A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw |
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Cities, nonprofits to ask judge to force Trump administration to fully fund food aid |
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton |
A group of cities and nonprofits will urge Chief U.S. District Judge J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island to force the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP food aid during the government shutdown. Here’s what to know:
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The motion hearing comes two days after Trump administration officials said they would only release enough money to provide households half the benefits they would normally receive.
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Lawyers for the cities and nonprofits at the liberal legal group Democracy Forward in a motion on Tuesday told McConnell that the USDA's statement about delays demonstrated that the administration had failed to resolve the "burdens" entailed by making only partial benefits available. Read the motion here.
- They urged McConnell, an Obama appointee, to force the administration to release funding in its entirety for November SNAP benefits.
- McConnell had given the Trump administration the option of either using $5.25 billion in emergency funding to provide partial benefits once it resolved "administrative and clerical burdens" or tapping additional funding to provide SNAP benefits in full in November.
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The USDA on Monday said that, in light of his ruling, it would use the contingency funding to pay SNAP recipients 50% of their typical allotment. The benefits typically cost $8 billion to $9 billion per month.
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But the administration declined to tap other funding and said that it could take some states, which administer SNAP on a day-to-day basis, weeks to months to calculate and distribute the unprecedented partial payments.
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U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco will hold a status conference in the app store antitrust lawsuit Fortnite maker Epic Games lodged against Google in 2020. Google and Epic this week unveiled a comprehensive settlement that they said would foster competition while offering greater choice to developers and consumers.
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The Oregon Supreme Court will consider a gun control ballot measure narrowly approved by voters in 2022. The measure, which requires permits for purchasing firearms, background checks and almost entirely bans “large capacity” magazines, has been caught up in litigation since its approval and is not yet in effect.
- Bankrupt auto parts maker First Brands is headed to court today for a hearing that will address questions about how it is funding its bankruptcy and who will control the troubled company's restructuring. Lenders have accused the company and its founder of fraud.
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The conservative Federalist Society will hold its annual national convention in Washington, D.C, featuring several prominent judges, many appointed by President Trump. A Thursday night dinner may, as is custom, feature at least one member of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority.
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The U.S. Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules will hold a virtual hearing. Among the proposals is a reform of the near-total ban on criminal depositions. Find the agenda book here.
- Former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones, accused in a pair of sprawling criminal cases of conspiring to rig poker games and pass along insider information to sports bettors, is due for arraignment in Brooklyn federal court, along with two co-defendants.
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A defendant in a related case against Portland Trailblazers coach and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and more than two-dozen others is also due for arraignment for his role in an alleged rigged poker game scheme. Billups is set to be arraigned later this month. He has denied wrongdoing through his attorneys.
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A jury could render its verdict as soon as today in the case of a man accused of throwing a sandwich at federal agents in Washington in an act of protest against President Trump's crackdown on the city.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. |
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U.S. Supreme Court tariff arguments |
U.S. Supreme Court justices raised doubts on Wednesday over the legality of President Trump's sweeping tariffs. Here's what to know: |
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There was a packed house for the arguments.
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The Trump administration was on the defensive for much of the arguments. A major reason for that, according to legal experts, was the surprisingly harsh questioning by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative who sometimes defies expectations. Read more about that here.
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The justices asked questions related to the Supreme Court's "major questions" doctrine, which requires executive branch actions of vast economic and political significance to be clearly authorized by U.S. lawmakers. Read more about that here.
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