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☆ Miss United States pageant can bar transgender women from competing, appeals court rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In 2019 Anita Green, a transgender woman, sued Miss United States of America LLC for discrimination. "You know I'm transgender, right," Green wrote in a message to Smith, according to the 106-page opinion. Miss United States is not the same as the Miss USA Organization, which is the televised beauty-pageant arm of the Miss Universe Organization. Isabella Ilacqua founded the United States National Pageants organization in 1986. United States National Pageants didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, and Green declined to comment at this time.

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Friday rejected a second challenge to President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, keeping the court out of the fight over the program that’s raging in the lower courts. The decision has little practical effect, as an appeals court ruling had already put implementation of the policy on hold. Garrison works for the Pacific Legal Foundation while Johnson works for another conservative group, the Public Interest Legal Foundation. The challengers argue they will be worse off because of the cancellation of student debt. Biden’s student debt relief program would provide up to $10,000 in debt cancellation for those earning less than $125,000 a year and couples who file taxes jointly and earn less than $250,000 annually.

☆ Brazilian court allows Paper Excellence to conclude acquisition of Eldorado
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Tatiana Bautzer | Nupur Anand | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Judge J.B. Franco de Godoi, at an appeals court, voided a previous court injunction that prevented Paper Excellence from concluding the transfer of ownership of Brazilian pulp maker Eldorado. Paper Excellence won an arbitration against Eldorado's current controlling shareholder, J&F Investimentos, which also controls meatpacker JBS SA (JBSS3.SA). But J&F went to the courts and obtained an injunction preventing the transfer of 100% of Eldorado shares to Paper Excellence. Paper Excellence will then consider how soon it can build a second unit, with an estimated capital expenditure of 10 billion reais ($1.94 billion). The Eldorado deal has been on hold for five years.

☆ A judge sentenced Steve Bannon to 4 months in prison but let him remain free while he appeals his conviction
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ahead of Friday's sentencing, federal prosecutors recommended that Nichols sentence Bannon to six months in prison, and order him to pay a $200,000 fine. Bannon's defense lawyers argued that the former Trump advisor should avoid prison time and receive a probation-only sentence. But they urged Nichols to suspend — or put on hold — any sentence while Bannon brings a challenge to his criminal conviction. In the months leading to the trial, Nichols made a series of rulings that severely limited Bannon's potential arguments. In their court filings, prosecutors revealed new details about the Bannon legal team's dealings with the House committee ahead of his trial.

☆ An antitrust battle over GIFs could be a wake-up call for Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But a long-running legal battle over who can control access to them, culminating this week in a rare defeat for Meta (META), the parent of Facebook, could have major ramifications for Big Tech regulation. On Tuesday, UK regulators forced Meta to unwind its 2020 purchase of Giphy, one of the largest searchable internet libraries of GIFs. “The Citadel may have been breached,” said Joel Mitnick, an antitrust attorney at the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. The company said this week that it will continue to explore acquisitions despite the UK ruling. And US courts don’t typically take foreign antitrust rulings into account; their job is to interpret US law.

☆ A conservative group just asked the Supreme Court to block Biden's student-loan forgiveness, saying it is 'critical' the relief is halted this week
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A Wisconsin conservative group is asking SCOTUS to block Biden's student-debt relief. The group argued that the loan forgiveness has an "improper racial motive" and is unconstitutional. It said Biden exceeded his constitutional power by enacting the loan relief without congressional approval. While that decision is being appealed, the group is now escalating the issue to the Supreme Court in an effort to block Biden's plan from taking effect. The HEROES Act has been widely debated even before Biden announced debt relief.

☆ Trump ally Steve Bannon should get 6 months in prison for defying the House January 6 committee, federal prosecutors say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Federal prosecutors on Friday recommended that longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon receive a six-month prison sentence for defying the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In a 24-page court filing, federal prosecutors said Bannon should also pay a $200,000 fine for his "sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress." The Justice Department pursued charges against Bannon following a referral from the House recommending a prosecution against the former Trump advisor. After that initial referral, the House went on to hold three other former Trump White House advisors — Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, and Peter Navarro — in contempt. At the end of the hearing, the House January 6 committee voted unanimously to subpoena Trump to testify.

☆ DOJ asks appeals court to toss out a federal judge's ruling appointing a special master in the Mar-a-Lago records case
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The DOJ asked a federal appeals court to reverse a ruling appoint a special master in the Mar-a-Lago case. Prosecutors said a lower court judge "erred in requiring the government to submit" to a special master review of seized records. "The court should now reverse the order in its entirety for multiple independent reasons," prosecutors said. Former President Donald Trump's legal team requested the appointment of a special master after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club in West Palm Beach. But the DOJ quickly appealed the ruling and asked the 11th Circuit to issue a partial stay allowing the government to access roughly 100 classified records that had been seized from Mar-a-Lago — a request the appeals court granted.

☆ U.S. Senate Democrats cite insufficient election workers ahead of midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. Senate Democrats sounded the alarm over a lack of election workers ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm voting, citing threats and harassment as hurdles to recruiting crucial staff. In an Oct. 6 letter to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, 13 Senate Democrats and two independents aligned with Democrats called for the federal agency to step up efforts to support states in recruiting workers needed to run next month's midterm elections. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"Recruitment efforts have been further hampered by the increase in threats and harassment targeting election workers," the letter stated. Threats against poll workers have sharply increased since the lead up to the 2020 election, when former President Donald Trump began making unfounded claims about massive election fraud. Reuters documented more than 850 threats and hostile messages to election workers and officials nationwide in a series of investigative reports.

☆ Supreme Court rejects Trump's request to intervene in the Mar-a-Lago records case
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Sonam Sheth | C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Supreme Court refused to grant Trump's request to intervene in the Mar-a-Lago records case. Trump asked the court to vacate part of a lower court ruling granting the DOJ access to a set of classified records. Trump's lawyers had asked that a special master review the records for privileged materials before the DOJ could use them. In its order, the Supreme Court gave no indication of dissents or the reasoning behind its denial of Trump's request. With his request to the Supreme Court, Trump narrowly challenged a decision by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

☆ A judge just tossed out the Justice Department's bid to force Trump donor and casino mogul Steve Wynn to register as a foreign agent
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In a 20-page opinion, Judge James Boasberg sided with Wynn's argument that the Justice Department lacked the power to force the disclosure of his alleged stint as a foreign agent of China. It was not immediately clear if the Justice Department would appeal. A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a prepared statement, Wynn's lawyers Reid Weingarten and Robert Luskin said they were "delighted" by the dismissal of a Justice Department lawsuit they described as "ill-conceived." The Justice Department said Wynn agreed in 2017 to lobby on behalf of China in exchange for favorable treatment of his casino business in Macau.

LOS ANGELES — Angelina Jolie accused former husband Brad Pitt of choking one of their children during a volatile trans-Atlantic flight in 2016, according to a complaint she filed Tuesday. The filing, seen by NBC News, was a cross-complaint Jolie aimed at Pitt. Jolie maintained in the complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, that she was never under restrictions about whom she could sell the property to. “At one point, he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children. “Brad will continue to respond in court as he has consistently done.”Diana Dasrath reported from Los Angeles and David K. Li from New York.

☆ Alzheimer's disease, retirement 'pacts,' and serving until you're 104 years old: Inside the federal judiciary's reckoning with age
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | Camila Dechalus | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +23 min

She was nearly two decades older than the median age — 68 — for all federal judges, according to an Insider analysis. More than a century later, in the 1920s, future Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes argued for a mandatory retirement age. In 1954, the Senate passed a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that'd require retirement at age 75 for federal judges. A recent poll by Insider and Morning Consult found that 71% of 2,210 respondents said the federal judiciary should have a mandatory retirement age. For Scheindlin, the former federal judge in Manhattan, Weinstein was an example of an older judge who was "terrific to his last day."

☆ A subreddit post is trolling Texas' controversial content-moderation law by requiring every comment to include Gov. 'Greg Abbott is a little piss baby'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A subreddit post is trolling the law by only allowing "Greg Abbott is a little piss baby" comments. "Greg Abbott is a little piss baby" to raise awareness of the state's social media content-moderation law. 20, which they called "a ridiculous attempt to control social media." 20 allows private citizens in Texas and the Texas attorney general to sue social media companies for censoring specific points of view. The law affects social media platforms that have more than 50 million active users a month in the US.

☆ Brett Favre told Mississippi governor he would not ‘take No for answer’ over volleyball stadium, court filing shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dilanianmug.Jpg | Ken Dilanian | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Phil Bryant on Sept. 4, 2019 about funding the volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi’s main campus in Hattiesburg. “Use of these funds (is) tightly controlled,” Bryant texted Favre on July 28, 2019, according to the filing. Favre also secured $3.2 million for a drug company in which he had invested, according to court records. Favre has also denied wrongdoing through his lawyer, who acknowledged that the ex-Packer has been interviewed by the FBI. He added that Favre behaved honorably and never knew the state grants he was seeking were from the federal welfare program.

Keep up to date on the latest of Trump's legal travails, both criminal and civil, with this guide to the ever-evolving Trump docket. The Issues: Trump's real estate and golf resort business is accused of giving its executives pricey perks and benefits that were never reported as income to taxing authorities. The issues: They say Donald Trump sicced his security guards on their peaceful, legal protest outside Trump Tower in 2015. Donald Trump, right, sits with his children, from left, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Trump International Hotel on July 23, 2014, in Washington. The Issues: Donald Trump is accused of promoting a scam multi-level marketing scheme on "The Celebrity Apprentice."

☆ An appeals court decision against Donald Trump came back to bite MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in a separate case
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A judge rejected MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's request for DOJ to return his seized cellphone. The judge cited an appeals court decision against Trump in his lawsuit over the Mar-a-Lago search. Trump appointed Judge Eric Tostrud, who denied Lindell's bid to get his phone back. Ruling against Lindell, Tostrud did not have to look far to find legal precedent backing up his conclusion that the phone should remain in the Justice Department's hands. Rarely does an appeals court decision so rapidly grow legs that it is cited in a separate case within 24 hours.

☆ A federal appeals court allowed investigators to resume review of classified records seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Lauren Frias | C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A federal appeals court granted the DOJ's request to resume a review of classified materials seized from Mar-a-Lago. The ruling overturned Judge Aileen Cannon's decision that paused the review until a special master review. The decision appeared to embrace the DOJ's claims that a further delay in the review would hurt national security. "It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in 'exceptionally grave damage to the national security,'" the 11th Circuit judges wrote. The 11th Circuit panel included two Trump appointees — Judges Andrew Brasher and Britt Grant — along with Judge Robin Rosenbaum, an Obama appointee.

☆ Trump lawyers claim classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago may be privileged because they contain handwritten notes
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Trump's lawyers said classified Mar-a-Lago documents could be privileged because they contain his handwritten notes. Trump is backing up an order preventing DOJ from reviewing classified records seized from his home. They went on to note that according to court documents, some of the classified records seized from Mar-a-Lago "allegedly contain what appear to be President Trump's handwritten notes." In court filings, Trump's lawyers have not echoed his declassification claims, but they have asserted that a current president has absolute authority to declassify information. Ahead of that hearing, Trump's lawyers opposed Dearie's request for more information about the classification status of the seized documents.

What's next: Court-ordered depositions of Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump, Jr., were delayed by the death of family matriarch Ivana Trump. But their depositions finally wrapped on August 10, when Donald Trump testified before investigators in James' Manhattan offices. The issues: They say Donald Trump sicced his security guards on their peaceful, legal protest outside Trump Tower in 2015. Donald Trump Jr, Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump during the filming of the live final tv episode of The Celebrity Apprentice on May 16 2010 in New York City. The Issues: Donald Trump is accused of promoting a scam multi-level marketing scheme on "The Celebrity Apprentice."

☆ What is Moore v. Harper? Experts say the next big Supreme Court case 'could provide the path for election subversion'
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-03 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear the case of Moore v. Harper in October. Moore v. Harper is a North Carolina case regarding the independent state legislature doctrine and gerrymandering. The review was granted on June 30 with the case to be heard in the Supreme Court session this October. "And it would do so at a time when voting rights are under attack, including at the Supreme Court itself." Conservative Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito have all endorsed versions of the legal theory in previous court opinions.

Persons: Moore, Harper, —, Harper Moore, Robin Hudson, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Timothy K, SCOTUS, Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, Carolyn Shapiro, Brennan, Brett Kavanaugh, Richard Hasen, Cortez Organizations: Service, Republican, Democratic, North Carolina Supreme, General, United States, North Carolina House of, Independent, Washington Post, Supreme, Brennan Center, Justice, Conservative, New York Democrat Locations: North Carolina, North Carolina's, Alexandria

☆ Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, in a bipartisan vote
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-07 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Jackson makes history as the first Black woman to become a Supreme Court justice. The 51-year-old jurist currently serves on the second-most powerful court in the country, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, often considered a launchpad to the Supreme Court. Biden appointed her to that seat a year ago, which, at the time, sparked rumors that she would make the shortlist if a Supreme Court vacancy arose. In her opening statement, she pledged to "support and defend the Constitution" if confirmed to the Supreme Court.

☆ Black women in the legal world celebrate Ketanji Brown Jackson's historic Supreme Court nomination as a 'victory' for all Americans
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-03 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

The two were enrolled in the same classes, both members of the Black Law Students Association, and lived in the same dormitory building. Black women in the legal world celebrated Jackson's Supreme Court nomination, a milestone that they said marks significant progress for their representation in the legal field, but also for the country as a whole. Installing judges of diverse backgrounds can better ensure the legal system is working equitably for all Americans, Black women in the legal field told Insider. "Now when I tell her, 'You could be a Supreme Court justice,' she can look at the Supreme Court and think, 'Yes, I could, there's someone there who looks like me.'" MoveOnORG activists call for the immediate confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court on February 25.

☆ 'Truth serum' drugs do exist. Here's how medicines like sodium pentothal and scopolamine manipulate the brain.
▼ + stars: | 2014-10-10 | by ( Jessica Orwig | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Numerous accounts and scientific reports suggest that you're more prone to tell the truth under the effects of truth serum drugs, but the drugs have other side effects. Furthermore, not only are truth serum drugs not all that useful, they are illegal under certain circumstances including interrogation. ScopolamineZchanguScopolamine was first promoted by Dr. Robert House as a truth serum in the early 20th century, and was the first drug to adopt the name "truth serum." A truth serum experimentThe best way to find out if truth serum works is to experience it for yourself, which is exactly what TV journalist Michael Mosley did. To investigate sodium thiopental, one of the more popular truth serum drugs, Mosley took two different doses of the drug.

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