The Ohio General Assembly advanced Senate Joint Resolution 2 on Wednesday, which would raise the required threshold from 50 percent to 60 percent to enact a constitutional amendment. The senate concurred with the house’s amendments to the resolution. The resolution would require a vote of at least 60 percent of electors to approve any constitutional amendment [...]

The North Carolina Senate Thursday passed Senate Bill 20–also known as the Care for Women, Children, and Families Act–which would ban most abortions occurring after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Current North Carolina law allows abortions up to 20 weeks. While the bill reduces that 20 week limit to 12 weeks, the bill still allows abortions [...]

The New York State Assembly Tuesday enacted the State Fiscal Year 2023-24 Budget which will phase out the use of fossil fuels in buildings beginning in 2025. The budget also mandates that new buildings exclusively use electric heating and cooking. This provision will take effect for buildings shorter than seven stories in 2026 and taller [...]

Vermont Governor Phil Scott Tuesday signed H. 190, which removes the residency requirement from Vermont’s patient choice at end-of-life laws. The bill amends Vermont Statute Title 18 Chapter 113 § 5283 to remove the Vermont residency requirement. Now, under the law, a physician can prescribe a patient life-ending medicine that is self-administered by the patient. [...]

An Illinois federal district judge Friday issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the enforcement of Illinois’ Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA) until there is a final determination as to the law’s constitutionality. The case is in the US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. District Judge Stephen P. McGlynn issued the preliminary injunction [...]

The 55th Branch of the Tehran Court of Justice Wednesday issued a $312.9 million judgment against the US over a 2017 terrorist attack in Tehran, according to state-affiliated outlet Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The report stated that the Iran Judiciary’s ruling aims to prevent further US violations of international law. According to a report from [...]

The family of a 29-year-old man who was killed as a result of a police beating during a traffic stop in January filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against the City of Memphis, its police department, and the officers involved. In January, five officers performed a traffic stop on Tyre Nichols and brutally beat him after [...]

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum Tuesday passed two bills, HB 1249 and HB 1489, prohibiting transgender girls from playing on female-designated intercollegiate or intramural teams. The bills mandate that sports teams must designate teams as female, male or coed and require that teams designated for females may not be open to students assigned male at [...]

The First Circuit Court of the State of Hawai’i Thursday rejected a motion to dismiss by the Hawai’i Department of Transportation to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the department is violating the state constitution by failing to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Judge Jeffrey Crabtree ruled that the plaintiffs in the case alleged a viable cause [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Wednesday vacated a preliminary injunction blocking Executive Order 13990. The order re-established an interagency working group to calculate the “social costs of greenhouse gases” for consideration by federal agencies during policymaking. The plaintiffs are a group of Republican-led states, including Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, [...]