Feds Rip California Law Regulating Oil and Gas Drilling
The U.S. Justice Department has sued California over Senate Bill 1137, which bars new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and hospitals on federal land. The government seeks a preliminary injunction, arguing the law infringes federal sovereignty and reduces revenue from Bureau of Land Management leases. California counters that the statute serves public‑health and environmental goals that Congress permits states to enforce. Judge Dena Coggins has not yet ruled on the injunction request.
Berkeley Homeless Evictions Spark Clash over ADA, Public Safety
The Berkeley Homeless Union has sued the city, claiming its eviction policies breach the Americans with Disabilities Act and endanger vulnerable residents. The city counters that it must preserve public safety, maintain the right‑of‑way, and has repeatedly offered shelter that...
Ninth Circuit Presses Feds over Bid to Pause Expired Student Loan Relief Deadline
The U.S. Department of Education asked the Ninth Circuit to pause a missed deadline for processing student‑loan forgiveness claims, citing an $11 billion liability. The panel expressed skepticism about that figure and questioned the request to rewrite settlement terms after the...
Trial Begins for Maui Doctor Accused of Trying to Murder Wife
The trial of Gerhardt Konig, a former Maui Memorial Hospital anesthesiologist, opened in Honolulu on charges of second‑degree attempted murder after prosecutors allege he tried to push his wife off a ridge and beat her with a rock. The prosecution...
Fifth Circuit Revives Terroristic Threat Charges Against Roblox Player
A Fifth Circuit panel revived a federal indictment against 18‑year‑old James Wesley Burger for alleged terroristic threats made on the Roblox platform. The appeals court rejected a district judge’s view that the statements were protected role‑playing speech, ordering the issue to...
Canada’s Supreme Court Scrutinizes Facebook’s Role in Cambridge Analytica Privacy Scandal
Canada’s Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Privacy Commissioner alleges Facebook violated PIPEDA by lacking meaningful consent and failing safeguards. Facebook argues users consented via terms and that data isn’t sensitive. Justices...
Federal Judge Blocks RFK Declaration Targeting Gender-Affirming Care
A federal judge in Oregon vacated a Department of Health and Human Services declaration issued by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that threatened to exclude doctors providing gender‑affirming care for minors from Medicare and Medicaid. The ruling found Kennedy...
Detainees Urge Minnesota Judge to Extend Order Protecting Attorney Access
Immigration detainees in Minnesota asked a federal judge to extend the February restraining order that guarantees attorney access at the Bishop Henry Whipple detention center. Advocates report that the order has halved average detention times and cut stays longer than...
‘Releasable Youths’ Sue Colorado for a Path to Pretrial Freedom
A class‑action lawsuit filed by Colorado youths deemed "releasable" alleges the state continues to confine them in juvenile detention facilities despite court orders for release. Between 2024 and 2025, 693 minors were held after being found eligible for release, with...
Las Vegas Newspaper Demands County Release Records of Official’s Investigation
The Las Vegas Review‑Journal filed a lawsuit against Clark County to obtain records of an investigation into former Construction Management Division manager Jimmy Floyd, who is accused of steering $442,200 of county road‑construction funds to his wife’s subcontractor. The county...
Nebraska US Senate Candidate Sues After Being Taken Off the Ballot
Democratic candidate Cindy Burbank filed a lawsuit after Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen removed her from the U.S. Senate primary ballot. Burbank argues the removal, based on her alleged support for independent Dan Osborn, violates her First Amendment rights....
South Dakota Governor Signs Anti-SLAPP Legislation
South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden signed Senate Bill 137, making the state the 40th to adopt anti‑SLAPP legislation. The law lets defendants request dismissal of meritless suits within sixty days, aiming to shield public participants from costly legal intimidation. The...
Federal Judge Likely to Block ‘Brazen’ White House Ballroom Construction
A federal judge is poised to block President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project after the Justice Department presented shifting legal arguments. Judge Richard Leon criticized the administration’s claim that the demolition and new construction constitute a simple "alteration"...
Appeals Court Questions Timeliness of Fraud Class Action over Mormon Church Tithes
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing a class‑action fraud suit that accuses the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints of misusing tithes for commercial projects such as the City Creek Center. Plaintiffs argue they lacked constructive...
Ninth Circuit Dismisses Arizona Vote Dilution Claims
The Ninth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit alleging Arizona’s voter rolls contain up to 1.2 million ineligible voters who could dilute Republican votes. The panel held that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate a concrete, imminent injury, describing their claims as speculative and...
Appeals Court Upholds Rebecca Grossman’s Murder Conviction
A California Court of Appeal upheld Rebecca Grossman’s second‑degree murder conviction for killing two boys while driving at 73 mph under the influence. The three‑judge panel rejected her defense that the jury should have considered manslaughter, emphasizing that her conduct demonstrated...
Teachers Urge 10th Circuit to Lift Oklahoma Ban on ‘Divisive’ Lessons
Oklahoma's House Bill 1775 bans teachers from incorporating eight "divisive" concepts—such as race and sex superiority—into any course. The ACLU argues the statute is unconstitutionally vague, chilling free‑speech and effective instruction, while the state contends it merely forbids endorsement of...
North Korean Leader Kim Observes Test of Rocket Launch Systems with His Daughter
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his teenage daughter, observed a live‑fire test of twelve 600 mm ultraprecision rocket launchers off the country’s east coast. South Korean sensors detected about ten ballistic missiles launched toward the eastern sea, which...
Trump Seeks to Close $1.6 Trillion Revenue Gap with Raft of New Tariffs
The Trump administration is launching a series of Section 301 investigations and new duties to recoup roughly $1.6 trillion in tariff revenue lost after a Supreme Court ruling. The probes will examine 16 economies for excess factory capacity and dozens more for...
Ninth Circuit Thwarts Attempt to Halt Copper Mine on Apache Land
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a motion to stop the construction of the Resolution Copper mine at Oak Flat, a site sacred to the Western Apache tribe. The panel held that the Forest Service’s environmental impact statement...
Trump Admin Ordered to Keep Funding Consumer Protection Bureau
A federal judge ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s acting director, Russell Vought, to resume requesting funding from the Federal Reserve, reversing his earlier decision to halt such requests. The ruling found the bureau’s funding shutdown arbitrary and capricious, emphasizing...
Italy’s Constitutional Court Rejects Challenge to Citizenship-by-Descent Reform
Italy’s Constitutional Court rejected a constitutional challenge and upheld the 2025 law that sharply narrows citizenship‑by‑descent, limiting jus sanguinis to the third generation. The court deemed the constitutional questions partly unfounded, leaving the reform in place pending a full ruling....
Ninth Circuit Revives Suit over Amazon Sodium Nitrite Used in Teen Suicides
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived a lawsuit allowing the families of two teenagers who died after ingesting sodium nitrite purchased on Amazon to pursue product‑liability claims. The panel held that suicide is not a superseding cause under Washington's...
Judge Blocks Trump Administration Grant Cuts to Environmental Groups over DEI
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction restoring roughly $14 million in Interior Department grants to three western environmental groups after finding the Trump administration cut the funds due to the organizations’ DEI‑related speech. The court held the cuts likely violated...
Media Watchdog Withdraws Its Suit Against X
Media Matters and X Corp. filed a joint stipulation to dismiss all federal lawsuits between them, ending a year‑long dispute that spanned U.S., Irish, Singaporean, and UK courts. The dismissal is with prejudice against X’s claims but leaves the nonprofit...
9th Circuit Stands by Venezuelan, Haitian TPS Ruling
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower‑court ruling that grants Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Venezuelan and Haitian nationals. The decision rejects the federal government’s effort to terminate those protections, citing statutory authority and humanitarian considerations. The...
Hawley Unveils Bill to Ban Abortion Pill, Strip FDA Approval
Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill to immediately withdraw the FDA's safety approval for mifepristone, the primary abortion medication. The legislation follows recent Supreme Court and Trump‑era reviews of the drug and cites a controversial conservative study alleging serious adverse...
Arizona House Committee Supports Restricting Child Access to Sexual Material
The Arizona House committee approved two Republican‑backed bills targeting minors' exposure to sexually explicit material. Senate Bill 1435 makes it a class‑five felony for library or school staff to refer such material to anyone under 18, while Senate Bill 1567...
Federal Judge Signals ICE Arrests in DC Not Meeting Probable Cause Standards
Federal Judge Beryl Howell expressed skepticism that ICE is adhering to her Dec. 2 order prohibiting warrantless immigration arrests without individualized probable‑cause assessments. The ACLU presented evidence that 26 of 33 recent arrests in Washington, D.C., lacked any escape‑risk determination, citing...
Arizona House Committee Supports Local Cooperation with ICE
An Arizona House committee voted 8-6 to advance Senate Bill 1055, which would require local law enforcement to notify ICE or CBP whenever an arrestee is not lawfully present. The proposal clashes with state law that limits status inquiries to...
Family Claims OpenAI Ignored Warning Signs Ahead of Tumbler Ridge Mass Shooting
A British Columbia family has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the company ignored internal warnings that a user was planning violent acts before the February Tumbler Ridge school shooting. The plaintiffs claim OpenAI banned the shooter’s first ChatGPT account...
Kathy Ireland Sues Longtime Managers, Claiming Decades of Financial Betrayal
Supermodel‑turned‑entrepreneur Kathy Ireland has filed a lawsuit against her longtime personal managers, Jason Winters and Erik Sterling, alleging a multi‑decade scheme that siphoned more than $100 million from her and her family’s finances. The complaint says the couple secured sweeping powers...
Amazon Wins Block Against AI-Powered Shopping Assistant
A federal judge granted Amazon a preliminary injunction blocking Perplexity AI’s Comet shopping assistant from accessing Amazon’s site. The court found Amazon likely to succeed on claims that Comet violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California’s data‑access statutes...
Former Twitter Lawyer Says He Received Threats of ‘World War III’ over Musk Acquisition Deal
Former Twitter attorney Martin Korman testified that Musk's lawyer warned a forced completion would be "World War III to the end of time." He also disclosed attempts to resolve the bot‑account dispute, including offers for joint data‑science analysis that Musk...
Appellate Decision Sends Storm Clouds to California Solar Panel Customers
A three‑justice panel of the California First Appellate District affirmed the Public Utilities Commission’s 2022 net‑energy metering 3.0 tariff, which slashes rooftop solar credits by about 75% and replaces full‑retail rate subsidies with cost‑based credits. The court rejected challenges from...
Judge Rules ICE Made Warrantless, Race-Based Stops of Somali, Latino Minnesotans
U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud ruled that ICE agents conducted warrantless stops and arrests of Somali and Latino Minnesotans solely on race, violating the Fourth Amendment. The judge identified 17 of 33 witnesses who were stopped purely because of ethnicity...
Conservative Media Figures Urge Court for Washington House Press Passes
Three conservative media figures—radio host Ari Hoffman, podcaster Brandi Kruse and Discovery Institute correspondent Jonathan Choe—were denied Washington state House press passes and have filed an emergency lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order for the final 72 hours of the...
Attorneys for Detained Immigrant Children Awarded $7 Million in Legal Fees
A Los Angeles federal judge awarded attorneys representing detained immigrant children $7 million in fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The award follows a 2018 class‑action lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging unlawful detention, lack of due...
Google, Android Users Near Final Approval of $135M Data Transfer Settlement
A U.S. magistrate has granted preliminary approval for a $135 million settlement that resolves a class action accusing Google of silently transferring Android users' data over cellular networks. The deal caps individual payments at $100, with named plaintiffs eligible for up...
FEMA Ordered to Restore Disaster Mitigation Funding
Federal Judge Richard G. Stearns ordered FEMA to restore the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program after a coalition of 20 states successfully challenged its 2025 termination. The court mandated concrete steps within 14 days, including releasing pre‑disaster mitigation...
Tesla Employee Claims Sixth Street Shooting Suspect Assaulted Her While on Prayer Break
Tesla employee Lillian Mendoza Brady has filed a lawsuit alleging she was assaulted by Sixth Street shooter Ndiaga Diagne during a prayer break at a Tesla facility. The complaint claims Tesla knew of Diagne’s aggressive tendencies yet failed to monitor common areas,...
Trump Admin Appeals Block on Subpoena for Trans Care Clinic Records
The Justice Department issued a June subpoena to QueerDoc, a telehealth clinic offering gender‑affirming care, seeking billing, insurance and patient records as part of a Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act investigation into drug manufacturers. A Seattle district judge blocked...
Hungary Clashes with EU After Being Shut Out on Ukraine Arms Funding
Hungary sued the EU after being barred from a vote on allocating frozen Russian asset profits to Ukraine’s military aid. The country argues its earlier abstention on the profit‑sharing decision does not strip its right to participate in the subsequent...
Poland Phases Out Aid for Ukrainian Refugees
Poland enacted a law that curtails social benefits for Ukrainian refugees, restricting healthcare to minors, workers, victims of torture or rape, and other vulnerable groups. Food, housing aid and school transport subsidies will only continue for the most vulnerable and...
Families of 43 Missing Students in Mexico Win Order for Intel and Evidence
A federal judge ordered Mexico’s Ministry of National Defense to release 853 intelligence files obtained by the Regional Intelligence Fusion Center in 2014, which pertain to the September 26 kidnapping of 43 Ayotzinapa students. The families secured the ruling through...
Blind Man Who Was Told to Read Library Sign Cleared to Fight San Francisco
Anthony Lewis, a blind San Francisco resident, sued the city after a library security guard demanded his service dog’s rabies vaccination record. The U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero declined to dismiss Lewis’s ADA discrimination claim, allowing the case to move forward....
Mother of Mentally Ill Jail Inmate Blames Medical Director for Baby’s Death
A Texas mother has asked the Fifth Circuit to revive a lawsuit against Dr. Aaron Shaw, the former medical director of Tarrant County Jail, alleging deliberate indifference after her daughter, Chasity Congious, gave birth alone in her cell and the...
Judge Tosses College Volleyball Players’ Suit over Trans Athletes
A federal judge largely dismissed a lawsuit filed by women’s volleyball players seeking to stop the Mountain West Conference from allowing transgender athletes in championship matches. The court noted the NCAA’s 2025 rule now bars athletes assigned male at birth...
Jewish News Org Can’t Sue School Districts over Canceled Speaker
A federal magistrate judge dismissed Jewish Legal News' lawsuit against three Bay Area school districts that canceled pro‑Israel speaker Luai Ahmed, ruling the outlet lacked standing because it was not a direct recipient of the speech. The judge also held...
EPA Pushes Back on Drinking Water Fluoridation Regulation
The EPA is contesting a Ninth Circuit panel’s view that a district judge overstepped by introducing new scientific studies in a case challenging federal fluoride standards. Food & Water Watch argues the EPA’s optimal fluoridation level poses an unreasonable risk...
