Laws

• A federal judge ruled on Friday that several Arkansas laws restricting the process for citizens to place measures on the ballot are unconstitutional. • The court issued a permanent injunction against the enforcement of these laws after opponents argued they made the petition process nearly impossible to navigate. • The ruling is significant as it removes legal barriers that previously hindered direct democracy and citizen-led initiatives within the state.

A report released by thinktank Cap argues the deployment of the National Guard failed to have a measurable impact on crime, despite costing billionsThe Center for American Progress (Cap) received a letter from Donald Trump’s lawyer threatening a $5bn lawsuit unless the liberal research organization retracts a report criticizing the effectiveness of the president’s National Guard rollout.The report released 13 July argues that the National Guard deployment in Washington DC, Memphis and Los Angeles failed to have a measurable impact on crime in these cities despite an estimated cost of $1.7bn. The report looks at the falling rate of crime in cities without a National Guard intervention and concludes that they are not statistically different from the rate of decrease in those that had the intervention, noting that violent crime began falling well before Trump took office in 2025. Continue reading...

Yolŋu independent Yiŋiya Guyula accused the CLP of ‘contributing to the breakdown of our culture and people, in what is becoming a slow genocide’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA First Nations MP from the Northern Territory has resigned from parliament, accusing the ruling Country Liberal party of introducing laws that are “dehumanising, oppressing and destroying our communities and our people”, and contributing to a breakdown of culture that he says is “becoming a slow genocide”.Yiŋiya Guyula, a Yolŋu man from the Djambarrpuyŋu clan in east Arnhem Land, was elected as the independent member for Nhulunbuy, now known as Mulka, in 2016. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Raúl Torrez is drafting two bills with state lawmakers to bolster consumer protections and child safety online, building on state’s landmark case against MetaNew Mexico’s attorney general is mounting a full-court press against technology companies to improve their child safety measures, capitalizing on a landmark win in court against Meta earlier this year.Raúl Torrez is working with state lawmakers to draft two new bills he says will strengthen consumer protections and child safety online. The legislation, expected to be announced in the coming weeks, will build on the state’s case against the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. A jury found in March that the company misled its users about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm, including child sexual exploitation. The social media giant was fined nearly $1bn as a result of the case. Continue reading...

Network wants to serve Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr after president sues over January 6 documentaryThe BBC is trying to subpoena Donald Trump’s children as it builds its defense against the president’s defamation lawsuit centered on a documentary on the January 6 insurrection.In a motion filed Friday, the BBC sought authorization to serve Trump’s two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, with subpoenas for testimony and their records on the events of 6 January 2021. Continue reading...

Federal court rules administration failed to plausibly show ongoing violation of civil rights lawA US federal ⁠judge ⁠has dismissed ​the Trump administration’s lawsuit that ⁠claimed ​Harvard ‌University failed ‌to protect Jewish ‌and Israeli students from harassment in the aftermath of the war in Gaza.In a ruling on Thursday, US district ‌judge Richard Stearns in ​Boston said the administration’s lawsuit – ⁠filed in March – failed to plausibly ​show ​an ongoing ​violation ‌of ​federal ​civil rights law on Harvard’s campus. Continue reading...

Marni von Wilpert helped draft Protecting the Right to Organize act, and now wants work toward implementing itLegislation that would modernize federal labor law began with a handful of lawyers meeting, of all places, in an ice-cream shop.“We wrote for hours what we would do to amend the National Labor Relations Act,” said Marni von Wilpert, a member of the San Diego city council who was then an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Bringing together “our collective experience as labor lawyers over the years, really trying to unrig the rules so that working people could have a fair shot”. Continue reading...