Texas
State’s limits on certain drag shows ruled unconstitutional
Texas once again cannot enforce its restrictions on some public drag shows after a federal judge on Tuesday declared a 2023 law unconstitutional for the second time.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner initially declared Senate Bill 12 unconstitutional in September 2023 only a few months after it was passed by the Texas Legislature, citing First Amendment violations. More than two years later in November, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unblocked the law and returned the case to Hittner with specific instructions on how to reassess it.
Hittner reaffirmed his ruling Tuesday, stating in his order that besides removing several plaintiffs and defendants from the lawsuit, the appellate court’s decision “did not disturb” his prior decision declaring SB 12 unconstitutional. The ruling again pauses the law, which had gone into effect in March after the 5th Circuit’s decision.
The ruling described SB 12 as overly broad in its definitions of performance and nudity, stating that provocative cosplay at conventions, swimming athletes or Dolly Parton and Elvis impersonators could potentially be penalized under the law.
“The vast majority of the law’s numerous applications violate the First Amendment because all the performances that it has an actual impact on are constitutionally protected and are targeted for prohibition based on content and viewpoint,” Hittner wrote.
The suit was originally filed against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, two counties three district attorneys and one county attorney by two community pride groups, two entertainment groups and Brigitte Bandit, a drag queen and longtime Texas LGBTQ+ rights activist. After the 5th Circuit’s ruling, the two pride groups were removed as plaintiffs and Paxton was left as the sole defendant, which Hittner said satisfied the higher court’s instructions.
“We use our performances to assert liberation, power, and joy with our community,” Bandit said in a statement provided by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which represented the plaintiffs. “As a lifelong Texan, I’m sick of this state trying to censor art and stoke hatred and violence against drag artists and the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Hittner’s ruling notes that Gov. Greg Abbott “touted” SB 12 as a drag ban after its passage in 2023. The law’s critics have repeatedly raised concerns that Republican lawmakers, in passing the law, had portrayed all drag performances as inherently sexual or obscene.
SB 12 as adopted in law contains no language explicitly referencing drag performances, however a previous version while in the Legislature specifically included references to drag. Hittner noted in today’s ruling that opponents of drag performances are not obligated to attend them.
“Finally, for those who find such activities as described in this case offensive, the solution is relatively simple … just don’t go,” he wrote.
Hittner also denied a request from Paxton for a supplemental trial and new discovery in the case. Paxton, in a social media post Tuesday, said his office would seek an appeal to the ruling to protect Texas kids.
“This is a profoundly flawed decision that endangers our children and is an affront to Texas values,” he said.
Montana
Judge stops psychiatric facility from breaking ground, orders new environmental assessment
Opponents of the state’s plans for a forensic mental health facility in Laurel got some good news Wednesday.
Yellowstone County District Court Judge Ed Zink granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by the group Laurel CARED, or Community Advocates for Responsible Economic Development.
The preliminary injunction stops construction of the 32-bed psychiatric facility intended to treat and rehabilitate people in the criminal justice system while the lawsuit progresses. The proposed site is located just west of the city of Laurel.
Construction was set to begin next week, according to Laurel CARED member Shawna Hopper.
The state must now conduct another environmental assessment and open it to public comment.
The group’s main concern was whether the state had adequately studied whether Laurel had enough water to serve the facility. The group’s attorney, Liz Forster, said in a phone call with Montana Free Press Wednesday: “There are serious questions as to whether Laurel can host this facility.”
Forster added that an adequate environmental review would give a better picture of the water capacity and prevent the state from spending “taxpayer money to then have a building that has no water.”
Laurel CARED President Jennifer Lorenz said in a written statement that the group was pleased with the ruling.
“It is reassuring to see the state being held to the same laws, regulations and standards that we expect any local, state, or federal agency to follow,” she wrote. “When government undertakes a project of this magnitude, those requirements matter. Environmental review and public participation are not simply boxes to check — they exist for a reason.”
Mental health advocates and the administration of Gov. Greg Gianforte have pushed for the facility’s construction to ease the backlog of people languishing in local jails, awaiting mental health evaluations before they can proceed to trial.
Many locals aren’t opposed to the facility’s purpose. Some even agree that it’s vital. But they felt the process the state used to select the site and forge ahead with its plans wasn’t fair to local residents.
Under Laurel city ordinances, any property that wants to receive city water or sewer services must first apply to be annexed by the city, CARED attorney Forster said. The city is then required to assess its capacity to provide those services and may approve or deny the annexation application.
But without applying to be annexed, no property can receive city water or sewer services, Laurel CARED members have argued in court.
Forster said that the state raised the possibility of using another route to acquire city services: eminent domain, the government’s power to seize property and convert it to public use.
The state only raised the possibility of using eminent domain at a hearing earlier this month, while the lawsuit was filed in June.
In its environmental assessment, the state, in part, cited an earlier engineering study conducted for a Love’s Truck Stop in the area that found there was sufficient water to supply the new truck stop.
But Forster said that city water users now question whether there was, in fact, enough water for the truck stop.
“Since the Love’s Truck Stop started operating, Laurel citizens, including some Laurel CARED members, are having issues with their water pressure and are having to either use their wells or install pumps or whatever, to ensure that adequate water pressure,” Forster said.
MTFP was unable to reach a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services Wednesday evening. DPHHS and the Board of Investments are both defendants in the lawsuit.
Puerto Rico
Justice Department charges more than 80 people in Puerto Rico gang takedown
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has charged more than 80 people in the takedown of a violent Puerto Rican gang, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Thursday during a visit to the island as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to highlight its push to tackle violent crime.
Federal prosecutors say the gang known as “Los Baja Deo” for years trafficked fentanyl, cocaine and other illegal drugs from the west coast city of Mayagüez, generating nearly $50 million in proceeds. The group is also responsible for shootings, killings, kidnappings and assaults and the distribution of at least 340 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, Blanche said.
“Our Homeland Security Task Forces around the country are unified and they’re unified to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs and transnational criminal organizations around the United States,” the newly confirmed attorney general told reporters from the U.S. attorney’s office in San Juan.
Blanche’s presence in the U.S. Caribbean territory for the announcement underscores the Trump administration’s efforts to put a spotlight on its work tackling cartels and gangs that fuel drug trafficking and violence in communities across the U.S. The Trump administration has dramatically reshaped the Justice Department to make tackling illegal immigration and violent crime a top priority.
“These 81 violent gang members will now face justice and so will any other that try to take their place,” said Héctor Ramírez-Carbó, the acting U.S. attorney for Puerto Rico. “Today, the families of Mayagüez can peacefully enjoy what their communities have to offer without fear of harm.”
Virginia
Military judge sets June 2028 trial date for alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
A U.S. military judge on Wednesday set a summer 2028 trail date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three others accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The trial is scheduled to begin June 5, 2028, 18 months later than the January 2027 start that prosecutors had requested. The additional time is needed to resolve pretrial disputes, including disagreements about what evidence can be presented at trial, Air Force Lt. Col. Michael A. Schrama wrote in his ruling.
The U.S. military and successive administrations have struggled for more than two decades to bring to justice the man charged with planning one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States.
The 2028 trial depends on the case meeting deadlines and milestones along the way and it could again be delayed. A trial was previously scheduled in 2021 but later canceled.
Mohammed is accused of developing and directing the plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another of the hijacked planes flew into a field in Pennsylvania. He faces trial alongside three alleged accomplices: Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
They are among the last of the detainees held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
A federal appeals court last year threw out an agreement that would have allowed Mohammed to plead guilty in a deal sparing him the risk of execution for al-Qaida’s 2001 attacks.
That deal stipulated life sentences without parole for Mohammed and two of his co-defendants. It also would have obligated the men to answer any lingering questions that families of the victims have about the attacks. But after negotiating the deal for two years, former President Joe Biden’s administration repudiated it.
State’s limits on certain drag shows ruled unconstitutional
Texas once again cannot enforce its restrictions on some public drag shows after a federal judge on Tuesday declared a 2023 law unconstitutional for the second time.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner initially declared Senate Bill 12 unconstitutional in September 2023 only a few months after it was passed by the Texas Legislature, citing First Amendment violations. More than two years later in November, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unblocked the law and returned the case to Hittner with specific instructions on how to reassess it.
Hittner reaffirmed his ruling Tuesday, stating in his order that besides removing several plaintiffs and defendants from the lawsuit, the appellate court’s decision “did not disturb” his prior decision declaring SB 12 unconstitutional. The ruling again pauses the law, which had gone into effect in March after the 5th Circuit’s decision.
The ruling described SB 12 as overly broad in its definitions of performance and nudity, stating that provocative cosplay at conventions, swimming athletes or Dolly Parton and Elvis impersonators could potentially be penalized under the law.
“The vast majority of the law’s numerous applications violate the First Amendment because all the performances that it has an actual impact on are constitutionally protected and are targeted for prohibition based on content and viewpoint,” Hittner wrote.
The suit was originally filed against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, two counties three district attorneys and one county attorney by two community pride groups, two entertainment groups and Brigitte Bandit, a drag queen and longtime Texas LGBTQ+ rights activist. After the 5th Circuit’s ruling, the two pride groups were removed as plaintiffs and Paxton was left as the sole defendant, which Hittner said satisfied the higher court’s instructions.
“We use our performances to assert liberation, power, and joy with our community,” Bandit said in a statement provided by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which represented the plaintiffs. “As a lifelong Texan, I’m sick of this state trying to censor art and stoke hatred and violence against drag artists and the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Hittner’s ruling notes that Gov. Greg Abbott “touted” SB 12 as a drag ban after its passage in 2023. The law’s critics have repeatedly raised concerns that Republican lawmakers, in passing the law, had portrayed all drag performances as inherently sexual or obscene.
SB 12 as adopted in law contains no language explicitly referencing drag performances, however a previous version while in the Legislature specifically included references to drag. Hittner noted in today’s ruling that opponents of drag performances are not obligated to attend them.
“Finally, for those who find such activities as described in this case offensive, the solution is relatively simple … just don’t go,” he wrote.
Hittner also denied a request from Paxton for a supplemental trial and new discovery in the case. Paxton, in a social media post Tuesday, said his office would seek an appeal to the ruling to protect Texas kids.
“This is a profoundly flawed decision that endangers our children and is an affront to Texas values,” he said.
Montana
Judge stops psychiatric facility from breaking ground, orders new environmental assessment
Opponents of the state’s plans for a forensic mental health facility in Laurel got some good news Wednesday.
Yellowstone County District Court Judge Ed Zink granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by the group Laurel CARED, or Community Advocates for Responsible Economic Development.
The preliminary injunction stops construction of the 32-bed psychiatric facility intended to treat and rehabilitate people in the criminal justice system while the lawsuit progresses. The proposed site is located just west of the city of Laurel.
Construction was set to begin next week, according to Laurel CARED member Shawna Hopper.
The state must now conduct another environmental assessment and open it to public comment.
The group’s main concern was whether the state had adequately studied whether Laurel had enough water to serve the facility. The group’s attorney, Liz Forster, said in a phone call with Montana Free Press Wednesday: “There are serious questions as to whether Laurel can host this facility.”
Forster added that an adequate environmental review would give a better picture of the water capacity and prevent the state from spending “taxpayer money to then have a building that has no water.”
Laurel CARED President Jennifer Lorenz said in a written statement that the group was pleased with the ruling.
“It is reassuring to see the state being held to the same laws, regulations and standards that we expect any local, state, or federal agency to follow,” she wrote. “When government undertakes a project of this magnitude, those requirements matter. Environmental review and public participation are not simply boxes to check — they exist for a reason.”
Mental health advocates and the administration of Gov. Greg Gianforte have pushed for the facility’s construction to ease the backlog of people languishing in local jails, awaiting mental health evaluations before they can proceed to trial.
Many locals aren’t opposed to the facility’s purpose. Some even agree that it’s vital. But they felt the process the state used to select the site and forge ahead with its plans wasn’t fair to local residents.
Under Laurel city ordinances, any property that wants to receive city water or sewer services must first apply to be annexed by the city, CARED attorney Forster said. The city is then required to assess its capacity to provide those services and may approve or deny the annexation application.
But without applying to be annexed, no property can receive city water or sewer services, Laurel CARED members have argued in court.
Forster said that the state raised the possibility of using another route to acquire city services: eminent domain, the government’s power to seize property and convert it to public use.
The state only raised the possibility of using eminent domain at a hearing earlier this month, while the lawsuit was filed in June.
In its environmental assessment, the state, in part, cited an earlier engineering study conducted for a Love’s Truck Stop in the area that found there was sufficient water to supply the new truck stop.
But Forster said that city water users now question whether there was, in fact, enough water for the truck stop.
“Since the Love’s Truck Stop started operating, Laurel citizens, including some Laurel CARED members, are having issues with their water pressure and are having to either use their wells or install pumps or whatever, to ensure that adequate water pressure,” Forster said.
MTFP was unable to reach a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services Wednesday evening. DPHHS and the Board of Investments are both defendants in the lawsuit.
Puerto Rico
Justice Department charges more than 80 people in Puerto Rico gang takedown
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has charged more than 80 people in the takedown of a violent Puerto Rican gang, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Thursday during a visit to the island as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to highlight its push to tackle violent crime.
Federal prosecutors say the gang known as “Los Baja Deo” for years trafficked fentanyl, cocaine and other illegal drugs from the west coast city of Mayagüez, generating nearly $50 million in proceeds. The group is also responsible for shootings, killings, kidnappings and assaults and the distribution of at least 340 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, Blanche said.
“Our Homeland Security Task Forces around the country are unified and they’re unified to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs and transnational criminal organizations around the United States,” the newly confirmed attorney general told reporters from the U.S. attorney’s office in San Juan.
Blanche’s presence in the U.S. Caribbean territory for the announcement underscores the Trump administration’s efforts to put a spotlight on its work tackling cartels and gangs that fuel drug trafficking and violence in communities across the U.S. The Trump administration has dramatically reshaped the Justice Department to make tackling illegal immigration and violent crime a top priority.
“These 81 violent gang members will now face justice and so will any other that try to take their place,” said Héctor Ramírez-Carbó, the acting U.S. attorney for Puerto Rico. “Today, the families of Mayagüez can peacefully enjoy what their communities have to offer without fear of harm.”
Virginia
Military judge sets June 2028 trial date for alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
A U.S. military judge on Wednesday set a summer 2028 trail date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three others accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The trial is scheduled to begin June 5, 2028, 18 months later than the January 2027 start that prosecutors had requested. The additional time is needed to resolve pretrial disputes, including disagreements about what evidence can be presented at trial, Air Force Lt. Col. Michael A. Schrama wrote in his ruling.
The U.S. military and successive administrations have struggled for more than two decades to bring to justice the man charged with planning one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States.
The 2028 trial depends on the case meeting deadlines and milestones along the way and it could again be delayed. A trial was previously scheduled in 2021 but later canceled.
Mohammed is accused of developing and directing the plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another of the hijacked planes flew into a field in Pennsylvania. He faces trial alongside three alleged accomplices: Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
They are among the last of the detainees held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
A federal appeals court last year threw out an agreement that would have allowed Mohammed to plead guilty in a deal sparing him the risk of execution for al-Qaida’s 2001 attacks.
That deal stipulated life sentences without parole for Mohammed and two of his co-defendants. It also would have obligated the men to answer any lingering questions that families of the victims have about the attacks. But after negotiating the deal for two years, former President Joe Biden’s administration repudiated it.
