Gun crime victims are holding the firearms industry accountable – by taking them to court

Following the strategy used in legal actions against cigarette and opioid firms, the lawsuits attempt to sidestep a law shielding gun makers

With each slaughter of innocents, the gun industry offers its sympathy, argues that even more weapons will make America safer, and gives thanks for a two-decade-old law shielding the firearms makers from legal action by the victims.

Mike Fifer, the chief executive of one of the US’s leading handgun manufacturers, Sturm Ruger, once described the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) as having saved the firearms industry because it stopped in its tracks a wave of lawsuits over the reckless marketing and sale of guns.

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Proud Boys leader charged with seditious conspiracy related to Capitol attack – as it happened

The Wall Street Journal has published a deep dive into the relationship between Chris Murphy and John Cornyn, the two senators tasked with finding a compromise on gun control in Congress, which focuses on their experiences with mass shootings in their states.

The experience of Murphy, a Democrat, stems from the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting which, like last month’s massacre in Uvalde, Texas, left dead scores of children in class. Republican Cornyn’s experience came in 2017 during a shooting at a Sutherland Springs, Texas church that killed 26 people, and again with the killings in Uvalde.

“Both of us have gone through things and seen things that are pretty, pretty horrific,” said Mr. Murphy in an interview, pointing to the shootings in their states. “I don’t think there’s any way that that doesn’t propel you in some way, shape or form to go out, do something, to make sure that all of this stops.”

The two men, coming from parties with sharply different positions on the gun debate, are working to overcome decades of distrust and inaction on guns in a deeply polarized Congress, aiming to pull together an agreement as soon as this week. Many Democrats, worn down after repeated failures to advance new laws, have said they are willing to settle for even a small bipartisan deal. Some Republicans also are open to talks, emphasizing school security and mental illness but wary of any steps that could be cast as hurting gun rights.

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Democrats and Republicans at an impasse over US gun control as Biden demands action – as it happened

Peter Navarro, a top former White House adviser to Donald Trump, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.

The justice department said in a news release that Navarro was indicted with one count for refusing to appear at a deposition and another for refusing to turn over documents as required by the panel’s subpoena.

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Depp-Heard trial verdict: jury rules in favor of Johnny Depp

The focus of the case was a 2018 editorial Heard wrote calling herself ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’

The jury in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial has ruled in favor of Johnny Depp, finding that a Washington Post editorial she wrote defamed her former husband.

The jurors’ unanimous decision on Wednesday capped a seven-week trial in a Virginia courtroom which featured dozens of witnesses and experts weighing in on whether Depp was abusive to Heard – or vice versa – during their 15-month marriage.

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Bipartisan group of US senators push for compromise on gun control legislation – as it happened

In more midterms news, independent Tiffany Bond of Maine has secured enough verified signatures to qualify for a spot on the ballot this November, according to the Press Herald.

This upends one of the most closely-watched races of the cycle: a rematch between Democratic congressman Jared Golden and former Republican congressman Bruce Poliquin for Maines second congressional district.

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Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer acquitted of lying to the FBI

Michael Sussmann’s case is first courtroom test of special counsel John Durham’s inquiry into FBI’s Trump-Russia ties investigation

A lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was acquitted on Tuesday of lying to the FBI when he pushed information meant to cast suspicions on Donald Trump and his alleged links to Russia in the run-up to that year’s race.

The jury in Michael Sussmann’s case deliberated on Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning before reaching its verdict.

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US supreme court clerks may be required to hand over phone records – report

Some clerks reportedly considering retaining legal counsel as investigation into Roe v Wade opinion draft widens

In an unprecedented move, US supreme court clerks may be required to release their phone records as the investigation into who leaked the Roe v Wade opinion draft widens.

The possible mandated release of private cell records and signed affidavits, reported by CNN, is reportedly causing some clerks to consider retaining legal counsel.

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Austin resolution aims to ‘decriminalize’ abortion if Roe v Wade is overturned

Group of city council members seeks to protect patients from criminal prosecution if supreme court ends abortion rights

A group of Austin, Texas city council members is preparing a resolution to “decriminalize” abortion there in the event the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, a landmark case decided nearly five decades ago that protects the federal right to terminate a pregnancy.

An unprecedented leaked supreme court draft decision showed a conservative majority of the nine justices are open to reversing Roe v Wade entirely. If that happened, 26 states would be certain or likely to ban abortion, including in Texas. The state has a “trigger” ban that would almost immediately ban abortion.

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After latest mass shooting, is the supreme court poised to expand gun rights?

Trump’s presidency saw three new rightwing judges, each backed by the powerful gun lobby movement

As the world looks on in horror following mass killings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, the US supreme court is set to issue its first major ruling on gun rights in over a decade.

And with a conservative super majority now installed on the bench, most onlookers expect a substantial broadening of second amendment rights in the country despite the widespread revulsion at the latest shootings in a supermarket and a school.

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Indigenous and Alaska Native women could face escalated violence if Roe is repealed

They are also two to three times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy than white women, according to the CDC

The repeal of federally protected abortion rights would result in an increase in violence experienced by Indigenous women, girls and all those who birth, predicted the director of one of the leading research institutes on Indigenous and Alaska Native people across the US.

“The only option we have right now if this was to be overturned, is to provide the limited resources and support, but it will be limited, especially initially. As a direct result our people are going to suffer,” Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, told the Guardian.

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Nancy Pelosi: supreme court ‘dangerous to families and to freedoms’

House speaker rails against conservative judges appointed by Trump as justices prepare to finalize draft abortion ruling

The supreme court is “dangerous to families and to freedoms in our country”, Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday, as justices prepare to finalize a draft ruling stripping almost have a century of abortion rights in the US.

The House speaker railed against conservative judges appointed by former president Donald Trump in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, in which she urged Democrats to keep their “eye on the ball” to protect other freedoms she sees under threat.

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Ex-eBay exec pleads guilty to terrorizing couple with spiders and funeral wreaths

David Harville is one of six others charged for harassing the Boston duo who ran a new newsletter criticizing the company

A former eBay executive pleaded guilty on Thursday to participating in a scheme to terrorize the creators of an online newsletter that included the delivery of live spiders and other disturbing items to their home.

David Harville, eBay’s former director of global resiliency, is the final onetime eBay employee charged in the case to plead guilty. Six others have admitted to their roles in the harassment campaign targeting a Massachusetts couple who publish the newsletter EcommerceBytes, which eBay executives viewed as critical of the company.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for re-election, Georgia official says

Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger accepts judge’s findings and says far-right congresswoman, a Trump ally, is eligible to run

The Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has accepted a judge’s findings and said the far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for re-election.

A group of voters filed a challenge saying Greene should be barred under a seldom-invoked provision of the 14th amendment concerning insurrection, over her links to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.

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Biden condemns efforts of extremist ‘Maga crowd’ to overturn Roe v Wade abortion protections – as it happened

The judge overseeing the federal civil rights cases of four former Minneapolis police officers in the killing of George Floyd said Wednesday that he has accepted the terms of Derek Chauvin’s plea agreement and will sentence him to 20 to 25 years in prison.

When the white former office is sentenced he will serve the term concurrently with the state criminal sentence he is currently serving (and appealing), of 22.5 years, following his conviction last spring for the May 2020 murder of Floyd, a Black father who had moved from Houston to Minneapolis to start a new chapter after being released from prison.

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‘Betrayal’: chief justice orders inquiry into leak of draft abortion ruling

John Roberts says leak of opinion to overturn Roe v Wade ‘intended to undermine the integrity of our operations’

John Roberts, the US chief justice, has announced an investigation into a leak showing that the supreme court provisionally voted to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.

Publication of the draft opinion by the Politico website on Monday night sparked demonstrations outside America’s highest court, condemnation from Joe Biden and fears that the judiciary has suffered profound damage to its reputation for independence.

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‘It will be chaos’: 26 states in US will ban abortion if supreme court ruling stands

Regulation would be returned to states where lawmakers in south and midwest have enacted bans in anticipation of court’s decision

More than half of US states will outlaw abortion immediately or as soon as practicable, if a leaked draft decision from five supreme court justices remains substantially unchanged.

The result would send hundreds of thousands of people in 26 states hostile to abortion elsewhere to terminate a pregnancy – either by traveling hundreds of miles to an abortion clinic or seeking to self-manage abortion through medication from grassroots or illicit groups.

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US shaken to its core by supreme court draft that would overturn Roe v Wade

Biden condemns abortion opinion that, if handed down, would mean ‘fundamental shift’ in law and imperil many other rights

US politics – live coverage

Joe Biden has warned that a leaked draft supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 case which guaranteed the right to abortion, would represent a huge change in America law and could imperil a wide range of other civil rights.

In a historic moment that shook the US to the core and highlighted jagged social and political divisions, the court confirmed the draft was authentic but said it did not “represent a decision by the court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case”.

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Supreme court voted to overturn Roe v Wade abortion law, leaked draft opinion reportedly shows

In an unprecedented revelation, a document written by Justice Samuel Alito says ‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start’

The US supreme court has provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America, according to a draft opinion reported on by Politico.

In what appeared to be a stunning and unprecedented leak, Politico said on Monday evening it had obtained an initial majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated in the court on 10 February.

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ACLU helped draft article at heart of Depp v Heard case for $3.5m donation, court hears

American Civil Liberties Union’s general counsel testifies that at least $500,000 came from fund connected to Elon Musk

The ACLU helped Amber Heard draft the Washington Post article accusing Johnny Depp of abuse after the organization was promised a $3.5m donation from her divorce – though at least $500,000 of it eventually came from a fund connected to Tesla founder Elon Musk, jurors in the Depp-Heard defamation trial heard on Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Union’s general counsel, Terence Dougherty, testified that the organization decided to propose Heard as an ambassador for the group after Heard pledged the sizeable donation over 10 years.

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Gen William Cooley sentenced for sexual misconduct in first-ever US Air Force trial

Military judge rules Cooley must forfeit $54,550 in pay and face a public reprimand for forcibly kissing his sister-in-law in 2018

A two-star general in the US air force who was convicted over the weekend of abusive sexual contact for forcibly kissing his sister-in-law following a family cookout in 2018 must forfeit $54,550 in pay and face a public reprimand, a military judge ruled Tuesday.

Gen William Cooley received that sentence, military officials confirmed in a statement, after becoming the first-ever general to face a military trial in the American air force’s 75-year history.

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