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Declaring Lubbock a “sanctuary city” for the unborn, voters have approved a local ban on almost all abortions, and the Texas legislature is considering a law to bar the procedure as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

Lubbock, home to some 260,000 people, is the 25th such “sanctuary city” – all but two in Texas – to have banned abortions in the last two years.

Drucilla Tigner, a policy and advocacy strategist for ACLU-Texas, said most other towns that have passed similar sanctuary city measures have populations of a few hundred or thousand, and often have no medical providers whatsoever, let alone one that provides abortions, as Lubbock does.

Continue reading “Texas city bans abortion, allows family to sue providers, helpers”

The U.S. Supreme Court stepped back into the heated debate over gun rights on Monday, agreeing to hear a challenge backed by the National Rifle Association to New York state’s restrictions on people carrying concealed handguns in public in a case that could further undermine firearms control efforts nationally.

The justices took up an appeal by two gun owners and the New York affiliate of the NRA, an influential gun rights group closely aligned with Republicans, of a lower court ruling throwing out their challenge to the restrictions on concealed handguns outside the home.

Lower courts rejected the argument made by the plaintiffs that the restrictions violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The lawsuit seeks an unfettered right to carry concealed handguns in public.

Continue reading “U.S. Supreme Court takes major case on carrying concealed handguns”

The jury said it has reached a verdict on its second day of deliberations in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder and manslaughter after kneeling on the neck of a dying George Floyd during an arrest last May.

The verdict will be read aloud in court between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. local time (2030 GMT to 2100 GMT), the court said. The jury deliberated for four hours on Monday and resumed on Tuesday morning.

The 12 sequestered jurors have considered three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, including bystanders, police officials and medical experts, along with hours of video evidence in the most high-profile U.S. case involving accusations of police misconduct in decades.

Continue reading “Jurors reach verdict in Chauvin trial in Minneapolis”

U.S. President Joe Biden’s interim regulators are wasting no time unraveling Wall Street-friendly measures introduced under former Republican President Donald Trump, using quick-fix legal tactics.

They have spiked or stalled more than a dozen contentious Trump-era measures that critics said eroded consumer protections, weakened enforcement, and curbed investors’ ability to push for environmental, social and governance (ESG) changes.

Rather than embarking on the lengthy process of rewriting the rules, the agencies have in many instances used speedy legal tools, according to lawyers, consumer groups, and a review by Reuters. These include delaying unfinished rules, issuing informal guidance, rescinding old policy statements or issuing new ones, and choosing not to enforce existing rules.

Continue reading “Biden’s agencies reverse Trump’s Wall Street-friendly rules”

The White House is trying to craft a series of executive actions for President Joe Biden to sign to try to limit gun violence, hoping they cannot be quickly dismantled in court, according to aides and gun safety groups.

Among the measures being considered – and strongly encouraged by activists – is one directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reinterpret existing law on untraceable “ghost guns.”

So-called “ghost gun” kits are self-assembled from parts purchased online or at gun shows and are increasingly associated with crimes. But they are not classified as firearms and so can be legally sold without serial numbers or background checks.

Continue reading “Biden White House tries to craft gun executive orders that can’t be undone”