The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 18 agreed to hear TikTok’s case challenging a law requiring it’s China-based parent company to divest of the app by Jan. 19, 2025. The court will hear oral arguments on Jan. 10, 2025. TikTok had challenged the divestment law as unconstitutional under the First Amendment, and a three-judge panel […]
A federal judge in Maryland threw out a challenge on Dec. 6 to the U.S. Naval Academy’s policy of considering race in admissions. The new decision came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2023 that Harvard College’s use of affirmative action violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. But in that […]
A three-judge panel on Dec. 6 rejected TikTok, ByteDance, and a group of TikTok users’ challenge of a law that requires the app to cut ties with the Chinese communist regime in order to continue operating in the United States. TikTok now faces a Jan. 19, 2025, ban, unless President Joe Biden issues a 90-day […]
Romania’s top court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, which was won by a populist, Calin Georgescu, who campaigned largely on TikTok. The Constitutional Court’s decision, on Friday, was made days after the current president, Klaus Iohannis, declassified intelligence reports from the Romanian security service that suggest Russia was behind a […]
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has recused himself from a development–environmental case over a potential conflict of interest after protests from Democratic lawmakers who say the court decision will impact a longtime associate of the justice. Oral argument for the case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, is scheduled to be heard […]
District of Columbia Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 25, bringing an end to a highly contentious prosecution and raising questions about whether the charges could once again surface. Chutkan’s dismissal was entered “without prejudice,” which means the charges can hypothetically be brought against Trump at a […]
The Illinois Supreme Court has overturned former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s felony conviction for orchestrating a fake hate crime, finding that his prosecution violated due process because it ran afoul of a nonprosecution deal he entered into in an earlier, related case. In a Nov. 21 opinion, the high court decided to reverse Smollett’s 2021 […]
A federal appeals court has granted special counsel Jack Smith’s request to pause his appeal in one of the cases involving President-elect Donald Trump. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Nov. 14 granted Smith’s request to hold the appeal in abeyance until Dec. 2. The grant was entered by the court’s […]
SAO PAULO—A man who failed in an attempt to break into Brazil’s Supreme Court killed himself in explosions outside the building Wednesday that forced justices and staff to evacuate, authorities said. The two strong blasts were heard about 7:30 p.m. after the day’s session finished and all the justices and staff left the building safely, […]
The Supreme Court declined on Nov. 12 to take up a challenge to New York’s rent control law, which grants a building’s tenants veto power over condominium conversions. The decision came in the form of an unsigned order regarding the petition filed in G-Max Management Inc. v. State of New York. The court did not […]
The Supreme Court on Nov. 12 turned away former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’s request to transfer his election interference case from a Georgia state court to federal court. The justices issued the court’s new unsigned order without explaining why, as is its custom when rejecting petitions. Meadows filed his petition with […]
A Texas federal judge on Thursday struck down a Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) rule that allows illegal immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for residency. The ruling sets aside a “parole in place” process announced in August that would have meant the illegal immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens could apply for legal status […]
The Supreme Court decided on Nov. 4 to hear a racial gerrymandering case from Louisiana. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of electoral district boundaries to favor a particular party or constituency. The case will not be heard in time for the Nov. 5 presidential and congressional elections. The case is actually two cases—Louisiana v. Callais and […]
A New York law requiring the counting of mail-in ballots even if there’s some doubt as to their validity is constitutional, the state’s top court ruled on Oct. 31. “We hold that the statute does not violate the constitutional principles of separation of powers or of judicial review,” the State of New York Court of […]
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 31 rejected independent presidential candidate Cornel West’s request to require swing state Pennsylvania officials to advise voters they could write him in as a candidate. A lower court in Pennsylvania removed his name from the Nov. 5 ballot after finding the paperwork in support of his candidacy was not […]
A Pennsylvania court ruled on Oct. 30 that the state’s requirement for mail-in ballots to be correctly dated in order to be counted is unconstitutional, though the 3–2 decision, according to the judge’s opinion, applies only to a past special election. A Commonwealth Court panel upheld a ruling by a Philadelphia judge stating that 69 […]
A judge is set to hold a hearing on Oct. 31 in a lawsuit brought by the Philadelphia district attorney seeking to block Trump supporter Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day giveaway to swing state voters. Musk has been ordered to attend.
A social media post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk warning employees that they could lose stock options if they unionize constitutes protected speech and does not have to be deleted, a divided federal appellate court ruled on Oct. 25. In a 9–8 ruling, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2021 order from the […]
Virginia officials filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 28 asking the justices to allow the state to remove suspected noncitizens from the voter rolls. The application was filed in the case known as Beals v. Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found […]
A California court allowed school districts to sue social media companies including Facebook and TikTok over accusations they harm the mental health of children and therefore force the districts to spend more resources to tackle such issues faced by students. The judgment came as part of a multidistrict litigation that consolidated hundreds of complaints filed […]
