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Devan Cole, CNN

Stories by Devan

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Why Justice Jackson invoked interracial marriage in Supreme Court’s historic transgender care arguments

The Supreme Court was more than an hour into its feisty debate over gender-affirming care when Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson invoked one of the most significant civil rights precedents in the nation’s history.

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Transgender rights take center stage at the US Supreme Court. Here’s what to know

The Supreme Court will dive headfirst into the politically fraught issue of transgender rights on Wednesday when it hears a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors in the highest-profile case of the fall.

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Supreme Court rejects tobacco industry challenge to graphic anti-smoking images on cigarette packs

The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge from major tobacco companies to the Food and Drug Administration’s requirement that they place graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements.

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Supreme Court declines to hear First Amendment challenges in gun display and Confederate statue protest cases

The Supreme Court declined to hear several First Amendment appeals on Monday, ditching a case that dealt with a requirement that gun dealers in Maryland display suicide prevention literature and another case regarding anti-Confederate war monument protesters who were arrested for blocking a street.

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See where abortions are banned and legal — and where it’s still in limbo

Following the US Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eliminated a constitutional right to abortion nationwide, nearly two dozen US states have banned or limited access to the procedure. States where abortion is most limited report higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, as well as greater economic insecurity.

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Suspect in apparent assassination attempt of Trump is in federal court

Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, is in federal court for an initial appearance Monday morning.

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Takeaways from the House hearing with Secret Service Director Cheatle on the Trump assassination attempt

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faced off Monday with angry lawmakers from both parties, who grilled her over the stunning security failures that led to the recent assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

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Appeals court halts fresh Biden administration efforts to cancel some student debt

The Biden administration’s efforts to cancel federal student loan debt for borrowers who enrolled in its new repayment plan took another Republican-led legal hit Thursday.

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Minnesota ban on 18- to 20-year-olds obtaining handgun permits is unconstitutional, federal appeals court says

Minnesota’s ban on 18- to 20-year-olds obtaining a permit to publicly carry a handgun violates the US Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

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Minnesota ban on 18- to 20-year-olds obtaining handgun permits is unconstitutional, federal appeals court says

Minnesota’s ban on 18- to 20-year-olds obtaining a permit to publicly carry a handgun violates the US Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

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Steve Bannon begins serving 4-month sentence in federal prison for defying congressional subpoena

Steve Bannon, a former Donald Trump White House strategist, reported to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Monday to begin a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena.

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Homeless people can be ticketed for sleeping outside, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of an Oregon city that ticketed homeless people for sleeping outside, rejecting arguments that such “anti-camping” ordinances violate the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment.

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Biden administration’s new protections for LGBTQ+ students blocked in 6 more states

The Biden administration cannot enforce new protections for LGBTQ+ students in Ohio, Virginia and four other states, a federal judge ruled Monday, becoming the latest court to rebuff efforts to expand the scope of a decades-old law that prohibits sex-based discrimination.

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Biden administration efforts to protect LGBTQ+ students and workers hit conservative legal roadblocks

The Biden administration’s efforts to shore up protections for LGBTQ+ students and workers were partially hindered by two separate court rulings on Thursday and Friday.

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Food safety officials say they are testing beef, including ground beef from grocery stores, for the presence of the H5N1 bird flu virus that’s spreading in dairy cattle.

The state of Texas is suing the Biden administration over recently announced federal protections for LGBTQ+ students, arguing the Department of Education overstepped its authority by expanding the scope of a landmark anti-sex discrimination law.

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Conservative activists reach $1 million settlement deal with New York AG for running 2020 voter suppression campaign

Conservative activists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have agreed to pay $1 million to the New York attorney general’s office and others for running a voter suppression campaign targeting Black voters during the 2020 election.

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‘Maybe Texas went too far’ with immigration law, state lawyer tells federal court

An attorney defending Texas’ controversial immigration law told a federal appeals court on Wednesday that state legislators may have gone “too far” when they passed a controversial immigration law last year.

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Texas immigration controversy rekindles fight over Arizona’s ‘show me your papers’ law

The legal battle over a controversial Texas immigration law could eventually give the Supreme Court a chance to revisit a historic ruling that largely struck down Arizona’s “show me your papers” law and reaffirmed the federal government’s “broad, undoubted power” over immigration.

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Florida: Man sentenced to 14 months in prison; threatens to kill Chief Justice John Roberts

A Florida man was sentenced Monday to 14 months in prison for threatening to kill Chief Justice John Roberts last year.

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Takeaways from Supreme Court arguments over abortion drug mifepristone

A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Tuesday of the idea of a nationwide ban or new limits on mifepristone, the primary drug used for medication abortions.

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Battle over Texas’ controversial immigration law continues; federal appeals court hearing Wednesday

A federal appeals court is hearing arguments Wednesday over whether to allow Texas to temporarily enforce its controversial law that allows state officials to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally.

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Fulton County judge says district attorney Fani Willis can continue to prosecute the 2020 election interference case

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can stay on and prosecute the Georgia 2020 election interference racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and 14 of his co-defendants, Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday, but only if she removes the special prosecutor with whom she engaged in a romantic relationship.

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Supreme Court under pressure to step into debate over transgender rights

The Supreme Court is facing intense pressure to step into the charged debate over gender-affirming care as transgender minors and their families fight with GOP states over a wave of laws passed in recent years that restrict such care for young trans people.

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Supreme Court keeps Trump on Colorado ballot, rejecting 14th Amendment push

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that former President Donald Trump should appear on the ballot in Colorado in a decision that follows months of debate over whether the frontrunner for the GOP nomination violated the “insurrectionist clause” included in the 14th Amendment.

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Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro to report to prison

Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to President Donald Trump who was convicted of contempt of Congress, has been ordered to report to prison after a judge denied Navarro’s effort to stay out of prison while he appeals the conviction.

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Trump does not have presidential immunity in January 6 case, federal appeals court rules

Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution for alleged crimes he committed during his presidency to reverse the 2020 election results, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

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Retired conservative federal judge urges Supreme Court to disqualify Trump from office

A former conservative federal appellate judge is urging the Supreme Court to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, arguing the ex-president’s effort to cling to power after his 2020 election loss was “broader” than South Carolina’s secession from the US that triggered the Civil War.