The Tennessee Senate on Tuesday approved HB 836, a bill that would allow child welfare agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ+ families in adoption proceedings based on “religious or moral convictions or policies.” The bill was approved by the House last April and is awaiting review by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who has expressed an intent [...]

US District Judge Richard Berman on Thursday denied a request to stop federal prosecution of Turkey’s state-run Halkbank which alleges its aid in Iran’s evasion of US economic sanctions. The decision was a response to claims that Halkbank used money servicers and front companies in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to facilitate conspiracies [...]

New York State Supreme Court Judge Deborah Chimes ruled Monday that individuals pursuing lawsuits under the state Child Victims Act can remain anonymous during litigation. Chimes’ ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a woman against former Amherst Central School administrator John Koch. The lawsuit alleges repeated sexual assaults by Koch, beginning in [...]

The Supreme Court of Alabama ruled Wednesday that the City of Birmingham (“City”) violated the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act (“Preservation Act”) by erecting a plywood barrier around a Confederate monument in August 2017. The order to erect the barrier came from then-Mayor William Bell and was intended to obscure inscriptions honoring Confederate veterans. The Confederate [...]

Pennsylvania prisoners reached a settlement with the state Department of Corrections on Monday, ending solitary confinement and other isolationist policies for inmates sentenced to death. The settlement was a response to a January 2018 suit filed by five inmates and their attorneys. The attorneys worked with the American Civil Liberties Union and Abolitionist Law Center to [...]

US District Judge Robert Lasnik ruled Tuesday against a decision by the Trump administration to allow blueprints of 3D-printed guns to be shared online. Lasnik found that the administration violated federal law in allowing a Texas company to publish blueprints of this kind on their organization’s website. Since 2013, the federal government has maintained that [...]

Kansas voters approved an amendment Tuesday to the state Constitution ending an unusual state policy of redrawing legislative district boundaries based on federal census data adjusted by state numbers. The Kansas redistricting policy began in the 1990s and adjusted federal census data not to include college students and military personnel, given the non-permanent status of [...]

Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph James struck down three Pittsburgh gun-control ordinances. The ordinances were passed in response to last year’s mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue and were widely supported by Mayor Bill Peduto and several City Council members. The gun-control ordinances regulated the use of assault weapons and prohibited the [...]

US District Court Judge Rossie Alston held Monday that a Virginia law requiring marriage applicants to identify their race was unconstitutional. The order comes as a response to a lawsuit filed by three couples challenging the requirement. The couples were denied marriage licenses after declining to provide their race as required by a state statute. [...]

US Attorney General William Barr issued a memo Wednesday calling for court-ordered counseling and supervision of potentially violent individuals in an effort to prevent mass shootings. The memo comes in response to a number of deadly acts of violence over the last few years. In his statement, Barr directed both the Justice Department and the [...]