The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to lift a court order that stopped border wall construction across the Big Bend region of Texas.
The post Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Restart Big Bend Border Wall appeared first on Breitbart.
Author withdrawn from France’s Prix Goncourt last month has repeatedly denied using artificial intelligence to write novel
The publisher of top-selling Haitian Canadian writer Thélyson Orélien, who was removed from France’s most prestigious literary prize list last month, has confirmed the author used artificial intelligence to help write his novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was Either That or Die).
Orélien has denied allegations that he used AI on his breakthrough novel and, last week, Canadian publisher Les Éditions du Boréal said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer.
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© Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
Author withdrawn from France’s Prix Goncourt last month has repeatedly denied using artificial intelligence to write novel
The publisher of top-selling Haitian Canadian writer Thélyson Orélien, who was removed from France’s most prestigious literary prize list last month, has confirmed the author used artificial intelligence to help write his novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was Either That or Die).
Orélien has denied allegations that he used AI on his breakthrough novel and, last week, Canadian publisher Les Éditions du Boréal said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito further distanced themselves from their Supreme Court colleagues on Wednesday when they were the only two jurists to note their objections to the court’s refusal to let the Trump administration immediately enforce its preferred policy on gender-affirming care in prison.
The court’s unsigned order contained no explanation from the majority or the dissenting duo. Still, it’s the latest data point showing Thomas and Alito backing the administration even when their fellow GOP appointees — including President Donald Trump’s own three appointees — decline to do so.
Wednesday’s order follows last month’s Supreme Court rejection of Trump’s desired mail-ballot restrictions for the midterm elections. That loss led the president to lash out at the court, including his own appointees, while calling Thomas and Alito “legends.”
Asked during a recently published CBS News interview about a Wall Street Journal study showing that Alito sided with Trump more than any of his colleagues, the justice said he’s “not trying to decide cases to help President Trump.”
Whatever his or Thomas’ intentions, their latest actions spotlight their dynamic of voting for the president’s position when other justices don’t. Their votes come ahead of the rapidly approaching Election Day in less than two weeks, with voters set to determine which party will control Senate confirmation of justices for the near future.
Alito said he’s staying on the court at least through this court term, even if Democrats win back Senate control. Thomas has likewise not signaled that he is stepping down imminently. If he stays on the court through the next term, he will become the longest-serving justice ever. In their late 70s, Thomas and Alito are the two eldest members of the current court, but they aren’t very old by the court’s historical standards.
Yet if Trump has an opportunity to appoint their successors or any other justices before he leaves office in 2029, their latest votes underscore why he will likely model his next selection(s) on them, rather than on the justices he has put on the bench thus far, who have backed him in a series of significant cases but not all of them.
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The post Supreme Court’s split on gender care highlights Alito and Thomas as pro-Trump outliers appeared first on MS NOW.
With Americans deciding the congressional balance of power in November’s midterm elections, Justice Elena Kagan is reminding the nation of how the Supreme Court’s decisions have shaped the ballot.
It’s an antidemocratic shape, according to the Obama-appointed justice’s remarks Tuesday at Catholic University’s law school in Washington.
Kagan said the court “has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effect of their rulings on how the political system works and has created a democracy that does not work as well as it should.”
Her off-bench comments reprised impassioned criticisms she has made in dissenting opinions from the GOP-appointed majority’s rulings on gerrymandering in 2019 and earlier this year on the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance.
In 2019’s Rucho v. Common Cause, the majority said partisan gerrymandering claims present “political questions” that courts can’t answer. Writing the dissent for what was then a four-justice minority, she said the case marked “the first time ever” that the court “refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities.”
Writing for the current three-justice minority this year, Kagan called the six-justice majority’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais the “latest chapter in the majority’s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.” Leading the same trio on campaign finance, in dissent from a ruling that struck down more limits and overturned another precedent in the process, she said the majority “jettisons a rule needed to protect our democracy’s integrity.”
On Tuesday, she said the American people “look around this political system and think that all this money chasing all these political candidates is a nightmare.” She added, “And they’re right.”
The justices are in between their October and November hearing sessions, but they will continue to field any emergency applications that come to them regarding the midterms or anything else. Currently, there is a pending application from New Hampshire Republicans to prevent the use of student IDs in voting.
The justices have weighed in on an array of election disputes already this year — and they haven’t always backed the GOP. But whatever the outcome in the midterms, Kagan’s comments provide a useful backdrop for understanding the political landscape the court has helped set.
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The post Justice Kagan reminds Americans of Supreme Court majority’s antidemocratic actions appeared first on MS NOW.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the Trump administration’s application to enforce its ban on gender-affirming medical care for federal inmates after a judge blocked the policy.
The denial came in an unexplained order. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito noted they would have granted the administration’s application, but they also did not explain their reasoning.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said the high court’s action “protects incarcerated trans people from the administration’s attempt to steamroll over constitutional rights for now.” But she added, “the fight to uphold the dignity and respect our community deserves is far from over.”
Urging the justices to lift the judge’s order while it appeals, the administration argued that the public interest favors such a result because the policy “provides appropriate, individualized treatment for gender dysphoria, while disallowing only interventions that are medically unnecessary.”
Lawyers for inmates with the American Civil Liberties Union implored the high court not to back the government’s attempt to “overturn a three decades-long status quo.” They said the government turned to the justices at this preliminary stage of the litigation not because it has a pressing legal claim but rather because it is upset about how the district judge applied settled law to the facts in this case.
Over the past couple of years, the Supreme Court has ruled against transgender people in a series of cases involving sports, the military, passports and gender-affirming care for minors.
When he granted a preliminary injunction for inmates in June, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, said he didn’t want to wade into “the culture war being waged against transgender individuals.” He said he was merely making a legal decision that the government had failed to follow proper procedures when it implemented the new policy.
The Washington judge called the government action “arbitrary and capricious” because it “failed to seriously consider its own experience providing gender-affirming care to inmates for years under its prior policy.” Lamberth issued a subsequent order in August maintaining the injunction, finding that despite officials’ claims, it wouldn’t cause safety issues to continue inmates’ medical care while the litigation proceeds.
Over dissent from a Trump appointee, a federal appellate panel declined to lift Lamberth’s injunction.
In the administration’s application to the justices, Solicitor General John Sauer said the Bureau of Prisons had previously provided both what he called “mental-health treatment (such as psychotherapy and psychiatry services)” and “sex-rejecting interventions (such as sex-trait-modification surgeries, hormone interventions, and social accommodations).”
Sauer said the government concluded it could no longer justify the second category for two reasons: that such interventions weren’t supported by the latest evidence and that they “raised security and prison-administration concerns that outweighed whatever limited benefits they had.”
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The post Supreme Court rejects Trump administration on gender-affirming care in prison appeared first on MS NOW.
The third-grade teacher of Stylianos Constantinou told the Nicosia district court on Wednesday that he informed the headmaster regarding marks on the boy’s body which had been attributed to his father.
The witness said it was his duty to inform a member of the school’s violence prevention team and that the headmaster was one.
He said there were indications of beatings and that the child had said they came from his father.
The prosecution cited an education ministry manual that requires school staff to report cases when told a child is experiencing domestic violence.
The incident occurred when Stylianos was in second grade, when the boy complained of back pain during class, whereupon the school matron and speech therapist called the teacher to see the marks.
Stylianos took his own life at the age of 14, with the trial examining whether family or state service negligence contributed to his death.
On Monday the same teacher described the boy as a gentle child who saved school food for his siblings and resembled “a saintly recluse”.
He said Stylianos arrived with dirty clothes and an unpleasant odour, and that the school tried to support him.
The defence also questioned him regarding statements made in his main testimony that were absent from his testimony in 2020, which the witness said he had testified unprepared and emotionally charged.
On the decision to end the boy’s school escort, he said it was collective and that he had reservations.
He said he was told the matter would be reviewed if problems arose, and rejected the suggestion that he had agreed the child no longer needed support.
He said the canteen head had agreed with the mother that Stylianos would receive food and that she would pay for it, and that the child also received free meals through a ministry programme.
He had no personal knowledge that there was no food at the home, as he had not visited the family, and the information came from what the child told his escort.
He said the boy’s clothes smelled strongly of farm animals and ruled out mould as the cause. “I don’t think clean clothes can absorb such a bad smell just by being next to dirty clothes,” he said. He said he or his wife bought clothes for the boy but kept no receipts.
Mariah Carey earned a win in court after a New York judge dismissed a $20 million defamation case filed by her brother, Morgan Carey.
Morgan alleged in a 2021 lawsuit that his sister's 2020 memoir, "The Meaning of Mariah Carey," contained defamatory statements and caused intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
In his initial complaint, Morgan wrote that Mariah's book contained "numerous passages which are of and concerning plaintiff, and which are, both individually and collectively, false and defamatory."
MARIAH CAREY DIDN'T STEAL LYRICS FOR HIT SONG 'ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU,' JUDGE RULES
He initially brought the action against the "We Belong Together" singer "more in sorrow and disappointment in his sister’s betrayals and malicious falsehoods than in anger at them" and claimed "the damage was intended" before press began on the book.
Morgan cited a passage where the singer recalled an alleged fight between her brother and father as "false and defamatory," and claimed the excerpt alone not only portrayed him as a "physically violent man," but also fulfilled a "clichéd and racially charged portrayal of two Black males engaged in a physical struggle never happened."
"It took twelve cops to pull my brother and father apart," Mariah allegedly wrote. "The big bodies of men, all entangled like a swirling hurricane, crashed loudly into the living room. I was a little girl with very few memories of a big brother who protected me."
In his second amended complaint, Morgan alleged that Mariah "weaponized the death of both their parents and sister Alison," which he claimed "speaks to [Defendant's] true character, and is ample evidence of malice towards [Plaintiff.]"
ALANIS MORISSETTE SUES EX-TOUR MANAGER OVER ALLEGED BLACKMAIL, FALSE DRUG TRAFFICKING CLAIMS
"Having reviewed both the First and Complaints, the Court finds that Defendant did not forfeit her opportunity to above allegations in the Second Amended Complaint that were included as the Defendant's 'actual malice' necessary for Plaintiff's defamation claims," Judge Leslie A. Stroth ruled.
"In the First Amended Complaint, the above instances were not alleged as being indicative of Defendant's actual malice, rather, they were largely claimed as defamatory statements themselves. The Court finds Defendant could not have responded to these instances of 'actual malice' in the First Amended Complaint, as they were not framed as such."
Morgan claimed that "actual malice" was to be inferred from Mariah's "betrayal and deeply hurtful violation of [Plaintiff's] privacy" by revealing he stayed at the Sagamore Children's Psychiatric Center when he was a child, and further characterizing Morgan as "the Big Bad Wolf" in addition to her "ex-brother."
"Plaintiff further states that Defendant's actual malice is also demonstrated in Defendant's Oprah Winfrey interview, and when Defendant 'weaponized' the death of the parties' parents and sister to boost commercial sales of her Memoir," documents stated.
KATY PERRY FIGHTS BACK AGAINST RUBY ROSE'S 'CATEGORICALLY FALSE' SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS
Morgan acknowledged in his filing that Mariah's sources for some of her "allegedly defamatory statements" are unverified, including her deceased mother, an anonymous photographer and hairstylist, in addition to "inner circle common knowledge."
"The Court finds that Plaintiff has not sufficiently pleaded actual malice on the part of Defendant," the judge ruled. "Plaintiff has alleged that Defendant was more concerned with the 'commercial viability' of her Memoir, than verifying the truth of her statements, and that Defendant's sources for such statements are anonymous and/or unverifiable.
BLAKE LIVELY ALLEGES ‘MEAN GIRL’ SMEAR CAMPAIGN DAMAGED HER CAREER, SEEKS UP TO $296M
"Notably, Plaintiff fails to provide any proof that Defendant made such statements with knowledge of their falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth."
The judge added, "While Plaintiff alleges that Defendant demonstrates ill will towards her brother, such a statement is insufficient, and Plaintiff has not satisfied the pleading requirements for actual malice in his Second Amended Complaint."
WYNONNA JUDD SAYS SHE AND SISTER ASHLEY AREN'T SPEAKING AS FAMILY PAIN RESURFACES
The Grammy-winning singer's familial relationships have been challenging over the years.
Shortly after the release of her memoir, her sister Alison claimed Mariah intentionally inflicted "emotional distress" and filed a $1.25 million suit against the "Fantasy" singer.
The suit referred to Carey as "heartless, vicious [and] vindictive," and stated that Alison had begun abusing alcohol and was "uncharacteristically tearful" after the book's release.
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Carey alleged in her book that Alison gave her Valium and tried to "pimp her out" and threw boiling hot tea on her, per People, a story which Alison cited in the summons and claims "presented no evidence to substantiate."
"[Carey] also callously dismisses [Alison] as her 'ex' sister," docs stated. "But instead of saying no more about her, [Carey] used her book to humiliate and embarrass plaintiff as stories about the memoir appeared in newspapers around the world, on TV and across the Internet, most of them with headlines repeating defendant's allegations — all of them published without giving [Alison] any opportunity to respond."
Alison was allegedly diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression, and was in therapy to process "the horrific abuse" she allegedly suffered as a child, which includes incidents she's described as "satanic" in a 2020 lawsuit against their mother, Patricia.
Prior to her own suit against Mariah, Alison sued their mother, claiming she was forced to endure sexual abuse from multiple men by way of Satanic worship meetings when she was a child.
Alison accused her mom, Patricia, of sexual abuse when she was 10 years old in a summons filed with the New York Supreme Court in February 2020, that was obtained by Fox News Digital at the time.
Alison alleged that her mother allowed and encouraged an undisclosed number of men to engage in sexual acts such as forcible touching, sexual assault in the first degree and made her witness people engaged in sexual acts with adults and children.
In her memoir, Mariah wrote that her relationship with her mother "has been full of contradictions and competing realities."
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"Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment. A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother's," she wrote.
After referring to her relationship with her mother as a "complicated love," Carey dedicated her memoir in part to Patricia.
"And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could," Carey wrote. "I will love you the best I can, always."
In August 2024, Carey confirmed both her mother and sister died on the same day.
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"My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend. Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day," she told People at the time.
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"I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed. I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time."
Liberal justice says recent decisions on redistricting and campaign finance have undermined democracy and polarized US even more
Elena Kagan criticized rulings made by the US supreme court’s conservative majority this week, arguing that its recent decisions on redistricting and campaign finance had undermined America’s democracy.
“The court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effects of their rulings on how the political system works,” said Kagan, one of the court’s three liberal justices, during a discussion at Catholic University’s law school in Washington DC on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
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© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images
© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images
© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images
In late August, President Donald Trump announced what he called the “biggest oil deal in world history.” Since then, the full text of the accord — which grants the U.S. sweeping access to Venezuela’s oil reserves — has been one of the most sought-after secrets in Washington, DC. ProPublica has reviewed a copy of the […]
The post The secret terms of Trump’s Venezuelan oil deal appeared first on Asia Times.
Three years after ending affirmative action in higher education, the Supreme Court will hear another case on race-based admissions, this time in middle schools.
On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Association for Education Fairness v. Montgomery County Board of Education. The case, which was originally brought forth in 2020 by the Association for Education Fairness (AFEF), a coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland, parents, alleges that Montgomery County's selection process for magnet programs (gifted programs for STEM and humanities studies in middle schools) violates the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause by discriminating against Asian American students. The county insists that the selection process is race-neutral.
Montgomery County changed its selection process in the 2021–22 school year. According to reporting from The New York Times, the county was facing pressure from community groups, including the NAACP and Citizens Assisting and Sheltering the Abused (CASA Inc.), over the underrepresentation of black and Latino students in its magnet programs. Previously, students were selected based on test scores and grades. The new process implemented a lottery system in which high-achieving students are placed in a selection pool and selected at random.
The AFEF's central complaint is that the new system factors school poverty levels into the criteria for pool eligibility. This means students' eligibility depends on their scores relative to students in similarly affluent or disadvantaged schools, rather than the general population. They argue that since Asian Americans are concentrated in high-performing, lower-poverty schools, they have to clear a higher bar to become eligible. The group alleges the new system has caused fewer Asian American students to be admitted into magnet schools, a claim that is backed up by admissions data (which also show that the share of Asian American applications has fallen). The AFEF also cites Montgomery County's 2015 hiring of Metis, a national consulting firm, to recommend ways to make the system more "equitable" as an indication of the county's effort to "racially balance" its magnet programs.
The complaint was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in 2022, who ruled that the parents hadn't shown the policy disproportionately harmed Asian American students, citing the fact that they made up a larger share of admitted students than of the applicant pool. Xinis drew a distinction between accounting for economic disparities, which she called "wholly permissible," and racial discrimination. "Alleged disparity in treatment based on socioeconomic status alone does not make plausible discrimination on account of race," she wrote in the ruling. The tension raised by Xinis sits at the center of many debates regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, as factors like poverty levels can often become a proxy for race; therefore, policies that are neutral on their face can still disparately impact a certain race.
In February, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal, ruling that precedent from the Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board (2023) requires parents to show the policy disproportionately harmed Asian American applicants, which they hadn't. However, there is a real legal question as to whether racial groups should have to prove they were harmed as a group, as opposed to the individual, and lower courts have given mixed answers.
The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public-interest law firm representing the AFEF, litigated a similar case in New York City, where the city implemented an economic need index in its admissions process for competitive high schools, aimed at increasing the number of black and Hispanic students. Again, parents alleged that the requirement discriminated against Asian American students. In 2024, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found that if the city intended to discriminate, the parents don't have to prove Asian Americans were harmed as a group and that harm to an individual was enough for the case to move forward. The case was sent back to the district court to determine whether the city intended to discriminate, where it remains pending.
The Supreme Court will now settle the issue and determine "whether a plaintiff challenging a facially neutral admissions policy as racially discriminatory must establish that the targeted racial group suffered an aggregate disparate impact relative to its share of the applicant pool," according to SCOTUSBlog.
In a statement on Monday, PLF Senior Attorney Chris Kieser said, "The Constitution protects students as individuals, not as members of a racial group. A school district should not be able to defeat a discrimination claim by showing that its policy did not harm enough Asian American children. Every family deserves admissions rules that judge their child on their own merit."
The post Supreme Court Takes Up Accusations of Race-Based Middle School Admissions appeared first on Reason Magazine.
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