The House scrapped votes on rival bills late Monday that would narrow the scope of a powerful surveillance tool after an ugly fight broke out among Republicans, likely punting until next year on plans to renew but also limit an expiring wiretapping law at the heart of the program. In a hastily organized closed-door meeting,…
Kansas will no longer change the birth certificates of transgender people to reflect their gender identities, the state health department said on Friday, citing a new law that took effect this year that defines male and female as a person’s sex assigned at birth. The legislation, passed by the Republican-controlled State Legislature earlier this year,…
When Hurricane Idalia struck last week, Michael Burnett’s bayside home in Crystal River, Fla., was inundated with a noxious cocktail of storm water and sewage from burst pipes that rose to his chest. “We lost everything we owned,” Mr. Burnett, the manager of a gun shop, said. “All my kids’ clothes, all my guitars, all…
A federal judge said late Friday that a law in Tennessee aimed at restricting drag shows was unconstitutional, saying it was overly broad and violated the First Amendment. The ruling is an initial victory for supporters of L.G.B.T.Q. rights after weeks of turmoil and confusion over the law’s language and how it would affect not…
Renae Green-Bean had started taking precautions in public even before the Tennessee legislature approved a law in March limiting where “adult cabaret” can be performed. Ms. Green-Bean had watched the uptick in legislation restricting L.G.B.T.Q. rights and worried that restaurant nights with her wife, children or grandchildren, or her preference for masculine attire and closely…
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a California law that sought to address cruelty to animals, saying the state could require pork sold there but produced elsewhere to come from breeding pigs housed in spaces that allow them to move around freely. The decision was badly fractured and featured competing rationales, but the basic vote…
The pornography website Pornhub blocked all internet users in Utah from accessing the explicit content on its pages in protest of an age-verification law that requires providing identification and was set to go into effect on Wednesday. The law is intended to protect minors from exposure to explicit adult content, its supporters have said, but…
HELENA, Mont. — The Republican governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, signed a bill into law on Friday to restrict transition care for transgender minors, joining about a dozen states that have adopted similar laws since the beginning of the year. The bill, which prohibits transitional hormone treatments and surgeries for transgender people under 18, led…
It may be a case of be careful what you wish for. Seven months ago, dozens of elite law schools and medical schools announced that they were boycotting the U.S. News & World Report rankings and refusing to give the publication any data. The rankings, they said, were unreliable and skewed educational priorities. Last week,…
Stanford Law School was under extraordinary pressure. For nearly two weeks, there had been mounting anger over the treatment of a conservative federal judge, whose talk had been disrupted by student hecklers. A video of the fiasco went viral. An apology to the judge from university officials had not helped quell the anger. Finally, on…