The Obama administration, in a major surprise, on Thursday launched a nationwide plea for advice — technical, practical, legal and even religious — on ways to settle the bitter controversy over the Affordable Care Act’s birth-control mandate. This appeared to be a sign that private talks with religious groups over the issue have not reached… Read More
Texas voter photo ID law sharply narrowed
Meeting a Supreme Court deadline to act, a federal appeals court on Wednesday undercut most of Texas’ five-year-old law requiring photo IDs to vote, calling it the “strictest in the nation.” In addition, the same court raised at least the prospect that the state of Texas could lose its right to pass new election laws without… Read More
U.S. wants Court to try again on immigration case
The Obama administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to reopen the government’s case defending its broad new immigration policy, but to act on the request only after a ninth Justice has joined the Court.
New attack on Amtrak’s role as tracks manager
Relying anew on a New Deal era precedent of the Supreme Court, the nation’s freight railroads have urged a federal appeals court to leave intact a ruling that strips the Amtrak rail passenger service of much of its power to make sure that its trains run on time.
Transgender rights dispute reaches Court
This post also appears today on Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. A public school board in Virginia, arguing that no one ever thought that separate restrooms for the sexes would be illegal, asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to delay a court order that it must provide equal access… Read More
Appeals court won’t delay G.G. order
Setting the stage for the transgender rights issue to move on to the Supreme Court, a divided federal appeals court refused on Tuesday afternoon to delay an order to enforce transgender equality in a Virginia high school. In the case of G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board, the board’s lawyers have said they will now… Read More
Sorting out the transgender cases
With the heated controversy over the Obama administration’s policy on the rights of transgender people about to reach the Supreme Court, the dispute continues to spread in federal courthouses across the nation. It is not yet clear, though, what effect that spread will have on the Justices’ view of their own role at this point.
Widening importance of the “G.G.” case
With a new filing due at the Supreme Court next Tuesday by a Virginia school board defending its policy on transgender students’ rights, the case — involving a 16-year-old about to enter his senior year in high school — is gaining in importance.
U.S. seeks to restore Amtrak’s powers
The Obama administration this week began a new effort in a federal appeals court to revive the power of Amtrak — the operator of the nation’s rail passenger service — to help set and enforce rules to help make sure that its trains run on time.
New transgender rights plea to the Court
Expecting a new round of protests from parents and students when school opens in September, a Virginia school board plans to ask the Supreme Court shortly to allow it to enforce its existing policy on access to bathrooms at its high school in the midst of a transgender rights controversy.