Vue lecture

Supreme Court, for Now, Pauses Lower Court Decision Limiting Voting Rights Act

The justices paused a lower court order pending a decision on whether the Supreme Court will take up the case, a major challenge to the Voting Rights Act.

© Mike Mccleary/The Bismarck Tribune, via Associated Press

Voters filling in their ballots at voting booths in Bismarck, N.D., in 2022. If the justices agree to hear the North Dakota matter, it will be the second major voting rights case in the upcoming term, which begins in October.
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Thomas A. Durkin, Civil Liberties Lawyer for the Reviled, Dies at 78

He relished skewering the U.S. government as he represented unpopular defendants in public corruption and national security cases, like those at Guantánamo.

© Teresa Crawford/Associated Press

Thomas A. Durkin in 2012. “He represented the damned of the earth,” a colleague said.
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Justice Dept. Asks for 1-Day Sentence for Ex-Officer Convicted in Breonna Taylor Raid

The administration asked the judge in the case to sentence the former officer to essentially the brief time he had served when he was first charged, and three years of supervised release.

© Matt Stone/The Courier-Journal, via Imagn

Brett Hankison appearing for his federal trial last October in Louisville, Ky.
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Justice Dept. Asks for 1-Day Sentence for Ex-Officer Convicted in Breonna Taylor Raid

The move was a stunning reversal of Biden-era efforts to address racial disparities in local law enforcement.

© Matt Stone/The Courier-Journal, via Imagn

Brett Hankison appearing for his federal trial last October in Louisville, Ky.
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Prominent Human Rights Group Flees El Salvador

The group, Cristosal, has investigated prison deaths and torture under President Nayib Bukele. Its employees were threatened and surveilled, its director said.

© Jose Cabezas/Reuters

Ruth López, the anti-corruption director of Cristosal, leaving a courthouse in June, following her May arrest.
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What to Know About Trump’s Cuts to the Education Department

Cuts have hit most of the department’s main functions, which include investigating civil rights complaints, providing financial aid, researching what works in education, testing students and disbursing federal funding.

© Erin Schaff/The New York Times

The Department of Education in Washington, D.C.
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From Science to Diversity, Trump Hits the Reverse Button on Decades of Change

President Trump has moved aggressively to reopen long-settled issues and to dismantle long-established institutions as he tries to return to what he considers better times.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

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Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Ban Faces New Peril: Class Actions

In last month’s decision limiting one judicial tool, universal injunctions, the court seemed to invite lower courts to use class actions as an alternative.

© Charles Krupa/Associated Press

The federal courthouse in Concord, N.H. A federal judge in the state opened a new front in the battle to deny President Trump’s effort to redefine who can become a citizen.
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Judge Blocks Trump Administration Tactics in L.A. Immigration Raids

A federal judge temporarily halted the administration from making indiscriminate arrests based on race and denying detainees access to lawyers, in a lawsuit that could have national repercussions.

© Philip Cheung for The New York Times

The initial rulings represented a sharp rebuke of the tactics that federal agents have employed in and around Los Angeles during raids, which have entered their second month.
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