Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top eight stories for today including the Supreme Court uprooted a California law that grants union representatives time to organize farmworkers on the farm’s own property; Massachusetts’ high court ruled casinos in the state did not break the law in paying lower odds for blackjack; Antivirus software pioneer John McAfee was found dead in his Spanish jail cell, and more.
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National
1.) Congress designed the Federal Housing Finance Agency in violation of separation-of-powers rules, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, putting wind in the sails of a shareholder class action against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac implicating billions of federal dollars.
2.) School officials violated the First Amendment in punishing a cheerleader who wrote defamatory remarks against her coaches, school and teammates on her own time, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
3.) In the face of criticism from Republican lawmakers over what they see as an immigration crisis, Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to the southern U.S. border later this week.
Regional
4.) The Supreme Court on Wednesday uprooted a California law that grants union representatives three hours a day, 120 days a year, to organize farmworkers on the farm’s own property.
5.) Massachusetts casinos did not break the law in paying only 6:5 odds for blackjack, rather than the more standard 3:2 odds, the state’s high court ruled Wednesday, resolving two enormous class actions.
6.) Almost three years to the day since he broke into the offices of the Capital Gazette’s Maryland newsroom and fatally shot five journalists, jury selection began Wednesday in Jarrod Ramos’ murder trial.
7.) Televangelist Jim Bakker and his Morningside Church will pay $156,000 in restitution to Missouri customers who bought the preacher’s Silver Solution product after he claimed it was a cure for Covid-19 on his national TV show.
International
8.) Antivirus software pioneer John McAfee was found dead in his cell in a jail near Barcelona where he was awaiting extradition to the U.S. on tax and fraud charges, Spanish government officials said Wednesday.
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