The Trump administration on Friday announced a Title IX Special Investigations Team (SIT) to fight “gender ideology” in school programs and activities. Title IX is a federal law from the Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funds. The Title IX SIT is designed to [...]

Texas Attorney General Ken Pax­ton filed a lawsuit Friday against the city of San Antonio for unlawfully using public funds to subsidize out-of-state abortion travel. This follows a similar injunction filed against the city of Austin in September. The San Antonio City Council recently approved $100,000 towards the city’s Reproductive Justice Fund (“the fund”) in [...]

A coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Friday in an attempt to stop a presidential executive order that cuts funding for several federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The lawsuit states that for these agencies, compliance has “meant gutting every one of their operations—statutorily mandated or not.” [...]

Massachusetts state and local elected officials, including Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, joined Tufts University on Thursday in calls for the immediate release of doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk. The university maintains that Ozturk did not violate any Tufts’ policy, while Massachusetts officials have accused the federal government of violating Ozturk’s free speech and due process rights. [...]

A US federal judge on Thursday refused to block the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from denying funding to projects deemed to “promote gender ideology,” saying the agency has temporarily abandoned those prohibitions and is in the midst of re-evaluating them. In a 47-page ruling, Senior US District Judge William E. Smith denied a [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a bid by South Carolina to remove Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid coverage since it performs abortions. The petitioners, South Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, raised several issues of interpretation of the federal Medicaid Act. They argued that the provision did not use [...]

Human Rights Watch urged the US government Thursday to end arrests and deportations of student activists who advocate for Palestine, part of the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on noncitizen students. Human Rights Watch reported that the Department of Homeland Security has revoked hundreds of student visas. Some students, whose visas have been revoked, [...]

A three-judge panel for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals temporarily stayed Thursday a lower court order blocking firings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), part of President Donald Trump’s push to dismantle the federal workforce. The court cited representations by  CFPB director Russell Vought that the agency would “remain open and perform [...]

The Department of Defense Inspector General notified Secretary Peter Hegseth Thursday of an investigation concerning the use of the “unclassified” encrypted messaging app Signal in official discussions concerning military actions in Yemen. A memo issued by Inspector General Steven A. Stebbins said the investigation was being opened at the request of the chairman and a ranking [...]

US law firm Perkins Coie asked a federal court on Wednesday to permanently block President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing an executive order imposing sanctions against the firm. Perkins Coie said that the order “retaliates and discriminates” against the law firm in violation of the rights to free speech, association, and petition under the First Amendment [...]