Articles Tagged with constitutional law

In its pending class action on behalf of separated immigrant families, the ACLU has filed a proposal that would require the Trump administration to reunify the families it has separated under its "zero tolerance" immigration enforcement policy within a month. The proposal would also require reunification within 10 days for children younger than 5; phone contact between parents and children within 7 days; a halt on separations unless there is clear evidence of danger to the child; and a prohibition on deporting parents without their children unless the parent knowingly and voluntarily waives the right to reunification before deportation.

The zero tolerance immigration policy that has led to separating refugee parents from children at the U.S.-Mexico border faces its first legal challenge from a Guatemalan asylee.

On Thursday the Supreme Court issued a decision striking down a Minnesota law that prohibited political apparel in polling places. In a 7-2 decision, authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the court held that Minnesota’s political apparel ban violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.  Justice Sotomayor joined by Justice Breyer, filed a dissenting opinion.

Today, in a 7-2 opinion authored by Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a baker who refused to create a cake for a gay couple. The Court held that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s actions violated the baker’s right to free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.

Rising concerns nationwide about underage marriage are reflected in an impending proposal by a Utah legislator to raise the state's legal age of marriage to 18.

A federal district court judge in Massachusetts recently issued a memorandum and order denying the government’s motion to dismiss a case challenging warrantless searches of electronic device at the US Boarder. The plaintiffs (ten United States citizens and one permanent resident) brought suit in September 2017 against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) alleging that the defendants’ conduct searching plaintiffs’ electronic devices at ports of entry to the United States violates the Fourth Amendment and First Amendment of the Constitution.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down a law regulating abortions signed into law in March of 2016 by then Indiana Governor Mike Pence.Called the “Sex Selective and Disability Abortion Ban”, the law imposed restrictions on a woman’s ability to have an abortion based on her reasons for seeking the abortion. The law prohibited a person from performing an abortion if the person knows the woman is seeking an abortion solely for one of the enumerated reasons related to the disposition of the fetus, and required those performing abortions to inform women of the provisions. The prohibited reasons included seeking an abortion based on the sex of the fetus, whether the fetus had been diagnose with a disability, or its race, color, national origin or ancestry.

Along with other news organizations, the Los Angeles Times has filed a lawsuit challenging California's new execution rules. The complaint alleges violations of the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights to witness and report on executions on behalf of the public. At issue are provisions permitting lethal injection drugs to be concocted outside the view of media observers, and requiring the curtains in the lethal injection chamber to be drawn and media witnesses removed if an execution does not proceed as planned. 

A federal district court judge in Massachusetts ruled that the Second Amendment does not prevent Massachusetts from banning assault rifles.

Linda Brown, the young student who was at the center of a 1954 US Supreme Court case to desegregate public schools, passed away earlier this week. She was 76.