Design standards adopted in 2021 for constructing new federal courthouses will significantly increase costs, according to a report released Friday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The judiciary drafted the guidelines without fully collaborating with key agencies, such as the General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees federal building construction. The GAO estimated that applying the…
Major League Baseball’s players union resolved a lawsuit accusing sports betting giant FanDuel of improperly using the names and likenesses of hundreds of MLB players on its betting platform without authorization. On Friday, a FanDuel spokesperson announced that the company and the union had finalized a confidential licensing agreement. In a New York federal court…
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expanded his lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT creator and its largest financial backer, Microsoft, of engaging in illegal practices to monopolize the generative AI market and undermine competitors. Musk filed the amended lawsuit on Thursday night in federal court in Oakland, California, adding federal antitrust and other claims to his…
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, faced mounting scrutiny from congressional Republicans on Thursday, with Senator John Cornyn leading calls to review an unreleased Ethics Committee report that examines allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use. The pressure on Gaetz grew as John Clune, a lawyer for an alleged victim, urged the…
A divided federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a Texas student’s lawsuit on Wednesday, rejecting his claims that he faced severe bullying for being white and supporting Republican President-elect Donald Trump. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals split 9-9 on whether to revive the lawsuit against the Austin Independent School District.…
A federal appeals court upheld an Indiana law on Wednesday that bans the use of puberty blockers and hormones for children under 18. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 decision, making Indiana one of numerous Republican-controlled states with similar laws. This ruling comes as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to review…
Theodore Olson, a prominent conservative lawyer who played a key role in securing the presidency for Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 election dispute and later successfully advocated for same-sex marriage rights, passed away on Wednesday at age 84, his law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher announced. The firm did not disclose the cause…
Prosecutors stated on Wednesday that although the jury in former New Jersey senator Robert Menendez’s corruption trial reviewed improper evidence during deliberations, the error does not warrant overturning his conviction. Menendez, 70, resigned from the U.S. Senate in August after a Manhattan federal jury found him guilty of selling his influence in exchange for bribes,…
Republican Donald Trump’s return to the presidency is set to drive a significant shift in the U.S. government’s legal positions on major cases currently before the Supreme Court, including a high-profile dispute over Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Upon Trump’s inauguration on January 20, his administration is expected to alter its…
On Tuesday, a federal judge struck down a Louisiana law that mandated displaying the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms, deeming it unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge John deGravelles called the law “discriminatory and coercive,” marking a temporary setback for conservative groups pushing for greater public expressions of faith. Public schools in the U.S. often…