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Abortion could return to Supreme Court, this time with a focus on women’s health

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled earlier this month that the state of Idaho cannot regulate abortion when a pregnancy threatens a person’s physical or mental health. Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador has appealed the decision. (Otto Kitsinger for the Idaho Capital Sun) A federal court ruling out of Idaho has potential implications for exceptions in abortion bans nationwide and could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court to decide. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled earlier this month that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides a narrow right for a pregnant patient to obtain an abortion if the pregnancy could be a risk to their health, including their mental health. It’s the first ruling since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in 2022 to find that the U.S. Constitution includes a right to abortion access in certain situations.   Mary Ziegler, a legal historian and law professor at the University of Californi...
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Fentanyl seizures plummeted as Trump administration shifted focus to immigration

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington, D.C., pictured in Feb. 3, 2026. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday.  Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the  DHS Office of Inspector General report . “With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said. The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 ho...
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US Supreme Court allows $400M Trump ballroom project to proceed

Demolition work continued where the East Wing once stood at the White House on Dec. 8, 2025. President Donald Trump ordered the 123-year-old East Wing and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden leveled to make way for a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump can continue building a White House ballroom for now, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday, reversing a federal judge’s order that barred above-ground construction on the grounds of the former East Wing. The one-page  order from Chief Justice John Roberts allows the justices more time to consider the legal arguments as to whether the president can continue with construction.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, a nonprofit Congress created to protect public buildings, sued to block construction late last year.  The group charged that Trump violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law when he demolished part of the White...
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Cities turn to AI to speed housing permitting

A person works on a condominium in Chicago. Some U.S. cities are trying to modernize the housing permitting process by adopting AI tools. (Photo by Robbie Sequeira/Stateline) New housing projects can sometimes stall out as a developer applies to city or county planning boards and goes through cycles of inspections, reviews and approvals.  Now, cities are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to address one of the most persistent sources of housing permitting delays: incomplete applications. And two new streams of federal money aim to help them. AI can handle time-intensive tasks such as scanning applications and flagging errors. The aim, some city officials say, is to eliminate repeated rounds of corrections that can add weeks or months to the process — but to leave final decisions in the hands of human reviewers. The sweeping new federal housing law enacted last month creates an Innovation Fund with $200 million annually for local efforts to speed up permitting. And the ...
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Federal judge halts proposed HHS changes to teen pregnancy prevention program

Children’s Aid, a 170-year-old organization in New York City, told Stateline in July that their nearly $1 million grant that served 1,200 youth each year was canceled. A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration can’t move forward with its proposed changes to the national prevention program. (Photo Courtesy of Children’s Aid) A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued an order Wednesday blocking U.S. Health and Human Services from implementing sweeping changes to grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program while a lawsuit proceeds, but dozens of existing grants that were canceled this summer will remain so for now, unless the administration chooses to reinstate the funds.   The agency canceled 53 out of 67 grants under the program at the end of June, affecting grantees in more than two dozen states, including Louisiana, New York, Oklahoma and Texas. Grantees were given no advance notice and were told their programs did not align with agency priorities...
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White House to press forward with FDA nominee despite US Senate chairman’s concerns

Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy talks with reporters in the Dirksen Senate office building on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration will face challenges securing Senate confirmation after the committee chairman in charge of that process expressed doubts.  That, however, hasn’t deterred White House officials from pressing for Dr. Heidi Overton, arguing she has the experience needed and that her policy goals align with the president’s.  “As Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, Dr. Heidi Overton has spent the last year and a half coordinating an interagency policymaking process with senior officials across HHS, FDA, CDC, USDA, and other agencies to deliver on President Trump’s MAHA agenda,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement shared with States Newsroom on Thursday. “Dr. Overton has been integral to ensuring th...
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SPLC seeks jury pool expansion ahead of criminal trial

The headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. SPLC on Wednesday asked a federal court to expand a jury pool ahead of a scheduled criminal trial in October. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center Wednesday filed a motion asking a federal court to take steps during jury selection to protect a trial of the organization from bias. The motion requests that the court consider expanding the pool of jury candidates and sending out additional questions to potential jurors and interviewing them about their answers prior to jury selection. “There are a number of measures that courts in this and other districts have taken in high-profile cases to identify and address potential bias and to safeguard the Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury,” the motion said. “Some of these steps can also save time by identifying jurors who should be excluded before voir dire and narrowing questions that need to be asked...
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