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US Monthly Headline News May 2022 - Page 5
Ashley Gold

The Supreme Court has voted 5-4 to block Texas' social media censorship law, a major boon for tech companies who have been fighting against content moderation laws that would fundamentally change how they do business.

Why it matters: Conservative states have launched a legal war on social media companies in an effort to stem what they see as a wave of censorship, but this decision, like other recent rulings, suggests they face an uphill climb in court.

What's happening: The Supreme Court's decision means that Texas can't enforce a new law that would allow Texans and the state's attorney general to sue tech giants like Meta and YouTube over their content moderation policies.
Palin's attorneys had asked the judge to grant a new trial or disqualify himself as biased against her.
By Associated Press

NEW YORK — The judge who presided over Sarah Palin’s libel case against The New York Times denied her request Tuesday for a new trial, saying she failed to introduce “even a speck” of evidence necessary to prove actual malice by the newspaper. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff made the assertion in a written decision as he rejected post-trial claims from Palin’s lawyers. Her attorneys had asked the judge to grant a new trial or disqualify himself as biased against her, citing several evidentiary rulings by Rakoff that they said were errors. Those ranged from how the questioning of jurors occurred during jury selection, to how jurors were instructed when they asked questions during deliberations. “In actuality, none of these was erroneous, let alone a basis for granting Palin a new trial,” the judge said. Rakoff wrote that regardless of her post-trial motions, Palin was required at a trial earlier this year to show that an error in a published editorial was motivated by actual malice — a requirement in libel lawsuits involving public figures.
A police report describes a Memorial Day weekend shooting on a Las Vegas-area freeway as an apparent ambush by Hells Angels members on rival Vagos biker gang members returning from a veterans cemetery ride
By Ken Ritter Associated Press

LAS VEGAS -- A Memorial Day weekend shooting on a Las Vegas-area freeway was an apparent ambush by Hells Angels members on rival Vagos biker gang members returning from a veterans cemetery ride, according to a police report made public Tuesday. Richard John Devries, who police identified as the Las Vegas Hells Angels chapter president, and club recruits Russell Smith and Stephen Alo were arrested late Sunday, several hours after the shooting on U.S. 95, according to Henderson police reports. At least six of the seven people taken to hospitals with wounds or injuries following the midday Sunday gunfire were Vagos members or affiliates, the report said. They were riding motorcycles back to Las Vegas after stops at Hoover Dam and the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.
Leonard Pitts Jr., Tribune Content Agency

So much for the good guy with a gun. That, you will recall, was NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre’s preferred solution to America’s epidemic of firearms violence. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun,” he said, “is a good guy with a gun.” He said this on Dec. 21, 2012 — one week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left dead six adults and 20 children ages 6 and 7. Americans were grieving and demanding action, and this was his answer. The “good guy with a gun” would set things right. To no one’s surprise, it hasn’t turned out that way. The latest example can be found in Uvalde, Texas — where two adults and 19 children were slaughtered last week at Robb Elementary School while police waited under orders from their incident commander for 78 minutes before engaging the shooter. The good guy with a gun — actually, “guys,” plural, “guns,” plural — dawdled while people died. Police initially concealed this bungling by releasing false and misleading information about the siege.
Peony Hirwani

Joe Rogan has been called out after wading into the debate on gun control in the US, after 19 children and two adults were killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. On Tuesday 24 May, 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos opened fire at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School. Officials said Ramos entered the school with a military-grade arsenal of guns and as many as 660 rounds inside high-capacity ammunition magazines, before opening fire. The findings revealed how the shooter was able to purchase such weaponry without alerting law enforcement. Soon after the incident, a number of US celebrities reacted to the shooting, with many condemning the government for not imposing stricter gun control laws. But speaking on his The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Rogan claimed he doesn’t think it’s “wise to take all the guns away from people and give all the power to the government”. The 54-year-old, who was speaking with scientist Lex Fridman, asked him “how do you stop” a situation like Texas? “No one knows how to stop that,” he said.
How stupid do republicans believe we are? Millions of people listen to Rap Music and play Video Games If Rap Music and Video Games caused mass shootings there would be more shootings every day.

Murjani Rawls

Senate Republicans will blame anything else if it means getting away from passing common-sense gun control legislation. Despite the evidence that lowering the gun purchase age to 18 in his own state allowed the gunman to buy the weapon used in the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) cited rap music and video games as reasons shootings keep happening. If this reasoning sounds familiar to you, it should. This is the same explanation politicians gave after the Columbine shooting – pointing to trenchcoats, rock and rap music, and video games as culprits instead of the broad access to guns. Rep. Jackson offered his thoughts and prayers during an interview with Fox News and said there would be discussions “in the media regarding Second Amendment rights.” From there, Jackson shifted the blame towards rap music and video games.
by Rabbil Sikdar

Aweek after the horrific Uvalde shooting - where an alleged white supremacist targeted and murdered black Americans – Texas governor Greg Abbott described him as “the sheer face of evil.” It’s hard to disagree. Yet, calling Salvador Ramos the sheer face of evil doesn’t explain why such acts take place. Merely a few days before this shooting, another 18-year-old, Payton Gendron, murdered ten black Americans. Both were racist atrocities committed by two young men in America, but the ideological nucleus behind Gendron’s violence bore resemblance to the Christchurch terrorist Brenton Tarrant, who murdered Muslims in New Zealand in 2019. There are growing concerns that an increasing number of white supremacists are committing violence, or plotting to do so, against minorities. Many people subscribe to the idea that white people are being replaced by mass immigration in a deliberate ploy engineered by liberal elites. Both Gendron and Tarrant believed in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory and both were radicalised by online white extremist material. In fact, Tarrant was one of Gendron’s inspirations.
Cheryl Teh

Rep. Mo Brooks said this weekend that he would not support any new gun control restrictions, arguing that people would need their guns if they ever had to take back power from a "dictatorial" government. "The Second Amendment is designed to help ensure that we, the citizenry, always have the right to take back our government should it become dictatorial," he said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. Sandra Smith, the show's host, had asked Brooks if he was open to changes being made to existing gun laws in the wake of last Tuesday's mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. "As long as we enjoy un-infringed Second Amendment rights, then we don't really have to worry that much about the government ever becoming dictatorial," Brooks said.
Trump must be a witch he was caught on tape trying to steal the election in Georgia.

Ewan Palmer

Donald Trump has once again called an ongoing investigation against him a "witch hunt" as an criminal inquiry into his attempts to overturn the state's 2020 election results ramps up. The former president hit out at the investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into whether Trump's phone call, asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 votes to reverse the state's results, constituted election interference. Trump criticized Georgia prosecutors as a special grand jury is set to begin hearing testimony on Wednesday, June 1. As many as 50 people could be subpoenaed by the special grand jury to give evidence to the criminal investigation, according to The New York Times. CNN reported that Raffensperger, Interim Deputy Secretary of State Gabe Sterling, and former Elections Director Chris Harvey are among those who have been ordered to give evidence. "The young, ambitious, Radical Left Democrat 'Prosecutor' from Georgia, who is presiding over one of the most Crime Ridden and Corrupt places in the USA, Fulton County, has put together a Grand Jury to investigate an absolutely 'PERFECT' phone call to the Secretary of State," Trump wrote on social media platform Truth Social.
He claims they have asked for records of “any communications” with the former president.
By Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu

Peter Navarro, a former White House aide to Donald Trump, says he’s been served a grand jury subpoena by federal prosecutors probing the Jan. 6 insurrection — and claims they have asked for records of “any communications” with the former president. In a draft lawsuit that Navarro began circulating Monday, the former Trump trade adviser said “two FBI special agents banged loudly on my door in the early morning hours” on May 26 and served him a subpoena signed by Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. Navarro declined to provide a copy of the subpoena and claimed in the draft lawsuit that it was connected to his refusal to testify to the Jan. 6 select committee, which issued a congressional subpoena for his testimony in February. The House in April recommended that the Justice Department charge Navarro with contempt of Congress. But it would be unusual if a grand jury subpoena were related to his potential contempt case, since he would likely be the target of such a probe and less likely to be asked for testimony. Another select committee witness, Steve Bannon, was charged with contempt last year for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena. He did not receive a grand jury subpoena before his charges were filed.
Alice Cattley

How Frederick Trump changed the course of America
Donald Trump might seem as all-American as it’s possible to be, but just over 150 years ago the Trump clan lived modestly in the German state of Bavaria. The family real estate empire was kickstarted by the former US president’s paternal grandfather Frederick, who emigrated to America aged 16. From running a brothel to succumbing to one of the world’s deadliest pandemics, read on to discover the incredible story of the man who bulit the foundations of the Trump business empire.
Mary Papenfuss

The somber black cover of The New York Times’ Sunday Review underscored the chilling American detail that ended the lives of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas — and so many others. The cover simply repeated this single line over and over 15 times: “Authorities said the gunman was able to obtain the weapons legally.” Each line linked to one of 15 mass shootings in America, with death toll, in the last decade. The weapons used and legally obtained were assault-style firearms, appropriate for a war but nowhere else. Yet they can be legally purchased by civilians — including those as young as 18, the age of the gunman in the Uvalde tragedy. The mass shootings listed included the 2017 Las Vegas massacre of 60 people, the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting that killed 49, and the 2018 attack at Florida’s Stoneman Douglas High School that claimed 17 lives.
Tim Dickinson

On the third floor of Houston’s massive convention center, far above the noise and rabble of the gun show at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting, a luxury hospitality suite was closed to normal NRA members. It was reserved instead for the gun lobby’s biggest donors, who belong to its “Ring of Freedom.” Here, grandees could escape from the masses, sink into plush leather couches, belly up to the refreshment tables, and marvel at a surreal pair of massive taxidermy installations, including one of a grizzly bear felling a moose. The NRA loves to bash “the elites” — in Hollywood and the media — whom they blame for whipping the nation into what they describe as gun-grabbing hysteria after a mass shooting like the one that left 19 elementary school children dead in Uvalde, Texas. The organization holds itself out as a stalwart defender of the everyman against “the world’s most powerful, deceitful and ruthless opponents,” as NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre put it in a Saturday address to NRA members.
A new book maps the now normal hellscape of bigotry and misinformation countenanced by Trump and nurtured and curated by the radical right.
Jason Berry

The great power in politics is to make people believe that something false is true. As the digital revolution spawned a global black market of hackers, crooks and hate merchants, the spread of disinformation and ideological con games powered nationalist strongmen in Russia, Poland, and Hungary, bending the media to their will, making the European Union a survival drama before the 2016 U.S. election. Then came Donald Trump, showcasing bravura machismo at rallies, endorsing violence against critics, promising to restore America’s lost greatness. “A nationalist is one who thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige,” George Orwell wrote in “Notes on Nationalism,” a prophetic 1945 essay. “Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also—since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself—unshakably certain of being right.”
by Andrew Mitrovica

Turns out, tough Texans in Stetsons aren’t so tough. The excuses offered by police in Uvalde to excuse their cowardice only confirm their cowardice. Nineteen armed police stood in an elementary school hallway and did nothing for more than an hour while an armed teenager murdered 19 children pleading for help and the two teachers who perished trying to protect them. That, by any measure, is cowardice. It was not a “wrong decision.” It was cowardice. If only one of the 19 armed police – who apparently waited for 78 minutes for a key to charge into the classroom where 19 children were being dismembered by bullets – had had even a speck of the steel of two unarmed teachers, then perhaps some of those children would be alive. But they did not. Instead, 19 armed police loitered in a hallway until they were convinced the killing was over, that all the children were dead before they finally broke into the classroom. That was not a “wrong decision”. It was cowardice. The tough guys in Stetsons lied, as well. At first they said they stood firm. They shot back while they were being shot at. That’s what “heroes” do: Face the danger in spite of the danger.
Colin Kalmbacher

An 11-year-old boy in upstate New York was arrested and charged with one felony count of making terroristic threats after allegedly telling a fellow student in science class that he was going to kill them. According to the Albany Country Sheriff’s Office, the incident occurred at a middle school in the small village of Voorheesville, N.Y. on Wed., May 26.  That date places the incident just one day after a gunman massacred 19 students in Uvalde, Texas, during the midday hours of Tues., May 25. The threatened student reported what had occurred to school officials who, in turn, contacted law enforcement. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple praised the student who made the report, according to Albany NBC affiliate WNYT. “The last thing we want to be doing is locking up young kids,” the sheriff told the TV station. “We have a zero tolerance policy for this, and if you make stupid statements, you can expect to be arrested.” Apple said no actual guns were involved but that the defendant mentioned his father’s large collection of firearms. The sheriff described the incident as having started when the boy asked the other student for answers during a science lab. The other student, also a boy, refused to give away his answers. “That’s great, then I’m going to kill you, leave it at that,” the boy allegedly said. A third student then allegedly intervened and told the boy that he couldn’t say things like that to people.
Erin Mansfield and Candy Woodall, USA TODAY

Congressional candidate Joe Kent took to Twitter last summer to repeat a racist theme that has become commonplace in the country’s immigration debate and upcoming elections. “The left is supporting an invasion of illegal immigrants to replace American voters and undercut working class jobs,” Kent wrote. Then in the spring, in an interview with a white nationalist group, he nodded along as the host said Democrats don't care about the "Anglos" or "the founding stock of America." “You believe they’re trying to replace white Americans?” the host asked. “Yes,” Kent responded. “Yeah, and they’ll say, if you even mention that, you’re some sort of a neo-Nazi, white nationalist, ‘That’s the replacement theories.’ Well, no. You’re literally trying to replace an American.” Backed by former President Donald Trump, Kent is a Republican from Washington seeking to take a seat in Congress from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the former president for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Thomas Kika

Multiple teen casualties were reported after a shooting broke out at a graduation party on Saturday morning. Police in Thomaston, Georgia, confirmed to WSB-TV that they responded to the deadly incident a little before 1 a.m. The party where the gunfire broke out was being held at the city's Main Event at Park Place event center and had at least 200 people in attendance, most of them being juveniles. At least one victim was killed in the shooting. Akeem Ellison, 18, was taken to the Upson Regional Medical Center for treatment, but was later pronounced dead, police confirmed. Another teen party-goer, 17, whose name has not been publicly disclosed, was airlifted to a different hospital for treatment, while a second attendee, a 15-year-old, was also taken to the hospital for their injuries. Authorities have not confirmed what condition the two teens were in.
ADAM B. COLEMAN

Americans are losing faith that our society can heal from past racial wounds. A recent poll from Gallup found that Americans believe race relations are getting worse, not better. Gallup found that the perception of race relations by both white and Black Americans is at its lowest point in 20 years; only 43 percent of white adults and 33 percent of Black adults view race relations as "very good" or "somewhat good" in America. The key word here is perception. Because race relations aren't truly measurable in any objective sense, we measure them based on feelings and personal interpretation. Which also means it's easy to manipulate our perception of things by people crafting narratives for political ends. This is what I believe is happening with regards to our perception of race relations: Our perception is that race relations are getting worse because we're being told that race relations are getting worse.
By Tom Boggioni | Raw Story

Appearing on "The Katie Phang Show" early Saturday morning, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner served a warning to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that he will be in a world of hurt if he defies a House Jan 6th committee subpoena, an action which could, in turn, set him up for multiple criminal charges. McCarthy, who is desperately hoping to take over as House speaker after the midterms election had his lawyer send a letter to the committee this week telling them he will not comply and claiming the subpoenas it has issued are not constitutional \-- a claim that has already been shot down by federal judges. Speaking with former prosecutor Phang, Kirschner claimed the committee really has no choice but to refer the California Republican to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. "It seems hardly surprising that McCarthy will say he will likely defy the subpoena from the January 6th committee. Should the committee and will the committee, refer him to the DOJ for criminal prosecution?" host Phang prompted.
Contraceptive restrictions would almost certainly face legal challenges. But the Supreme Court has already laid the groundwork for states to restrict access.

With federal abortion protections likely to be struck down this summer, anti-abortion lawmakers are turning their attention to the next target: birth control — in particular, emergency contraception and intrauterine devices (IUDs). The talks are still in their early stages. Days after the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Brent Crane, a senior state lawmaker in Idaho, said publicly he wanted to hold hearings on banning emergency contraception. Earlier this month, Louisiana lawmakers considered a bill that would have classified abortion as homicide — and that could, experts say, have criminalized IUDs and emergency contraception as well. The Louisiana bill ultimately failed. Though it’s early, the support for these bans is there, reproductive policy observers told The 19th. Influential anti-abortion groups have indicated they would back legislation banning these birth control methods. And recent litigation over the Affordable Care Act’s mandated contraceptive coverage has showcased the potency of abortion opponents’ appetite for limiting access to IUDs and emergency contraception.
Republicans push laws to protect the unborn, but refuse to pass laws to protect born.

By Eric Bradner and Jeff Zeleny, CNN

Houston CNN — Former President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders rejected efforts to overhaul gun laws and mocked Democrats and activists calling for change Friday at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention. The gathering this weekend in Houston is taking place 280 miles east of the South Texas town of Uvalde, where 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman at an elementary school Tuesday. Hours before top Republicans were scheduled to speak in Houston, law enforcement officials in Uvalde acknowledged that they had waited too long to breach the classroom where a gunman was shooting children and teachers.  But those mistakes, and their ramifications on proposals to place more armed police and teachers in schools, went unmentioned in speeches by Trump and other Republicans. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott canceled his planned appearance at the NRA convention and instead pre-recorded a video in which he was dismissive of calls for gun reforms. “Remember this: There are thousands of laws on the books across the country that limit the owning or using of firearms, laws that have not stopped madmen from carrying out evil acts on innocent people in peaceful communities,” he said.
Igor Derysh

After spending years pushing former President Donald Trump's "Big Lie," the Michigan Republican Party is defending its own candidates who were caught up in a massive fraud scheme. The Michigan Bureau of Elections released a report on Monday recommending that leading Republican gubernatorial candidates James Craig and Perry Johnson, as well as three others, be disqualified from the ballot after submitting too many fake petition signatures. The bureau said it had identified 36 petition circulators who submitted more than 68,000 fake signatures across 10 sets of nominating contests, including the governor's primary. The state Board of Canvassers on Thursday deadlocked on whether to accept or reject the recommendation, effectively leaving in place the bureau's decision to disqualify all five candidates, although Republicans have vowed to challenge the outcome in court. Republican election attorney John Pirich told Salon that the fraud scheme uncovered by the election officials is "the largest I've ever seen."
jepstein@insider.com (Jake Epstein,Rebecca Cohen)

Texas police who responded to Tuesday's mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school wouldn't let a tactical squad of federal agents immediately go into the school to stop the gunman, two officials briefed on the situation told New York Times. The officials told the Times that the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactical team was forced to wait nearly an hour before they went in and shot and killed the gunman, who massacred 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School. Speaking to reporters at a Friday press conference, Director of Texas DPS Steven McCraw confirmed this, saying that the reason police didn't immediately confront the gunman was that Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief and the on-scene commander at the time, thought the risk to the children was over.
Tommy Christopher

NBC News is reporting stunning new details about the Uvalde massacre, including that multiple parents rushed in and rescued their kids while police restrained other parents and waited for backup, and that the shootings spanned four classrooms, not one. On Friday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host Willie Geist interviewed correspondent Sam Brock about the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that claimed the lives of 19 children and two adults. Brock expanded on details that have emerged which contradict information that police and Texas officials have been putting out for days, and on stories of parents being tased and restrained by cops who waited an hour before going in. “What we have heard from local law enforcement officials here is not only confusing but utterly conflicted,” Brock told Geist, ticking through conflicts in the timeline and the initial false reports of an officer trading shots with the gunman before the massacre began. Brock then addressed the frantic parents, telling Geist “They were trying to rip down fences, break into windows to get into that school building so they could do whatever possible to try to save their kids’ lives. And ultimately, 19 children between the ages of eight and 10, 4th graders, murdered as an hour goes by.”
Erin Snodgrass

Amid disturbing reports that Texas police refused to send officers into the elementary school where a mass shooting was unfolding for nearly an hour on Tuesday, a fourth-grade girl who survived the massacre said she can't understand why law enforcement officials didn't come rescue her and her classmates sooner. Eleven-year-old Miah Cerrillo shared a heartbreaking account of the time that passed in her classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire, killing 19 of her classmates and two teachers. As the attack unfolded Cerrillo covered herself in her dying friend's blood to play dead in a desperate attempt to survive. The ordeal felt like three agonizing hours, the young girl told CNN this week. Despite calling 911 and speaking with dispatch, Miah said she initially thought the police somehow hadn't arrived yet as she lay waiting among her classmates for nearly an hour.
nmusumeci@insider.com (Natalie Musumeci)

The chief of police of the Uvalde, Texas, school district initially told the public there were "some deaths" in the wake of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Now a top Texas law enforcement official says that that same person — Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo — was the on-scene commander during Tuesday's massacre who authorities said wrongly made the call to delay authorities from breaching the classroom where the gunman carried out the deadliest US school shooting in a decade. During a less than two-minute press conference in the aftermath of the rampage, Arredondo took no questions, but did say, "I can confirm right now that we have several injuries, adults and students, and we do have some deaths." Arredondo explained that the gunman was "deceased" and believed to have acted alone.
Mia Jankowicz, Rebecca Cohen, and Natalie Musumeci

Texas officials on Friday again made crucial changes to their timeline of the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, adding to the lack of clarity around how the massacre took place and how police responded to the attack. From the initial reports of the shooting on Tuesday to the most recent news briefing by Director of Texas Department of Public Safety Steven McCraw, police have changed the narrative of how law enforcement reacted to a gunman's rampage in which he killed 19 children and two teachers. Facing withering criticism from parents, McCraw said that a police commander in charge of the scene — Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo — refused to send police in to stop the shooting, calling the decision "wrong." Here are the main changes to details that law enforcement officials have offered since the shooting:
By Jessica Corbett | Salon

This article originally appeared at Common Dreams. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

Legal experts responded with alarm Monday to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority that could lead to the indefinite imprisonment and even execution of people who argue their lawyers didn't provide adequate representation after convictions in state court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor—joined by the other two liberals on the court—also blasted the majority opinion in Shinn v. Martinez Ramirez, writing in her scathing dissent that the decision is both "perverse" and "illogical." The case involved two men, David Martinez Ramirez and Barry Lee Jones, who are on death row in Arizona. The majority determined that inmates can't present new evidence in federal court to support a claim that their post-conviction attorney in state court was ineffective, in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which affirms the right to "the assistance of counsel" in all criminal prosecutions.

"A federal habeas court may not conduct an evidentiary hearing or otherwise consider evidence beyond the state court record based on ineffective assistance of state post-conviction counsel," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, adding that "serial relitigation of final convictions undermines the finality that 'is essential to both the retributive and deterrent functions of criminal law.'" Sotomayor, meanwhile, wrote that "the Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right to the effective assistance of counsel at trial. This court has recognized that right as 'a bedrock principle' that constitutes the very 'foundation for our adversary system' of criminal justice." "Today, however, the court hamstrings the federal courts' authority to safeguard that right. The court's decision will leave many people who were convicted in violation of the Sixth Amendment to face incarceration or even execution without any meaningful chance to vindicate their right to counsel," she warned, also noting that the ruling "all but overrules two recent precedents," Martinez v. Ryan and Trevino v. Thaler.
Jacqueline Alemany

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) issued a statement Friday indicating that he is unlikely to comply with a subpoena issued this month requesting that he testify before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. An 11-page response to the committee from McCarthy’s counsel questioned the committee’s authority and claimed that lawmakers on the panel are “not exercising a valid or lawful use of Congress’ subpoena power,” according to a letter from Elliot S. Berke, McCarthy’s lawyer. Berke goes on to request information from the committee, including a more specific list of the subjects and topics the committee intends to discuss with McCarthy, along with the legal rationale justifying the subpoena request. McCarthy’s counsel also asks whether the committee is adhering to the confines of the resolution that authorized the panel.
By Mark Menard | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM

A family in New Jersey was unlawfully assaulted by five men who forced their way into the family’s home, according to Jackson police. The family’s cell phones were confiscated by the men to keep them from calling for help, and two of the residents were physically restrained. However, this home invasion was actually an eviction that went wildly off the rails. The five men worked for a private security company hired by the family’s landlord. The men changed the locks while the family was being restrained.
By The Associated Press

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this week’s attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, “Please send the police now,” as officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes, authorities said Friday. The commander at the scene in Uvalde — the school district’s police chief — believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a contentious news conference. “It was the wrong decision,” he said.
By The Associated Press

The police official blamed for not sending officers in more quickly to stop the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting is the chief of the school system's small police force, a unit dedicated ordinarily to building relationships with students and responding to the occasional fight. Preparing for mass shootings is a small part of what school police officers do, but local experts say the preparation for officers assigned to schools in Texas — including mandatory active shooter training — provides them with as solid a foundation as any. “The tactical, conceptual mindset is definitely there in Texas,” said Joe McKenna, deputy superintendent for the Comal school district in Texas and a former assistant director at the state's school safety center. A gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. As students called 911, officers waited more than 45 minutes to confront the gunman. The district's police chief, Pete Arredondo, decided officers should wait to confront the gunman on the belief he was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and children were no longer at risk, officials said Friday. “It was the wrong decision,” Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference Friday.
By Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Friday extended its streak of victories in jury trials against rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, securing a guilty verdict in its prosecution of a New Jersey man facing a felony charge. After less than a day of deliberation, a federal jury in the District of Columbia found Timothy Hale-Cusanelli guilty of all five counts he faced, including obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony carrying a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden will sentence Hale-Cusanelli on Sept. 16. Hale-Cusanelli is a former member of the U.S. Army Reserves who works as a Navy contractor with a “secret” security clearance and access to weapons, prosecutors said. An informant told investigators that Hale-Cusanelli was “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer” who posts online videos espousing extreme political opinions, the Justice Department alleged in court filings. Hale-Cusanelli was the fifth Capitol riot defendant to take his case to a jury trial. The Justice Department has secured convictions in all five cases.
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