Update: Following the developments reported below, the House Oversight Committee released an additional 20,000 documents related to the case.  Democrats of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday released emails in which the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appeared to discuss President Donald Trump’s knowledge of his criminal activities, escalating congressional scrutiny of the administration’s [...]

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday granted the federal government a temporary reprieve from a lower court order mandating full funding of food assistance benefits for November. Last month, the USDA announced it would suspend all Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for November due to the government shutdown, which had endured for 37 [...]

Voters in six states Tuesday approved sweeping constitutional amendments that restrict voting access, limit judicial discretion on bail, and constrain future legislative authority, raising concerns about the erosion of democratic flexibility and due process protections. The most significant rule-of-law implications emerged in election administration and criminal justice. Texas voters approved a citizenship voting requirement with [...]

The US Department of Agriculture will provide half of normal food assistance in November rather than suspend the program entirely, according to a court filing Monday responding to federal judges’ orders during the ongoing government shutdown. The agency will distribute $4.65 billion in contingency funds, which will cover half of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) [...]

A US federal judge ruled Friday that the US Department of Agriculture must use previously appropriated contingency funds to continue food stamp benefits, blocking the agency’s plan to suspend payments to 41 million people starting November 1. Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts found that USDA’s interpretation of [...]

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit Tuesday against Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue over disputed claims that Tylenol causes autism, alleging the companies deceptively marketed the painkiller to pregnant women while hiding potential risks. The lawsuit, filed in Panola County District Court, follows President Donald Trump’s widely publicized September warning urging pregnant women [...]

The Supreme Court announced Monday it will consider whether a federal law prohibiting gun possession by unlawful drug users violates the Second Amendment, marking the latest firearms dispute to reach the high court following its landmark 2022 ruling that significantly expanded gun rights. The case, US v. Hemani, centers on 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(3), which bars [...]

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday halted the execution of a man who would have been the first person in the United States put to death over a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. Robert Leslie Roberson III was scheduled to be executed on Oct. 16 for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki. [...]

The correspondent filing this dispatch is a law student in Mumbai who must remain anonymous. Last week, American tech company X Corp. (formerly Twitter) announced that it would appeal a Karnataka High Court (KHC) order before the Supreme Court of India (SCI). As India’s highest court, the Supreme Court only hears appeals if the High [...]

The federal government officially entered a shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday after both Republican and Democratic spending proposals failed in the Senate, triggering constitutional questions and threatening the operations of the nation’s courts and law enforcement agencies. The impasse centers on competing congressional spending bills, with Democrats demanding extensions to subsidies under the Affordable Care [...]