the parties have standing to bring this appeal. The lower court ruled [...]
