Court Order Halting Gutting of IMLS Upheld by Appeals Court
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denied a request by defendants in Rhode Island v. Trump to stay a May 13 preliminary injunction that formally ordered a halt to the dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Libraries, Museums, Cultural Institutions, and Nation’s Largest Cultural Worker Union Urge Court to Block President Trump’s Effort to Dismantle the Nation’s Cultural and Educational Infrastructure - Democracy Forward
Apache Stronghold Pushes Back on Trump's Weigh in on Oak Flat Transfer
President Donald Trump took a strong stance on Tuesday on the ongoing Resolution Copper dispute, issuing pointed criticism of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals following its decision to temporarily halt the planned land transfer.
Louisiana urges Supreme Court to uphold order barring race-based redistricting map
Writing that it “wants out of this abhorrent system of racial discrimination,” Louisiana on Wednesday told the Supreme Court in the case of Louisiana v. Callais to leave in place […]
Justice Dept. declines to defend grants for Hispanic-serving colleges, calling them unconstitutional
The Trump administration says it will not defend a decades-old grant program for heavily Hispanic universities that is being challenged in court, declaring that the government believes the funding is unconstitutional.
HACU Statement on DOJ not defending the HSI Program - HACU
SAN ANTONIO – The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) has released the following statement in response to the July 25, 2025, letter from the Solicitor General of the U.S. Department of Justice, stating the Department’s decision not to defend the constitutionality of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the ongoing litigation involving the State of […]
How a Single Court Case Could Determine the Future of Book Banning in America
Only one library book ban case has ever been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court: Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico (1982). In 1975, the Island Trees school b…
Immigrants challenge government effort to deport them to third-party countries
Lawyers for a group of immigrants facing deportation from the United States urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to leave in place an order by a federal judge in Massachusetts […]
“Harming Young People”: Chase Strangio on SCOTUS Trans Heathcare Ban & End of LGBTQ Suicide Hotline
In a 6-3 decision on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender youth, paving the way for other bans on trans healthcare to remain in effect in 24 other states. According to the ACLU, over 100,000 transgender people under the age of 18 now live in a state with a ban on their healthcare. “This is a fight that extends back 100 years, and we will keep fighting for 100 more years,” says Chase Strangio, the first openly trangender attorney to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court and the co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.
Appeals Court Reverses Ruling in Texas Book Ban Case
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on May 23 reversed a district court’s preliminary injunction and dismissed free speech claims in Little v. Llano County, a Texas case challenging the removal of 17 books from a public library.
In a Major Win for Libraries, Federal Judge Orders IMLS to Be Restored
In a thorough rebuke, federal judge John G. McConnell has ordered the Trump administration to immediately reverse the mass terminations of grants and staff at IMLS.
The question of sanctuary jurisdictions returns to the courts
President Donald Trump’s latest executive order about “sanctuary jurisdictions” has begun a second round of legal battles over the constitutionality of federal government sanctions against state and local governments.
States win a legal injunction against President Trump, pausing library funding cuts
A federal judge Tuesday wrote that President Trump's executive order dismantling the IMLS "disregards the fundamental constitutional role of each of the branches of our federal government."
Law Students Sue Civil Rights Agency Over Crackdown on Law-Firm DEI Policies
Three law students on Tuesday sued a U.S. civil rights agency, claiming that its probe into diversity policies at 20 large law firms is illegal and could
What Happens if the Internet Archive Goes Dark? | KQED
For decades, the Internet Archive has preserved our digital history. Lately, journalists and ordinary citizens have been turning to it more than ever, as the Trump administration undertakes an ideologically-driven purge of government websites. But the Archive itself faces an existential threat. In this episode, Close All Tabs Senior Editor Chris Egusa joins Morgan to discuss his visit to the Internet Archive and its colorful founder Brewster Kahle, the legal battles that could shut it down perma
This Time, Higher Ed’s Resistance to Trump Is Being Led by Its Associations
While individual colleges have been relatively quiet, groups like the American Council on Education and the American Association of University Professors are fighting the administration in the courts.
Grijalva Releases SB 1070 Supreme Court Case Amicus Brief at Capitol Hill Press Conference – Document and Signatory List Included - Raúl Grijalva
Washington, D.C. – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today released a “friend of the court” brief in the Supreme Court’s Arizona v. United States case, which will decide the constitutionality of Arizona’s infamous SB 1070 law. The amicus curiae brief, co-signed by 67 of Rep. Grijalva’s House colleagues, argues that the law is unconstitutional because, as […]
Our new data tool, Tracking Major Rules in the Courts, compiles more up-to-date case results that can be easily compared across presidential administrations, and offers additional research findings. Between 2017 and 2021, the Institute for Policy Integrity[[The Institute for Policy Integrity has filed amicus briefs in several of the cases discussed in this Roundup. Policy Integrity did not represent any of the parties.]]documented the outcomes of litigation over the Trump administration's use of federal agencies to implement its policies.[[The Roundup does not include litigation over self-implementing presidential memoranda or executive orders or over project-level decisions.]] We tracked litigation over agency actions such as regulations, guidance documents, and agency memoranda.[[At times, advocates have brought lawsuits over a single agency action in multiple different courts. The Roundup combines decisions from different courts regarding the same agency action in a single entry. ]] The win-loss rate below reflects all decisions through January 20, 2021, when the Biden administration took office. [[A new administration’s litigation strategy may differ from the previous administration’s litigation strategy due to differences in policy objectives. See Bethany A. Davis Noll, “Tired of Winning”: Judicial Review of Regulatory Policy in the Trump Era, 73 Admin L. Rev. 353, 389 (2021) (noting ways in which Biden administration’s strategy changed in light of substantive goals). Accordingly, changes after President Biden took office are not clearly attributable to the Trump administration, and we did not recategorize reversals that occurred after this transition.]] Any reversals or modifications on appeal that occurred during the remainder of 2021 are noted in the case descriptions. [[The Roundup reflects wins and losses as they stood on January 20, 2021 when President Biden was inaugurated and his administration took over the defense of cases. Subsequent reversals on appeal or any other subsequent modifications that occurred prior to April 1, 2022 are noted in the relevant entry, but are not reflected in "win" or "loss" categorizations. If cases in the tracker were instead categorized as wins or losses based on subsequent substantive reversals on appeal or other subsequent modifications that occurred, 57 cases (23%) would have been successful for the administration and 188 (77%) of cases would have been unsuccessful for the administration.]] As of April 25, 2022, those updates are no longer being added.
DEI at Stake: Federal Groups Challenge Trump’s Efforts to Curb Inclusivity
The Trump administration is facing a new legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s executive orders (EOs) to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives after a group of diversity officers, professors, and restaurant worker advocates filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Maryland on February 3, 2025, alleging the orders are vague and unconstitutional. Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney General and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued memoranda on February 5, 2025, to implement the orders and guide federal agencies on their scope.
AAUP Joins Lawsuit to Block Trump’s Unlawful and Unconstitutional DEI
The AAUP, along with the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and other plaintiffs has filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s unlawful and unconstitutional DEI executive orders,
Attorney General Mayes Files Lawsuit Against Trump’s Unconstitutional Order on Birthright Citizenship
PHOENIX — Attorney General Kris Mayes announced today that she is joining a multistate federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional order attempting to unilaterally strip citizenship from citizens across the United States, including thousands of babies born in Arizona each year.
Arizona Health Care Providers File Lawsuit Challenging Abortion Ban and Resume Providing Care Across the State | American Civil Liberties Union
PHOENIX — Arizona health care providers filed a lawsuit today challenging a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which is in violation of the...
First openly transgender lawyer to argue at Supreme Court
The ACLU’s Chase Strangio is representing a group of trans people opposing Tennessee’s Republican-backed law banning gender-affirming medical care for trans minors.
The Internet Archive lost their latest appeal. Here’s what that means for you.
As Publishers Weekly reported this week, the Internet Archive, nonprofit home to a robust digital library, has lost its latest appeal in a case brought by publishers. A panel from New York’s …
Family of Kenneth Chamberlain, Black Man Killed in 2011 by Police, Settles with City of White Plains
The city of White Plains, New York, has settled a lawsuit by the family of a man who was shot in his home by police after accidentally pressing his medical alert badge in 2011. Kenneth Chamberlain repeatedly told police he was fine and asked them to leave, but they refused, called him racial slurs and broke into his home before killing him. After a decade of legal action, the family agreed to a $5 million settlement with the city, but the local police association blasted the agreement and said it was not an admission of misconduct. “It doesn’t equate to accountability,” says Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., who now works to challenge police brutality and continues to ask for unsealed records related to his father’s death. “We need actual structural change,” says Mayo Bartlett, a human rights lawyer representing the Chamberlain family, who argues police misconduct must be addressed through legislation. “It has to be something that’s codified in law.”