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☆ Factbox: Possible U.S. debt-ceiling workarounds to avoid default
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Historians say that aimed to ensure the federal government would not repudiate its debts, as some ex-Confederate states had done. Some experts have suggested that Biden could invoke this amendment to raise the debt ceiling on his own if Congress does not act. That leaves only three possible dates for action in the first half of this year: March 27, May 22 and June 12. Analysts say this would leave Treasury on the hook for higher interest payments and unsettle the market for Treasury bonds, which serve as a bedrock for the global financial system. Attempts to abolish the debt ceiling have gotten no traction in Congress in recent years.

☆ New York attorney general calls for new sanctions against Donald Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Jan 31 (Reuters) - New York's attorney general on Tuesday asked a judge to sanction former U.S. President Donald Trump, his adult children, the Trump Organization and their lawyers over their responses to her $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against them. Lawyers for the Trump defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who announced a third run for the presidency in 2024, hosts a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. December 31, 2022. James asked for sanctions on the same day new video from her office's Aug. 10 deposition of Donald Trump showed the former president repeatedly refusing to answer questions, citing his right against self-incrimination under the U.S. Constitution. "This is a vindictive and self-serving fishing expedition, the likes of which this country has perhaps never seen before," Trump said.

Prior to Monday's agreement, judicial appointments were limited to the two major parties. He argued the major party requirement violated his right to free association under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The bare majority requirement still applies, but now that majority could consist of independents. Governor John Carney, a Democrat, had argued that the state's courts are trusted by business leaders because of the balance guaranteed by the "bare majority" rule. Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; editing by Deepa BabingtonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Bumb three weeks ago blocked other parts of the law in a similar lawsuit brought by different plaintiffs. Those measures included bans on carrying guns in public libraries, museums, bars and restaurants and on private property without the owner's explicit permission, as well as transporting loaded guns in vehicles. Other parts of the law, including measures tightening gun licensing requirements and handgun safety rules, remain in effect. Both lawsuits argue that the state's new restrictions violate the right to bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Biden personally adds mentions of an assault weapons ban to his planned public remarks, a White House official said. "We're going to ban assault weapons again," he said on Thursday at a Lunar New Year reception at the White House, to applause. As vice president, he spearheaded a set of gun control proposals for Barack Obama after Sandy Hook that included a recommendation for a new assault weapons ban. However the Quinnipiac and other polls show that just about half of Americans support an assault weapons ban. Even though an all-out assault weapons ban seems unlikely, a very thin Republican majority in the House means that something more modest, such as raising the age to 21 to buy assault weapons, could be possible, the University of New Hampshire's Scala said.

☆ U.S. Senate Democrats call for probe into 'JR-15' child-size rifle
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Gram Slattery | Diane Bartz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

In a press conference, the lawmakers questioned the marketing techniques of gun manufacturer Wee 1 Tactical, which produces the JR-15 .22 Long Rifle. The similarly named AR-15-style rifle has been used in a number of high-profile deadly shootings in the United States in recent years. The senators’ request comes just days after a trio of mass shootings in California that killed 19 people. Democrats have been attempting to tighten gun control measures in the United States for decades in a bid to tamp down frequent mass shootings. “The JR-15 is smaller, weighs less and has a patented safety.”

REUTERS/Mike Blake/File PhotoJan 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has blocked a California law that sought to penalize doctors who spread "misinformation or disinformation" about COVID-19 while he considers a pair lawsuits challenging it on free speech grounds. "At no point has the State of California been able to articulate the line between permissible and impermissible speech." Under AB 2098, doctors can be disciplined for spreading misinformation about COVID, defined as "false information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care." They said that doctors who give harmful advice to patients are already subject to malpractice lawsuits and discipline under existing state law. Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Soccer's world governing body FIFA prevailed in a U.S. appeals court over a former Nigeria national team coach seeking to overturn his lifetime ban, later reduced to five years, for fixing matches. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Samson Siasia did not show why a trial court in New York had jurisdiction over his case. FIFA had in 2019 imposed the lifetime ban, saying Siasia violated its code of ethics over a bribery scheme for Australian matches. Siasia, an Atlanta resident and former Nigeria striker, sued FIFA in August 2021, saying the evidence was "grossly insufficient" and that the ban violated his due process rights under the U.S. Constitution. In June 2021, the Court of Arbitration for Sport shortened the ban, calling it too severe for a first offense.

The men’s defense lawyers asked a judge to rule the geofence warrant unconstitutional and throw out any evidence that came from it. Last March, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that a geofence warrant used to find a suspect in a bank robbery was unconstitutional. In September, a state court in San Francisco ruled against the use of a geofence warrant in a burglary investigation. Law enforcement agencies may then try workarounds, like teaming up with agencies in jurisdictions that lack restrictions. “This is a tool that law enforcement is hellbent on using, and I understand why,” Owsley said.

Bryant objected to North Carolina requirements that patients obtain abortion pills only in person from physicians in specially certified facilities, and undergo as state-mandated counseling at least 72 hours before having abortions. The offices of West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The West Virginia lawsuit was reported earlier by The New York Times, and the North Carolina lawsuit by ABC News. The cases are GenBioPro Inc v Sorsaia et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of West Virginia, No. 23-00058; and Bryant v Stein et al, U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina, No.

☆ Abortion pill manufacturer GenBioPro sues West Virginia, argues FDA rules pre-empt state ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The abortion pill manufacturer GenBioPro on Wednesday sued to overturn West Virginia's ban on abortion because it restricts access to a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in West Virginia's southern district, argues that FDA regulations on medications such as the abortion pill pre-empt state law under the U.S. Constitution. Access to the pill, called mifepristone, has become a major legal battleground in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal abortion rights last June. A dozen states, including West Virginia, have implemented near total abortion bans that basically outlaw the use of mifepristone. But bans such as those in West Virginia conflict with FDA regulations on mifepristone, raising the question of whether federal or state laws take precedence.

☆ U.S. finds Louisiana deliberately kept inmates past release date
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Justice Department said it concluded that the LDOC denies individuals' due process rights to timely release from incarceration. "LDOC is deliberately indifferent to the systemic overdetention of people in its custody," the Justice Department concluded. Between January 2022 and April 2022, 26.8% of the people released from LDOC’s custody were held past their release dates, the Justice Department said. The Justice Department initiated its investigation in December 2020. The notice said a lawsuit could be initiated by the Justice Department if the issues are not addressed.

Companies Genbiopro Inc FollowJan 25 (Reuters) - A maker of abortion pills and a doctor have filed lawsuits challenging state restrictions on the medication, in the first lawsuits of their kind since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal constitutional right to abortion. The doctor, Amy Bryant, filed a separate lawsuit in the federal court in Durham, North Carolina, challenging state-imposed restrictions on obtaining mifepristone, which she said impeded her ability to treat patients. Medication abortions make up more than half of U.S. abortions. Misoprostol is the second drug of the two-drug regimen for medication abortion. Twelve states now ban nearly all abortions, including medication abortions.

One man carried out his attack with a gun banned by the state, while the other used a gun he legally owned, police said. Even in California, a state with some of the country's strictest gun laws, the limits can be sidestepped. The prospects for new federal gun laws are dim. The majority of guns used in mass shootings were obtained legally, according to the nonprofit Violence Project, which maintains a database of attacks. Chunli Zhao legally owned the gun used in the Half Moon Bay attack on Monday, police said.

☆ Explainer: What guns were used to attack a Lunar New Year party in California?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Here is what is known so far about the weapons involved and the regulations that govern them:WHAT GUNS WERE USED? He did not disclose the capacity of the magazine attached, although under California law a "large-capacity magazine" is defined as one that holds more than 10 rounds. The state bans many kinds of guns that are legal in other states, and obtaining a required California gun license is relatively difficult. Semi-automatic pistols are the most widely carried guns in the country, and some kinds are legal in California. But the state bans what it defines as "assault weapons," which is determined by the gun's features and includes semiautomatic MAC-10 guns.

Jan 23 - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked President Joe Biden's administration to weigh in on whether it should review Republican-backed laws in Texas and Florida that would undercut efforts by major social media companies to curb content deemed objectionable on their platforms, actions the states call impermissible censorship. Supporters of the laws have argued that social media platforms have silenced conservative voices while advocates for the judicious use of curbing content have argued for the need to stop misinformation and advocacy for extremist causes. Florida is seeking to revive its law after a lower court ruled largely against it, while the industry groups are appealing a separate lower court decision upholding the Texas law, which the Supreme Court had blocked at an earlier stage of the case. The Texas law forbids social media companies with at least 50 million monthly active users from acting to "censor" users based on "viewpoint." Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 upheld the Texas law, concluding that it "chills no speech whatsoever.

☆ Ron DeSantis just notched a win in court. But the judge says he still violated a prosecutor’s free speech rights.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Marc Caputo | Marc Caputo Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +15 min

In a statement posted on Twitter, DeSantis' office lauded the ruling without addressing those nuances. By suspending Warren, DeSantis also elevated the Democrat’s political profile in his own party. And no one in Hillsborough County was charged with violating that state law when Warren was the county prosecutor. Court testimony from DeSantis administration officials showed that the abortion letter was the major cause of Warren's suspension. Abortion was the only issue mentioned in the first draft of DeSantis' suspension order.

Kaye Hearn, a justice on South Carolina’s Supreme Court, wrote the majority opinion this month that struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban. Two women, Court of Appeals Judges Stephanie McDonald and Aphrodite Konduros, were initially in the running for Hearn’s seat but withdrew Tuesday. (The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest court for criminal cases, also has an all-male bench; the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which hears civil cases, has both female and male justices.) In 1988, Toal was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Hearn, who was elected to the state’s Court of Appeals in 1995, joined her on the bench in 2010.

☆ Judge rules for Florida's DeSantis against prosecutor for abortion stance
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Mike Scarcella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

DeSantis on Aug. 4 barred Warren from performing any official "act, duty or function of public office." Hinkle found that Warren's suspension violated Florida's state constitution, but the judge said the U.S. Constitution barred him from issuing a reinstatement order "against a state official based only on a violation of state law." The court also wrote that "Mr. Warren's actual performance as a reform prosecutor was conduct, not speech protected by the First Amendment." Lawyers for Warren and a DeSantis representative did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Lawyers for DeSantis argued that the governor suspended Warren from office not over his speech but his conduct as a prosecutor.

[1/7] Abortion rights campaigners participate in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. The report detailed an eight-month investigation conducted by Supreme Court marshal Gail Curley at the direction of Chief Justice John Roberts. The report did not identify a specific source of the leak, noting that none of the 97 court employees interviewed by investigators confessed to the disclosure. It was critical of some of the court's internal security protocols, and made clear that investigators would continue to pursue any new leads. "In time, continued investigation and analysis may produce additional leads that could identify the source of the disclosure," the report stated.

☆ Supreme Court again declines to block New York gun restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned away a challenge by a group of firearms dealers in New York to numerous Democratic-backed measures adopted by the state last year regulating gun purchases that the businesses said hurt their businesses. Others were adopted in July after the Supreme Court the prior month struck down New York’s limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home in a landmark ruling expanding gun rights. New York officials have said the new gun restrictions, which face numerous legal challenges in lower courts, are needed to protect public safety. The Supreme Court has broadened gun rights in three key rulings since 2008. Alito wrote that the New York law at issue “presents novel and serious questions” under the U.S. Constitution’s provisions on gun rights and free speech.

Others were adopted in July after the Supreme Court the prior month struck down New York's limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home in a landmark ruling expanding gun rights. New York officials have said the new gun restrictions, which face numerous legal challenges in lower courts, are needed to protect public safety. The Supreme Court has broadened gun rights in three key rulings since 2008. Alito wrote that the New York law at issue "presents novel and serious questions" under the U.S. Constitution's provisions on gun rights and free speech. Nine individuals who sell firearms in upstate New York and a gun collectors association sued state officials in federal court to challenge a series of laws regulating purchases.

☆ Explainer: Washington creeps toward a debt catastrophe, again
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Jason Lange | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - An expected showdown between President Joe Biden's Democrats and a newly minted Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives over the debt ceiling is threatening to push Washington to the brink of a debt crisis. WHAT'S THE DEBT CEILING? IS THE DEBT CEILING GOOD FOR ANYTHING? Others argue the debt ceiling itself violates the U.S. Constitution. In a 2011 showdown, House Republicans successfully used the debt ceiling to extract sharp limits on discretionary spending from Democratic President Barack Obama.

☆ Explainer: Washington edges closer to debt ceiling deadline
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Jason Lange | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WHAT IS THE DEBT CEILING? IS THE DEBT CEILING GOOD FOR ANYTHING? Few counties in the world have debt ceiling laws and Washington's periodic lifting of the borrowing limit merely allows it to pay for spending Congress has already authorized. Others argue the debt ceiling itself violates the U.S. Constitution. In a 2011 showdown, House Republicans successfully used the debt ceiling to extract sharp limits on discretionary spending from Democratic President Barack Obama.

NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed New York to enforce a Democratic-backed gun control law adopted after the justices last year struck down the state's limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home in a landmark ruling that expanded gun rights. Circuit Court of Appeals in December put that decision on hold while the state pursues an appeal. Wednesday's action may not be the last time the Supreme Court addresses New York's new gun law. New York state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, praised the court's decision to keep the law in effect. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Concealed Carry Improvement Act on July 1, a week after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling against a New York concealed carry permit restriction.

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