WASHINGTON — The Justice Department's ability to charge minors for supporting terrorist groups has been hampered by a 2018 Supreme Court decision, forcing prosecutors to hand off at least one such case to local authorities in a state without anti-terrorism laws. The court's decision in a case unrelated to terrorism...
Law Enforcement Backs Down on Deadly Force Standard—For Now, Anyway
The political landscape in California’s debate over how to curb police shootings shifted Tuesday as law enforcement groups agreed to drop the part of their bill that would lock in the current national standard for justifying the use of deadly force. The move—intended to sustain negotiations on what could be...
Court Hears Arguments Over Citizenship Question on Census
WASHINGTON — Conservative Supreme Court justices were mostly silent Tuesday as a Trump administration lawyer defended the government's plan to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census , an indication the court's majority may be inclined to side with the administration. Critics say adding the question would discourage many immigrants from being counted,...
Walters: California Politicians Disrespect Our Rights
The Constitution’s very specific list of inviolable human rights sets the United States apart from almost every other nation on Earth. Unfortunately, California’s Democratic politicians tend to ignore the Constitution’s Bill of Rights in their zealous efforts to impose “progressive” dogma on their constituents. Periodically, therefore, federal judges must remind...
Court Rules Gun Maker Can Be Sued Over Sandy Hook Shooting
HARTFORD, Conn. — Gun maker Remington can be sued over how it marketed the Bushmaster rifle used to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, a divided Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Justices issued a 4-3 decision that reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit and...
Walters: Sales Tax Bite Looms for Internet Consumers
There’s nothing new about ordering merchandise from the comfort of one’s home and having it delivered to the doorstep. Generations of Americans — especially those living in isolation on farms and ranches — pored over the inches-thick catalogs that Sears and Roebuck, Montgomery Ward and other retailing behemoths issued each...
Walters: Both Abortion Factions Try to Silence Opponents
Abortion is a divisive moral and political issue that generates ceaseless heated debate, as it should. However, it also entices those who feel passionately about it, one way or the other, to use politics to shut down the other side. We saw a prime example of that in the California...
Hip-Hop Artists Give the Supreme Court a Primer on Rap Music
By Adam Liptak WASHINGTON — Five years ago, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. enlivened a Supreme Court argument by reciting raw and violent lyrics from the rapper Eminem. The chief justice said he was worried that ignoring the song’s musical and cultural context could “subject to prosecution the lyrics that...
Walters: State Supreme Court Ducks Key Pension Issue
The state Supreme Court could have addressed a fundamental issue in California’s public employee pension crisis – whether the so-called “California rule” makes it impossible to reduce benefits. However, the court punted this week, ruling that since the Legislature and former Gov. Jerry Brown legitimately eliminated a way that workers...
Is a Cross OK on Public Land? Supreme Court Will Decide.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court sounds as though it will allow a 40-foot cross-shaped war memorial to remain on public land in Maryland, but shy away from a sweeping ruling. The justices are hearing arguments Wednesday in a closely watched case about the place of religious symbols in public life....