Courthouse News Service • 12th December 2025

First Circuit reverses block on Trump's Planned Parenthood funding cuts

The appeals panel said that a provision of the "Big, Beautiful Bill" that stripped Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood didn't violate the reproductive health care giant's rights.(CN) — A three-judge panel of the First Circuit ruled Friday that Planned Parenthood is unlikely to succeed in its claims that a new federal law denying it Medicaid funds is unconstitutional.The panel overturned a lower court’s order that had temporarily blocked a provision of President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful...

Courthouse News Service • 2nd December 2025

Texas officials seek to unblock ban on mail ballot 'harvesting'

As part of SB 1, a controversial voting law passed after Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, Texas has enacted a ban on paid canvassing in the presence of a mail ballot. A federal judge blocked officials from enforcing the ban, finding that it violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague.(CN) — Texas officials asked a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel Tuesday to reverse a federal judge’s ruling blocking them from enforcing a state law banning paid political canvassi...

Courthouse News Service • 21st November 2025

Makers of blood thinner Plavix seek to quash Texas suit

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims that for decades the drugmakers failed to disclose that the medication is less effective in some minority patients, but the companies say the lawsuit is "stale and opportunistic."MARSHALL, Texas (CN) — The makers of the blood thinning medication Plavix filed a complaint Friday seeking to block a lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claiming the companies concealed that the drug is less effective for certain patients.In a petition filed Thursday, P...

Courthouse News Service • 20th November 2025

Muslim civil rights group sues over Texas governor's terrorist group designation

Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation Tuesday declaring the Council on American–Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights group in the U.S., a foreign terrorist organization.(CN) — The Council on American–Islamic Relations on Thursday challenged a proclamation by Texas Governor Greg Abbott designating the Muslim civil rights group as a foreign terrorist organization and a transnational criminal organization.Abbott’s Tuesday proclamation declares that CAIR is a “successor organizati...

Courthouse News Service • 18th November 2025

Trump-appointed judge spoils Texas redistricting effort

President Donald Trump called on Texas to give Republicans five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, but one of his handpicked federal judges helped block the new congressional map over racial gerrymandering concerns.EL PASO, Texas (CN) — A panel of three federal judges blocked Texas’s new congressional map from being used in the 2026 midterms, ruling 2-1 on Tuesday that a coalition of civil rights groups is likely to succeed in claiming the new map constitutes an unconstitutional ra...

Courthouse News Service • 10th November 2025

Parents sue Camp Mystic over Texas flood deaths

Over 130 people, including 27 campers and two counselors at the Christian girls' camp, died from major flooding in Central Texas over the July 4 weekend.(CN) — The parents of several Camp Mystic campers who lost their lives when catastrophic flooding hit Central Texas earlier this year filed a lawsuit against the camp Monday, claiming it failed to evacuate their daughters and lacked proper emergency protocols.The Hill Country region of Texas experienced devastating flooding over the July 4 weeke...

Courthouse News Service • 6th November 2025

Feds drop charges against Boeing over 737 Max crashes

Boeing has agreed to pay over $1.1 billion in fines, victim compensation and safety improvements in exchange for the criminal fraud case being dismissed.FORT WORTH, Texas (CN) — A Texas federal judge approved an agreement Thursday between federal prosecutors and aerospace giant Boeing to dismiss criminal fraud charges stemming from a pair of 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a combined 346 people.Prosecutors accused Boeing of deceiving federal regulators about the safety of the Max’s...

Courthouse News Service • 5th November 2025

Louisiana asks Fifth Circuit to ax heat restriction on prison farm labor

(CN) — The state of Louisiana asked a Fifth Circuit panel Wednesday to overturn a federal judge’s order requiring special protections for prisoners doing farm labor at the state’s notorious Angola prison when the temperature reaches a certain threshold.Voice of the Experienced, an organization that advocates for the rights of incarcerated individuals, has brought a putative class action on behalf of men held at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, challenging the constitutional...

Courthouse News Service • 4th November 2025

Chinese citizen challenges Texas property buying ban

Chinese American advocates and the Texas Attorney General's Office dispute whether a new Texas law banning people from China and other adversarial nations from buying property in the state applies to Chinese citizens permanently living in the U.S.(CN) — Lawyers from the Texas Attorney General’s Office and a Chinese American advocacy group argued before a Fifth Circuit panel Tuesday over whether a new state law preventing people from adversarial nations like China from buying property in the stat...

Courthouse News Service • 3rd November 2025

Texas asks Fifth Circuit to unblock social media child safety law

Tech companies and free speech advocates argue the law violates the First Amendment.(CN) — The state of Texas appealed to a Fifth Circuit panel Monday to reverse orders by a federal judge blocking portions of a Texas law aimed at protecting minors from harmful content on social media.The law, known as the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment, or SCOPE, Act, requires social media companies to create various protections for users under the age of 18.Among these are provisions that...

Courthouse News Service • 28th October 2025

Texas sues Tylenol makers over asserted autism link

The state's lawsuit comes a month after the Trump administration publicly linked autism to mothers taking Tylenol during pregnancy. Experts have said the medication is safe.(CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the makers of Tylenol Tuesday, claiming they knowingly hid a purported link between pregnant women taking the medication and children developing autism.The suit comes a month after President Donald Trump controversially announced that taking acetaminophen, Tylenol’s active ingredi...

Courthouse News Service • 27th October 2025

Minority voters challenge redistricting in major Texas county

Tarrant County has been a hotbed of Republican redistricting efforts at both the state and local levels.(CN) — A group of Black and Latino voters told a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel Monday that Texas’ third-most populous county is using redistricting to disenfranchise minority and Democratic voters.Known as the largest red county in the country, Tarrant County has historically been considered a Republican stronghold, but a major demographic shift in recent decades has made the count...

Courthouse News Service • 16th October 2025

Texas governor sending National Guard to 'No Kings' protest

The protest at the state Capitol is part of a series of nationwide demonstrations against President Donald Trump's agenda set to occur Saturday.AUSTIN, Texas (CN) ­— Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Thursday that he is deploying both the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety officers to Austin ahead of a “No Kings” protest planned at the state Capitol on Saturday.The protest is part of a nationwide series of demonstrations set to occur that day opposing President Donald Trump’...

Courthouse News Service • 8th October 2025

Texas property owners ask Fifth Circuit to restore suit over chemical plant blasts

Almost 800 property owners have brought suit against the chemical company Arkema, claiming a series of explosions at the company's Houston-area plant during Hurricane Harvey contaminated their property with toxic chemicals.(CN) — A U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel appeared skeptical Wednesday of an attempt by hundreds of Texas property owners to resurrect a lawsuit over a series of explosions at a Houston-area chemical plant during Hurricane Harvey after a federal judge ruled the lawsui...

Courthouse News Service • 7th October 2025

Pharma group asks Fifth Circuit to ax Medicare drug price negotiation

Pharmaceutical companies argue the negotiation program, in which the government sets how much the federal health insurance program for seniors will pay for certain high-cost drugs, is unconstitutional.(CN) — A lobby group for drug manufacturers asked a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel Tuesday to block Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act, arguing the negotiation scheme violates the Constitution by blocking judicial review and imposing excessive f...

Courthouse News Service • 6th October 2025

Man shot by police after disarming shooter asks Fifth Circuit to restore suit

The Texas man claims he was shot by an Laredo police officer despite yelling that he wasn't the shooter.(CN) — A Texas man who was shot by a police officer after disarming a gunman who broke into his home is challenging a federal judge’s ruling that the officer’s actions were objectively reasonable.Jorge Martinez asked a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel Monday to reverse the judge’s ruling and send the case back to the lower court for a trial.His attorney, David Flores, told the panel U...

Courthouse News Service • 30th September 2025

Texas judge says guns can't be banned from post offices

(CN) — The U.S. government cannot constitutionally keep people from carrying guns in and around post offices, a Texas federal judge ruled Tuesday, finding that such restrictions lack a historical basis.In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor cited the U.S Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which set a new standard for Second Amendment cases whereby gun restrictions have to be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition” in order to...

Courthouse News Service • 5th September 2025

A young girl’s testimony put a man behind bars. Did she lie?

She accused John Kinsel of sexually abusing her, then changed her story. Kinsel is still in prison almost 20 years after she recanted — but now, he may be getting a real chance at freedom.(CN) — In 1999, 12-year-old Alyssa Medlin told a Louisiana jury a horrific story. For three years, she said, her mother’s boyfriend John Kinsel had sexually abused her.Her own mother thought she was lying. She, Medlin’s aunt and Medlin’s grandfather all testified they’d never seen Kinsel behave inappropriately...

Courthouse News • 20th August 2025

Judge blocks Texas law requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms

The judge's order temporarily prohibits 11 Texas school districts from complying with the law, which the judge found is likely unconstitutional.(CN) — A federal judge issued an order Wednesday temporarily blocking 11 Texas school districts from complying with a new state law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, finding the law likely violates the First Amendment.Senate Bill 10, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed in June and is set to take effect Sept. 1, r...

Courthouse News • 4th August 2025

Hobby distillers fight for the right to make moonshine

The federal government is challenging a federal judge's ruling that an 150-year-old ban on distilling spirits at home is unconstitutional.(CN) — For over 150 years, federal law has prohibited would-be moonshiners from distilling liquor at home. That may be coming to an end, however, as last year a federal judge in Texas found the law unconstitutional.Attorney Andrew Grossman urged a Fifth Circuit panel Monday to uphold the lower court ruling, arguing the law exceeds federal taxing power. He repr...

Courthouse News • 1st August 2025

BlackRock, other asset managers must face Republicans’ climate conspiracy suit

A coalition of Republican states targeted the "Big Three" investment firms' participation in initiatives aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions.(CN) — A Texas federal judge ruled Friday that a group of Republican state attorneys general can proceed with most of a lawsuit accusing three of the world's largest investment companies of violating antitrust laws by participating in climate initiatives.A coalition of 11 Republican attorneys general, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, filed a...

Courthouse News • 24th July 2025

Robert Roberson asks Texas appeals court to delay October execution

Advocates have fought for years to halt death row inmate Robert Roberson's execution, arguing he was wrongfully convicted in the death of his two-year-old daughter.(CN) — Death row inmate Robert Roberson asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Thursday to stop his scheduled execution, which a judge set last week for Oct. 16.In a motion for stay of execution, Roberson asked the court to delay his execution to give the court time to consider his pending habeas corpus application."The need for f...

Courthouse News • 11th July 2025

Trump defends flood response during Texas visit

When asked by a reporter about flood victims' families’ concerns that alerts didn’t go out in time, Trump said "only an evil person would ask a question like that."(CN) — During a visit to Central Texas following devastating flooding on July 4, President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at a reporter who questioned whether there were sufficient warnings before the floods.“Several families we heard from are obviously upset because they say those warnings, those alerts didn’t go out in time, and...

Courthouse News • 30th June 2025

Fifth Circuit considers Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants

Serious doubts have been raised about the validity of evidence used by the Trump administration to substantiate Tren de Aragua membership in Alien Enemies Act cases.(CN) — In a hearing Monday in New Orleans, Louisiana, on whether the Trump administration can invoke the Alien Enemies Act to summarily remove Venezuelans it declares are members of the gang Tren de Aragua, Fifth Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham indicated he believes courts can't review the government's determination that an individual is...