(NA) CBS News recently published an article reviewing the impressive success of the Uniting for Ukraine program, which allows Americans to sponsor Ukrainian migrants fleeing Russia's brutal invasion of their country. Ukrainians with such sponsorship can live and work legally in the US for up to two years. Since it began two years ago, the program has enabled some 187,000 Ukrainians to come to the United States, begin working and contributing to our economy, and all with little controversy or opposition: In April 2022, the Biden administration created an unprecedented program known as "Unitin ..read more

From today's decision by Judge Arun Subramanian (S.D.N.Y.) in Flynn v. CNN, Inc.: Plaintiffs Jack and Leslie Flynn have sued Defendant Cable News Network … under Rhode Island's false-light statute. The Flynns claim $75 million in damages. The entire dispute stems from a six-minute segment and, more specifically, the segment's use of a twosecond clip in which the Flynns appear. The Flynns say the segment falsely painted them as "QAnon followers." The parties agree that QAnon is "an American conspiracy movement that began in 2017." The conspiracy centers around "Q," who is supposedly "a high-ra ..read more

An excerpt from his column in yesterday's N.Y. Times: Last Thursday, in the music humanities class I teach at Columbia University, two students were giving an in-class presentation on the composer John Cage. His most famous piece is "4'33"," which directs us to listen in silence to surrounding noise for exactly that amount of time. I had to tell the students we could not listen to that piece that afternoon because the surrounding noise would have been not birds or people walking by in the hallway but infuriated chanting from protesters outside the building. Lately that noise has been almost c ..read more

In P.D. v. Sullivan (S.D.N.Y.), plaintiff alleges: New York State Mental Hygiene Law 9.39 is used to admit individuals to a hospital solely for emergency observation and evaluation as a person "alleged" to have a mental illness. An admission under MHL 9.39 is not a formal adjudication that an individual suffers from a mental disease or defect. NYS Office of Mental Health Transmission of Mental Health Records to NICS. New York Mental Hygiene Law 7.094 authorizes the Office of Mental Health (OMH) to collect, retain, modify, or transmit data or records for inclusion in the NICS system ..read more

4/24/1963: Sherbert v. Verner argued. The post Today in Supreme Court History: April 24, 1963 appeared first on Reason.com ..read more

Last week I participated in a Federalist Society teleforum on the legal issues raised by Congress' decision to limit judicial review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in response to aggressive (and initially successful) litigation by environmentalist groups. As I noted here, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit initially resisted Congress' decision to strip its jurisdiction, but ultimately acquiesced (after Supreme Court intervention). In the teleforum, I joined Professor Daniel Farber, Professor Alan Trammell, Rachel Jankowski of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Magistrate Jud ..read more

I argued in a blog post on Sunday, April 21st that Special Counsel Jack Smith lacked defendant standing to defend the U.S. government's victory in the D.C. Circuit, in the case of Trump v. United States. I pointed out that all nine justices, themselves, must ask the lawyers who argue both sides of Trump v. United States whether Jack Smith has standing to defend the D.C. Circuit opinion given that his appointment as Special Counsel was unconstitutional.  Jack Smith lacks standing to defend the D.C. Circuit's decision in Trump v. United States every bit as much as I lack standing that decis ..read more

Brief responses based on the second oral argument this morning: Starbucks wins. The Court will hold, as it should, that the four-factor test should be applied. The general principle here (see Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo, Nken, e.g.) is that we presume all the traditional principles of equity apply unless there is a clear statement by Congress setting them aside. Note that the four factors do not exhaust the equitable considerations (there are maxims, defense, other equitable principles). In Justice Gorsuch's phrase, "the full considerations of equity." Note, too, that insisting on the four-f ..read more

I've seen some items online asserting that the Northwestern Dean of Students "joins anti-Israel rally organized by far-left student groups," was "openly standing in solidarity with students engaged in anti-Semitism and intimidation," or was otherwise at fault in supporting the rally. Our own David Bernstein, for instance, posted at InstaPundit, HEADS SHOULD, BUT LIKELY WON'T ROLL: Northwestern University Dean of Students Attends Protest Targeting Campus Jewish Community Center. Let's just pause to take this in for a moment. Northwestern University is already under federal investigation f ..read more

4/23/1985: Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc. argued. The post Today in Supreme Court History: April 23, 1985 appeared first on Reason.com ..read more