Reason.com

Federal Judge Halts Minnesota's Prediction Market Ban, Signaling Other States' Efforts Might Be Illegal Too

1 hour agoCenter Right

A preliminary injunction will keep Kalshi and Polymarket active in the state after a district judge found federal law preempts the state's ban.

Read Full Story at Source

Compare Perspectives

Found 8 stories

Judge humiliates Trump's DOJ in key legal case

Alternet.org

1 hour ago

Judge humiliates Trump's DOJ in key legal case

President Donald Trump’s subpoenas of The New York Times has been widely criticized for potentially violating the First Amendment, to the point where the prosecutors trying to force out the publication’s sources on weaknesses with Trump’s Qatari-gifted jet have been threatened with losing their Bar license. Now a recent report reveals a judge presiding over that case has humiliated a prosecutor trying to win it.“The Times swiftly moved to quash the subpoenas, arguing that they were issued in a bad faith effort to harass and intimidate the journalists,” reported Lawfare's Anna Bower on Tuesday. “What’s more, the newspaper contended that the government hadn't come close to meeting the standard set out in New York Times v. Gonzales, the Second Circuit precedent establishing that prosecutors seeking a reporter's confidential sources must show, among other things, that the information can't be obtained by other means.”Bower added, “The Justice Department, in response, didn't ask the court to deny the motion outright. Instead, it asked the court to hold the subpoenas in abeyance for two weeks while it pursued additional investigative steps—steps that, the government suggested, might bear on the scope of the subpoenas and on whether the Gonzales factors could ultimately be satisfied.”She then discussed Judge Arun Subramanian, who blasted the government for failing to rise to the Gonzales standards. “Given that the government has asked to hold the subpoenas in abeyance while it pursues further investigative steps, is the government willing to just withdraw them?” Bowers asked U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Sean Buckley. But Buckley said the government believes the ‘appropriate measure’ is to hold the subpoenas in abeyance while it takes unspecified additional investigative steps. In other words: the government wants to put enforcement of the subpoenas on pause rather than withdraw them entirely.Subramanian then reportedly interjected, “[Let me] stop you right there. So the answer to my question is 'no'?” After some back and forth with Buckley, the government conceded it could not rise to that standard.Subramanian then quoted from the Justice Department’s own filing, that to overcome the qualified reporter’s privilege recognized in Gonzales, the government must show that the information it wants is not obtainable from other sources. "You agree, right?" the judge asked aloud. But Buckley had to acknowledge that Subramanian was correct, adding that he believed the steps have now been achieved even though they had not when the subpoenas were first issued.“It’s the kind of admission that tends to end an argument before it starts, and Subramanian treats it that way,” Bowers reported. “‘Seems like you've got two options,’ he says to Buckley. ‘Either we can quash the subpoenas or you could withdraw the subpoenas.’”The judge was similarly dismissive of the rest of the government's position because of its failure on that key question.“Asked if he has anything to add, Buckley allows himself one small act of defiance: the government disputes any suggestion of bad faith, he says.And that's where Buckley left it, Bowers reported.

Left

Read →

Ron DeSantis signals death knell for Trump's election overhaul bill: 'Basically zero'

Raw Story

1 hour ago

Ron DeSantis signals death knell for Trump's election overhaul bill: 'Basically zero'

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said there's no hope of President Donald Trump's top legislative priority passing the Senate, calling the odds "basically zero."DeSantis made the prediction Monday on X, responding to a follower who asked about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility — or SAVE America — Act, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship to register and a photo ID to cast a ballot.The Senate has twice failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill past a Democratic filibuster, according to Newsweek. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told Newsweek in June that Republicans simply do not have the votes."I think the chance the Senate actually passes a real SAVE Act before the August break is basically zero," DeSantis wrote on X. "Happy to be wrong about this, but I don't think I am."Trump has made the bill the centerpiece of his 2026 legislative push, telling House Republicans in March it would "guarantee the midterms" and vowing he would not sign other legislation until it reached his desk, according to The Hill. He has also demanded the Senate cancel its August recess to keep the bill alive.Thune has said the bill is "not something we can get done absent having an election and electing more Republicans," according to Newsweek.Senate Rules Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has warned that a federal mandate could give a future Democratic president tools to carry out "a complete federal takeover of American elections," according to Roll Call, writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed."Unless they do the work to get to the 60 votes, they know it's dead, and so all this is theater," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told The News & Observer this month.Trump escalated his pressure campaign Monday, posting on Truth Social that Thune "should not allow the United States Senate to 'leave town' until it passes The Save America Act…"The Senate is scheduled to leave for its August recess after Aug. 7.

Far Left

Read →

Judge explodes over tampered evidence in disastrous Trump-linked trial

Alternet.org

2 hours ago

Judge explodes over tampered evidence in disastrous Trump-linked trial

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro made a significant enough mistake that one legal expert says was incredibly stupid. A bombshell report on Monday revealed that the government's own witness in the David Hearn case over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Hearn is being accused of grabbing the pool lining with both hands and ripping it up. The DOJ's witness revealed that the damage the DOJ alleges came from Hearn was already there before Hearn arrived. An even bigger bungle, however, comes from an observation from writer and lawyer Amee Vanderpool, who runs the "Shero" Substack. Citing an NBC News report about the case, saying that the person who indicated the pool was already damaged spoke to the grand jury about the damage prior to Hearn. Beyond the fact that it sinks the DOJ's case, Vanderpool explained that by "using this" information, lawyers for Hearn "can now get all of the Reflecting Pool repair documents (and all documentation that is missing) in disclosure."Hearn's lawyers are asking for information about the disclosure and legal instructions grand jurors were given. They want to see the trial minutes, which will detail the dialogue line by line. In a different case involving six activists and politicians who protested outside of an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, it was discovered that the grand jury was being given conflicting information that wasn't factual and that the prosecutors were talking about defendants as if they were already found to be guilty. Anyone who looked to be wavering was excused from the jury. It's unclear whether the DOJ did the same in this case, but Hearn's lawyers having access to all of the information may reveal what happened in the grand jury as well as a slate of other details. Hearn's lawyers will be able to see documents involving the Reflecting Pool contractors, why they were chosen in a no-bid contract and why the costs were so much higher than President Donald Trump said they would be. "Jeanine Pirro is an idiot to pursue this," said Vanderpool. Last week, the judge in the case warned the DOJ that all of the workers looking at fixes to the pool and tearing up the liner were tampering with evidence. “Non-preservation,” the judge told the DOJ, “the government does it at its own peril.”One of Hearn's long-time friends, Adam Van Grack, who once served as chair of the U.S. Olympic governing body for canoe and kayak sports, said that going after Hearn was a mistake."The U.S. government could not have picked a worse person to be the headliner felony defendant in this trial," Van Grack told The Atlantic.

Left

Read →

Judges smack Trump with unexpected threat on 'unlawful' election meddling

Raw Story

2 hours ago

Judges smack Trump with unexpected threat on 'unlawful' election meddling

A federal appeals court ruled in President Donald Trump's favor but warned him that his mail voting order may be impossible to carry out and could be swiftly blocked if he tries.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit was not yet ready for court review, according to Democracy Docket.The Democratic groups had not yet suffered enough concrete harm to sue, the court found.The order directs the U.S. Postal Service to withhold mail ballots from anyone not on citizenship lists compiled by the Department of Homeland Security, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.The Brennan Center said that millions of eligible voters could have their ballots go undelivered, with no notification that they had been blocked. The court insisted that it could intervene if Trump went too far."If the federal agencies were to take the actions the Plaintiffs fear and if they were to attempt to impose those massive changes on the States' voting systems on the threshold of the upcoming election," the court wrote, going further than its ruling required."Those actions (if found unlawful) could be enjoined without implicating any federalism or reliance interests because the injunction would preserve the States' existing electoral status quo," the judges added — meaning courts could halt the order cleanly and quickly, with no legal complications standing in the way.The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a coalition of Democratic organizations and congressional leaders filed the lawsuit in April, court records show.They argued the Constitution gives election authority to Congress and the states, not the White House.A separate federal appeals court, the First Circuit in Boston, had already blocked the order in 23 states over the weekend, according to Democracy Docket.Roughly three-quarters of the 1.3 million active-duty troops are eligible to vote by mail, and critics warn the order would put those ballots at risk."Donald Trump is desperately trying to rig our elections by making it harder to vote for seniors, Americans with disabilities, members of the military, rural communities, and other working families who rely on vote-by-mail," the Democratic leaders said in a joint statement. "This move is blatantly unconstitutional, and we will fight against it."Trump offered a different view when he signed the order in March."Cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It's horrible. Democrats want to use it for cheating," he said.The Department of Justice filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on Monday, asking the justices to allow the order to take effect before November's midterm elections, Democracy Docket reported.

Far Left

Read →

The Federal Reserve is highly unlikely to raise interest rates

Washington Examiner

4 hours ago

The Federal Reserve is highly unlikely to raise interest rates

In all likelihood, the Federal Reserve Board will leave interest rates unchanged when it concludes its two-day meeting on Wednesday. Yes, inflation remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, but that is largely because of transitory factors such as higher energy prices, which are a consequence of geopolitical events rather than excessive demand by American households. Importantly, […]

Center Right

Read →

Ex-DHS insider delivers bleak prediction as job Blanche chasing 'likely to destroy him'

Raw Story

4 hours ago

Ex-DHS insider delivers bleak prediction as job Blanche chasing 'likely to destroy him'

Todd Blanche was warned by a former insider to be careful what he wishes for as he prepares to face a Senate confirmation vote.The acting attorney general is poised to become the most powerful lawyer on earth as the head of President Donald Trump's weaponized Department of Justice, wrote former Homeland Security staffer Miles Taylor for The i Paper, who served some cautionary advice about what to expect."If he loses, it will be a historic failure," Taylor wrote. "But if he wins, the job he’s fighting for is likely to destroy him. And the world will see how far Trump will go if he is unrestrained."His tenure has already drawn scrutiny over the stalled Jeffrey Epstein investigation, which critics say was suspended under circumstances that shielded Trump and his allies. Blanche personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell before her transfer to more comfortable custody, oversaw a chaotic release of Epstein files that exposed survivors' identities while redacting alleged abusers' names, and is now facing a federal judge's order to hand over unredacted documents directly — a sign the court no longer trusts DOJ's representations."Blanche set fire to his reputation when he agreed to be Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney," Taylor wrote. "He was the man at the defence table in Manhattan when Trump became the first American president convicted of a felony. But this week is the ultimate showcase of how he might debase himself in an effort to protect his employer."During confirmation proceedings, Blanche submitted over 400 pages of written answers, more than 160 of which declined to respond on grounds it would be "inappropriate." He would not commit in writing to rejecting future slush funds for Trump allies or sweetheart deals for the president — a refusal two Republican holdouts have specifically flagged as disqualifying. More than 1,200 former Justice Department officials across administrations signed a letter opposing his confirmation, citing a "culture of fear" and constitutional failures, dwarfing the fewer than 80 signatures backing him."I worked with both of Trump’s former attorneys general, Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr, and their teams during the first Trump administration, when I served as chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security," Taylor wrote. "Whatever criticisms people had of those men — and I had plenty — they generally pushed back on Trump’s anti-constitutional conduct."Taylor described White House meetings where Trump ranted at length about settling scores with his enemies, money laundering and other illegal schemes, but he expressed doubt that Blanche would react as his predecessors had."After those meetings, these men would go back to their departments," Taylor wrote. "They’d confer with their teams. And after weighing Trump’s more egregious schemes, they’d conclude that it wasn’t worth going to prison for him."Taylor warned that Blanche would become legally accountable for implementing Trump's most extreme future actions, with no institutional check left between the president and the machinery of government as there had been during his first term."It’s the highest-risk job on earth. And for what?" Taylor wrote. "Trump discards lawyers the way he discards wives and creditors. Michael Cohen went to prison for him. Rudy Giuliani was disbarred and bankrupted for him. His former chief lawyers, Sessions and Barr, looked at the train wreck and walked away while they still could."

Far Left

Read →

Iranian State Media Releases Sick Assassination Video Targeting Melania and Barron Trump (VIDEO)

The Gateway Pundit

5 hours ago

Iranian State Media Releases Sick Assassination Video Targeting Melania and Barron Trump (VIDEO)

First Lady Melania Trump and her son Barron have been targeted in a disturbing propaganda video produced by Iranian state media. The post Iranian State Media Releases Sick Assassination Video Targeting Melania and Barron Trump (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Far Right

Read →

Judge orders Trump to turn over financial documents in BBC defamation case

The Hill News

5 hours ago

Judge orders Trump to turn over financial documents in BBC defamation case

A federal judge on Monday ordered President Trump to turn over financial documents to BBC from his trust, a partial success for the broadcaster that forces the president to provide evidence for his claims of financial loss. It would provide insight on his crypto and stock profit, as well as business transactions from hundreds of…

Center

Read →

Federal Judge Halts Minnesota's Prediction Market Ban, Signaling Other States' Efforts Might Be Illegal Too

Summary

Related Coverage

Daily Analysis

More Headlines From July 28, 2026

Federal Judge Halts Minnesota's Prediction Market Ban, Signaling Other States' Efforts Might Be Illegal Too

Compare Perspectives