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US Supreme Court
The Republican-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court race who has received the support of Elon Musk said Wednesday that it's more concerning that his Democratic-supported opponent is benefiting from donations by liberal philanthropist George Soros. I don't think these two things compare, Brad Schimel told reporters. I don't think they equate at all. The race for ideological control of the battleground state's highest court is nonpartisan in name only, with Republicans lining up behind Schimel and Democrats backing Susan Crawford. The election on April 1 will determine whether liberals maintain their 4-3 majority on the court with major cases dealing with abortion, union rights, election law and congressional redistricting already under consideration by the court or expected to be argued before it soon. It could be the most significant US election since November, as it will serve as an early litmus test for Republicans and Democrats after President Donald Trump won every swin
A unanimous Supreme Court on Friday dealt a severe blow to Holocaust survivors and their families in a long-running lawsuit seeking compensation from Hungary for property confiscated during World War II. The justices threw out an appeals court ruling that had allowed the lawsuit to continue despite a federal law that generally shields sovereign nations like Hungary from suits in US courts. The high court heard arguments in December in Hungary's latest bid to end the lawsuit filed in 2010 by survivors, all of whom are now over 90, and heirs of survivors. Some survived being sent to the Auschwitz death camp in what was German-occupied Poland. The appeals court had held that the survivors satisfied the exception the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act makes for property taken in violation of international law. To qualify, the survivors must be able to show that the property has some commercial tie to the United States. The survivors had argued that Hungary long ago sold off the property,
The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to permit the firing of the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, according to documents obtained on Sunday that would mark the first appeal to the justices since President Donald Trump took office. The emergency appeal is the start of what probably will be a steady stream from lawyers for the Republican president and his administration seeking to undo lower court rulings that have slowed his second term agenda. The Justice Department's filing obtained by AP asks the conservative-majority court to lift a judge's court order temporarily reinstating Hampton Dellinger as the leader of the Office of Special Counsel. Dellinger has argued that the law says he can only be dismissed for problems with the performance of his job, none of which were cited in the email dismissing him. The petition was filed hours after a divided appeals court panel refused to lift the order on procedural grounds. The case is not ...
Hawaii's Supreme Court ruled Monday that insurance companies can't bring their own legal actions against those blamed for Maui's catastrophic 2023 wildfire, allowing a $4 billion settlement that was on that the verge of collapse to proceed. Other steps remain in finalizing the deal between thousands of people who lodged lawsuits and various defendants, including Hawaiian Electric Company. The massive inferno that was the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century decimated the historic town of Lahaina, killing more than 100 people, destroying thousands of properties and causing an estimated $5.5 billion in damage. Soon afterward, attorneys began lodging hundreds of lawsuits. A settlement was announced last summer, but insurance companies held out, insisting that they should have the right to go after the defendants separately to recoup money paid out to policyholders. Monday's ruling resolves a key roadblock to finalizing the deal and sends the case back to a Maui judge to determ
President Donald Trump will need the Supreme Court, with three justices he appointed, to enable the most aggressive of the many actions he has taken in just the first few weeks of his second White House term. But even a conservative majority with a robust view of presidential power might balk at some of what the president wants to do. The court gave Trump major victories last year that helped clear away potential obstacles to his reelection, postponing his criminal trial in Washington, D.C., then affording immunity from prosecution for official actions. But Trump's first term was marked by significant defeats as well as some wins at the court. "It will be an extraordinary test for the Roberts Court whether it's willing to stand up for constitutional principles it has long embraced, said Michael Waldman, the president of New York University's Brennan Center and the author of a book that is critical of the court. Some of the things we have seen are so blatantly unconstitutional tha
The Supreme Court has revived a requirement that owners of millions of small businesses register with an arm of the Treasury Department charged with fighting money laundering and other financial crimes. The justices granted an emergency plea made by the Justice Department in the waning days of the Biden administration to allow enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act, enacted in 2021 to crack down on the illicit use of anonymous shell companies. Owners and part-owners of an estimated 32.6 million small businesses must register personal information with Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN. The information includes photo IDs and home addresses. It's unclear whether the Trump administration will devote much effort to enforcing the registration requirement, which has been opposed by Republican-led states and lawmakers, as well as conservative and business interest groups. The registration requirement was blocked by a federal judge in Texas, who ruled that ..
TikTok said it will have to go dark this weekend unless the outgoing Biden administration assures the company it won't enforce a shutdown of the popular app after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning the app unless it's sold by its China-based parent company. The Supreme Court in its ruling held that the risk to national security posed by TikTok's ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States. The decision came against the backdrop of unusual political agitation by President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed that he could negotiate a solution, and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has signalled it won't enforce the law which was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support beginning Sunday, his final full day in office. TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identifie
The Justice Department can publicly release special counsel Jack Smith's investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case, a federal judge said on Monday in the latest ruling in a court dispute over the highly anticipated document days before Trump is set to reclaim the White House. But a temporary injunction barring the immediate release of the report remains in effect until Tuesday, and it's unlikely US District Judge Aileen Cannon's order will be the last word on the matter. Defence lawyers may seek to challenge it all the way up to the Supreme Court. Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, had earlier temporarily blocked the department from releasing the entire report on Smith's investigations into Trump that led to two separate criminal cases. Cannon's latest order on Monday cleared the way for the release of the volume detailing Smith's case that accused Trump, a Republican, of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe .
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning January 19 unless the popular social media programme is sold by its China-based parent company. Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech, either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States. Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified as the main concern in the case TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations. If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to go dark on January 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the
A divided Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President-elect Donald Trump's bid to delay his sentencing in his hush money case in New York. The court's order clears the way for Judge Juan M. Merchan to impose a sentence Friday on Trump, who was convicted in what prosecutors called an attempt to cover up a USD 130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied any liaison with Daniels or any wrongdoing. Merchan has said he will not give Trump jail time, fines or probation. But Trump's attorneys have argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer's Supreme Court ruling giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president. At the least, they have said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Trump during the presidential transition. Prosecutors pushed back, saying there's no reason for the court to take the extraordinary step of intervening in a state case now. Trump's ...