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☆ Illinois bans semiautomatic gun sales, legal challenge expected
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Illinois has banned the sale of many common kinds of semiautomatic guns with immediate effect in response to a massacre at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park last year and other mass shootings. The new law, which Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed on Tuesday evening, bans selling many kinds of weapons that automatically load the next bullet after a shot, including semiautomatic rifles and pistols with detachable magazines. The law lists dozens of popular gun brands made by U.S. gun makers. Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said the law affects nearly 2.5 million gun owners in the state and his group would sue to reverse the ban. Brady, a national group advocating against gun violence, said the ban would save lives.

U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb said that the state's new restrictions violated the right to bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Tyler Jones, a spokesperson for Murphy, said the governor's office was disappointed that the judge had struck down "common sense restrictions" and would work to get them reinstated. The decision left open the possibility for states to restrict guns in "sensitive places," but said any restrictions must be consistent with the nation's historical tradition of gun regulation. Bumb ruled Monday that New Jersey's restrictions did not fit with that tradition. Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to file a brief expressing the Biden administration's view on the litigation and whether the Supreme Court should take up the matter. Charter schools are publicly funded but operated separately from school boards run by local governments. The 4th Circuit ruling did not make a conclusion on the Title IX claim. Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, in a decision joined by her fellow Democratic appointees on the 4th Circuit. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

☆ South Carolina Supreme Court strikes down state abortion ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a ban on abortion after six weeks, ruling the restriction enacted by the Deep South state violates a state constitutional right to privacy. With federal abortion protections gone, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic sued in July under the South Carolina constitution’s right to privacy. Currently, South Carolina bars most abortions at about 20 weeks beyond fertilization, or the gestational age of 22 weeks. In South Carolina, lawyers representing the state Legislature have argued the right to privacy should be interpreted narrowly. South Carolina Democratic House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford said any continuation of Republicans’ “war on women” is a deliberate waste of taxpayer dollars.

☆ South Carolina Supreme Court overturns state abortion ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The decision by the South Carolina Supreme Court is based on the state's own constitution, which, unlike the U.S. Constitution, explicitly gives citizens a right to privacy. President Joe Biden's press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, in a tweet wrote: "We are encouraged by South Carolina's Supreme Court ruling today on the state's extreme and dangerous abortion ban." The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the state's ban on abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy, ruling that the law violated the state's constitutional right to privacy. South Carolina's abortion ban was again blocked in August, this time by the state Supreme Court, after a new lawsuit was filed seeking to invalidate it. The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court invalidating the federal right to abortion effectively left it up to individual states to regulate pregnancy terminations.

☆ As U.S. House speaker fight drags on, Republican holdout votes for Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Representative Matt Gaetz, one of 20 House hardliners who have rejected McCarthy, cast his ballot for Trump in a seventh round of voting. He was the only member to do so, leaving Trump far short of the 218 votes needed. The U.S. Constitution does not state that the speaker of the House needs to be a member of the House, though no outsider has held the role. Republican strategists said that the House hardliners' rejection of Trump's plea to vote for McCarthy illustrated the former president's weakening hold on the party he reshaped. Asked about Gaetz's move, a Trump representative on Thursday referred back to Trump's Wednesday post urging "VOTE FOR KEVIN."

☆ Divided Government Set to Return With Start of 118th Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Katy Stech Ferek | Natalie Andrews | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The opening session of the new Congress is expected to kick off two years of political battles over everything from immigration policy to inflation. WASHINGTON—A new era of divided government dawns this week as the 118th Congress begins, with Republicans looking to deploy their power with a fragile majority in the House and Democrats doing the same in the Senate. The House of Representatives will convene on Tuesday, a date designated by the 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that stipulates Congress should begin each new session at noon on Jan. 3.

☆ U.S. appeals court upholds Florida high school's transgender bathroom ban
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Dec 30 (Reuters) - A sharply divided federal appeals court on Friday upheld a Florida high school's policy forbidding transgender students from using bathrooms that accord with their chosen identities. Lawyers for the school board did not immediately respond to requests for comment. All seven judges in the Atlanta-based appeals court majority were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by Donald Trump, while the four dissenting judges were Democratic appointees. Two other federal appeals courts have ruled that transgender students can use bathrooms that accord with their identities. In June 2021, that court let stand one of the earlier appeals court rulings, in a case from Virginia.

☆ U.S. appeals court upholds Florida high school's transgender bathroom policy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 30 (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court on Friday upheld a Florida high school's policy forbidding transgender students from using bathrooms that accord with their chosen identities. Circuit Court of Appeals said the St. Johns County school board did not violate the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause or federal civil rights law by requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex. The policy had been challenged by Drew Adams, a transgender man who was not allowed to use the boys' bathroom when he attended the Allen D. Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. All seven judges in the majority were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by Donald Trump, while the four dissenting judges were Democratic appointees. The Biden administration had urged the appeals court to strike down the school's policy.

He voted against the Puerto Rico Status Act on the floor last week, calling for "letting a full and robust legislative process take place." One of the bill’s main negotiators, Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress, is confident about more congressional hearings on Puerto Rico's territorial status in the new year. That’s intentional, said Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón, a Republican nonvoting member of Congress representing Puerto Rico who favors statehood and helped negotiate the Puerto Rico Status Act. What’s next for Puerto Rico’s territorial status? Excluding Puerto Rico’s territorial status also gives Wicker and others pause.

Jonathan Ernst | ReutersThe Jan. 6 House select committee released its long-awaited final report Thursday, capping an 18-month probe of the 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump. "Donald Trump's senior Justice Department officials — each appointed by Donald Trump himself —investigated the allegations and told him repeatedly that his fraud claims were false," Cheney wrote. "Donald Trump's White House lawyers also told him his fraud claims were false. Members of the Oath Keepers militia group among supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, January 6, 2021. U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak to supporters from The Ellipse near the White House on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC.

watch nowThe Jan. 6 select House committee on Monday referred former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation and potential prosecution for his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. While the Justice Department, which is already conducting an investigation of Trump, takes criminal referrals seriously, it is not obligated to charge anyone with a crime. Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, has not been charged with any crimes related to the 2020 election and the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump last month announced that he will seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024. He did not name them, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is among the members who defied a subpoena from the committee.

Dec 15 (Reuters) - A New York appeals court on Thursday ruled that Yeshiva University must formally recognize an LGBTQ student group, rejecting the Jewish school's claims that doing so would violate its religious rights and values. The ruling by the Appellate Division in Manhattan marked the latest setback for the university in its fight to avoid recognizing Y.U. Pride Alliance, in a statement said the ruling affirmed that the school "cannot discriminate against its LGBTQ+ students by continuing its refusal to recognize the YU Pride Alliance." YU Pride Alliance agreed in September to hold off on forcing Yeshiva to recognize it while the school pursued its appeals after the school briefly halted all student club activities. read moreIt did so after the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision earlier that month declined to block the New York judge's June ruling requiring it to recognize the club.

The House voted Thursday in favor of the Puerto Rico Status Act, which seeks to resolve the U.S. territory's status and its relationship to the United States through a binding plebiscite. The Puerto Rico Status Act also lays out terms for a November 2023 binding plebiscite including all three nonterritorial status options. Lawmakers from both sides debated the merits of the Puerto Rico Status Act on the House floor Thursday. While Democrats insisted the legislation is a significant step toward Puerto Rico's decolonization, Republicans worried over the economic implications of changing Puerto Rico's status. Venator- Santiago, who has been tracking Puerto Rico legislation in Congress for years, said this is the first time since 2010 that the House votes in favor of legislation dealing with changes to Puerto Rico’s territorial status.

Joe Biden beat Donald Trump once, and Democrats are crafting a strategy to try to beat him again in 2024 — even if his name isn’t on the ballot. But Democrats interviewed about the emerging 2024 strategy said they plan to make sure this particular comment isn’t soon forgotten. (Trump issued another statement on his Truth Social platform insisting he hadn’t said he wanted to “terminate” the Constitution.) A Trump ally, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said he doesn’t believe Trump will suffer a backlash over his comment about the Constitution. Trump’s comment “is very serious,” said longtime Biden confidant Ted Kaufman, a former U.S. senator from Delaware.

[1/2] Claudine Gay, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, speaks during the 368th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 30, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoBOSTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Harvard University on Thursday named Claudine Gay, the school's dean of Faculty Arts and Sciences, as its 30th president, the first Black person and only the second woman to hold the job. Gay, the daughter of Haitian immigrants who joined Harvard as a professor in 2006, succeeds Lawrence Bacow as president of the prestigious, nearly 400-year-old Ivy League university. Gay, 52, will step into the job in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the university faces challenges to its admissions policies. Harvard argues that eliminating race as a consideration would hamper its efforts to create a more diverse student body.

[1/2] Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a vaccine mobilization event at TCF center in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. July 12, 2021. REUTERS/Rebecca CookDec 15 (Reuters) - Three men convicted of playing supporting roles in a foiled plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan in 2020 were sentenced to multiple years in prison on Thursday, as two of the conspiracy's ringleaders await sentencing before the end of the month. During the two-hour hearing, the men - dressed in orange prison jumpsuits - sat with their attorneys with their hands shackled to their waists. The group planned to break into Whitmer's vacation home, kidnap her and take her at gunpoint to stand "trial" on treason charges, prosecutors said. In August, two alleged militia members accused of conspiring to trigger a "second American revolution" in the kidnapping plot were found guilty of kidnapping conspiracy charges.

☆ Supreme Court to consider prohibition on encouraging illegal immigration
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a bid by President Joe Biden’s administration to revive a federal law that makes it a criminal offense to encourage illegal immigration after it was struck down by a lower court as a violation of free speech rights. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidating the law for infringing on rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The dispute is similar to one that the Supreme Court heard, but did not resolve, in 2020. The 9th Circuit upheld Hansen’s other convictions and ordered that he be resentenced. Biden’s administration urged the Supreme Court to hear the case, faulting the appeals court for invalidating an “important tool for combating activities that exacerbate unlawful immigration.”The case will be heard during the court’s current term, with a ruling due by June 2023.

Dec 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a bid by President Joe Biden's administration to revive a federal law that makes it a criminal offense to encourage illegal immigration after it was struck down by a lower court as a violation of free speech rights. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidating the law for infringing on rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. The dispute is similar to one that the Supreme Court heard, but did not resolve, in 2020. The 9th Circuit upheld Hansen's other convictions and ordered that he be resentenced. Biden's administration urged the Supreme Court to hear the case, faulting the appeals court for invalidating an "important tool for combating activities that exacerbate unlawful immigration."

In their appeal to the Supreme Court, the Republicans argued that North Carolina's top court usurped their authority by throwing out the map. In that context - a fight over counting ballots in Florida - Rehnquist said the U.S. Constitution limits the authority of state courts. "This court has never second-guessed state court interpretations of their own constitution," said Katyal. Thomas Wolf, an attorney at New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice, said if the Supreme Court gives itself too much leeway to intervene in state court disputes, it risks appearing politically motivated and lawless. The Supreme Court's ruling is due by the end of June.

Another state court then replaced that map with one drawn by a bipartisan group of experts. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wondered whether such broadly worded provisions provide proper "standards and guidelines" for state courts to apply. The Republican lawmakers argued that the state court usurped the North Carolina General Assembly's authority under that provision to regulate federal elections. Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized the "historical practice" that "nearly all state constitutions regulate federal elections in some way." David Thompson, arguing for the North Carolina lawmakers, said the Constitution "requires state legislatures specifically to perform the federal function of prescribing regulations for federal elections.

The position of others including Chief Justice John Roberts was harder to read, raising the possibility of a ruling less broad than the Republican state lawmakers pursuing the appeal seek. The Republican lawmakers are asking the Supreme Court to embrace a once-marginal legal theory that has gained favor among some conservatives called the "independent state legislature" doctrine. The Republican lawmakers have argued that the state court unconstitutionally usurped the North Carolina General Assembly's authority to regulate federal elections. Thompson also argued that state constitutions cannot impose substantive limits on the actions of legislatures on federal elections. A lower state court subsequently rejected the legislature's redrawn map and adopted one drawn by a bipartisan group of experts.

The Supreme Court's eventual decision, due by the end of June, could apply to 2024 elections including the U.S. presidential race. The Republican lawmakers have argued that the state court unconstitutionally usurped the North Carolina General Assembly's authority to regulate federal elections. Kagan noted that in a series of cases over the years the Supreme Court expressed that state courts had a role to play in this area. A lower state court subsequently rejected the legislature's redrawn map and adopted a new map drawn by a bipartisan group of experts. The Supreme Court in March declined a Republican request to put those lower court actions on hold.

The Republicans are asking the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, to embrace a once-marginal legal theory that has gained favor among some conservatives called the "independent state legislature" doctrine. The Supreme Court's eventual decision, due by the end of June, could apply to 2024 elections including the U.S. presidential race. The Republican lawmakers have argued that the state court unconstitutionally usurped the North Carolina General Assembly's authority to regulate federal elections. A lower state court subsequently rejected the legislature's redrawn map and adopted a new map drawn by a bipartisan group of experts. The Supreme Court in March declined a Republican request to put those lower court actions on hold.

☆ Trump-backed Walker loses: Three takeaways from Georgia U.S. Senate runoff
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( James Oliphant | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker gives a concession speech during his election night party after losing the U.S. midterm runoff election to Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff election that fortified Democrats' Senate majority and handed the Republican Party another bitter loss to cap a disappointing midterm election season. Trump held two rallies for Walker in Georgia, but did not come to the state for the runoff, only phoning in to boost supporters on Monday night. That forced uncomfortable congressional Republicans to respond to Trump's statements in the days before the runoff election, pulling the focus from Walker's candidacy. At one rally prior to the runoff, Walker publicly mused about whether a werewolf could kill a vampire.

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