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Associated Press
4 hours ago
- General
- Associated Press
Lawsuit challenging Kentucky's near-total ban on abortions is withdrawn
Attorneys for a woman who sued Kentucky seeking to restore the right to an abortion have dropped their challenge to the state's near-total ban on the procedure. The attorneys filed a motion Friday to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit, but did not give a reason for seeking to drop the case. The lawsuit had been filed last year in state court in Louisville on behalf of a woman who was seven weeks pregnant at the time and identified only by the pseudonym Mary Poe to protect her privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which had represented the woman, said in a statement it would not give additional details about the dismissal. 'People have the right to control their own bodies without government interference, and we will never stop fighting to restore abortion access in Kentucky,' said Amber Duke, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky. 'We are strategizing our next steps in this fight.' The lawsuit was challenging Kentucky's near-total trigger law ban and a separate six-week ban, both of which were passed by Republican legislative majorities. The trigger law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. 'Kentuckians can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today and innocent lives will continue to be saved as a result,' Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, posted on X . The trigger law bans abortions except to save the life of the patient or to prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Republican lawmakers earlier this year inserted several new medical exceptions , though abortion-rights supporters said the exceptions don't add clarity and in fact undermine the judgment of doctors by remaining silent on other situations.
Washington Post
10 hours ago
- General
- Washington Post
Honolulu police arrested sober drivers to hit DUI quotas, lawsuit alleges
Ammon Fepuleai said he didn't have a single drink on the night of Nov. 7, 2023. But when he pulled up to a Honolulu police sobriety checkpoint, an officer claimed to smell alcohol anyway. Body-camera footage later showed Fepuleai followed instructions during a field sobriety test, showed no signs of impairment and blew a 0.00 on a breathalyzer, court records state. Still, officers arrested him, shut down the checkpoint early and drove Fepuleai to a police station, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii.
New York Times
13 hours ago
- General
- New York Times
Lawyers for Migrants Press Appeals Court to Stop Trump's Use of Alien Enemies Act
The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal appeals court early Saturday morning to stop President Trump from using a rarely invoked 18th-century law to deport scores of Venezuelans accused of being gang members to a prison in El Salvador. The A.C.L.U.'s request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans was an opening salvo in what is likely to be the decisive legal battle over Mr. Trump's attempts to use the law, the Alien Enemies Act, as a centerpiece of his aggressive deportation agenda. The case in front of the appeals court, which emerged from a lawsuit filed in Texas in April, is poised to become the first of its kind to receive a full hearing by the Supreme Court. The justices could get the case later this year and when they do, they will ultimately settle the question of whether Mr. Trump has used the wartime statute lawfully. For more than three months, the A.C.L.U. has been rushing from court to court across the country, filing lawsuits in an effort to stop the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelans accused of being members of the street gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act. The act, which was passed more than two centuries ago, gives the government expansive powers to round up and expel citizens of hostile foreign nations, but only at times when war has been declared or during an invasion. The administration has claimed that the presence of Tren de Aragua in United States is tantamount to an invasion and that its members have been acting at the behest of a hostile Venezuelan government. But that position has been rejected by federal judges in New York, Texas, and Colorado, all of whom have issued separate orders declaring that Mr. Trump has been using the act unlawfully. Only one federal judge, in Pennsylvania, has upheld his proclamation invoking the law. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
ACLU of Kentucky dismisses lawsuit challenging Kentucky abortion laws
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — The ACLU of Kentucky has dropped its lawsuit challenging the state's two abortion bans. The case, known as Poe v Coleman, was filed last November on behalf of a Louisville woman who was about seven weeks pregnant at the time. Kentucky leaders deny not upholding federal immigration laws Long-time Kentucky Democrat switching parties ACLU of Kentucky dismisses lawsuit challenging Kentucky abortion laws 'Today, attorneys dismissed a lawsuit challenging Kentucky's two abortion bans, Poe v Coleman. Decisions about healthcare care are and should remain private, and we will not be providing additional details about the dismissal,' Kentucky's ACLU Executive Director Amber Duke said. She added that the organization is strategizing its next steps to restore abortion access in Kentucky. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman called the dismissal a win for those in the anti-abortion camp. Kentucky's most misspelled word, according to study Drug overdoses see major decline: How Kentucky measures up UFO sightings in Kentucky: A look back on past 30 years 'Kentuckians can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today, and innocent lives will continue to be saved as a result,' said Attorney General Coleman. 'I'm grateful to our dedicated team, who continues to uphold the law as passed by our General Assembly.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Texas Ten Commandments Bill Is the Latest Example of Forcing Religious Texts in Public Schools
Texas has become the latest state to pass a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. The bill, which is already being legally challenged and is unlikely to pass constitutional muster, is part of a recent trend of red states attempting to inject religious texts into the classroom. Senate Bill 10 requires public schools to "display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments." The poster is required to only contain the text of the Ten Commandments and must be at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall. Further, if a school doesn't have an acceptable poster in each classroom, the bill requires them to accept any privately donated poster. The bill was passed by the Texas state House on Saturday and overwhelmingly approved in the state Senate with a 28–3 vote on Wednesday. While S.B. 10 has not yet been enacted, Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbot said in a social media post earlier this month that he would sign the bill if it passed the Legislature. Similar bills have been recently signed into law in Louisiana and Arkansas. While Louisiana's Ten Commandments bill tried to avoid legal scrutiny by directing schools to only use private donations, not public funds, Texas' bill makes no such distinctions. The bill states that a school "may, but is not required to, purchase posters . . . using district funds." Louisiana's bill was halted in federal court last November, shedding doubt on the Texas bill's ability to survive a First Amendment challenge. The day after the bill was passed, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other groups announced that they were suing to stop the bill from becoming law. "We all have the right to decide what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice. Government officials have no business intruding on these deeply personal religious matters," reads a Thursday statement from the ACLU. "S.B. 10 will subject students to state-sponsored displays of the Ten Commandments for nearly every hour of their public education. It is religiously coercive and interferes with families' right to direct children's religious education." The post Texas Ten Commandments Bill Is the Latest Example of Forcing Religious Texts in Public Schools appeared first on
