“Lawsuit accuses Musk of bribing Wisconsin voters with cash prizes”

(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)Another milemarker on the George Orwell expressway blurred past America’s window this morning while the country metaphorically looked down to text-and-drive. As Marines descended upon Los Angeles to join the National Guard units already questionably legally called up, the Defense Department assured critics that they would only NOT arrest people — something they cannot legally do — but merely involuntarily detain people to hand over to local law enforcement. Which is what the rest of us call “an arrest.” The distinction lovingly crafted by the administration’s Newspeak Generator matters so much because Trump has not invoked the full force of the Insurrection Act. It may be shocking to see self-driving cars on fire — or more accurately, shocking to see self-driving cars that aren’t Teslas on fire — but a couple burning cars does not a rebellion make. When storming the Capitol to hang…

Until relatively recently, many courts, including in Texas, did favor mothers in child custody cases. Those days are gone, however, at least officially. Texas child custody law is now strictly gender-neutral. To fully understand the Texas child custody landscape you need to learn the prevailing legal standards and the factors that influence custody determinations. The legal standard in Texas custody cases Do Texas courts favor the mother or the father? The question itself is misleading. It would be more accurate to say that Texas courts favor the child. The “best interests of the child” is the primary consideration in matters of child custody. This is true in Texas as well as every other state — there is no presumption in favor of either the mother or the father. All other things being equal, Texas family courts prefer joint custody arrangements. Texas local nomenclature for custody cases Texas child custody law is broadly similar to the child custody law in…

When you’re approached or arrested by law enforcement, it’s natural to feel scared, overwhelmed, or tempted to explain your side. But one of the most powerful tools you have is silence. Under the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, you have the right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination. This right is reinforced by your Miranda Rights, which police are required to read to you during a custodial interrogation. If you’ve heard the phrase, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law,” that’s your cue to stop talking and protect yourself. Many people unknowingly waive their rights by speaking too soon or too freely. Even innocent statements can be twisted or taken out of context. That’s why one of the smartest things you can do is to invoke your right to remain silent and request legal counsel. Simply say, “I am invoking my right to remain silent. I would like…

Birth injuries can have lasting effects on both children and their families. When a baby suffers harm during labor or delivery, the consequences may range from mild and temporary to severe and permanent. For families in Texas, understanding the common types of birth injuries is crucial—especially when negligence may be involved and legal help becomes necessary. Birth injuries happen due to various reasons. Sometimes, complications during delivery cause stress or trauma to the infant. In other cases, medical mistakes or delays in treatment contribute to harm. Regardless of the cause, the result is a condition that can affect a child’s health, development, and quality of life. Injuries to the Baby’s Head and Brain Brain injuries during birth can result from a lack of oxygen or physical trauma. One of the most serious is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). This condition occurs when the brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen, often due to umbilical cord…

Welcome back to Let’s Talk About Prenups, our blog series that will familiarize you with terminology that doesn’t need to be taboo. We will answer questions both simple and complex, debunk the myths, and illustrate situations and options.  Feel free to contact us with a particular issue or to schedule a consultation. In the first blog of this series, we suggested that a prenuptial agreement be considered as a financial planning tool for a couple’s future together and as a way to have difficult and honest conversations before problems arise. In this second blog, we will address the elements needed for a prenup to be enforceable in New Jersey. As you’ll see, correct drafting and execution are critical. The Prenup’s Role in Divorce Proceedings One of the primary benefits of a well-crafted prenup is that it can simplify and streamline divorce proceedings.  This is done by addressing how financial matters will be handled in the event of…

St. Louis, MO — Greater Goods has announced a recall of several models of its digital kitchen scales due to serious safety concerns related to the ingestion of lithium coin batteries. The recalled products violate federal safety regulations under Reese’s Law, which is designed to prevent injury from button cell or coin battery ingestion. The recall was initiated after it was determined that the kitchen scales do not comply with mandatory safety requirements: Children can easily access the lithium coin battery. A spare coin battery included in the packaging is not housed in child-resistant packaging, as required by law. The product lacks the safety warnings regarding the risks of coin battery ingestion. These violations pose a significant risk. If swallowed, button cell or coin batteries can cause internal chemical burns, severe injury, or death. This recall includes the following Greater Goods Digital Kitchen Scale models: Model Numbers: 0480, 0455, 0456, 0458,…

Seventy-nine years ago, President Harry Truman signed a law that, to this day, most Americans have never heard of. Even the title of the law — the Administrative Procedure Act or APA — is a guaranteed yawner.  Yet this law is central to the rule of law and, among other things, to environmental protection.  We are learning from the current Administration’s efforts to evade the APA just how important it is. Administrative procedure is a complicated subject that takes up most of a full semester course in law school.  But at heart, it consists of three principles: Agencies cannot exceed the powers granted by Congress and must follow their own rules and congressionally mandated procedures. Agencies must give reasoned explanations when they decide factual or policy issues. People harmed by agency decisions have the right to judicial review. You might say that this is nit-picky lawyer stuff. But these principles are crucial to preventing lawless or…

How ethics reforms in Arizona led to LegalZoom’s law firm

Pacific Legal Foundation and the Catholic University Law Review seek papers for a symposium on “Searching for Constitutional Limits on Environmental & Natural Resources Law,” to be held in spring 2026 at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. The full call for papers is available here. We seek papers that explore the limits of Congress’s regulatory authority over environmental and natural resources policy. We would like papers that address this topic from numerous perspectives, including: Does the Commerce Clause limit the application of the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, or any other environmental statute? As an empirical matter, how many federal environmental regimes reach non-commercial and intrastate activity? Rulings in United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison reintroduced some constraints on the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce. Does the…

This post was authored by Luke Jenkins, Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center Plaintiff-Appellant, property owner, brought suit against the City of Chicago (City) alleging the City’s enactment of an ordinance designating a district as a Chicago landmark under the Chicago Landmark Ordinance violated his rights to substantive due process and equal protection under the state constitution. The facts and procedural history and set forth below. The Chicago Landmarks Ordinance set forth a procedure to protect and encourage the use of districts within the City eligible to be designated as Chicago landmarks. The “Arlington-Deming District” was noted by the Landmark Commission as potentially meeting the requirements of being designated a Chicago landmark. After a study and designation report outlining the satisfaction of landmark requirements, the commission recommended to the City Council to adopt an ordinance designating the District as a Chicago…

President Donald Trump is off to a fast start in his second term in the White House. Along with a bevy of other consequential actions, the president has called into question the constitutionality of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) independence. At first blush, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States would seem to prevent the president from removing FTC commissioners without cause. But that is incorrect. On March 18, President Trump removed Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter from the FTC, notwithstanding a statute that specifies only certain allowable justifications for their removal. The president appears to believe that Article II of the Constitution—which vests the executive power in the president alone and which obligates the president to take care that the laws be faithfully executed—supersedes that statutory limitation on his power to remove FTC commissioners. Enter the 90-year-old…

For the Balkinization symposium in honor of Ken Kersch Sanford Levinson Nothing I could write could add to Roger Smith’s wonderful tribute to a truly wonderful person, Ken Kersch.  His work was obviously important, and it would be worth remembering even if he were a lout.  But he wasn’t.  All who encountered him as a person knew that he was special, not only a person of great intelligence, with a willingness and ability to tackle truly important issues, but also a mensch, a person one wanted to have as a friend.  I was privileged to know Ken for quite a few years, and we usually had dinner at least once (which was not enough) during the semesters that I happened to be in Boston.  I last saw him in September.  Neither of knew, of course, that it would be for the last time.  Our conversations were usually casual.  Now I wish I had taken more opportunity to explore interests we had in common and to find out more about where his…

* Kirkland cuts diversity leader and staff in ongoing cowardice campaign. [American Lawyer] * Elon Musk’s Twitter strategy remains “threatening to sue anyone who doesn’t give us money.” It’s been his play for a year now, but he’s getting a new assist from the FTC. [WSJ] * ABA responds by ripping DOJ for shutting the group out of judicial nomination vetting. [Courthouse News Service] * Federal Circuit keeps tariffs in place while Trump appeals decision that he has no authority to impose tariffs. This seems like an incentive structure that’s sure to cause no problems down the road. [Law360] * Senior CFPB official departs as administration trashes agency. [Bloomberg Law News] * Justice Department continues purge of employees who investigated Trump criminal activity. [Reuters] * Freshfields lawyers raise $30 million for AI business. [Legal Cheek] The post Morning Docket: 06.11.25 appeared first on Above the Law.

Authors’ Note: The members of the Fact-Finding Mission were appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council; they are not U.N. staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights Office provides support in the Fact-Finding Mission, the members serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including the U.N. Any views or opinions presented herein are solely those of the mandated members. In September 2022, massive protests broke out across Iran, sparked by the unlawful death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. They had arrested her days earlier for allegedly not wearing the “mandatory hijab.” As anti-government protests swept the country, Iran’s security forces responded with violence. To investigate these events, the United Nations Human Rights Council established the UN Independent International…

From September 2022 to September 2023, at least 500 people were killed by Iranian security forces, tens of thousands were arrested, nine men were executed after sham trials, and thousands of people, including children, were tortured. Their crime: peacefully participating in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. The protests were galvanized by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022. Amini was a young woman who was detained by the regime’s morality police for allegedly “improperly” wearing her hijab. People took to the streets across the country to protest the actions of the Iranian government and its treatment of women. Security forces immediately responded with violence. This brutal crackdown, however, did not stop the movement from sharing its message with the world. Protesters and bystanders used their cell phones to take photos and videos of what they saw around them. At great personal risk, they uploaded them to social media platforms with…

A family law Separation Agreement is a binding legal agreement signed by both spouses to document the resolution of all or some of the legal issues arising from their separation. Both parties must obtain independent legal advice regarding the Agreement. Separation agreements may be entered into by married and common law spouses. There can only be changes if both parties consent or if the court orders a variation. - Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net Visit our website: www.wiselaw.net

On June 7, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum federalizing 2,000 California National Guard troops to quell immigration protests in and around Los Angeles pursuant to an obscure provision in federal law–10 USC §12406–which has not been used since 1970, when President Richard Nixon federalized the Guard to deliver mail during a postal strike. And the last time the National Guard was federalized over a governor’s objection was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson deployed the Guard to Selma, Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators. The law allows federalization of National Guard forces if “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.” Although the deployed military force may protect federal officers enforcing immigration law in Los Angeles, the federalized Guard is, like any federal military force, subject to the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits federal troops…

Robert L. Tsai, Boston University School of Law, and Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School, have posted Under What Circumstances is “Caste” Likely to Be a Useful Analytic Concept (and Should We Care)?:There is growing interest among egalitarians to embrace "caste" to analyze forms of inequality in the United States. In this essay, we offer a few reservations about this trend. First, we note some general limits to arguments by analogy. Second, we point to some historical and legal differences between the caste system in India and the system of American slavery and segregration that followed. Third, if caste analysis were to take hold in American law, many more cultural practices (and perhaps even the value of pluralism itself) would need to be reconsidered. Fourth, there is some risk that the anti-caste project could lead to a proliferation of groups and conditions problematically characterized as "backward," and thereby paradoxically…