State Government

More families of murder victims will qualify for financial assistance; report helped fuel state’s legislation

Victims of crime encounter many unanticipated costs, such as funeral expenses, lost wages and hospital bills. Every state maintains a fund to help ease that burden, but under a long-standing rule in Louisiana, victims with a felony record were excluded.

Jun 11, 2019 10:38 AM CDT

ABA supports use of traditional insanity defense in death-row inmate’s petition

In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, the ABA said it supports Kansas death-row inmate James Kraig Kahler’s petition to reverse the Kansas Supreme Court decision that rejected the traditional insanity defense in his case. Kahler, who was convicted of killing four family members in…

Jun 10, 2019 12:44 PM CDT

Florist can’t refuse to provide flowers for same-sex wedding, state supreme court rules again

The Washington Supreme Court has ruled again against a Christian florist who refused to provide flowers for a same-sex couple’s wedding on the grounds that it would violate her religion.

Jun 7, 2019 10:55 AM CDT

Alaska Native leaders to AG Barr: Help fix our law enforcement crisis

Alaska Native leaders called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr for federal aid and greater authority for tribes to prosecute certain crimes, saying Wednesday that a dangerous lack of law enforcement is growing worse in the state’s most remote communities. Barr, sitting beside U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, heard that…

May 31, 2019 7:30 AM CDT

Multistate suit challenges federal ‘conscience’ rule over health care refusals on religious grounds

The state of New York is leading a coalition of 23 state and local governments in a lawsuit challenging a federal “conscience” rule that expands the ability of businesses and individuals to refuse to provide medical services on religious or moral grounds. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, says the final rule,…

May 22, 2019 3:47 PM CDT

Texas AG sides with lawyers challenging mandatory bar membership

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed an amicus brief that sides with three lawyers who contend that mandatory membership in the State Bar of Texas violates their First Amendment right against coerced speech.

May 7, 2019 7:30 AM CDT

Tribe bans South Dakota governor from reservation over her support for laws targeting Keystone XL pipeline protests

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is no longer welcome on the Pine Ridge Reservation because of her support for anti-rioting laws passed in response to protests of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council told Noem in a Thursday letter that she is no longer welcome on…

May 3, 2019 3:20 PM CDT

Kansas Supreme Court rules state constitution guarantees abortion rights, even if Roe is overturned

A decision by the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday means that even if Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortions would stay legal in the state.

Apr 29, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

After ‘aloha’ restaurant dispute, Hawaii pushes to protect cultural intellectual property

“Aloha” means hello and goodbye and signifies love, compassion and kindness. Since last year, the Hawaiian word also has been legally connected to poke, a bowl of diced raw fish. In 2018, a non-Hawaiian food chain that originated in Chicago, the Aloha Poke Co., trademarked “Aloha Poke” and sent cease-and-desist…

Apr 26, 2019 10:44 AM CDT

Public defenders ask to step down from Parkland shooting case

Two public defenders representing Nikolas Cruz—the suspect in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting that left 17 people dead and another 17 injured in 2018—unexpectedly requested to be removed from his case Wednesday.

Apr 25, 2019 3:44 PM CDT

Florida corrections department lawyer resigns after Facebook rant

A Florida Department of Corrections lawyer who made derogatory comments about black people on Facebook resigned Wednesday. Eric Giunta, the department’s assistant general counsel since December 2017, wrote that “black people need to stop raping, murdering, stealing, and vandalizing, and quit having children out of wedlock” in reaction to a…

Apr 25, 2019 9:16 AM CDT

Chalking tires constitutes unreasonable search, 6th Circuit rules

Parking enforcement officers in Saginaw, Michigan, who use chalk to mark the tires of cars to track how long they have been parked are violating the constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati held that the practice…

Apr 23, 2019 12:17 PM CDT

A new bill in this state would allow attorneys to skip courthouse security

A proposed bill in Texas would provide a new security card to attorneys, so they can skip security lines in courthouses in any of the state’s 254 counties. Texas HB 1359, introduced by Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, was passed Thursday by the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee, the Texas…

Apr 23, 2019 7:15 AM CDT

Multistate lawsuits multiply against Trump, outpacing total filed against Obama in 8 years

State attorneys general are increasingly banding together to challenge presidential actions by filing lawsuits. The trend began during the Obama administration and accelerated after President Donald Trump took office, USA Today reports. So far, 71 multistate lawsuits have been filed over Trump’s actions, according to Paul Nolette, a political science…

Apr 10, 2019 11:22 AM CDT

Alabama men’s prisons are so unsafe they likely violate the Eighth Amendment, DOJ says

Understaffed and overcrowded men’s prisons in Alabama fail to protect prisoners from prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse and violence and fail to provide safe and sanitary conditions, according to a Department of Justice report. There is reasonable cause to think the conditions in men’s prisons in the state violate the Eighth Amendment…

Apr 4, 2019 9:27 AM CDT