Articles

Nadler: ‘Constitutional crisis’ over Mueller report dispute

The House Judiciary chairman said Wednesday the Trump administration’s refusal to provide special counsel Robert Mueller’s full Russia report to Congress presents a “constitutional crisis,” leaving the panel no choice but to move forward with a contempt vote against Attorney General William Barr.

Read More

Refusal to hand over Trump’s tax returns sets up legal fight

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has made it official: The administration won’t be turning President Donald Trump’s tax returns over to the Democratic-controlled House. The move, which was expected, is sure to set in motion a legal battle over Trump’s tax returns.

Read More

ABA sees ‘troubling gaps’ in civics knowledge in 2019 survey results

Members of the American public strongly support the First Amendment, but a recent American Bar Association civics literacy survey revealed that some confusion remains about what it actually protects. The results, which go hand-in-hand with the 2019 Law Day theme of “Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society,” revealed what the ABA called “troubling gaps” in the public’s basic knowledge of American civics.

Read More

Trump, GOP states ask appeals court to kill ‘Obamacare’

Taking a harder line on health care, the Trump administration on Wednesday joined a coalition of Republican-led states, including Indiana, in asking a federal appeals court to entirely overturn former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law — a decision that could leave millions uninsured.

Read More

Barr skips House hearing; Pelosi accuses him of lying

Attorney General William Barr skipped a House hearing Thursday on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report, escalating an already acrimonious battle between Democrats and President Donald Trump’s Justice Department. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Barr had already lied to Congress in other testimony and called that a “crime.”

Read More

Rod Rosenstein submits letter of resignation to Trump

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein submitted his resignation Monday after a two-year run defined by his appointment of a special counsel to investigate connections between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia. His last day will be May 11, ending a tumultuous relationship with Trump and a tenure that involved some of the most consequential, even chaotic, moments of the president’s administration.

Read More

Trump forms battle plan for post-Mueller probes: Just say no

As House Democrats ramp up their post-Mueller investigations into President Donald Trump, his strategy for responding is simple: Resist on every legal front. The administration is straining to hold off congressional investigators, including their efforts to obtain the president’s tax returns, his business’ financial records and testimony from former senior aides.

Read More

Trump’s threat to go to court over impeachment defies ruling

President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday he’ll go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court “if the partisan Dems” ever try to impeach him. But Trump’s strategy could run into a roadblock: the high court itself, which said in 1993 that the framers of the U.S. Constitution didn’t intend for the courts to have the power to review impeachment proceedings.

Read More

State lawmakers pad DCS budget, hike school funding only slightly

State lawmakers are poised to increase school funding by 2.5 percent each year in a $34 billion final budget plan — just slightly more than the amount proposed last week by the Indiana Senate. Meanwhile, the Indiana Department of Child Services’ budget will jump by more than a half-billion dollars over the next two fiscal years.

Read More

SCOTUS to hear arguments over citizenship question on census

The United States Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over the Trump administration’s plan to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census, a question that could affect how many seats states have in the House of Representatives and their share of federal dollars over the next 10 years.

Read More

Birch Bayh memorial set for May 1 at Statehouse

A memorial service to honor former United States Senator Birch Bayh will take place at noon May 1 at the Indiana Statehouse. Bayh, who represented the Hoosier state in Washington from 1963-1981 after becoming the youngest-ever Indiana House speaker in 1954, died last month at age 91.

Read More