6 h. ago Mahmoud Khalil’s attorneys file appeals to prevent future Ice detentions

Columbia University graduate and legal US resident says Trump administration ‘wants to make an example of me’US politics live – latest updatesAttorneys for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and legal US resident who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) following his pro-Palestinian activism, have filed appeals to prevent the Trump administration from detaining him again.Lawyers representing Khalil argued to the federal third circuit court of appeals in Philadelphia that his release from Ice detention by a lower court should be affirmed and that the US government should be barred from detaining or deporting Khalil in the future. Continue reading...

Politics

60 h. ago Woman investigated over husband’s use of assisted dying clinic wanted to argue case in court

Louise Shackleton says current law is traumatising families and she wanted jury to assess her innocenceA woman who was under police investigation for accompanying her husband to an assisted dying clinic in Switzerland said she wished her case had gone to trial so she could have proved her innocence in front of a jury.Louise Shackleton, 59, spent 10 months under investigation for assisting a suicide before North Yorkshire police announced this week that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute her. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago The US supreme court appears ready to nullify the Voting Rights Act | Moira Donegan

Court has repeatedly expanded states’ leeway to make voting laws that would have previously been deemed discriminatoryThe last remaining piece of the 1965 Voting Rights Act – section 2, which empowers the federal government to protect voters from racial gerrymandering meant to dilute Black political power – appears headed for an untimely end. At oral arguments in Louisiana v Callais on Wednesday, the US supreme court appeared ready to strike down section 2, effectively completing the gradual nullification of the Voting Rights Act that it has pursued for over a decade.The case stems from new congressional districting maps that were drawn in Louisiana after the 2020 census, which found both that the state was eligible for six seats in the House of Representatives and that its population was about one-third Black. The state initially drew maps that featured only one majority-Black congressional district, rejecting seven more racially fair maps; voters sued, and federal courts ordered L...

Events

6 d. ago ‘My vote is my voice’: protesters fight for democracy as Trump casts shadow

Outside the supreme court, protesters invoked the legacy of civil rights giants with a key Voting Rights Act plank at stakeWearing a T-shirt proclaiming “We won’t Black down”, Wanda Mosley had made the trip from Atlanta. “I had to be here because the Voting Rights Act is on life support,” the 55-year-old explained. “Today the court will synthesise the arguments and decide if they’re going to kill it – or allow it to live.”Mosley was among a few hundred protesters who gathered in warm October sunshine outside the supreme court on Wednesday. Inside the building, whose facade was obscured by scaffolding, justices were weighing arguments in a case involving Louisiana electoral districts and section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago US supreme court appears poised to weaken key pillar of Voting Rights Act

Dispute over Louisiana district returned to justices after long legal saga – and could have far-reaching implicationsA 160-year-old campaign against civil rights heads to the supreme courtUS politics live – latest updatesThe conservative majority on the US supreme court appeared poised to weaken a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act after a lengthy oral argument on Wednesday.“This court’s cases in a variety of contexts have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time. Sometimes for a long period of time, decades in some cases, but they should not be indefinite and should have an endpoint. What exactly do you think that endpoint should be?” asked Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a key swing vote in the case, to Janai Nelson, a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, who was defending the maps. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Alex Jones asks US supreme court to block $1.4bn defamation judgment

Rightwing pundit’s request is latest in a series of appeals, both against the judgment and against sale of InfoWarsRightwing conspiracy fabulist Alex Jones has petitioned the US supreme court to block a massive defamation judgment imposed after he argued that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in which 20 children and six adults were killed was a hoax.In a filing to the US high court, Jones asked the justices to act immediately to prevent his website InfoWars from being handed over to the satirical news site The Onion. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Man, 67, felt 'used' by stepdaughter and her husband before he 'went berserk' and stabbed them to death in argument over money, court hears

Mother-of-four Chloe Bashford, 30, was beaten by a hammer before being repeatedly stabbed to death in a frenzied attack at her home in June 2023.

Events

3 w. ago Brit couple write family heartbreaking email before dying together at Swiss clinic

Michael Posner, 97, and his wife Ruth, 96, sent an email to their "Dear family and friends" on Tuesday, explaining their decision to die together at a Swiss assisted dying clinic

Events

3 w. ago Lawyers cite Trump autism warning in push to revive Tylenol lawsuits

Arguments are pending in a Manhattan court to overturn the 2024 dismissal of hundreds of lawsuits

Events

4 w. ago NSPCC seeking law change to ensure children protected from physical punishment

Currently the defence of "reasonable chastisement" allows parents and carers to argue in court that it was reasonable to use force against their child

Society