Federal Court Halts Florida’s Anti-Immigrant Law SB 4-C

Florida officials have been discussing ways to boost the state’s “enforcement removal operation" of undocumented migrants, but not without opposition.

The Republican-led Ohio Senate has approved a bill banning transgender students from using bathrooms that fit their gender identities.

Missouri officials struck back at one of the clinics that unsuccessfully challenged new state restrictions on gender affirming care by filing a new lawsuit accusing the clinic of failing to provide proper care for transgender minors even before the new law took effect last month.

A Texas judge has ruled against the state’s upcoming ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, the latest move in a legal fight over transgender rights.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors.

Young people are confined to cells the size of parking spaces up to 23 hours per day alone, with fluorescent lights that never turn off, at Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center in Benton, Illinois.

The future of a Pride event that included a drag show in a small Massachusetts town remains up in the air after town officials held another vote on whether to allow the event.

Missouri’s attorney general announced new restrictions Thursday on transgender care for adults in addition to minors in a move that is believed to be a first nationally and has advocacy groups threatening to sue.

The Supreme Court has declined to revive an ACLU lawsuit challenging a portion of the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international email and phone communications.

It's been a month since a Montana judge temporarily blocked enforcement of a law that required transgender people to undergo surgery before they could change their gender on their birth certificate.

A lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Louisiana is alleging sheriff's deputies in that state beat a Black man so brutally in 2019 that they broke his nose and left eye socket.

A divided federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of an ACLU lawsuit challenging a portion of the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international email and phone communications.

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Facial recognition technology being used in police investigations is facing new scrutiny. State driver’s license photos and booking mugshots are some of the tools used by investigators in Pembroke Pines and other cities throughout Florida as they try to identify criminals using facial recognition. “With technology nowadays, people know how to use it to their advantage so I definitely think they should use it with some rules,” said Krystal Denis, who works in Pembroke Pines. Pembroke Pines police has an agreement with the state to access the database, which is run out of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. AdThe system called FACES uses an image to map facial features and help make an id and potentially jumpstart an investigation.

– Two women who were detained in northern Montana by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents for speaking Spanish while shopping at a convenience store have reached an undisclosed monetary settlement in their lawsuit against the agency, the ACLU of Montana announced Tuesday. “Ma’am, the reason I asked you for your ID is because I came in here and I saw that you guys are speaking Spanish, which is very unheard of up here,” O’Neill said in the video. “We stood up to the government because speaking Spanish is not a reason to be racially profile and harassed,” Suda said in a statement provided by the ACLU. In gathering information for the lawsuit, the ACLU said Customs and Border Protection agents in northern Montana acknowledged they routinely profiled non-white people. “If there's somebody speaking Spanish down there it's like all of a sudden you've got five agents swarming in, ‘What’s going on?'

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. – You may be able to start wearing “saggy pants” in Opa-Locka again. Read Opa-Locka’s ’Saggy Pants’ OrdinanceIn the city’s current code of ordinances, Sec. 16-33 states rules and regulations on the “ban on wearing saggy apparel in public facilities.”(a) It shall be unlawful for an individual (male or female) to wear saggy pants or slacks apparel wherein underwear or under garments are exposed in city buildings and parks. Females, as well, shall also be banned from wearing saggy shirt or blouse apparel. Neither males nor females shall wear saggy apparel such as to constitute indecent exposure.

A lawsuit claimed solitary confinement violated inmates' Eighth and 14th Amendment rights. HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania inmates on death row will no longer face solitary confinement. The lawsuit -- filed in January 2018 -- claimed solitary confinement violated inmates' Eighth and 14th Amendment rights. "The use of long-term solitary confinement on anyone is torture," said Amy Fettig, deputy director of the National Prison Project. The state DOC said in a statement they began reviewing housing and general conditions of confinement of death row inmates "several years ago."

John Moore/Getty ImagesGRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A Michigan city will pay $190,000 to a Marine veteran and United States citizen who was arrested by the police and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The Grand Rapids City Commission on Tuesday approved the settlement to pay Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, who was born and raised in Michigan. "Based on his statements, ICE lodged a detainer with local authorities." It added that's what happened when Grand Rapids authorities arrested him last year. An investigation by the Los Angeles Times found that ICE has released more than 1,400 people from custody since 2012 after investigating citizenship claims.

On '"This Week in South Florida" host Calvin Hughes is talks with former Broward County sheriff Scott Israel and is joined on the roundtable by Florida ACLU deputy director Melba Pearson, Florida GOP... Copyright 2019 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

After marrying an American citizen and becoming an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota, Ostadhassan applied for a green card. A month later, he applied for a green card. "That has not been the case for any other marriage-based green card interview I have ever sat in on. He later amended his green card application after hiring Balgamwalla, who told him to include all of his past associations. It was another rejection of Ostadhassan's green card application, citing the previous rejection.

MIAMI - Join host Glenna Milberg as she welcomes state senator Anitere Flores, state senator Jose Javier Rodriguez, Florida ACLU deputy director Melba Pearson, local attorney Marili Cancio and local attorney Burnadette Norris-Weeks on the "This Week in South Florida" podcast. SUBSCRIBE TO THE TWISF PODCAST - iOS | AndroidCopyright 2019 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

- When Ramon Torres was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, he produced his Louisiana driver's license, social security card, and U.S. passport, but the ACLU says the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office refused to release him until an ICE official confirmed his immigration status. When Torres asked his jailers why he was being held and why his citizenship was in question, Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office deputies told Torres that every Hispanic person was automatically held for a immigration review, according to a new lawsuit the ACLU of Louisiana has filed against the sheriff's office. "Ramon Torres was held in jail for four days simply because he has brown skin and a Latino name," ACLU of Louisiana legal director Katie Schwartzmann said. Not doing so violated Torres' constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, according to the ACLU. "The increasing national rhetoric of fear and racism around immigration is tearing apart our local communities," Schwartzmann said.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – On "This Week in South Florida," hosts Michael Putney and Glenna Milberg discuss the week's top news stories with Politico Reporter Marc Caputo, Deputy Director of the ACLU of Florida Melba Pearson and Miami-Dade County GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz. SUBSCRIBE TO THE TWISF PODCAST - iOS | Android