Month: November 2024

The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case in New York ordered Tuesday to delay any decision on whether to throw out Trump’s conviction based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on presidential immunity. Judge Juan Merchan was scheduled on Tuesday to decide the fate of the case, but both sides requested more time to consider how to proceed now that Trump is president-elect.

Merchan granted the request by attorneys for the defense and prosecution to delay the proceedings for another week. He gave himself a Tuesday deadline to announce his decision after pushing sentencing until after the election.Merchan wrote: “As per the People’s request, the People are to file with the Court, off calendar, your view of appropriate steps going forward.”  

Sentencing was originally slated for July 11, at which time Merchan moved the date back as Trump campaigned for the presidency. The Republican National Convention took place four days after the original sentencing date. Ahead of the next scheduled date (Sept. 18) Merchan announced sentencing would stay on hold until after the election.

A jury convicted Trump in May of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniel to silence allegations about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

Sentencing in the case is currently scheduled for Nov. 26, less than two months ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Trump has asked that the verdict be overturned or the case be thrown out entirely. If Judge Merchan tosses the conviction, he could order a new trial — which would be delayed for at least four years until Trump leaves office — or dismiss the indictment altogether.

If Trump’s conviction holds up, he will be the first convicted felon in the office of the president. He faces up to four years in prison.

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked a Louisiana law requiring the Bible’s Ten Commandments to be displayed in the state’s publicly-funded schools. U.S. District Judge John deGravelles issued an order granting a preliminary injunction to temporarily stop its enforcement, writing that the law is “facially unconstitutional” and “in all applications” that will “irreparably harm.” Judge deGravelles further ordered Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill to “provide notice to all schools that the Act has been found unconstitutional.”

Gov. Jeff Landry had signed House Bill 71 into law after state lawmakers approved the measure, making Louisana the first state in the country to require the Ten Commandments be displayed in public elementary, high school and state-funded universities.  The bill required the biblical inscriptions to be displayed in “large, easily readable font” inside classrooms by the start of 2025.

The Louisiana law had the support of President-elect Donald Trump, wrote on his Truth Social platform when the bill was signed into law: “I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG??? THIS MAY BE, IN FACT, THE FIRST MAJOR STEP IN THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED, IN OUR COUNTRY.”

However, the lawsuit argued that requiring poster-sized displays of religious doctrine in classrooms violates the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights and the separation of church and state. The suit seeking to block the law was promoted by a broad coalition of parents of Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious faiths with the American Civil Liberties Union and its Louisiana chapter, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation. According to the complaint, the law, “sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments … do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences.”

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com