standing up for your rights

The Department of Justice has moved to dismiss charges against a prominent California union leader who was arrested while protesting against an immigration raid in Los Angeles last year, in the latest US government case against protesters to fall apart.

David Huerta, the president of Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West, was arrested at a June 2025 demonstration and has been fighting the charges ever since. On Monday, the US attorney’s office in LA filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him.

Huerta was initially charged with “conspiracy to impede an officer”, a serious felony, though prosecutors earlier this year downgraded those charges to a misdemeanor of “obstruction, resistance, or opposition of a federal officer”. The misdemeanor is now on track for dismissal.

The justice department in Los Angeles has aggressively prosecuted immigrants and protesters for “impeding” and “assaulting” immigration officers, but many of those cases have collapsed in court, with prosecutors facing a stunning streak of losses when the charges have gone to trial.

“This means the government is finally admitting what we knew from day one and what was obvious to anyone who saw the videos: the charge against me was baseless, meant to intimidate anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice,” Huerta said in a statement on Monday. “There was never a real case, only an attempt to punish and silence me for exercising my constitutional rights.”

FBI Director Kash Patel's $10 million defamation lawsuit targeting a blogger who called him a "Kremlin asset" and an "incompetent chud" has been thrown out by a federal judge.

In a lawsuit filed in 2023, Patel claims that Jim Stewartson, who writes on Substack and social media, accused him of not only working for the Russians but also of trying to "overthrow the government" and helping organize the January 6 attack on the Capitol. At the time, Patel was hosting the “Kash’s Corner” podcast on The Epoch Times, a pro-Trump media company that has spread conspiracy theories.

Patel sued in a Nevada court, citing a number of Stewartson's social media posts accusing him of "sedition" and claiming that he "helped ensure the Capitol was undefended" on January 6, 2021. Stewartson wrote that Patel was a "blatantly incompetent chud" and should be arrested, The Daily Beast reports.

Lawyers for President Donald Trump's administration have withdrawn subpoenas attempting to compel testimony from New York Times reporters who wrote about security concerns involving the new Air Force One plane.

The move came as a federal judge questioned why Trump officials were seeking records from three journalists and their families.

The top federal prosecutor in Seattle who was recently fired by President Donald Trump sued the administration on July 21, in a case testing the president’s authority to remove U.S. attorneys appointed by judges to fill vacancies.

Roger Rogoff’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, said Trump unlawfully removed him as the court-appointed U.S. attorney in the Western District of Washington immediately after he took office on July 15.

The lawsuit contends that federal law allows a court-appointed U.S. attorney to serve until the position is filled by a presidential nominee confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Rogoff asked the court to declare his firing invalid and rule that he remains the U.S. attorney for the district until a Senate-confirmed successor takes office.

Trump removed Rogoff, a former federal prosecutor and state court judge, one hour after the chief judge in the Western District of Washington swore him in as the district’s new U.S. attorney.

“The President’s actions violate the law, and they ignore the protections of the Constitution of the United States,” Rogoff said in a statement. “His removal of me, like his removal of other court-appointed U.S. Attorneys across the country, is illegal and cannot stand.”

The dismissal marks an embarrassing setback for a Justice Department that had billed the prosecution as accountability for damage at a Washington landmark where President Donald Trump had launched a massive renovation project before the country's 250th anniversary celebrations. Trump, without providing evidence, has alleged the damage was caused by vandals.

But the case has long been saddled with evidentiary problems and challenges. Hearn has for weeks maintained his innocence, and his supporters have characterized the prosecution as a politically motivated attempt by the Trump administration to deflect blame and scapegoat others.

Earlier this week, Hearn's lawyers sought access to grand jury transcripts because of what they said were "irregularities" in the process. They said a National Park Service official testified that the pool already was damaged before Hearn allegedly touched it, couldn't quantify any damage attributable to Hearn and said the same repairs would have been required regardless of his conduct.

Still, Lily added: “I will not back down from this fight. I know I’m in a horrible position, but there are so many people out there in Nebraska, Idaho, Texas or Florida who are in so much worse positions than me.”

In what feels like it could be the first little rolling pebble of a rockslide that’s about to slam a torrent of boulders down around Silicon Valley HR departments’ heads, a software engineer has successfully received a religious exemption against being forced to work with AI. This is per Business Insider, which reports that engineer Erin Maus successfully lobbied her tech company employers on the idea that, as a Unitarian Universalist, using AI was opposed to her ethical and environmental beliefs, and is now back to happily writing her code by hand. And while the actions of one company in regards to one employee obviously doesn’t set any kind of legal precedent, it does feel like a bellwether for industries that are getting pretty militant about their employees filtering everything they do through the nascent technology.

“This is a great nation. We can’t be divided or destroyed by hate,” she said.

As she and her daughters posed for a picture with their suitcases at the airport, Ruano called out, putting a twist on the classic protest chant, “Sí se puede,” or “Yes we can.”

“Sí se pudo!” she said, turning it past tense. Yes we could.

“A jury unanimously concluded that he sexually abused and defamed plaintiff and awarded her damages accordingly,” Kaplan wrote. “The judgment on that verdict has been upheld on appeal. En banc rehearing has been denied. The Supreme Court has denied certiorari without dissent.”

“It is time for him to ‘do equity’ and pay the judgment,” the judge wrote.

The government cannot ban people from public events just because elected officials can't handle their jokes. We’re suing the federal government for retaliating against our client by blocking her from an official, taxpayer-funded public event simply because she criticizes Vice President Vance online.