For almost 50 years, states and tribal governments have played an outsized role in deciding whether projects that can harm water quality should receive federal permits — a role that is about to change under a new rule finalized by the Trump administration Monday.
Read more
A bill to make the District of Columbia the nation’s 51st state was met with tumultuous debate during a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday, before it is set to be scrutinized by another panel on its way to the House floor.
Read more
Advocates for Washington, D.C., statehood handed out stickers proclaiming “I Showed Up 4 D.C. Statehood” and packed the Rayburn House Office Building Thursday, for the first House committee hearing since 1993 on the proposal to make the District the 51st state in the U.S.
Read moreAn attorney for California’s tax agency on Wednesday told the Supreme Court justices a 1979 decision that allows a state to be sued in another state’s court without its consent has upended the relationship between the states that is central to the “genius” of the Constitution.
Read moreA federal judge dismissed some charges Tuesday against eight people — including two doctors — in the genital mutilation of nine girls at a suburban Detroit clinic, finding it’s up to states rather than Congress to regulate the practice.
Read moreThe Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that any legal challenge of what waters are subject to federal protection must be brought in a trial court, not a federal appeals court.
Read moreU.S. involvement in one state dispute over water rights, and the government’s absence from another, rankled the Supreme Court this morning in its first two hearings of the new year.
Read moreOn Monday the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a federal gambling law that could have sweeping implications not just for sports betting but for the intersection of federal and state laws.
Read moreFederal regulatory delays have put plans for a new casino in Connecticut in limbo, the state and its two federally recognized tribal nations claim in a federal complaint.
Read more
Calling it absurd that judges have supported a decision by the federal government to take New York land into trust for a tribe of Native Americans, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Monday his colleagues turned down a worthwhile case.
Read moreTen states on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify a recent Ninth Circuit ruling that they say essentially wiped out state groundwater rights in favor of federal oversight.
Read more
A federal judge signaled Wednesday that states like Wyoming likely can’t seek additional penalties against Volkswagen for installing emissions-cheating software in some 580,000 vehicles sold in the United States.
Read moreA property-rights dispute denied Monday by the Supreme Court led Justice Neil Gorsuch to note in a brief dissent that the issue is one worth exploring with a stronger case.
Read more
An impending decision by the California Supreme Court over whether the state or federal government has jurisdiction in railway decisions could have major implications for the Golden State’s high-speed rail project.
Read moreIn the biggest Establishment Clause case to hit the Supreme Court in decades, attorneys for Missouri struggled Wednesday to defend its withholding of a grant that would improve school safety.
Read moreTennessee sued the federal government Monday, claiming it violated the 10th Amendment by threatening the Volunteer State with Medicaid cuts unless it agrees to help fund the resettlement of refugees in the U.S.
Read moreTucson and the state of Arizona are headed for a showdown in court over whether the city has the right to destroy confiscated guns, among other local-control issues.
Read moreEighteen states, including Alabama, are challenging two newly-issued regulations under the Endangered Species Act that they claim are an attempt by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand its regulatory authority and control their lands and waters.
Read more