New Jersey recently made 1 million of its citizens criminals by banning common firearm ammunition magazines without any grandfathering provision, but plaintiffs challenging the statute on Second Amendment grounds also argue that it violates equal protection because it exempts retired law enforcement, but not retired military – a feature noticed just as America prepares to celebrate the Fourth of July.
Fifteen states with leftist attorneys general sued President Donald Trump in federal court on Wednesday over his decision to end President Barack Obama’s controversial DACA program.
The Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a pleading Wednesday saying the judge should take no more action in the voter ID lawsuit against Texas because the State’s new law “eradicates any discriminatory effect or intent” of the prior law. Moreover, the new law is “constitutionally and legally valid.”
The Supreme Court of Texas held that the U.S. Supreme Court opinion recognizing the right of same-sex couples to marry does not automatically entitle them to spousal employment benefits. The unanimous court held that the 2015 opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges did not address the right to tax, insurance, or other benefits–only the right to marry.
An Obama nominee presiding over the photo voter ID lawsuit issued an order on Monday finding that the State of Texas did not meet its burden to show that the law was not passed with a discriminatory purpose in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
The Supreme Court of Texas heard oral arguments today in a case where Houston taxpayers sued urging that subsidizing employment benefits for the spouse of a same-sex couple is illegal. Lawyers for the taxpayers describe the case as “the only one of its kind in the nation.”
The Associated Press is reporting that the Trump Administration will be ending the federal government’s opposition to Texas’ photo voter identification law.
The Supreme Court of Texas decided to hear a Texas case fighting taxpayer-funded employment benefits for gay spouses.
A federal magistrate delayed the next hearing in the Texas voter ID case so that the Trump Administration has time to reassess.
Just before city candidates will begin to sign up for running for office, a federal judge has issued a judgment and injunction prohibiting the City of Pasadena from using what she ruled was an unconstitutional redistricting plan. The municipality will also be placed under federal “preclearance” for six years–requiring Justice Department approval to any changes to election rules.
Pasadena, Texas, will be monitored by the Justice Department now that a federal judge has ruled that the City violated the Voting Rights Act by intentionally changing its city council districts to decrease Hispanic influence. The City, which the court ruled has a “long history of discrimination against minorities,” will have to get permission from the DOJ to make any changes in election policy going forward, otherwise known as pre-clearance.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the State of Texas are fighting it out at the Fifth Circuit. Texas House Bill 11 is being challenged by open border advocates who say that it improperly targets illegal alien shelters and those who rent to illegal aliens. Oral argument is being conducted Wednesday.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined the challenge in a lawsuit that is fighting against what Paxton calls “unconstitutional racial and sex-based quotas.”
A federal district court judge in Arizona has upheld two identity theft laws used to prosecute illegal aliens in employment raids by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Two taxpayers filed a motion for rehearing with the Texas Supreme Court on Monday to reconsider their order denying review of a case against the openly gay former Houston Mayor and the City of Houston. They urge that Mayor Annise Parker violated the Texas Constitution and state statutes when she gave spousal benefits to gay employees in 2013 and 2014. Parker issued these benefits to employees prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling.
The Obama appointee presiding over the Texas voter photo ID lawsuit ordered the State to toss some of its voter education materials because federal lawyers did not like the exact language in printed. Although lawyers for the State gave the DOJ and liberal voting rights groups a copy of the proposed language on August 11, they waited until less than 60 days before the November election to complain. This was after financial and other resources had been expended by the State.
A Texas Supreme Court Justice has issued a dissenting opinion stating that while the U.S. Supreme Court has declared that same-sex couples may marry, the U.S. Constitution does not necessarily require cities to offer benefits to same-sex spouses of employees. While marriage may be a fundamental right, spousal benefits are not. He says that the same constitutional strict scrutiny does not apply to employment benefits.
Plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits over North Carolina’s HB 2 (the “bathroom bill”) scored a partial victory Friday when a federal district court made clear it was bound by higher-court precedent to rule for the plaintiffs. But that victory may be short-lived, as the U.S. Supreme Court will likely decide this matter in 2017.
While Hillary Clinton and her Democrats are trying to sell Khizr Khan as a constitutional expert, the reality is that the Constitution allows Donald Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslim immigrants from terror-related countries. However, if a liberal justice takes Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court, the ban would be struck down nonetheless.
Three University of Texas professors have filed a request for a temporary injunction in federal court to block Texas’ new campus carry law. They filed the legal action the same day that the law took effect.
A federal district judge in San Antonio has issued an order stopping a Texas law criminalizing the harboring of illegal aliens, at least for now. The judge issued the preliminary injunction in MALDEF’s (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) lawsuit challenging Texas House Bill 11, a law which open border advocates are fighting because they say it improperly targets illegal alien shelters and those who rent to illegal aliens.
On Oct. 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided the case of what the court called “self-described Christian evangelists preaching hate and denigration to a crowd of Muslims, some of whom responded with threats of violence.”
WASHINGTON—Obamacare, religious liberty, Iran, and racial preferences are four of the major issues the justices will confront during the Supreme Court’s annual Term, which begins Monday, Oct. 5. The High Court will decide between 70 and 80 cases over the
