A Texas federal judge struck down the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s transgender employee protection policy on Thursday, stating the policy contradicts the plain text of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas said that Congress is the entity that can add [...]

The US District Court for the District of Columbia granted a motion for preliminary injunction sought by the American Bar Association (ABA) on Wednesday, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from canceling a series of grants to the ABA that fund legal services to victims of domestic and sexual violence. At the outset, Judge Christopher Cooper [...]

Refugees International (RI) stated Wednesday that it welcomes US President Donald Trump’s decision to lift US sanctions on Syria, calling it a crucial step toward recovery after years of devastating conflict. Sanctions originally intended to prevent war profiteering backfired, RI noted, hurting civilians by blocking humanitarian aid. Their removal, following interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s rise [...]

Michigan Judge Sima Patel struck down three of Michigan’s abortion restrictions, including its 24-hour waiting period, on Tuesday. The court ruled that the restrictions served to “deny, burden, or infringe” upon the reproductive freedom of individuals seeking abortion care. Moreover, the three restrictions were found to neither serve a state interest nor protect patient health. [...]

A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit struck down one of the key remaining ways to enforce the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) on Wednesday. In a 2-1 decision, Judges Raymond Gruender and Jonathan Kobes held that §2 of the VRA does not confer a “private right of action for [...]

A federal judge on Tuesday stripped New York City of its control over the Rikers Island jail, which will now effectively be run by a third-party “remediation manager.” This comes after the same judge held the city in contempt last November for failing to reduce violence in the notorious jail complex. Rikers Island is one [...]

A US federal grand jury in Wisconsin indicted Judge Hannah Dugan on Tuesday for obstructing immigration agents. Dugan was arrested last month and is accused of obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and concealing Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, the foreign national ICE agents sought to apprehend in her courtroom. Dugan, who was suspended following her arrest, [...]

A US federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump and his administration may use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) to deport Venezuelan citizens accused of gang membership as long as the government offers “sufficient notice and due process.” Judge Stephanie Haines ruled that the government must give “greater notice” [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed concern Tuesday regarding the number of deportations of individuals from the US. According to Türk, the deportations raise “serious concerns regarding a wide array of rights … rights to due process, to be protected from arbitrary detention, to equality before the law, to be protected from [...]

A coalition of 20 Democratic state attorneys general filed two federal lawsuits on Tuesday, claiming that US President Donald Trump’s administration is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in transportation and disaster-relief funds unless states agree to certain immigration enforcement actions. In the transportation funding complaint, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) and DOT [...]