State Government

Public defenders ask to step down from Parkland shooting case

Two public defenders representing Nikolas Cruz—the suspect in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting that left 17 people dead and another 17 injured in 2018—unexpectedly requested to be removed from his case Wednesday.

Apr 25, 2019 3:44 PM CDT

Florida corrections department lawyer resigns after Facebook rant

A Florida Department of Corrections lawyer who made derogatory comments about black people on Facebook resigned Wednesday. Eric Giunta, the department’s assistant general counsel since December 2017, wrote that “black people need to stop raping, murdering, stealing, and vandalizing, and quit having children out of wedlock” in reaction to a…

Apr 25, 2019 9:16 AM CDT

Chalking tires constitutes unreasonable search, 6th Circuit rules

Parking enforcement officers in Saginaw, Michigan, who use chalk to mark the tires of cars to track how long they have been parked are violating the constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati held that the practice…

Apr 23, 2019 12:17 PM CDT

A new bill in this state would allow attorneys to skip courthouse security

A proposed bill in Texas would provide a new security card to attorneys, so they can skip security lines in courthouses in any of the state’s 254 counties. Texas HB 1359, introduced by Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, was passed Thursday by the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee, the Texas…

Apr 23, 2019 7:15 AM CDT

Multistate lawsuits multiply against Trump, outpacing total filed against Obama in 8 years

State attorneys general are increasingly banding together to challenge presidential actions by filing lawsuits. The trend began during the Obama administration and accelerated after President Donald Trump took office, USA Today reports. So far, 71 multistate lawsuits have been filed over Trump’s actions, according to Paul Nolette, a political science…

Apr 10, 2019 11:22 AM CDT

Alabama men’s prisons are so unsafe they likely violate the Eighth Amendment, DOJ says

Understaffed and overcrowded men’s prisons in Alabama fail to protect prisoners from prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse and violence and fail to provide safe and sanitary conditions, according to a Department of Justice report. There is reasonable cause to think the conditions in men’s prisons in the state violate the Eighth Amendment…

Apr 4, 2019 9:27 AM CDT

Federal judge strikes down skirt requirement for girls at public charter school

A requirement that grade-school girls wear shorts, jumpers or skorts (which look like a skirt but include shortslike fabric underneath) at a public charter school violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, a federal judge has ruled. Senior U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard of Greenville, North Carolina, ruled…

Apr 1, 2019 3:12 PM CDT

Medicaid work requirements in these 2 states blocked by federal judge

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked work requirements imposed on Medicaid recipients in Kentucky and Arkansas. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in the Arkansas decision that federal approval of the program was arbitrary and capricious because it didn’t address whether it would affect medical coverage to…

Mar 28, 2019 11:23 AM CDT

Supreme Court rules for Alaska moose hunter, says he can ‘rev up his hovercraft’ again

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the National Park Service did not have the authority to ban use of hovercrafts on Alaska’s Nation River. The high court ruled on behalf of moose hunter John Sturgeon, who piloted his hovercraft across the river in a national preserve to reach his…

Mar 26, 2019 2:35 PM CDT

Purdue Pharma reaches $270M settlement with Oklahoma in opioid epidemic suit

Purdue Pharma and its owners have agreed to a $270 million settlement with Oklahoma in the state’s lawsuit claiming OxyContin contributed to an opioid epidemic, according to multiple publications. The settlement was to be announced at a press conference on Tuesday, report Reuters, the Washington Post, Bloomberg and the Wall…

Mar 26, 2019 12:43 PM CDT

Public defenders ask to step down from Parkland shooting case

Florida corrections department lawyer resigns after Facebook rant

Chalking tires constitutes unreasonable search, 6th Circuit rules

A new bill in this state would allow attorneys to skip courthouse security

Multistate lawsuits multiply against Trump, outpacing total filed against Obama in 8 years

Alabama men’s prisons are so unsafe they likely violate the Eighth Amendment, DOJ says

Federal judge strikes down skirt requirement for girls at public charter school

Medicaid work requirements in these 2 states blocked by federal judge

Supreme Court rules for Alaska moose hunter, says he can ‘rev up his hovercraft’ again

Purdue Pharma reaches $270M settlement with Oklahoma in opioid epidemic suit

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