Civil Rights

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The video seems clear: Patrick Lyoya disobeyed an officer during a traffic stop, tried to run, then wrestled with the officer over his Taser before the officer fatally shot him in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For a number of... Read More

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Black man face-down on the ground was fatally shot in the back of the head by a Michigan police officer, the violent climax of a traffic stop, brief foot chase and struggle over a... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force meets in person Wednesday, the first time members have gathered face-to-face since their inaugural meeting nearly a year ago and mere weeks after the group voted to limit restitution to descendants... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — U.S. service members who are HIV-positive cannot be discharged or barred from becoming an officer solely because they're infected with the virus, a federal judge in Virginia ruled. Advocates say it's one of the strongest rulings... Read More

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Oklahoma state lawmakers passed legislation on Tuesday that would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by a maximum fine of $100,000 and up to 10 years in prison. The bill, known as Senate Bill 612,... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice warned all state attorneys general on Thursday that preventing transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care infringes on the constitutional protections of the 14th Amendment. The Justice Department’s warning came in a letter signed by... Read More

DENVER (AP) — A federal jury’s $14 million award to Denver protesters hit with pepper balls and a bag filled with lead during 2020 demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis could resonate nationwide as courts weigh... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday did something lawmakers have been trying to do for more than 120 years — with a stroke of his pen he made lynching, a vile form of domestic terrorism and murder, a federal... Read More

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Gov. Brad Little enacted a bill on Wednesday that enforces a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy that is based on a similar law passed in Texas last year. The bill, scheduled to go... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rev. Eric Manning invoked the dead of the July 17, 2015, massacre at a church in Charleston, S.C., as he testified to Congress Thursday about threats to African American institutions. He read the names of the nine victims... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas — The Travis County District Court issued an injunction on Friday temporarily preventing the enforcement of a directive compelling the state child welfare agency to investigate gender-transitioning medical treatment cases as child abuse. Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that abortion providers cannot sue state medical licensing boards to counteract the state’s law that bans the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy. The case was brought by Whole Women’s... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive on Tuesday compelling the state child welfare agency to investigate reports of “gender-transitioning procedures” as child abuse, but some district attorneys are refusing to comply. The directive followed Texas Attorney... Read More

WASHINGTON – An assistant U.S. attorney general announced Wednesday the Justice Department is ending its Trump-era China Initiative intended to halt Chinese economic spying after a series of embarrassing court failures. The China Initiative also drew criticism from civil rights... Read More

WASHINGTON — As the nation waits on tenterhooks to find out how the Supreme Court will rule on a Mississippi case to decide whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional, advocates and opponents of abortion laws across the... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. — The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s decision to temporarily block South Carolina’s ban on abortions after six weeks. Signed by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster last year, the law requires doctors to... Read More

BALTIMORE — Maryland’s speaker of the House is trying to turn abortion rights into a state constitutional amendment. If the proposal from Adrienne A. Jones wins quick general assembly approval, Maryland would become the first state to make abortion a... Read More

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The three men convicted of the murder in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty Tuesday morning of federal hate crimes and lesser civil rights charges. In addition the jury also found father and son... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a new clash involving religion and the rights of LGBTQ people in the case of a Colorado web designer who says her religious beliefs prevent her from offering wedding website... Read More

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — They chased and killed a running Black man who was unarmed and committed no crimes, leaving a trail of racist text messages and social media posts in the months and years before the shooting. Whether the... Read More

WASHINGTON — A report released by the Office of the Inspector General regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s oversight of civil rights complaints provides 21 recommendations that the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights should take to try... Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Black college students once marched downtown from the north Nashville neighborhood where Aaron Marble preaches, sitting at Whites-only lunch counters to fight for civil rights. Soon, his historically Black community will fold into a mostly rural,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court's decision to halt efforts to create a second mostly Black congressional district in Alabama for the 2022 election sparked fresh warnings that the court is becoming too politicized, eroding the Voting Rights Act and reviving the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rob Portman, D-Ohio, joined by House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C. and Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., are urging their colleagues to support a sweeping new anti-poverty bill intended, in their words, “to create... Read More

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A federal judge rejected a plea agreement Monday that would have averted a hate crimes trial for the white man convicted of murder for fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery, whose parents angrily objected to the deal as unfair and... Read More

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The son and father convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery have reached a plea agreement that could avoid their trial on federal hate crime charges. Arbery's parents denounced the deal as a betrayal, and called on the judge to... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden asked Congress Thursday to revive chances for the Equal Rights Amendment to become part of the Constitution. The deadline that Congress set for states to ratify the amendment to guarantee equal rights for women expired... Read More

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday heard the first day of oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s “fetal heartbeat” abortion law. The proceedings came as the nation awaits a ruling from the U.S.... Read More

ATHENS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee school district has voted to ban a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust due to “inappropriate language" and an illustration of a nude woman, according to minutes from a board meeting. The... Read More

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Witness testimony will get underway in earnest Tuesday at the federal civil rights trial of three former Minneapolis police officers accused of failing to intervene as fellow Officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd by pressing his knee into the... Read More