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    US justice department sues California over alleged noncitizen voting

    DoJ had demanded that LA county confirm citizenship of people on list in thumb drive, but officials refusedUS politics live – latest updatesSend us your questions about immigration and the midtermsThe US Department of Justice sued California on Thursday, seeking a court order to prevent the state from tabulating certain ballots cast in the midterm elections.The suit came two days after the department made a specious demand to the state. On Tuesday, the department sent election officials in Los Angeles county a thumb drive with a handwritten password purporting to contain the names of noncitizens registered to vote. The department asked officials to confirm the citizenship of anyone on the list and set aside ballots from those whose status could not be confirmed. It gave the state 48 hours – an extremely narrow window – to take action. It did not provide details on how it came up with the names on the list. In its lawsuit, filed in federal court in the central district of California, the justice department said it had provided the state with more than 20,000 names of likely noncitizens. Continue reading… More

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    Matt Gaetz accused in suit of sex trafficking two women in Florida

    Jane Does allege ex-congressman and two others coordinated ‘payments, drugs and travel’ for sexual actsThe Republican former congressman Matt Gaetz has been accused of participating in the sex trafficking of two young women in a civil lawsuit filed on Thursday in district court in Florida.The allegations, which Gaetz denied in a statement to the Guardian, are the latest developments in a long-running sexual abuse scandal involving the politician who resigned from Congress in November 2024. Continue reading… More

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    Judge halts tree removal at Washington golf course Trump eyes for expansion

    Ana Reyes demands Trump officials explain East Potomac tree cutting and says it will likely cause ‘irreparable harm’US district judge Ana Reyes on Monday ordered a 24-hour halt to tree cutting at the historic East Potomac golf course while she decides on an emergency order from plaintiffs concerned that Donald Trump’s plans for the course are moving forward despite a pending court case challenging them.“Tree removal for routine maintenance is not exempt from this order,” Reyes’ wrote. “Plaintiffs are likely to suffer immediate and irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief. Continue reading… More

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    Federal judge rules against Trump DoJ’s policy of collecting state voter rolls

    Judge says justice department policy of checking state voter rolls against a federal immigration database is unlawfulA federal judge ruled on Friday that the US justice department’s policy of collecting states’ unredacted voter rolls to check them against a federal immigration database is unlawful.The ruling, by the US district judge Sparkle Sooknanan, was a setback for Donald Trump, who has pushed his administration to ramp up investigations into non-citizen voting ahead of the November midterm elections, with control of Congress at stake. Continue reading… More

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    Trump 2.0 is targeting US protesters with ‘antifa’ charges. Activists started a union to fight back

    NSPM-7 Defendants Union plans to offer legal clinics, media training and more to people facing prosecution for protestDarío Sánchez is facing state charges related to a protest he did not attend. Indictments against the 33-year-old Texas middle school teacher have changed three times. He has also been arrested and released three times, most recently for an online search for how to replace an old Game Boy battery; police alleged he was seeking information on explosives.“I’ve seen my case as one manifestation of all the different ways the Trump administration is going after people – regardless of if you’ve even been to a protest,” Sánchez said. “The reality is, as long as you disagree with the government, you’re a target.” Continue reading… More

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    Before Cornell turmoil, successive US administrations seesawed in attitudes towards campus assaults

    Democratic and Republican administrations have taken different tacks in addressing campus sexual assaultAmid renewed concerns about sexual assault on US college campuses following allegations that a student was gang-raped at a Cornell University fraternity, the Trump administration last week formally reversed measures from recent Democratic presidents concerning how schools should investigate such claims.A federal judge had already in January 2025 struck down Biden-era regulations that expanded Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The Democratic president tried to undo regulations established during Trump’s first term that, contrary to guidance from the Obama administration, required schools to adjudicate sexual misconduct claims through live hearings. Continue reading… More

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    California outlaws child marriage, joining 17 other US states

    Advocacy group that pushed for the legislation says 9,000 children are married in California every yearCalifornia has outlawed child marriage, joining 17 other US states where the taboo practice is also banned.Under past state law, minors of any age could obtain a court order for marriage with the consent of their parents. Continue reading… More