SUPREME COURT WON’T HEAR CASE ON CALIFORNIA SANCTUARY LAW
WASHINGTON» The Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from President Donald Trump’s administration seeking to challenge a California “sanctuary law.”
As is the court’s custom, its order declining to hear the case gave no reasons. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have granted the administration’s petition seeking review.
The California law prohibits state officials from telling federal ones when immigrants in the country illegally are to be released from state custody and restricts transfers of immigrants in state custody to federal immigration authorities.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco, ruled that the federal government is not entitled to commandeer a state’s resources to further its immigration agenda.
Supreme Court rejects several gun rights cases for next term. WASHINGTON» The Supreme Court on Monday passed up several challenges to federal and state gun control laws, over the dissent of two conservative justices.
Gun rights advocates had hoped the court would expand the constitutional right to “keep and bear arms” beyond the home.
Instead, the justices left in place restrictions on the right to carry weapons in public in Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. They also declined to review Massachusetts’ ban on some semi-automatic firearms and large-capacity ammunition magazines, a California handgun control law and a half-centuryold federal law banning interstate handgun sales.
Trump: Bolton faces charges if book is released. WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump said Monday that his former national security adviser, John Bolton, could face a “criminal problem” if he doesn’t halt plans to publish a new book that describes scattershot, sometimes dangerous, decision-making by a president focused only on getting re-elected.
Trump said it would be up to Attorney General William Barr to issue any charges, but hinted that the matter would end up in court.
The president accused Bolton of not completing a pre-publication review to make sure the book does not contain classified material. That contradicts statements from Bolton’s attorney, Chuck Cooper, who says his client worked for months with classification specialists at the
White House National Security Council.
Coronavirus death rate is higher for those with chronic ills. Death rates are 12 times higher for coronavirus patients with chronic illnesses than for others who become infected, a new U.S. government report says.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Monday highlights the dangers posed by heart disease, diabetes and lung ailments. These are the top three health problems found in COVID-19 patients, the report suggests.
The report is based on 1.3 million laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases reported to the agency from January 22 through the end of May.
Philippine journalist convicted of libel, given six-year term. MANILA» An award-winning journalist critical of the Philippine president was convicted of libel and sentenced to jail Monday in a decision called a major blow to press freedom in an Asian bastion of democracy.
The Manila court found Maria Ressa of the online news site Rappler Inc. and former reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr. guilty of libeling a wealthy businessman.
The Rappler’s story on May
29, 2012, cited an intelligence report linking him to a murder, drug dealing, human trafficking and smuggling. The site’s lawyers disputed any malice and said the time limit for filing the libel complaint had passed.