New York
Lawsuit challenges the boundaries of the only GOP-held congressional district in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — A lawsuit filed Monday seeks to redraw the boundaries of the only congressional district in New York City represented by a Republican, arguing that its current configuration unconstitutionally dilutes the power of Black and Latino voters.
The case, filed by an election law firm on behalf of four voters, comes amid a national fight over congressional boundaries ahead of next year’s midterm elections, which will determine control of the narrowly divided U.S. House.
President Donald Trump has pressured Republican-led states to redraw House districts to increase his party’s chances of maintaining control of the House, leading to a flurry of redistricting efforts across the country. Democrats have launched their own counter measures, but those efforts have often been blunted by laws intended to prevent partisan gerrymandering.
The lawsuit in New York, if successful, could help Democrats in their quest to retake a House majority next year.
The plaintiffs allege the district, which is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, is drawn without accounting for a rise in Staten Island’s Black and Latino population and should be reconfigured to include parts of lower Manhattan, which leans more Democratic.
As it currently stands, the district encompasses Staten Island, a conservative enclave, along with a nearby part southern Brooklyn that shares a similar political bent. Lower Manhattan is dominated by massive apartment and office buildings and is home to the city’s financial district.
In a statement, Malliotakis called the case “frivolous” and said the boundaries were “enacted into state law by the state’s independent redistricting commission, the Democrat-controlled state Legislature and Democrat governor.”
NYGOP Chair Ed Cox issued a similar statement, saying “Everyone should see this effort for what it is: a naked attempt to disenfranchise voters in NY-11 and elect a Democrat to this Congressional District contrary to the will of voters.”
The state’s election board, which is named as a defendant in the case, declined to comment.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had pledged to wade into the national redistricting battle, but has few options to substantially change the state’s congressional lines ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Democrats in the state Legislature redrew the congressional map last year to give their party a modest boost in a few battleground districts, helping the party to pick up a handful of seats in the 2024 elections. Democrats currently control a majority of the state’s congressional districts.
Washington
Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to allow it to fire head of US Copyright Office
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to fire the director of the U.S. Copyright Office.
The administration’s newest emergency appeal to the high court was filed a month and a half after a federal appeals court in Washington held that the official, Shira Perlmutter, could not be unilaterally fired.
Nearly four weeks ago, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused to reconsider that ruling.
The case is the latest that relates to Trump’s authority to install his own people at the head of federal agencies. The Supreme Court has largely allowed Trump to fire officials, even as court challenges proceed.
But this case concerns an office that is within the Library of Congress. Perlmutter is the register of copyrights and also advises Congress on copyright issues.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in his filing Monday that despite the ties to Congress, the register “wields executive power” in regulating copyrights.
Perlmutter claims Trump fired her in May because he disapproved of advice she gave to Congress in a report related to artificial intelligence. Perlmutter had received an email from the White House notifying her that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately,” her office said.
A divided appellate panel ruled that Perlmutter could keep her job while the case moves forward.
“The Executive’s alleged blatant interference with the work of a Legislative Branch official, as she performs statutorily authorized duties to advise Congress, strikes us as a violation of the separation of powers that is significantly different in kind and in degree from the cases that have come before,” Judge Florence Pan wrote for the appeals court. Judge Michelle Childs joined the opinion.
Democratic President Joe Biden appointed both judges to the appeals court.
Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, wrote in dissent that Perlmutter “exercises executive power in a host of ways.”
Perlmutter’s attorneys have argued that she is a renowned copyright expert. She has served as register of copyrights since then-Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed her to the job in October 2020.
Trump appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to replace Hayden at the Library of Congress. The White House fired Hayden amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a “woke” agenda.
North Carolina
Man charged with murder after telling authorities he killed his kids
ZEBULON, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man who told authorities he had killed four of his children and that the bodies were in the trunk of a vehicle at his home has been charged with murder after sheriffs deputies found human remains in his garage.
Wellington Delano Dickens III, 38, was charged Tuesday with one count of murder in the death of one of his children and is being held without bond in the Johnston County Jail, according to the county’s Sheriff’s Office and court records. Multiple additional charges are anticipated, according to a sheriff’s office news release on Facebook.
Dickens called 911 on Monday evening and told the operator he had killed the children, the statement said.
Johnston County deputies responded and found Dickens’ 3-year-old son unharmed inside the residence on the outskirts of Zebulon.
The deputies discovered what the release described as "multiple bodies" in the trunk of a vehicle in the garage and said the remains had been there for a long time, according to the release.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the address.
The sheriff’s office said investigators believe Dickens killed three of his biological children, ages 6, 9 and 10, as well as his 18-year-old stepchild. The State Medical Examiner’s Office was working to identify the remains.
Lawsuit challenges the boundaries of the only GOP-held congressional district in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — A lawsuit filed Monday seeks to redraw the boundaries of the only congressional district in New York City represented by a Republican, arguing that its current configuration unconstitutionally dilutes the power of Black and Latino voters.
The case, filed by an election law firm on behalf of four voters, comes amid a national fight over congressional boundaries ahead of next year’s midterm elections, which will determine control of the narrowly divided U.S. House.
President Donald Trump has pressured Republican-led states to redraw House districts to increase his party’s chances of maintaining control of the House, leading to a flurry of redistricting efforts across the country. Democrats have launched their own counter measures, but those efforts have often been blunted by laws intended to prevent partisan gerrymandering.
The lawsuit in New York, if successful, could help Democrats in their quest to retake a House majority next year.
The plaintiffs allege the district, which is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, is drawn without accounting for a rise in Staten Island’s Black and Latino population and should be reconfigured to include parts of lower Manhattan, which leans more Democratic.
As it currently stands, the district encompasses Staten Island, a conservative enclave, along with a nearby part southern Brooklyn that shares a similar political bent. Lower Manhattan is dominated by massive apartment and office buildings and is home to the city’s financial district.
In a statement, Malliotakis called the case “frivolous” and said the boundaries were “enacted into state law by the state’s independent redistricting commission, the Democrat-controlled state Legislature and Democrat governor.”
NYGOP Chair Ed Cox issued a similar statement, saying “Everyone should see this effort for what it is: a naked attempt to disenfranchise voters in NY-11 and elect a Democrat to this Congressional District contrary to the will of voters.”
The state’s election board, which is named as a defendant in the case, declined to comment.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had pledged to wade into the national redistricting battle, but has few options to substantially change the state’s congressional lines ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Democrats in the state Legislature redrew the congressional map last year to give their party a modest boost in a few battleground districts, helping the party to pick up a handful of seats in the 2024 elections. Democrats currently control a majority of the state’s congressional districts.
Washington
Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to allow it to fire head of US Copyright Office
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to fire the director of the U.S. Copyright Office.
The administration’s newest emergency appeal to the high court was filed a month and a half after a federal appeals court in Washington held that the official, Shira Perlmutter, could not be unilaterally fired.
Nearly four weeks ago, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused to reconsider that ruling.
The case is the latest that relates to Trump’s authority to install his own people at the head of federal agencies. The Supreme Court has largely allowed Trump to fire officials, even as court challenges proceed.
But this case concerns an office that is within the Library of Congress. Perlmutter is the register of copyrights and also advises Congress on copyright issues.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in his filing Monday that despite the ties to Congress, the register “wields executive power” in regulating copyrights.
Perlmutter claims Trump fired her in May because he disapproved of advice she gave to Congress in a report related to artificial intelligence. Perlmutter had received an email from the White House notifying her that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately,” her office said.
A divided appellate panel ruled that Perlmutter could keep her job while the case moves forward.
“The Executive’s alleged blatant interference with the work of a Legislative Branch official, as she performs statutorily authorized duties to advise Congress, strikes us as a violation of the separation of powers that is significantly different in kind and in degree from the cases that have come before,” Judge Florence Pan wrote for the appeals court. Judge Michelle Childs joined the opinion.
Democratic President Joe Biden appointed both judges to the appeals court.
Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, wrote in dissent that Perlmutter “exercises executive power in a host of ways.”
Perlmutter’s attorneys have argued that she is a renowned copyright expert. She has served as register of copyrights since then-Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed her to the job in October 2020.
Trump appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to replace Hayden at the Library of Congress. The White House fired Hayden amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a “woke” agenda.
North Carolina
Man charged with murder after telling authorities he killed his kids
ZEBULON, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man who told authorities he had killed four of his children and that the bodies were in the trunk of a vehicle at his home has been charged with murder after sheriffs deputies found human remains in his garage.
Wellington Delano Dickens III, 38, was charged Tuesday with one count of murder in the death of one of his children and is being held without bond in the Johnston County Jail, according to the county’s Sheriff’s Office and court records. Multiple additional charges are anticipated, according to a sheriff’s office news release on Facebook.
Dickens called 911 on Monday evening and told the operator he had killed the children, the statement said.
Johnston County deputies responded and found Dickens’ 3-year-old son unharmed inside the residence on the outskirts of Zebulon.
The deputies discovered what the release described as "multiple bodies" in the trunk of a vehicle in the garage and said the remains had been there for a long time, according to the release.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the address.
The sheriff’s office said investigators believe Dickens killed three of his biological children, ages 6, 9 and 10, as well as his 18-year-old stepchild. The State Medical Examiner’s Office was working to identify the remains.
