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A three-member panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed the U.S. military to reinstate its enlistment ban for HIV-positive people, ruling on Wednesday that the ban was based on “rational concerns.” The Department of Defense (DOD) has a “rational basis” to exclude people with HIV from enlisting in the armed forces, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer wrote in his opinion, even those with undetectable viral loads whose treatment renders them unable to transmit the virus. The ruling reverses a Virginia district court’s 2024 injunction blocking the DOD’s enlistment ban, which had been in effect since the Pentagon instituted...

The Supreme Court will be releasing opinions from the October 2025 term this morning at 10:00 a.m.Scotusblog will be liveblogging the release and we will be following along.A list of the cases from this term can be found Here

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, had a stark warning for Texans as he fights to keep his job in the Senate, saying a vote for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton could mean a Democrat wins the Lone Star State seat for the first time in three decades. “Ken Paxton will be the kiss of death for Republicans on the ticket in November of 2026,” Cornyn said. Cornyn made his comments as he crisscrossed the state in a mad dash to shore up support as early voting began in Texas earlier this week. He’s deadlocked in a battle for political survival in...

The U.S. women’s hockey team, fresh off a gold medal victory against Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics, has declined President Donald Trump’s invitation to attend his State of the Union address, taking place at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. “We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” a USA Hockey spokesperson said, per NBC News. “Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. “They were honored to...

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a case over whether states can sue fossil fuel companies for damages related to climate change.The nation’s highest court agreed to hear arguments in Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. Justices on the court asked both parties to submit briefs on whether it has constitutional authority to decide the case.The case, based out of Colorado, challenges the authority of state and local governments to use nuisance laws in proceedings against fossil fuel companies.“There is no constitutional bar to states addressing in-state harms caused by...

A 6-3 Supreme Court majority on Friday struck down President Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs (Learning Resources v. Trump) in a monumental vindication of the Constitution’s separation of powers. You might call it the real tariff Liberation Day. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Court’s decision for the law and the economy. Had Mr. Trump prevailed, future Presidents could have used emergency powers to bypass Congress and impose border taxes with little constraint. As Chief Justice John Roberts explains in the majority opinion, “Recognizing the taxing power’s unique importance, and having just fought a revolution motivated in large part...

Montgomery County, Maryland, Board of Education must pay $1.5 million in damages to Becket’s clients and comply with court-enforced protections for parental rights following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling inMahmoud v. Taylor. The case arose after the School Board took away parental notice and opt-outs for storybooks that promote gender transitioning, Pride parades, and pronoun preferences to children as young as three and four (Watch this podcast episode to learn more). Becket represented a diverse coalition of religious parents including Muslims, Christians, and Jews, who successfully challenged the policy at the Supreme Court. In the Court’s 6-3 ruling last summer,...

CNN has been repeatedly teasing an hour-long documentary this week about so-called Christian nationalism set to air Sunday on the network, which has prompted pushback for appearing to link an alleged rise in the ideology to Charlie Kirk's assassination last fall and warning about the influence of classical Christian schools. In multiple preview clips that have aired in recent days, CNN anchor and chief investigative correspondent Pamela Brown promoted "The Rise of Christian Nationalism," which she claimed was a "special project" that took her several months. The documentary aims to examine what she defined as "an ideology rooted in the...

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced legislation today to repeal Donald Trump’s global tariffs, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The binding measure will be treated as a privileged resolution that must receive a vote on the Senate floor. The measure would terminate the emergency that Trump declared in order to slap tariffs of up to 40% on products Americans buy from other countries. In the wake of Trump’s tariff declaration, costs have...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is set to invalidate about 1,700 driver’s licenses held by transgender residents and roughly as many birth certificates under a new law that goes beyond Republican-imposed restrictions in other states on listing gender identities in government documents. The bill prohibits documents from listing any sex other than the one assigned birth and invalidates any that reflect a conflicting gender identity. Florida, Tennessee and Texas also don’t allow driver’s licenses to reflect a trans person’s gender identity, and at least eight states besides Kansas have policies that bar trans residents from changing their birth certificates. But...

On February 22, 1732, George was born to Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. He spent most of his childhood at Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock River. All of the homes and plantations where Washington lived were maintained by enslaved labor. When George was eleven, his father died and he became a slave owner. As a result, George did not receive a formal education like his older half-brothers. Instead, he helped his mother on the farm and attended a local school in Fredericksburg. For the rest of his life, Washington supplemented his education with reading and self-guided study. At seventeen-years old,...

As was true for many conservatives, when I saw the headline saying that the Supreme Court had reversed Trump’s tariffs, I admit that my stomach sank. My first thought was that this was an epic disaster for the Trump administration. More than that, I thought that this is an epic disaster for the strong Trump economy, because tariffs have been a major leg of that stool.AdvertisementThen I took a deep breath and had a couple of useful thoughts. My first thought was, I bet Trump has a backup plan, because he’s always known that this could happen. He’s not the...

The United States will mark the Semiquincentennial—250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence—on July 4, 2026, with a year-long series of ceremonies, cultural programs, and national celebrations. Planning for this historic milestone, known as America250, involves bipartisan partnerships among federal, state, and local agencies and organizations, culminating in major events in America’s most historic cities and beyond.

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe ordered the retraction of 19 intelligence products following an independent review that found the documents failed to meet regulatory standards of tradecraft and quality, the agency announced Friday. Redacted versions of three documents obtained by The Federalist showed that the analyses promoted left-wing ideology, took sides on domestic political disagreements in foreign countries, fell outside of the CIA’s official role, and were sourced to left-wing media, nongovernmental organizations, and nonprofit groups. This commitment to advancing leftist activism appears to span at least three presidential administrations beginning in 2015. “There is absolutely no room for...

Victor Schwartz, 67, became the face of the battle to strike down the president's controversial tariffs when he sued the government last April. Schwartz has owned VOS Selections in Manhattan since 1987 and feared the tariffs would devastate his small business. He argued that the US President lacked the authority to impose tariffs without congressional approval, becoming one of the few dissenting corporate voices to publicly oppose the fees

Louisiana public schools got the go-ahead to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms after a federal appeals court on Friday lifted an order that had stopped the state from enforcing a law requiring the displays. The majority opinion by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court that had blocked state officials from enforcing the law, which was passed in 2024 by Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature and championed by Gov. Jeff Landry. A U.S. District Court judge and a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit both previously said the law, which requires all...

President Trump said Saturday he’s going to bump his newly imposed global tariff to 15%, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision blocking his sweeping import taxes on international trading partners.The increase was “based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social. “During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of...

Just hours after a White House comms director Steven Cheung referred to Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bruce Springsteen as a “loser” in a pun-filled statement denigrating the rock legend’s announcement of an upcoming U.S. arena tour, Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin had his own spicy retort. “America has no kings, but we’ve got one Boss and his name is Bruce Springsteen,” wrote Raskin, a consistent burr in Trump’s heel, on X on Wednesday (Feb. 18). “Unlike our faux-King, the Boss fights for freedom and democracy for everyone. I cannot wait to hear him sing ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ loud...