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Thursday, November 30, 2023

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Civil Rights

Booksellers assail Texas bill restricting school library books at Fifth Circuit

Cameron Langford / November 29, 2023

Vendors claim a new state law will force them to forfeit their First Amendment rights to continue selling books to Texas schools.

Salvation Army rehab center participants ask Seventh Circuit to revive forced labor claims

Caitlyn Rosen / November 29, 2023

The plaintiffs say the Salvation Army exploited their circumstances to make them do physically demanding unpaid labor in exchange for food and housing.

Texas ‘voting security’ law struck

Brief / November 29, 2023

SAN ANTONIO — A federal court in Texas strikes portions of a new state voting security law; the state may not enforce portions requiring voting officials to automatically reject mail-in ballots or applications based on errors unrelated to whether the voter is eligible to vote in Texas, for example.

Trial starts for two emergency responders facing manslaughter charges in Elijah McClain’s death

Amanda Pampuro / November 29, 2023

The defendants administered a fatal dose of ketamine that prosecutors on Wednesday called a "chemical restraint" with no medical purpose.

Health care waivers

Brief / November 29, 2023

CONCORD, N.H. — A federal court in New Hampshire certified a class of disabled citizens enrolled in the state’s Choices for Independence health care waiver program, who say they did not receive necessary medical services. They fulfilled the commonality requirement for filing a class action.

UC Berkeley sued over ‘unchecked spread of antisemitism’ on campus

Edvard Pettersson / November 28, 2023

A Jewish rights organization accuses Berkeley Law of allowing student organizations to exclude Jews who don't endorse their anti-Zionist creed.

Iowa law targeting LGBTQ students blasted as unconstitutional

Rox Laird / November 28, 2023

“The First Amendment does not allow our state or our schools to remove books or issue blanket bans on discussion and materials simply because a group of politicians or parents find them offensive,” an Iowa ACLU lawyer said Tuesday.

Trump seeks records to back up claims of election fraud, infiltrators sparking Jan. 6 riot

Ryan Knappenberger / November 28, 2023

In his motion to compel records from prosecutors, Trump argues that intelligence officials who say the 2020 election was secure are biased, while reasserting that the election subversion case against him is politically motivated.

Young Thug accused of leading street gang in opening statements of RICO trial

Megan Butler / November 27, 2023

Georgia prosecutors will be using the award-winning hip-hop artist's lyrics as evidence of crimes committed by the Young Slime Life street gang.

Condo horror story

Brief / November 27, 2023

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A federal court in North Carolina partially denied a condominium owners association’s motion for summary judgment on race discrimination claims brought by a Black woman who, after she was raped in her condo, allegedly faced racial and sexual harassment from board members for installing a Ring peephole camera. A jury is required to determine whether the behavior constituted race discrimination, and to consider the association’s counterclaims for breach of contract based on alterations to her exterior doors.

Suspect in shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent near the University of Vermont pleads not guilty

Associated Press / November 27, 2023

There has been a sharp increase in threats directed against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities since the Israel-Hamas war began, per Attorney General Merrick Garland.