By Christine Coleman
Edited by Elissa D. Hecker
Entertainment
Warner Music Group Files $24 Million Lawsuit Against Crumbl Cookies Over Alleged TikTok and Instagram Infringement
Warner Music Group (WMG) filed a complaint in a U.S. District Court in Utah, alleging that the cookie chain Crumbl used at least 159 songs from WMG’s catalog in promotional videos posted to Instagram and TikTok. WMG says the list of works includes recordings or compositions from artists and songwriters like Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Mariah Carey, and Taylor Swift, that were used without proper authorization or licensing.
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/04/23/warner-music-group-sues-crumbl-cookies/
MPA and RIAA Want to be Heard in Crucial DMCA Subpoena Appeal
The MPA and the RIAA want to have their say in a crucial third-party Ninth Circuit appeal about the use of DMCA subpoenas against alleged online pirates. Fearing a ruling that could limit their enforcement options, the groups requested speaking time at an upcoming hearing. This intervention, as well as previous commentary from the Electric Frontier Foundation, which is backed by a new party, underscores the high-stakes nature of the case.
https://torrentfreak.com/mpa-and-riaa-want-to-be-heard-in-crucial-dmca-subpoena-appeal/
Jelly Roll Should Be Pardoned for Drug and Robbery Offenses, Board Says
The Tennessee Board of Parole unanimously determined that Jelly Roll, one of the top names in country music, should be pardoned for his past robbery and drug possession convictions.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/arts/music/jelly-roll-pardon-tennessee.html?searchResultPosition=1
Sean Combs Loses Request to Remove All Hotel Assault Video From Trial
Lawyers for Sean Combs lost their bid to keep all footage of his 2016 hotel assault on his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, out of his racketeering and sex trafficking trial, which starts next month. Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that some footage surrounding the assault could be admitted, but it is not yet clear how much of it will be shown.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/arts/music/sean-diddy-combs-cassie-video-trial.html?searchResultPosition=1
Oscars OK the Use of A.I., With Caveats
Tthe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences addressed for the first time the use of generative artificial intelligence, a technology sweeping into the film capital yet hugely divisive in the industry’s creative ranks. The Oscar rules now state that A.I. and other digital tools “neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination,” The academy added, however, that the more a human played a role in a film’s creation, the better.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/business/oscars-rules-ai.html?searchResultPosition=3
Odes to Mexican Drug Lords Are Pop Hits, but the Law Is Turning Against Them
Mexican artists built enormous audiences singing about drug cartels and narco culture. Cities and states are now moving against the style, arguing that it promotes the violence and criminal activity that have ravaged the country.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/world/americas/mexico-narcocorridos-ban.html
He Was Welcome. She Was Not. A British Magic Club Rights a Wrong.
Last year, the Magic Circle began searching for Sophie Lloyd, who disguised herself as a man in 1991 to gain membership and was then ousted. Last week, she returned to finally receive her membership to the top British magic society.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/world/europe/magic-circle-london-sophie-lloyd.html
Arts
Supreme Court Story Time: Justices Consider Children’s Books With L.G.B.T.Q. Themes
The Supreme Court considered whether parents’ rights to the free exercise of their faiths are burdened if public schools do not allow them to withdraw their children from classes on days that books with gay and transgender characters and themes are discussed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/supreme-court-childrens-books-gay-trans.html
House Democrats Criticize Trump’s Smithsonian Order
In response to President Trump’s effort to reshape the Smithsonian Institution, four Democratic members of the Committee on House Administration urged Vice President JD Vance, as he sits on the Smithsonian’s board, to reject such an attempt to impose the president’s own views of American history. In a letter sent to Vance’s office, the legislators said the effort would threaten the Smithsonian’s curatorial autonomy and excellence.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/arts/design/smithsonian-letter-vance-trump.html?searchResultPosition=1
North Dakota Governor Vetoes Bill Restricting Library Books
Gov. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota vetoed a bill that would have required most libraries in the state to keep material considered sexually explicit in areas difficult for minors to access. Under the measure, librarians who do not comply could have faced prosecution. Armstrong, a Republican former congressman in his first year as governor, said in his veto message that the bill “represents a misguided attempt to legislate morality through overreach and censorship.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/us/north-dakota-library-governor-veto.html?searchResultPosition=1
Museum Told to Surrender Schiele Drawing to Heirs of Man Killed by Nazis
A judge in New York ruled that the Art Institute of Chicago must surrender a 1916 drawing by Egon Schiele to investigators who plan to return it to the heirs of a Jewish cabaret entertainer from Vienna who was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp in 1941. The drawing “Russian War Prisoner” was purchased by the Art Institute in 1966, but investigators for the Manhattan district attorney’s office had asserted that it and other works once owned by the entertainer and art collector Fritz Grünbaum had been looted by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In her ruling, New York Supreme Court Judge Althea Drysdale said she agreed that the work had been stolen from Grünbaum by the Nazis.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/arts/design/egon-schiele-drawing-art-institute-chicago.html
Trump Administration Seeks Artists for ‘Garden of Heroes’ Statues
The National Endowment for the Humanities announced a grant program to support Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes, the first concrete step toward realizing one of his central priorities for the 250th anniversary of American independence. The garden, which was announced during Trump’s first term, will feature life-size renderings of “250 great individuals from America’s past who have contributed to our cultural, scientific and political heritage.” The endowment is now requesting “preliminary concepts” for individual statues from artists who must be American citizens. Those who are selected will receive awards of up to $200,000 per statue.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/arts/garden-of-heroes-trump.html?searchResultPosition=1
Sports
Judge Says She Will Deny $2.8 Billion NCAA Settlement if Roster Limits Are Not Adjusted
The federal judge overseeing the NCAA’s $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit settlement said in an order that she will deny final approval of the agreement if a plan to implement roster limits on college teams is not modified to protect current athletes.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6303220/2025/04/23/judge-will-deny-ncaa-settlement-if-roster-limits-not-adjusted/?searchResultPosition=1
Shannon Sharpe Is Accused of Rape by Ex-Girlfriend
Shannon Sharpe, the host of the popular sports and pop culture podcast “Club Shay Shay” and a former N.F.L. player, was sued by an ex-girlfriend who accused him of rape and sexual assault during a nearly two-year relationship. The woman, who is described as being in her early 20s, submitted the complaint anonymously and is seeking $50 million in damages.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/arts/shannon-sharpe-lawsuit-rape-sexual-assault.html?searchResultPosition=1
They’re on the Varsity Influencer Team
A new effort at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is aimed at turning its student-athletes into well-remunerated social media stars. Other schools are following suit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/business/unc-student-athlete-influencers.html?searchResultPosition=1
Sexual Abuse Watchdog SafeSport Fires CEO Amid Ongoing Congressional Probe
The U.S. Center for SafeSport fired CEO Ju’Riese Colón after five years leading the organization. Colón’s firing comes at a turbulent time for the Denver-based watchdog as Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley recently opened an inquiry into the organization’s hiring of Jason Krasley, a former Allentown, Pa., police officer who SafeSport brought on in 2021.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6302756/2025/04/23/safesport-sexual-abuse-watchdog-fires-ceo/
Trump Administration Opens Civil Rights Inquiry Into a Long Island Mascot Fight
Federal education officials said that they had opened a civil rights inquiry into whether New York State could withhold state money from a Long Island school district that has refused to follow a state requirement and drop its Native American mascot. The announcement came shortly after Trump expressed his support for the district, in Massapequa, N.Y., in its fight against complying with a state Board of Regents requirement that all districts abandon mascots that appropriate Native American culture or risk losing state funding.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/trump-massapequa-mascot-inquiry.html
Judge Declares Mistrial In Hockey Canada Sexual Assault Trial
A mistrial has been declared in the Hockey Canada sexual assault case, two days after the Crown attorney made opening statements and three days after a 14-person jury was selected in Ontario Superior Court. Those 14 jurors were sent home following the ruling by Justice Maria Carroccia, who has presided over the trial. Carroccia said the court will begin to select a new 14-person jury.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6303432/2025/04/25/hockey-canada-trial-judge-mistrial-sexual-assault/
What Does the UK Supreme Court's Ruling on Legal Definition of a Woman Mean for Sport?
In a historic ruling last week, judges at the UK’s highest court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex and that transgender women do not fall within that legal definition under equality law. The decision arrives amid intense public debate over the intersection of transgender rights and women’s rights, particularly in the women’s sport arena. Governing bodies of sport in the UK will not be mandated to amend or reconsider their rules on eligibility immediately, rather, given its weight, the ruling is expected to influence policymaking in the future, with the nuances of implementation still needing to be considered.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6287102/2025/04/21/uk-supreme-court-ruling-legal-definition-woman/
Technology/Media
U.S. Asks Judge to Break Up Google
The Justice Department said that the best way to address Google’s monopoly in internet search was to break up the $1.81 trillion company, kicking off a three-week hearing that could reshape the technology giant and alter the power players in Silicon Valley. Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in August that Google had broken antitrust laws to maintain its dominance in online search. He is now hearing arguments from the government and the company over how to best fix Google’s monopoly and is expected to order those measures, referred to as “remedies,” by the end of the summer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/technology/google-search-remedies-hearing.html
Justice Dept. Policy Now Allows Pursuit of Reporters’ Records in Leak Inquiries
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that federal authorities may once again seek reporters’ phone records and compel their testimony in leak investigations, reversing a Biden administration policy meant to protect journalism from intrusive efforts to identify and prosecute leakers. An internal Justice Department memo from Bondi said that the change was necessary to safeguard “classified, privileged and other sensitive information” — a far broader set of government secrets than is protected by the criminal code, which focuses primarily on making it illegal to share classified information.
Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
A federal jury ruled against Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice-presidential nominee, in her yearslong defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. The jury reached the verdict after two hours of deliberations. This is the second time that a federal jury has concluded that The Times was not liable for defaming Palin in its editorial. It is unclear whether the verdict will be the end of the lawsuit’s eight-year run or whether Palin’s lawyers will again appeal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/business/media/sarah-palin-new-york-times-jury-deliberations.html
At Trial, Instagram Co-Founder Says Meta Denied His Company Resources
Kevin Systrom, a co-founder of Instagram, testified in a landmark federal antitrust trial that his start-up was starved of resources after Meta bought it because Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, was afraid of the success of the photo-sharing app. Systrom’s more than six hours of testimony was among the most pointed for the government’s case that Meta had purchased Instagram in 2012 as part of a “buy-or-bury strategy” to illegally cement its social media monopoly by killing off its rivals. The Instagram co-founder made millions when Zuckerberg bought his company, but Systrom sharply contradicted Meta’s defense during hours on the stand in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/technology/meta-trial-instagram-kevin-systrom.html?searchResultPosition=1
Judge Blocks Trump Effort to Dismantle Voice of America
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from dismantling Voice of America, a government-funded news organization that the president has accused of being biased against him, and mandated that its journalists be allowed to resume their work. The judge’s carefully worded decision appeared aimed at closing loopholes in previous court rulings that allowed Trump officials to keep the Voice of America newsroom shuttered and its programming on hold.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/politics/judge-trump-voice-of-america.html?searchResultPosition=1
AI Licensing Startups Bloom in Wake of Copyright Legal Battles
A new startup industry says it can feed generative AI’s insatiable need for training data while still offering artists and creators control and compensation for the use of their works. The startup rights collectives are emerging as lawsuits from writers, artists, and news outlets accuse Big Tech players of violating their copyrights by training large language models on their works without permission. Licensing gives tech companies a way to train on data with permission and insulate themselves from copyright liability, especially smaller companies that can’t afford expensive lawsuits, or ones dipping their toes in untested areas of AI copyright law.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/tech-and-telecom-law/ai-licensing-startups-bloom-in-wake-of-copyright-legal-battles
Publisher of PCMag and Mashable Sues OpenAI
Ziff Davis, the digital publisher behind tech sites like Mashable, PCMag and Lifehacker, sued OpenAI, joining a wave of media companies accusing the artificial intelligence giant of stealing its content. In a 62-page complaint filed in federal court in Delaware, Ziff Davis says the tech company has “intentionally and relentlessly reproduced exact copies and created derivatives of Ziff Davis works,” infringing on the publisher’s copyrights and diluting its trademarks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/business/media/ziff-davis-openai-lawsuit.html?searchResultPosition=1
Washington’s Besieged Journalists Raise a Cocktail Glass, Darkly
The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, the annual event celebrating America’s free press went forward, even as the Trump administration chips away at press freedoms.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/business/media/white-house-correspondents-dinner.html
They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed.
The New York Times found three users on X who feuded with Elon Musk in December only to see their reach on the social platform practically vanish overnight. The accounts are the starkest signs yet that Musk or others at the company have the power to punish critics and that they may be willing to use it, startling free speech advocates who hoped that the billionaire would be their champion.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/23/business/elon-musk-x-suppression-laura-loomer.html?searchResultPosition=1
News Is Blocked on Meta’s Feeds in Canada. Here’s What Fills the Void.
As the federal election nears in Canada, hyperpartisan and misleading content from popular right-wing pages such as Canada Proud is thriving on Facebook. While such posts have become familiar in political campaigns everywhere, the content is especially prominent in Canada during its first-in-the-world, long-term news ban on Facebook and Instagram.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/technology/canada-election-facebook-instagram-meta.html
Apple and Meta Are First to Be Hit by E.U. Digital Competition Law
European Union regulators said that Apple and Meta were the first companies to be penalized for violating a new law intended to increase competition in the digital economy, ratcheting up tensions with the Trump administration. Apple was fined €500 million ($570 million) and Meta was fined €200 million ($230 million) for breaking the Digital Markets Act. The European law aims to keep big tech companies from abusing their position as digital gatekeepers that can unilaterally impose requirements on users and businesses.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/technology/apple-meta-eu-fines-competition-law.html?searchResultPosition=1
Mexico’s President Punches Back Against Kristi Noem’s Anti-Migrant Ads
D.H.S. secretary Kristi Noem’s appearances on Mexican television blaming migrants for societal ills in the U.S. have drawn a sharp rebuke from Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum called Noem’s ads “discriminatory” and said that she will ask Mexico’s Congress to approve a measure to ban such ads from ever appearing again in Mexico.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/world/americas/mexico-kristi-noem-sheinbaum-ads.html?searchResultPosition=1
General News
Supreme Court Wrestles With Challenge to Affordable Care Act Over Free Preventive Care
The Supreme Court appeared divided during arguments over the constitutionality of a provision of the Affordable Care act that can require insurance companies to offer some types of preventive care for free. At issue is a part of the 2010 health care law that established a task force that determines certain kinds of preventative health measures that insurance companies are required to cover. Two small Christian businesses that provide health insurance to their employees, along with some Texas residents, had sued the federal government, challenging the constitutionality of the task force. The case could have broader implications for tens of millions of Americans who receive a wide array of free health care services, including cancer and diabetes screenings, medications to reduce heart disease and strokes, and eye ointment for newborns to prevent infections causing blindness.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/supreme-court-preventive-care.html
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case on Age Limits for Carrying Guns
The Supreme Court turned down an opportunity to weigh in on whether the government may restrict 18- to 20-year-olds from buying or carrying guns, a question that has divided the lower courts. The case concerned a Minnesota law that makes it a crime for people under 21 to carry guns in public. Last year, the Eighth Circuit struck down the law, ruling that the Second Amendment required letting those as young as 18 be armed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/supreme-court-guns-age.html
Alito Releases Dissent in Supreme Court Decision Blocking Deportations
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented in the Supreme Court’s decision to block the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members under a rarely invoked 18th century wartime law, calling the Court’s order “hastily and prematurely granted.” In his five-page dissent, Justice Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote that in his view, the Court’s decision to intervene overnight was not “necessary or appropriate.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/politics/alito-supreme-court-dissent-alien-enemies-act.html
Trump Has ‘Begun Process’ of Replacing Pete Hegseth
A United States official told NPR that the White House is searching for a replacement for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. This comes after Hegseth was accused of texting his wife and brother details of a yet-to-happen military strike on Yemen last month and sharing the classified information on Signal using his personal phone.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-has-begun-process-of-replacing-pete-hegseth/ar-AA1DkSKm?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=72949ed3da3a4502b8e8ee0756f29e34&ei=9
Hegseth Set Up Signal on a Computer in His Pentagon Office, Which Created Vulnerabilities
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the consumer messaging app Signal set up on a computer in his office at the Pentagon so that he could send and receive instant messages in a space where personal cellphones are not permitted. His personal number was easily accessible on the internet and public apps as recently as March, potentially exposing national security secrets to foreign adversaries. The phone number could be found in a variety of places, including WhatsApp, Facebook, and a fantasy sports site. It was the same number through which the defense secretary, using the Signal commercial messaging app, disclosed flight data for American strikes on the Houthi militia in Yemen. Cybersecurity analysis said that such an official’s communications devise would usually be among the most protected national security assets.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/us/politics/hegseth-signal-pentagon.html
Inside the Urgent Fight Over the Trump Administration’s New Deportation Effort
On Thursday evening, U.S. immigration officials were handing out notices at a detention facility in Texas, informing migrants that they were considered enemies under the law and would be removed from the country. News of the notices being handed out at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, warning of impending deportations prompted a flurry of legal actions by the A.C.L.U. on Friday in several courts. Early Saturday, the Supreme Court stepped in with unusual speed, ruling that no flights could depart. The lack of clear information from the government about this latest deportation operation raised new questions about whether the Trump administration was trying to sidestep the Supreme Court’s previous decision, which called for any migrant removed under the wartime law to have a chance to challenge their removal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/19/us/politics/trump-deportation-courts-venezuelan-migrants-texas.html?searchResultPosition=1
Trump Challenges Migrants’ Due Process Rights, Undercutting Bedrock Principle
In their rapid, maximalist campaign to apprehend and deport as many migrants as possible as quickly as possible, Trump and top members of his administration have abandoned any pretense of being bound by the constitutional limits that have constrained presidents of both parties in the past on immigration. Instead, they are asserting that when it comes to people who entered the United States illegally, the president has unchecked power to expel them without recourse, and that he has neither the time nor the obligation to do otherwise.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/politics/trump-immigrants-trials-deportation.html?searchResultPosition=1
An Immigrant Held in U.S. Custody ‘Simply Disappeared’
In late January, the U.S. authorities took Ricardo Prada Vásquez into custody when he attempted to re-enter the country. He was put in detention and ordered deported. On March 5, the Trump administration flew three planes carrying Venezuelan migrants from a Texas facility to El Salvador, where they have been ever since, locked up in a maximum-security prison and denied contact with the outside world. However, Prada has not been heard from or seen. He is not on a list of 238 people who were deported to El Salvador that day. Prada’s disappearance has created concerns that more immigrants have been deported to El Salvador than previously known. It also raises the question of whether some deportees may have been sent to other countries with no record of it. U.S. authorities confirmed that he was removed from the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/venezuela-immigrant-disappear-deport-ice.html
Lawyers Seek Return of Migrants Deported Under Wartime Act
An updated lawsuit filed by the A.C.L.U. in Washington was the latest in a flurry of suits challenging the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to send migrants to a prison in
El Salvador. In this suit, the A.C.L.U. is asking a federal judge in Washington not to stop the men from being sent to El Salvador, but rather to help them return to U.S. soil.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/lawyers-seek-migrant-return.html
19 States Sue the Trump Administration Over Its D.E.I. Demand in Schools
A coalition of 19 states sued the Trump administration over its threat to withhold federal funding from states and districts with certain diversity programs in their public schools. The lawsuit was filed in federal court by the attorneys general in Democratic-leaning states, who argue that the Trump administration’s demand is illegal. The lawsuit centers on an April 3 memo the Trump administration sent to states, requiring them to certify that they do not use certain diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that the administration has said are illegal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/trump-dei-schools-lawsuit.html
Courts Block Trump From Withholding School Funds Over D.E.I., for Now
Three federal judges issued separate rulings pausing Trumps’ ability to withhold funds from schools with diversity and equity initiatives. The rulings block the administration, at least for now, from carrying out efforts to cut off billions of dollars that pay for teachers, counselors, and academic programs in schools that serve low-income children.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/us/trump-public-school-funds-dei.html
Trump’s Tariffs Prompt Wave of Lawsuits as States and Businesses Fight Back
Nearly four weeks into a costly global trade war with no end in sight, Trump is facing a barrage of lawsuits from state officials, small businesses, and even once-allied political groups, all contending that the president cannot sidestep Congress and tax virtually any import at levels to his liking. The lawsuits carry great significance, not just because the tariffs have roiled financial markets and threatened to plunge the United States into a recession. The legal challenges also stand to test Trump’s claims of expansive presidential power, while illustrating the difficult calculation that his opponents face in deciding whether to fight back and risk retribution.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/us/politics/trump-tariffs-lawsuits.html
On Major Economic Decisions, Trump Blinks, and Then Blinks Again
Trump has said his punishing tariffs would force companies to build factories in the United States, but it is far from clear that they will have the effects he predicted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/politics/trump-tariffs-economy.html?searchResultPosition=1
Judge Rules Against Trump Administration on Passport Changes
A federal judge in Boston ordered the Trump administration to issue passports that reflect the self-identified gender of six transgender people rather than requiring that the passports display the sex on the applicants’ original birth certificates. The order from Judge Julia E. Kobick was a victory for the six plaintiffs who she said were likely to prevail on their claim that a new policy by the Trump administration amounts to a form of unconstitutional sex discrimination under the Fifth Amendment, as well as the Administrative Procedures Act. The State Department adopted the new policy earlier this year to comply with an executive order directing all government agencies to limit official recognition of transgender identity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/us/trump-passport-changes-transgender.html
Businesses Plead for Tariff Breaks After Trump Spares iPhones
Top lobbying groups for the agriculture, construction, manufacturing, retail, and technology industries have pleaded with the White House in recent days to relax more of its tariffs, with many arguing that there are some products they must import simply because they are too expensive or impractical to produce in the United States. Executives from retailers including Home Depot, Target, and Walmart became the latest to raise their concerns directly with Trump, as the industry continues to brace for the possibility that steep taxes on imports could result in price increases for millions of American consumers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/politics/trump-tariffs-relief-apple.html
Judges Appear Receptive to Blocking Trump’s Orders Targeting Big Law Firms
Two federal judges appeared sympathetic to arguments from elite law firms asking for definitive relief from Trump’s executive orders targeting them. Lawyers for Perkins Coie and WilmerHale have asked the courts to permanently block the Trump administration from carrying out the orders, arguing that the measures are so blatantly unconstitutional that no trial is necessary. The orders, they stressed, pose a critical threat to their businesses and the legal profession writ large. The judges presiding over their cases said they would take some time to reach a final decision. However, both appeared receptive to the firms’ position that Trump was retaliating against them for speech he does not like.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/politics/big-law-firms-trump.html
Judge Blocks Trump From Defunding 16 Sanctuary Cities: ‘Here We Are Again’
A federal judge temporarily blocked the government from enforcing part of one of Trump’s executive orders that directs agencies to withhold funds from cities and counties that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. In a brief order, the judge, William H. Orrick of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, found himself retreading old ground, intervening to stop a tactic he described as nearly identical to one Trump tried early in his first term. As he did eight years ago, Judge Orrick prohibited the government from “taking any action to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funds” based on the president’s order or a related memo Attorney General Bondi sent on Feb. 5 to outline ways that agencies could suspend federal payments.
Twelve States Sue Trump Over His Tariffs
A dozen states, most of them led by Democrats, sued Trump over his tariffs, arguing that he has no power to “arbitrarily impose tariffs as he has done here.” Contending that only Congress has the power to legislate tariffs, the states are asking the court to block the Trump administration from enforcing what they said were unlawful tariffs. The lawsuit said the president’s tariffs have hurt their states’ economies and residents.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/politics/states-tariff-trump-lawsuit.html
Government Watchdog Drops Inquiries Into Mass Firings of Probationary Workers
The independent government agency charged with protecting federal workers’ rights will drop its inquiry into the more than 2,000 complaints that the Trump administration had improperly fired probationary employees. The agency, the Office of Special Counsel, told affected employees that it had concluded that it could not pursue the claims of unlawful termination in part because they were fired not for individual cause, but en masse as part of Trump’s “governmentwide effort to reduce the federal service.” The decision effectively eliminates one of the few avenues government employees had to challenge their terminations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/probationary-workers-firings-trump-osc.html?searchResultPosition=1
Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting College Accreditors
Trump signed an executive order targeting college accreditors, a group of largely unknown but long-established companies that evaluate the educational quality and financial health of universities. The order was the latest move by Trump aimed at shifting the ideological tilt of the higher education system, which he views as hostile to conservatives.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/politics/trump-executive-order-university-accreditors.html
Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over Threats to Cut Funding and Plans to Use Trump’s Haste Against Him as It Fights Funding Cut
Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, sued the Trump administration, fighting back against its threats to slash billions of dollars from the school’s research funding as part of a crusade against the nation’s top colleges. The lawsuit signaled a major escalation of the ongoing fight between higher education and Trump, the latter of whom has vowed to “reclaim” elite universities. The administration has cast its campaign as a fight against antisemitism, but has also targeted programs and teaching related to racial diversity and gender issues. Harvard is wagering that White House’s strategy of speed and shock value could be used against it. The 51-page lawsuit the university filed, intended to fight the administration’s freeze of billions in federal funding, hinges largely on the Administrative Procedures Act that provides specific timelines for federal agencies to draft rules and impose penalties.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/trump-harvard-legal-case.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/harvard-lawsuit-trump-administration.html
Lawsuit Aims to Reverse Firings at Internal Oversight Offices Within D.H.S.
An assortment of advocacy groups filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping the Department of Homeland Security from permanently shuttering its internal oversight divisions after the Trump administration fired critical staff members, grinding operations to a halt. The lawsuit seeks to preserve some of the main guardrails within the agency, all created by Congress, that help uncover and prevent human rights abuses by its officers. It asked the court to restore the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to the status quo before Trump began to cut away at oversight and accountability functions throughout the federal government.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/us/politics/lawsuit-firings-oversight-dhs.html
U.S. Restores Legal Status for Many International Students, but Warns of Removals to Come
The Trump administration abruptly moved to restore thousands of international students’ ability to study in the United States legally, but immigration officials insisted they could still try to terminate that legal status despite a wave of legal challenges. The decision, revealed during a court hearing in Washington, was a dramatic shift by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even as the administration characterized it as only a temporary reprieve.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/trump-student-visa-cancellations.html?searchResultPosition=1
What Elon Musk Didn’t Budget For: Firing Workers Costs Money, Too
The errors and obfuscations underlying DOGE’s claims of savings are well documented. Less known are the costs Elon Musk incurred by taking what Trump called a “hatchet” to government and the resulting firings, agency lockouts and building seizures that mostly wound up in court. The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that studies the federal work force, has used budget figures to produce a rough estimate that firings, re-hirings, lost productivity and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost upward of $135 billion this fiscal year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/us/politics/musk-cuts.html
National Science Foundation Terminates Hundreds of Active Research Awards
The National Science Foundation has canceled more than 400 active awards. The decision comes after months of scrutiny of the agency, including a report released by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, last October and, in February, an internal review of awards containing words related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or D.E.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/science/trump-national-science-foundation-grants.html?searchResultPosition=1
Trump Takes a Major Step Toward Seabed Mining in International Waters
Trump has ordered the U.S. government to take a major step toward mining vast tracts of the ocean floor, a move that is opposed by nearly all other nations, which consider international waters off limits to this kind of industrial activity. The executive order would circumvent a decades-old treaty that every major coastal nation except the United States has ratified. It is the latest example of the Trump administration’s willingness to disregard international institutions and is likely to provoke an outcry from America’s rivals and allies alike.
Durbin, No. 2 Senate Democrat, to Retire After 44 Years in Congress
Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat for two decades and a leading liberal voice on Capitol Hill, announced that he would not seek re-election next year, closing out a 44-year congressional career focused on immigration, the federal justice system and anti-smoking initiatives. The decision by Durbin, 80, was widely expected and will immediately touch off a crowded competition for a rare Senate vacancy in his solidly blue state. It also intensifies a generational shift in the chamber as he becomes the fifth sitting senator to announce a retirement, all of them over the age of 65.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/politics/dick-durbin-retires-senate.html
Lawyer for New York Attorney General Blasts Trump for ‘Retribution’
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, sent a lengthy letter to the Justice Department, attacking Trump for “improper political retribution” as the government scrutinizes her real estate transactions. Lowell was responding to a criminal referral letter sent to the Justice Department last week by Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and said that Pulte’s allegation lacked “any credible foundation.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/nyregion/ny-attorney-general-letter-justice-department.html
U.S. Sidelines Lawyers Who Doubted Their Own Case on Congestion Pricing
The U.S. Department of Transportation said it took the extraordinary step of replacing the federal lawyers defending it in a lawsuit over New York City’s congestion pricing program, after accusing them of undermining the department’s bid to end the toll. The move came after the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District, which had been handling the case, said it mistakenly filed in federal court in Manhattan a confidential memo that questioned the department’s legal strategy and urged a new approach.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/nyregion/nyc-congestion-pricing-duffy-lawyers.html
George Santos’s Closing Act: A Prison Sentence of More Than 7 Years
George Santos, the former Republican congressman from New York whose outlandish fabrications and criminal schemes fueled an unforeseen rise and spectacular fall, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison. His 87-month sentence was a severe corrective to a turbulent period in which Santos was catapulted from anonymity to political and pop cultural infamy, a national spotlight that, even when negative, he often relished more than rejected.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/nyregion/george-santos-sentencing-prison.html
Wisconsin Judge Arrested, Accused of Shielding Immigrant From Federal Agents
F.B.I. agents arrested Judge Hannah Dugan on charges of obstructing immigration agents, saying she steered an undocumented immigrant through a side door in her courtroom while the agents waited to arrest him in a public hallway. The arrest of the judge comes after months of rising tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/fbi-arrest-judge.html
Kristi Noem’s Bag, With Security Badge and $3,000, Is Stolen
A handbag belonging to the homeland security secretary Kristi Noem containing her passport, department security badge and $3,000 in cash was stolen at a restaurant in Washington. Noem’s bag also contained her driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, and blank checks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/kristi-noem-purse-stolen.html
Musk Vows to Spend Less Time in Washington as Tesla’s Profit Drops 71%
Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said that he would spend less time in Washington working for Trump after the automaker reported a profit drop of 71% in the first three months of the year. Musk told Wall Street analysts in a conference call that he would continue to spend “a day or two per week” on Washington matters, probably for the duration of Trump’s presidency.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/business/tesla-earnings-elon-musk.html
Pope’s Will Says He Wants to Be Buried in a Simple Tomb in Rome
Pope Francis said in his will that he wanted to be laid to rest at the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, where seven other popes are buried, in a simple, undecorated tomb with only the inscription “Franciscus,” according to the Vatican. In his will, Francis specified that “the tomb must be in the earth; simple, without particular decoration.” He asked that the tomb be placed in the aisle next to the Pauline Chapel, where an important Marian icon, the Salus Populi Romani, is located. Francis said that in being buried there, he wanted to thank the Virgin “for her docile and maternal care.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/world/europe/pope-francis-will-released.html
ICE Can’t Enter Rikers for Now, Judge Rules
A state judge temporarily blocked Mayor Eric Adams from allowing the federal government to open offices at the Rikers Island jail complex, delaying the mayor’s efforts to help Trump with his immigration crackdown. The judge’s temporary restraining order came after the City Council sued the mayor last week in an attempt to stop an executive order that the Adams administration issued to allow federal immigration authorities into Rikers for the first time in more than a decade.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/eric-adams-ice-rikers.html
Nadine Menendez Is Found Guilty of Taking Bribes and Obstructing Justice
Nadine Menendez was convicted of participating in a complex bribery conspiracy with her husband, Robert Menendez, a former senator from New Jersey, who last year was also found guilty of trading his political influence for gold, cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. A Manhattan jury deliberated for roughly seven hours over two days before finding Menendez guilty of playing a central role in the yearslong bribery scheme and then trying to hide it after learning that she was a focus of a federal investigation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/nadine-bob-menendez-wife-guilty-bribery-trial.html
Mahmoud Khalil’s Wife Gives Birth as ICE Bars Him From Being There
The Department of Homeland Security denied Mahmoud Khalil permission to attend the birth of his first child, who was delivered at a New York hospital. Instead, Khalil experienced the birth by telephone from Jena, Louisiana, more than 1,000 miles from the hospital where his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, gave birth to a son. It is unclear when he will be able to see the baby.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/mahmoud-khalil-denied-baby-birth.html
Three Adams Case Prosecutors Resign Rather Than Express Regret to Justice Dept.
Three Manhattan federal prosecutors who worked on the corruption case against Mayor Adams of New York City said that they would resign rather than admit wrongdoing by their office after it refused to abandon the case. In the email, the prosecutor said that Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, had placed a condition on reinstating them: “that we must express regret and admit some wrongdoing by the office” in connection with the refusal to move to dismiss the case.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/nyregion/eric-adams-prosecutors-resign.html