Washington
Judge seems skeptical of legal justification for Pentagon’s punishment of Sen. Mark Kelly
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday that he knows of no U.S. Supreme Court precedent to justify the Pentagon’s censuring of a sitting U.S. senator who joined a videotaped plea for troops to resist unlawful orders from the Trump administration.
Sen. Mark Kelly had a front-row seat in a courtroom as his attorneys urged U.S. District Judge Richard Leon to block the Pentagon from punishing the Arizona Democrat, a retired U.S. Navy pilot. Leon didn’t immediately rule from the bench on Kelly’s claims that Pentagon officials violated his First Amendment free speech rights.
But the judge appeared to be skeptical of key arguments that a government attorney made in defense of Kelly’s Jan. 5 censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“You’re asking me to do something the Supreme Court has never done,” the judge told Justice Department attorney John Bailey. “Isn’t that a bit of a stretch?”
Bailey argued that Congress decided that retired military service members are subject to the same Uniform Code of Military Justice that applies to active-duty troops.
“Retirees are part of the armed forces,” Bailey said. “They are not separated from the services.”
Benjamin Mizer, one of Kelly’s lawyers, said they aren’t aware of any ruling to support the notion that military retirees have “diminished speech rights.” And he argued that the First Amendment clearly protects Kelly’s speech in this case.
Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said the Pentagon’s actions against Kelly could have a chilling effect on “many, many other retirees who wish to voice their opinion.”
The judge said he hopes to issue a ruling by next Wednesday. Kelly shook hands with two government attorneys after the hearing.
In November, Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers appeared on a video in which they urged troops to uphold the Constitution and not to follow unlawful military directives from the Trump administration.
Republican President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post days later. Hegseth said Kelly’s censure was “a necessary process step” to proceedings that could result in a demotion from the senator’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay.
The 90-second video was first posted on a social media account belonging to Sen. Elissa Slotkin. Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan also appeared in the video. All of the participants are veterans of the armed services or intelligence communities.
The Pentagon began investigating Kelly in late November, citing a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court-martial or other punishment.
Hegseth has said Kelly was the only one of the six lawmakers to be investigated because he is the only one who formally retired from the military and still falls under the Pentagon’s jurisdiction.
Delaware
Jill Biden’s first husband charged with killing wife in domestic dispute at their home
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The first husband of former first lady Jill Biden has been charged with killing his wife at their Delaware home in late December, authorities announced in a news release Tuesday.
William Stevenson, 77, of Wilmington was married to Jill Biden from 1970 to 1975.
Caroline Harrison, the Delaware Attorney General’s spokesperson, confirmed in a phone call that Stevenson is the former husband of Jill Biden.
Jill Biden declined to comment, according to an emailed response from a spokesperson at the former president and first lady’s office.
Stevenson remains in jail after failing to post $500,000 bail after his arrest Monday on first-degree murder charges. He is charged with killing Linda Stevenson, 64, on Dec. 28.
Police were called to the home for a reported domestic dispute after 11 p.m. and found a woman unresponsive in the living room, according to a prior news release. Life-saving measures were unsuccessful.
She ran a bookkeeping business and was described as a family-oriented mother and grandmother and a Philadelphia Eagles fan, according to her obituary, which does not mention her husband.
Stevenson was charged in a grand jury indictment after a weekslong investigation by detectives in the Delaware Department of Justice.
It was not immediately clear if Stevenson has a lawyer. He founded a popular music venue in Newark called the Stone Balloon in the early 1970s.
In an interview with the conservative news outlet Newsmax in 2024, Stevenson criticized Jill Biden and he described their divorce as contentious, calling her “bitter” and “nasty.”
Jill Biden married U.S. Sen. Joe Biden in 1977. He served as U.S. president from January 2021 to January 2025.
Florida
GOP effort to add House seats in state through census lawsuit hits a snag
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Republican groups seeking to add U.S. House seats in Florida by challenging the 2020 census suffered a major setback Tuesday as a federal court ruled the lawsuit was filed too late.
The suit alleges that the statistical methods used to calculate the census undercounted the state’s population, costing the state two seats in Congress. The legal challenge comes as President Donald Trump has been pressuring Republican-led state legislatures to redraw their congressional districts to benefit the GOP ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in Tampa threw out the suit but did give the plaintiffs a chance to amend and refile. The judges said the plaintiffs should have mounted their legal challenge within four years from the time the statistical methods were used.
The suit was filed in September 2025. The Census Bureau released its state-by-state population counts in April 2021.
An email to Robert Quincy Bird, an attorney for plaintiffs Pinellas County Young Republicans and University of South Florida College Republicans, was not immediately returned. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Trump-backed Republican who’s running for governor, was also a plaintiff in the suit.
The 2020 census numbers have come under attack from Republicans, as revised census numbers from a successful lawsuit could be used in redistricting efforts.
Although the 2020 census numbers were released during the first months of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, the execution and final planning for the head count, including the decision to use the statistical methods, took place during Trump’s first term.
New York
States sue Trump administration over $16B funding freeze for Hudson River tunnels
NEW YORK (AP) — New York and New Jersey sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for freezing $16 billion in federal funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between the two states, seeking a quick ruling because construction that has been underway could be forced to shut down as early as Friday.
The administration put a hold on the funding in September, citing the government shutdown. The White House budget director, Russ Vought, said on the social platform X at the time that officials believed the spending was based on unconstitutional diversity, equity and inclusion principles, and the U.S. Department of Transportation said it was reviewing any “unconstitutional practices.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan by New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, asks a judge to declare the funding suspension unlawful and order payments to resume immediately so construction can continue without interruption.
The White House and U.S. Transportation Department did not immediately return emails seeking comment Tuesday night.
A similar lawsuit over the tunnel funding was filed Monday against the federal government by the Gateway Development Commission, a local panel overseeing the project.
The construction project calls for building a new rail tunnel under the river to carry Amtrak and area transit trains between New Jersey and New York City, as well as repairing an existing, 116-year-old rail tunnel that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Work began in 2023. The project is funded by the 2021 federal infrastructure law signed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
New York
Judge: Deal reached to protect identities of Epstein victims
NEW YORK (AP) — A deal was reached between lawyers for victims of Jeffrey Epstein and the Justice Department to protect the identities of nearly 100 women whose lives were allegedly harmed after the government began releasing millions of documents last week, a lawyer told a federal judge on Tuesday.
Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan cancelled a hearing scheduled for Wednesday after he was notified by Florida attorney Brittany Henderson that “extensive and constructive discussions” with the government had resulted in an agreement.
Henderson and attorney Brad Edwards had complained to Berman in a letter Sunday that “immediate judicial intervention” was needed after there were thousands of instances when the government had failed to redact names and other personally identifying information of women sexually abused by Epstein.
Among eight women whose comments were included in the lawyers’ Sunday letter, one said the records’ release was “life threatening” while another said she’d gotten death threats and she was forced to shut down her credit cards and banking accounts after their security was jeopardized.
The lawyers had requested that the Justice Department website be temporarily shut down and that an independent monitor be appointed to ensure no further errors occurred.
Henderson did not say what government lawyers said to ensure identities would be protected going forward or what the agreement consisted of.
“We trust that the deficiencies will be corrected expeditiously and in a manner that protects victims from further harm,” she wrote to the judge.
The judge wrote in an order cancelling the Wednesday public hearing that he was “pleased but not surprised that the parties were able to resolve the privacy issues.”
On Monday, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in Manhattan wrote in a letter filed in Manhattan federal court that errors blamed on “technical or human error” occurred on redactions during the document release.
He said the Justice Department had improved its protocols to protect victims and had taken down nearly all materials identified by victims or their lawyers, along with many more that the government had found on its own.
Mistakes in the largest release of Epstein documents yet included nude photos showing the faces of potential victims as well as names, email addresses and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured.
Most of the materials that were released stemmed from sex trafficking probes of Epstein and his former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in December 2021 at a New York trial.
Epstein took his life in a federal jail in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Judge seems skeptical of legal justification for Pentagon’s punishment of Sen. Mark Kelly
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday that he knows of no U.S. Supreme Court precedent to justify the Pentagon’s censuring of a sitting U.S. senator who joined a videotaped plea for troops to resist unlawful orders from the Trump administration.
Sen. Mark Kelly had a front-row seat in a courtroom as his attorneys urged U.S. District Judge Richard Leon to block the Pentagon from punishing the Arizona Democrat, a retired U.S. Navy pilot. Leon didn’t immediately rule from the bench on Kelly’s claims that Pentagon officials violated his First Amendment free speech rights.
But the judge appeared to be skeptical of key arguments that a government attorney made in defense of Kelly’s Jan. 5 censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“You’re asking me to do something the Supreme Court has never done,” the judge told Justice Department attorney John Bailey. “Isn’t that a bit of a stretch?”
Bailey argued that Congress decided that retired military service members are subject to the same Uniform Code of Military Justice that applies to active-duty troops.
“Retirees are part of the armed forces,” Bailey said. “They are not separated from the services.”
Benjamin Mizer, one of Kelly’s lawyers, said they aren’t aware of any ruling to support the notion that military retirees have “diminished speech rights.” And he argued that the First Amendment clearly protects Kelly’s speech in this case.
Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said the Pentagon’s actions against Kelly could have a chilling effect on “many, many other retirees who wish to voice their opinion.”
The judge said he hopes to issue a ruling by next Wednesday. Kelly shook hands with two government attorneys after the hearing.
In November, Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers appeared on a video in which they urged troops to uphold the Constitution and not to follow unlawful military directives from the Trump administration.
Republican President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post days later. Hegseth said Kelly’s censure was “a necessary process step” to proceedings that could result in a demotion from the senator’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay.
The 90-second video was first posted on a social media account belonging to Sen. Elissa Slotkin. Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan also appeared in the video. All of the participants are veterans of the armed services or intelligence communities.
The Pentagon began investigating Kelly in late November, citing a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court-martial or other punishment.
Hegseth has said Kelly was the only one of the six lawmakers to be investigated because he is the only one who formally retired from the military and still falls under the Pentagon’s jurisdiction.
Delaware
Jill Biden’s first husband charged with killing wife in domestic dispute at their home
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The first husband of former first lady Jill Biden has been charged with killing his wife at their Delaware home in late December, authorities announced in a news release Tuesday.
William Stevenson, 77, of Wilmington was married to Jill Biden from 1970 to 1975.
Caroline Harrison, the Delaware Attorney General’s spokesperson, confirmed in a phone call that Stevenson is the former husband of Jill Biden.
Jill Biden declined to comment, according to an emailed response from a spokesperson at the former president and first lady’s office.
Stevenson remains in jail after failing to post $500,000 bail after his arrest Monday on first-degree murder charges. He is charged with killing Linda Stevenson, 64, on Dec. 28.
Police were called to the home for a reported domestic dispute after 11 p.m. and found a woman unresponsive in the living room, according to a prior news release. Life-saving measures were unsuccessful.
She ran a bookkeeping business and was described as a family-oriented mother and grandmother and a Philadelphia Eagles fan, according to her obituary, which does not mention her husband.
Stevenson was charged in a grand jury indictment after a weekslong investigation by detectives in the Delaware Department of Justice.
It was not immediately clear if Stevenson has a lawyer. He founded a popular music venue in Newark called the Stone Balloon in the early 1970s.
In an interview with the conservative news outlet Newsmax in 2024, Stevenson criticized Jill Biden and he described their divorce as contentious, calling her “bitter” and “nasty.”
Jill Biden married U.S. Sen. Joe Biden in 1977. He served as U.S. president from January 2021 to January 2025.
Florida
GOP effort to add House seats in state through census lawsuit hits a snag
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Republican groups seeking to add U.S. House seats in Florida by challenging the 2020 census suffered a major setback Tuesday as a federal court ruled the lawsuit was filed too late.
The suit alleges that the statistical methods used to calculate the census undercounted the state’s population, costing the state two seats in Congress. The legal challenge comes as President Donald Trump has been pressuring Republican-led state legislatures to redraw their congressional districts to benefit the GOP ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in Tampa threw out the suit but did give the plaintiffs a chance to amend and refile. The judges said the plaintiffs should have mounted their legal challenge within four years from the time the statistical methods were used.
The suit was filed in September 2025. The Census Bureau released its state-by-state population counts in April 2021.
An email to Robert Quincy Bird, an attorney for plaintiffs Pinellas County Young Republicans and University of South Florida College Republicans, was not immediately returned. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Trump-backed Republican who’s running for governor, was also a plaintiff in the suit.
The 2020 census numbers have come under attack from Republicans, as revised census numbers from a successful lawsuit could be used in redistricting efforts.
Although the 2020 census numbers were released during the first months of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, the execution and final planning for the head count, including the decision to use the statistical methods, took place during Trump’s first term.
New York
States sue Trump administration over $16B funding freeze for Hudson River tunnels
NEW YORK (AP) — New York and New Jersey sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for freezing $16 billion in federal funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between the two states, seeking a quick ruling because construction that has been underway could be forced to shut down as early as Friday.
The administration put a hold on the funding in September, citing the government shutdown. The White House budget director, Russ Vought, said on the social platform X at the time that officials believed the spending was based on unconstitutional diversity, equity and inclusion principles, and the U.S. Department of Transportation said it was reviewing any “unconstitutional practices.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan by New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, asks a judge to declare the funding suspension unlawful and order payments to resume immediately so construction can continue without interruption.
The White House and U.S. Transportation Department did not immediately return emails seeking comment Tuesday night.
A similar lawsuit over the tunnel funding was filed Monday against the federal government by the Gateway Development Commission, a local panel overseeing the project.
The construction project calls for building a new rail tunnel under the river to carry Amtrak and area transit trains between New Jersey and New York City, as well as repairing an existing, 116-year-old rail tunnel that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Work began in 2023. The project is funded by the 2021 federal infrastructure law signed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
New York
Judge: Deal reached to protect identities of Epstein victims
NEW YORK (AP) — A deal was reached between lawyers for victims of Jeffrey Epstein and the Justice Department to protect the identities of nearly 100 women whose lives were allegedly harmed after the government began releasing millions of documents last week, a lawyer told a federal judge on Tuesday.
Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan cancelled a hearing scheduled for Wednesday after he was notified by Florida attorney Brittany Henderson that “extensive and constructive discussions” with the government had resulted in an agreement.
Henderson and attorney Brad Edwards had complained to Berman in a letter Sunday that “immediate judicial intervention” was needed after there were thousands of instances when the government had failed to redact names and other personally identifying information of women sexually abused by Epstein.
Among eight women whose comments were included in the lawyers’ Sunday letter, one said the records’ release was “life threatening” while another said she’d gotten death threats and she was forced to shut down her credit cards and banking accounts after their security was jeopardized.
The lawyers had requested that the Justice Department website be temporarily shut down and that an independent monitor be appointed to ensure no further errors occurred.
Henderson did not say what government lawyers said to ensure identities would be protected going forward or what the agreement consisted of.
“We trust that the deficiencies will be corrected expeditiously and in a manner that protects victims from further harm,” she wrote to the judge.
The judge wrote in an order cancelling the Wednesday public hearing that he was “pleased but not surprised that the parties were able to resolve the privacy issues.”
On Monday, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in Manhattan wrote in a letter filed in Manhattan federal court that errors blamed on “technical or human error” occurred on redactions during the document release.
He said the Justice Department had improved its protocols to protect victims and had taken down nearly all materials identified by victims or their lawyers, along with many more that the government had found on its own.
Mistakes in the largest release of Epstein documents yet included nude photos showing the faces of potential victims as well as names, email addresses and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured.
Most of the materials that were released stemmed from sex trafficking probes of Epstein and his former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in December 2021 at a New York trial.
Epstein took his life in a federal jail in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
