School criticised for censorship of textbooks

A section on Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court decision that made abortion a legal right is covered completely in a textbook A state school has been criticised for removing references to homosexuality and women socialising with men from a GCSE textbook. An image of Fred Astaire dancing with Ginger Rogers was among the content blocked out by Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School - an Orthodox Jewish school in Stamford Hill, east London - in copies of the book seen by Humanists UK.

Evil

In 2011, a proposed California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors was blocked by the US Supreme Court. Or maybe an industry with over $100 billion in annual sales has persuaded enough experts to assert, with sufficient plausibility, that there is no connection.

US govt to California: You can never leave

The Trump administration on Wednesday came down hard against California, suing the Golden State over its immigration policy that it said is obstructing federal officers from enforcing laws relating to illegal immigrants. WASHINGTON: In a country whose name is prefaced with United and whose pledge of allegiance speaks of "one nation under God, indivisible," secession is a no-go area.

How Ayn Rand became a big admirer of sadistic serial killer William Hickman

There's something deeply unsettling about living in a country where millions of people froth at the mouth at the idea of giving health care to the tens of millions of Americans who don't have it, or who take pleasure at the thought of privatizing and slashing bedrock social programs like Social Security or Medicare. It might not be so hard to stomach if other Western countries also had a large, vocal chunk of the population that thought like this, but the U.S. is seemingly the only place where right-wing elites can openly share their distaste for the working poor.

Madam Speaker: A famous first joins the national collection

Today we welcomed a new first into our collection, with objects donated by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who in 2007 became the first woman to serve as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Gavel Nancy Pelosi received and used at the 2007 ceremony in which she was sworn in as the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

High Court: Feds have role in water fight

A lawsuit pitting Texas against New Mexico and Colorado over access to water from the Rio Grande must be sent back to an arbitrator, also known as a special master, to resolve the dispute, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. Justice Neil Gorsuch noted the federal government has an interest in ensuring water commitments are kept involving one of North America's longest rivers, citing an international agreement with Mexico and the decades-old Rio Grande Compact.

West Virginia House opposes constitutional abortion rights

West Virginia lawmakers say the main goal of a constitutional amendment they are proposing is to end Medicaid funding for abortions - but opponents say the change could lead to a future ban on abortions altogether. The House on Monday voted 73-25 to pass the resolution, which was approved by the Senate a month ago and will now go before voters in a November referendum.

High Court: Feds have role in Texas-New Mexico water fight

A lawsuit pitting Texas against New Mexico and Colorado over access to water from the Rio Grande must be sent back to an arbitrator, also known as a special master, to resolve the dispute, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. Justice Neil Gorsuch noted the federal government has an interest in ensuring water commitments are kept involving one of North America's longest rivers, citing an international agreement with Mexico and the decades-old Rio Grande Compact.

Ancient artifacts seized from Hobby Lobby returned to Iraq updated

Thousands of ancient clay tablets, seals and other Iraqi archaeological objects that were smuggled into the U.S. and shipped to the head of arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby were returned to the Iraqi government on Wednesday. The Oklahoma City-based private company, whose devout Christian owners won a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling exempting them from providing certain contraceptive coverage for employees, agreed to pay a $3 million fine last year to settle a lawsuit over the company's role in the smuggling of the artifacts, which authorities say were looted from the war-torn country.

AP News Guide: DACA’s future rests with Congress, courts

The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to consider the Trump administration's unusual request to overrule a judge who kept alive a program that shields young immigrants from deportation. The administration went directly to the nation's highest court after U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco decided in January that beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program could apply for renewals.

Greg Shubert: Some advisable constitutional revisions

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting murders in 2012, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a book, "Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution." One proposal was to add a clause to the Second Amendment, so it would now read: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed."

Trump hopes top court will rein in judges who block policies

The Trump administration is looking for ways to deal with a recurring frustration: individual federal judges who have put the brakes on one major administration policy after another. The administration is telling the Supreme Court in a case about President Donald Trump's travel ban that judges are increasingly using what are called nationwide injunctions to stop "a federal policy everywhere."