Legal News
Reports on lawmaking, constitutional issues, and court cases. The Daily Signal combines news reporting with conservative commentary and legal analysis.
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opinion
Contempt Authority: The Key to Empowering Immigration Judges
For nearly three decades, it has been an uphill battle to give immigration judges their fair share of judicial tools to do their ever-increasingly difficult job. A big step in the right direction happened this April, when the acting director the Executive Officer for Immigration Review issued guidance to all immigration judges that stresses their… -
news
Supreme Court Gives Trump Administration Green Light to Deport Illegal Aliens to Third-Party Countries
In a win for President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court issued a brief order Monday allowing the Trump administration to restart deportation flights of illegal aliens to nations other than their own. The high court’s order lifts, for now, a lower court’s order allowing illegal immigrants to challenge their deportation order before their removal. … -
opinion
The States Leading America’s Drive Toward Secure Elections
There is a new co-leader in The Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard. Since 2021, Heritage has been tracking the laws of every state (and the District of Columbia) governing the conduct of local, state, and federal elections. And for most of those years, Tennessee has stood alone at the top of the state rankings. An… -
news
Whip Emmer: Pass ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ to Support Police
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer is urging the speedy passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—the main legislative vehicle for President Donald Trump’s campaign promises—by contending that eliminating taxes on overtime pay would be a show of support for law enforcement. The Daily Signal has learned that Emmer, R-Minn., will be joined Tuesday by… -
opinion
What Americans Have to Lose If Meta Wins Its Antitrust Case
The Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Meta centers on a simple premise: Meta built and maintains its monopoly through anticompetitive practices. For over a decade, Mark Zuckerberg has pursued a deliberate “buy or bury” strategy that has systematically eliminated meaningful competition. With the FTC v. Meta case wrapping up at the end of May,… -
news
How the Trump Administration Is Making Civil Rights Enforcement Great Again
While federal agencies’ civil rights divisions under previous Republican administrations have primarily assumed a more defensive posture aimed at slowing down left-wing activity, the Trump administration is going on offense. “In prior Republican administrations, the focus has been to just slow down the bad things that the civil rights division was doing in a prior… -
opinion
National Guard Decision Is a Win for Public Safety, Not Just the President
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 9th Circuit released a unanimous opinion upholding President Donald Trump’s federalization of the California National Guard, and the media is portraying this as a win for the president over California Gov. Gavin Newsom. It was, but it’s also a win for the public safety… -
opinion
Federal Judge Kicks Radical Professors and Their Union to the Curb Where They Belong
In a brilliant opinion Monday, New York federal district court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil not only denied the preliminary injunction sought by the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, she threw out their lawsuit against the Trump administration entirely. If the justices on the Supreme Court want to finally act… -
news
Court Sides With Trump Over California National Guard Deployment
A federal appeals court ruled that President Donald Trump acted lawfully in deploying the California National Guard to protect Los Angeles from violent anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement rioters. On Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a unanimous 3-0 decision siding with Trump. The court overturned a lower court decision that had found… -
news
How Trump’s DOJ Plans to Use Law Weaponized Against Pro-Lifers to Protect Them Instead
Congressional Republicans are fighting to repeal the law used under the Biden administration to prosecute pro-lifers for praying outside abortion clinics. In the meantime, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon plans to use the law to prosecute attacks against pregnancy resource centers. “While the statute is in place, it provides protection for both people who are… -
news
Arrested Milwaukee County Judge’s Trial Delayed
THE CENTER SQUARE—Judge Hannah Dugan will not go on trial in her immigration collusion case next month after the federal judge handling the case delayed the trial Wednesday. Judge Lynn Adleman told the court he wants to make sure the case is “done right.” Dugan is facing two federal charges, one of them a felony,… -
opinion
Supreme Court Says the Constitution Does Not Second-Guess the People on ‘Gender-Affirming’ Care
In one of the most-anticipated decisions of its 2024-25 term, United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court held that a Tennessee law prohibiting so-called gender-affirming medical interventions for minors does not violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. That was the only question before the Supreme Court, and it got the answer right. Tennessee is… -
news
Supreme Court Rules on Whether States Can Protect Kids From Transgender Procedures
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states have the constitutional right to pass laws protecting children from irreversible transgender medical interventions. In a 6-3 ruling the court upheld a Tennessee law prohibiting minors from attempting to medically change their sex. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the opinion of the court, in which Justices Clarence Thomas,… -
news
Supreme Court Takes Up Case After Democrat AG Demands Sensitive Docs From Pro-Life Pregnancy Center
The Supreme Court Monday took up the case of a pro-life pregnancy center that claimed religious and political discrimination after New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat, issued a subpoena demanding documents on the suspicion that the center had violated a consumer fraud law. Lower courts had ruled that the pregnancy center, First Choice… -
opinion
Supreme Court Insists It Will Resolve AR-15 Question ‘Soon’
Last week, the Supreme Court declined to review a 4th U.S. Circuit Court opinion upholding the constitutionality of Maryland’s ban on the possession of certain semiautomatic rifles the state arbitrarily deems “assault weapons.” Faced with a prime opportunity to reinforce its Second Amendment jurisprudence against repeated and flagrant efforts to undermine it, the nation’s highest… -
opinion
New Jersey GOP Gubernatorial Nominee Eyes Judicial Openings and Targets Sanctuary Laws
HOLMDEL, New Jersey—Just a few minutes after telling an enthused crowed of supporters that he is committed to the goal of a “safer, more prosperous, and affordable New Jersey,” Jack Ciattarelli told The Daily Signal that he very mindful of the openings on the state supreme court. “We have two new appointments,” the Republican gubernatorial nominee… -
opinion
Supreme Court Says No to ‘Denominational Preferences’
Catholic Charities performs religious works, according to a unanimous Supreme Court decision in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission. Was that really so hard? Apparently not. Per Justice Sonia Sotomayor, author of the majority opinion, “There may be hard calls to make” where the free exercise of religion is concerned, “but… -
opinion
Why Did the Liberal Justices Write Unanimous Conservative Rulings at the Supreme Court?
The Supreme Court handed down three blockbuster rulings Thursday focused on hot-button cultural issues, and all three of them went in the conservative direction. That’s not exactly a surprise—the court has a conservative majority, after all. The first real surprise was that the rulings were unanimous. The second real surprise? Each of the court’s three… -
news
Supreme Court Rules Wisconsin Court Discriminated Against Catholic Charities Bureau
The Supreme Court has unanimously overturned a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that prevented the Catholic Charities Bureau from receiving a religious tax exemption. Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned the opinion for the court, while Justices Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson each filed concurring opinions. The court, in its opinion released Thursday, held that Wisconsin’s court… -
news
BREAKING: Supreme Court Rules on Mexico’s Attack on US Gun Manufacturers
The Supreme Court unanimously struck down Mexico's challenge to U.S. gun manufacturers, holding that they cannot be blamed for crime and cartel violence south of the border. Justice Elena Kagan delivered the unanimous opinion of the court. Justices Clarence Thomas and Kentanji Brown Jackson filed concurring opinions. Kagan ruled that because Mexico did not plausibly…