Guns, voting and immigration on deck for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court begins its new term Monday facing cases on Americans’ civil rights, federalist struggles between states and the federal government, and the looming specter of more last-second litigation over the coming midterm elections.

The court, currently controlled by six conservative appointees, has stocked its docket with fights over climate change, voting rights, gun rights and the power of the government over immigrants. It follows a term where the court addressed even more explosive issues like LGBTQ rights, race in redistricting and President Donald Trump’s attempt to redefine birthright citizenship.

While it may look like fewer blockbuster cases this time around, experts like Brianne Gorod of the Constitutional Accountability Center say they are still on the way. “Just because there’s an absence of cases involving Trump administration policies, that doesn’t mean they are not coming,” Gorod said.

A number of cases working their way through the courts could potentially come up this term, including on the Trump administration’s push to unilaterally cancel spending mandated by Congress, as well as disputes over his latest efforts to enact worldwide tariffs.

—CQ-Roll Call

Michigan Senate race: Jewish Democrats anguish over El-Sayed vs. Rogers

DETROIT — Another round of prominent Jewish Democrats in Michigan has signed onto a petition drive urging U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to change his positions and rhetoric on Israel in order to earn their support in his race against Republican Mike Rogers.

The new signers to the effort include Mark Bernstein, a prominent personal injury attorney, two-term regent at the University of Michigan and a lifelong Democrat who said he's "tragically undecided" in the Senate race; state Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield; and nine members of the board of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus that Arbit founded.

Their three-week-old Nonnegotiable Michigan campaign asked El-Sayed to commit to five "non-negotiables," including condemning threats to Jewish safety from antisemitism, support for "Jewish sovereignty in Israel,” a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, and welcoming “full participation in American political life” for Jewish Americans, including Zionists.

The petition drive is a project of the Zioness Action Fund, a coalition of progressive Zionist activists started in 2024. El-Sayed, a former public health official from Ann Arbor, has said he doesn't believe in ethno-states. He is a longtime critic of Israel's government and of U.S. aid for the country, labeling it a rogue state that's committing genocide against Palestinians.

—The Detroit News

Virginia Beach schools violated Title IX for years, feds find. It may be more complicated

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A review by the federal Department of Education found the public school system of Virginia Beach had violated federal Title IX law for years, asserting that school officials failed to “adequately investigate and record reports of sexual misconduct against students.”

The federal agency’s Office of Civil Rights and the Virginia Beach school system reached an agreement last month that resolved the review, which concerned issues reported between 2017 and ’20.

The agency concluded Virginia Beach schools had, among other things, not adequately ensured “that it responds to all reports or complaints of alleged sexual harassment, including employee-on-student sexual harassment, in a manner consistent with Title IX, including ensuring that it fully investigates allegations, regardless of whether an employee/respondent resigns,” the documents read.

In a letter outlining the office’s findings, Dan Greenspahn, regional director for the federal office, wrote that there had been 697 reported incidents of student-on-student and employee-on-student sexual misconduct during those school years. The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press obtained the letter and agreement through the Freedom of Information Act.

—The Virginian-Pilot

Russia’s spending plans show Putin preparing for years of war

Russia is preparing for the war in Ukraine to continue for years by planning record war spending, abandoning plans to rein in military outlays.

The shift offers one of the clearest indications yet of how deeply embedded conflict has become in Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s priorities, even as strain on the economy and public finances mounts. It’s also likely to ratchet up pressure on Europe, as he seeks to deter the continent’s continued support of Ukraine.

Projected military expenditures next year of 17.1 trillion rubles ($205 billion) would amount to an annual increase of more than 40% compared to this year’s planned defense outlays — actual totals remain classified — and a nearly 380% rise from the year before the war began. Officials foresee it easing only slightly to 16.6 trillion rubles in 2028 and 16.3 trillion rubles in 2029.

The trajectory is a sharp reversal from a year ago, when Moscow was planning to moderate growth in military expenditures as it sought to narrow the budget deficit and rebuild reserves depleted during the war. Instead, the new budget lands at a time when U.S.-brokered negotiations are largely stalled, European officials are increasingly warning of hybrid attacks directed from Moscow and Russia is continuing to hammer Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

—Bloomberg News