Five federal workers filed a proposed class-action lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration, alleging that a federal health insurance policy excluding gender-affirming care violates federal employment discrimination law. The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directive. The directive requires carriers in federal [...]

Officials from 24 states and the District of Columbia on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the DC Superior Court concerning the use of data about people receiving anti-poverty aid from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, arguing that this constitutes an illegal use of data intended [...]

A coalition of 78 civil rights, labor, consumer protection, technology accountability and community organizations on Monday urged the US Senate to remove existing artificial intelligence (AI) sandbox provisions from the proposed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), warning that the measure could allow financial institutions to test AI systems without legal protections for consumers, [...]

Apple filed a motion on Monday asking a US judge for a preliminary injunction barring two former employees, both now working for OpenAI, and OpenAI,  the company that created and maintains ChatGPT, from accessing, acquiring, using or disclosing alleged confidential information as ‌it moves ahead with its trade secrets case. Last month Apple sued OpenAI [...]

A $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund established to pay people who say the government unjustly prosecuted them was rescinded Sunday night. But the settlement between President Donald Trump and his own Justice Department that created the fund remains unchanged. The order, dated August 2 and signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, [...]

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced economic sanctions against six “entities” (businesses and individuals) that it accuses of supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The companies are based in China, Russia, India and Iran. The IRGC is Iran’s military and one of the most powerful forces [...]

An attorney for several incarcerated transgender women argued Wednesday that the Trump administration violated a court order by transferring them to a segregated prison unit, and urged a federal judge to enforce the order. Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia heard the argument in Doe v. McHenry, [...]

A US federal judge in Nevada on Thursday dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by FBI Director Kash Patel and his nonprofit foundation against a California blogger on July 25. Chief US District Judge Andrew P. Gordon of the District of Nevada granted blogger Jim Stewartson’s motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(2) [...]

A US federal judge on Tuesday ruled that a Houston, Texas, city program establishing racial goals for public contracts violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, striking down the policy in one of the first rulings to extend a Supreme Court landmark 2023 affirmative action holding beyond the context of college admissions. Houston’s Minority, Women, and [...]

The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe and the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, along with the Native American Land Conservancy and National Parks Conservation Association, on Tuesday filed two separate lawsuits against the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Lisa Belenky, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, spoke out against the Trump administration and this recent [...]