A new Texas law requiring doctors performing abortions to have hospital admitting privileges has forced more than a dozen clinics in the state to close. The case is on a path back to the Supreme Court.
The US Supreme Court action lets stand a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court striking down the statute. It comes a week after the US justices dismissed an appeal involving a different Oklahoma law involving chemically induced abortions.
The Supreme Court dismissed Oklahoma’s appeal even as an emergency motion from Texas abortion providers to block new restrictions there landed on Justice Scalia’s desk.
Oklahoma’s high court on Tuesday reaffirmed that a state law restricting chemically induced abortions is unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court will now decide whether to examine such restrictions. Are they permissible regulation or an undue burden on women seeking abortions?
The Texas abortion law requiring providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital was struck down. But a provision forcing reliance on an outdated drug protocol stands.
The appeals court rejected the argument that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a former Al Qaeda operative, should have his conviction and life sentence overturned because he didn’t have a speedy trial.
Supreme Court justices will hear oral arguments Tuesday over whether certain limits on individuals’ campaign contributions are justified in the wake of the Citizens United decision.
Eric Holder announced a Justice Department suit against parts of the North Carolina election law, including a voter ID requirement, saying lawmakers knowingly curtailed minority voting rights.
US intelligence officials sought to ally fears about NSA activities at a Senate hearing Thursday. But one senator came away wanting more answers about cellphone surveillance.
Under a plea deal, the former FBI expert said he provided an AP reporter with secret information about a thwarted terrorist attack. He also agreed to plead guilty to child pornography charges.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Justice Department would urge a federal judge to order Texas to continue to submit all election law changes to Washington for preapproval. Last month, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act.
The president of Human Rights First, which has campaigned to shut down Guantánamo, testified at the hearing, the first time in five years the issue has been debated by Judiciary Committee members.
Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a leader of the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to restore a key section of the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had upheld the constitutionality of the voter ID law, but challengers are asking whether enforcing it will disenfranchise a large number of voters in the state.
The ACLU, on behalf of 10 same-sex couples and others, filed the suit, which cites language from the majority opinion in the DOMA case in asking a US judge to strike down the Pennsylvania ban.
A privacy group called on the Supreme Court to invalidate the secret court order that authorized the collection of telephone metadata from every Verizon business customer in the US.
A US district judge said she lacked the jurisdiction to halt the practice of force-feeding at Guantánamo, but condemned it as ‘painful … and degrading’ and said Obama could stop it.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of four Guantánamo detainees asks a federal judge to order a halt to force-feedings and forcible drugging in advance of the religious fast during Ramadan, which begins July 8. They and about 40 others are on hunger strike to protest their indefinite detentions.
The federal judge issued the temporary injunction a day after a US appeals court ruled that the Obamacare requirement would create a religious burden for the Christian business owners.
Obama ‘deeply disappointed’ by the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling on the landmark civil rights legislation. Justice Ginsburg, in dissent, decries ‘hubris’ in ‘demolition’ of the Voting Rights Act.
By Warren Richey
June 26, 2013