Washington
Trump administration sues Harvard, saying it violated civil rights law and seeking to recover funds
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit Friday against Harvard University, saying its leadership failed to address antisemitism on campus, creating grounds for the government to freeze existing grants and seek repayment for grants already paid.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, is another missive in a protracted battle between the administration of President Donald Trump and the elite university.
“The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures and brings this action to compel Harvard to comply” with federal civil rights law, the Justice Department wrote in the lawsuit, “and to recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a previous lawsuit, a federal judge ruled the government was using allegations of antisemitism as a “smokescreen” to cut funding from the university.
Since he took office, Trump has targeted elite universities he believes are overrun by left-wing ideology and antisemitism, freezing billions in research grants.
Washington
Supreme Court revives lawsuit challenging restrictions on demonstrations
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday revived a lawsuit from an evangelical Christian barred from demonstrating in Mississippi after authorities say he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker.
The high court unanimously ruled in the case of Gabriel Olivier, who says his religious and free speech rights were violated when he was arrested for refusing to move his preaching away from a suburban amphitheater. The city said he had shouted insults like “whores,” “Jezebel,” and “nasty” at people, sometimes holding signs showing aborted fetuses.
Olivier wanted to challenge the law as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech, but lower courts stopped him from suing because he’d been convicted of breaking it. A Supreme Court case from the 1990s found people can’t use civil lawsuits to undermine criminal convictions.
But Olivier’s lawyers said he only wanted to block future enforcement of the measure. They said he was demonstrating peacefully when he was arrested for refusing to move to a designated “protest zone.” The legal principle, they argued, affects free-speech cases across the political spectrum.
The decision clears a path for him to file a civil-rights lawsuit, though it doesn’t guarantee an eventual win. Local governments have said that a ruling for Olivier could have wide repercussions by allowing a rush of new lawsuits against cities and towns.
The city of Brandon has said the restrictions weren’t about religion, and he had plenty of other legal avenues to challenge the law. The ordinance restricting Olivier to a designated “protest zone” has already survived another lawsuit, city attorneys said.
Oregon
Judge rules U.S. overreached with transgender health care declaration
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon.
Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t go through the proper administrative procedures in December when issuing the declaration, which warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide these treatments.
The ruling grants preliminary relief to health professionals who provide the treatments. The judge also denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case.
“Today’s win breaks through the noise and gives some needed clarity to patients, families, and providers,” Letitia James, the Democratic New York attorney general who led the lawsuit, said in a statement Thursday. “Health care services for transgender young people remain legal, and the federal government cannot intimidate or punish the providers who offer them.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
The New York Times reported that the judge spoke about the broader implications associated with this case, especially as it relates to democracy.
“The notion that ‘I will go forward and issue a declaration and see if we can get away with it’ is not a principle of governance that adheres to the overarching commitment to a democratic republic that requires the rule of law to be regarded and respected and honored as a sacred,” the judge said.
The decision is the second major legal setback for Kennedy and HHS this week. Another federal judge in Boston on Monday temporarily blocked several of Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes. The judge ruled Kennedy likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee and slimming down the childhood vaccine schedule without the committee’s input. Federal officials have indicated they plan to appeal that ruling.
A coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia had sued HHS, Kennedy and its inspector general over the declaration, alleging that it is inaccurate and unlawful and asking the court to block its enforcement.
The lawsuit says that HHS’s declaration seeks to coerce providers to stop providing gender-affirming care and circumvent legal requirements for policy changes. It also says federal law requires the public to be given notice and an opportunity to comment before substantively changing health policy — neither of which, the suit says, was done before the declaration was issued.
HHS’s declaration based its conclusions on a peer-reviewed report that the department conducted earlier this year that urged greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming care for youths with gender dysphoria.
The report questioned standards for the treatment of transgender youth issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and raised concerns that adolescents may be too young to give consent to life-changing treatments that could result in future infertility.
Major medical groups and those who treat transgender young people have sharply criticized the report as inaccurate, and most major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, continue to oppose restrictions on transgender care and services for young people.
The judge’s ruling was at the end of a roughly 6-hour hearing and will be followed by a written decision.
Michigan
West Bloomfield man arraigned in shooting at gym
Joseph Maroof, an 18-year-old West Bloomfield man, was arraigned on charges related to an alleged shooting outside of Edge Fitness in Sterling Heights, according to Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido.
On Sunday, March 15, 2026, a group of teens and young adults gathered at the Edge Fitness parking lot in expectation of a pre-planned fight. It is alleged that shots were fired from a Ford F150 driven by Maroof. A minor suffered a non-lethal injury when he was hit in his foot by a bullet. It is further alleged that, pursuant to a search warrant, authorities recovered counterfeit money from a safe and lock box belonging to Maroof.
On Wednesday, March 18, 2026, Maroof was arraigned before Magistrate Jean M. Cloud at the 41A District Court in Sterling Heights, MI. Maroof is charged with the following offenses: Weapons – Firearms – Discharge from a Motor Vehicle Causing Injury, a 15-year felony; Weapons – Carrying Concealed, a 5-year felony; Uttering and Publishing – Possession of Counterfeit Bank, State or Municipal Bills, a 5-year felony.
These are the maximum charges available under the law based on the evidence presented to date.
Magistrate Cloud set Maroof’s bond at $200,000 cash/surety, no 10%. If released, he must wear a steel cuff tether. He was ordered to have no contact with the Complaining Victim.
A Probable Cause Conference for Maroof is scheduled to be held before Judge Annemarie Lepore on Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 1:00 p.m.
Michigan
Wyandotte man sentenced for embezzling more than $166,000
Jason Garza, 46, of Wyandotte, was sentenced on Thursday by Judge Tracy Green of the 3rd Circuit Court in Wayne County to 24 to 240 months’ incarceration after pleading guilty to ten felony charges for embezzling more than $166,000 from his employer, Montway Auto Transport, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Garza, who was first charged in June 2025, was convicted of: One count of Embezzlement More Than $100,000; One count of Embezzlement More Than $50,000 but Less Than $100,000; One count of Embezzlement More Than $1,000 but Less Than $20,000; Three corresponding counts of Using a Computer to Commit a Crime; and Four counts of Failure to File Income Taxes.
In 2021 and 2022, while Garza was employed by Montway Auto Transport, located in Canton Township, he offered customers unauthorized discounts if they paid Garza directly through peer-to-peer mobile payment apps. Garza kept the payments for personal use and failed to remit any funds to Montway. Garza was ordered to pay full restitution to the Michigan Department of Treasury, Montway LLC, and Travelers Insurance, amounting to more than $500,000.
The case was referred to the Department of Attorney General by the FBI.
New York
Man pleads guilty to cyberstalking in threats to relative of murdered insurance CEO
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York man admitted to leaving harassing and threatening voicemail messages to a family member of slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as he pleaded guilty to cyberstalking in federal court Thursday.
Shane Daley, 40, was accused by federal prosecutors in August of placing multiple calls to a Thompson family member immediately after the December 2024 shooting and expressing glee about the insurance executive’s killing.
Thompson was fatally shot outside a New York City hotel by a man angered over what he viewed as corporate greed, according to prosecutors. The suspect, Luigi Mangione, has pleaded not guilty and faces trials in state and federal court.
As part of his guilty plea, Daley admitted to placing multiple calls to a work line used by a member of Thompson’s family in the days after he was killed and leaving messages with threatening and harassing language. He expressed satisfaction over the killing and said the family member and Thompson’s children deserved to meet the same violent end, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York.
Daley, a resident of Galway, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Albany, will be sentenced July 17. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the U.S., and his killing prompted an outpouring of public frustration with the country’s health care system. Some people have lionized Mangione as a sort of vigilante hero.
Trump administration sues Harvard, saying it violated civil rights law and seeking to recover funds
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit Friday against Harvard University, saying its leadership failed to address antisemitism on campus, creating grounds for the government to freeze existing grants and seek repayment for grants already paid.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, is another missive in a protracted battle between the administration of President Donald Trump and the elite university.
“The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures and brings this action to compel Harvard to comply” with federal civil rights law, the Justice Department wrote in the lawsuit, “and to recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a previous lawsuit, a federal judge ruled the government was using allegations of antisemitism as a “smokescreen” to cut funding from the university.
Since he took office, Trump has targeted elite universities he believes are overrun by left-wing ideology and antisemitism, freezing billions in research grants.
Washington
Supreme Court revives lawsuit challenging restrictions on demonstrations
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday revived a lawsuit from an evangelical Christian barred from demonstrating in Mississippi after authorities say he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker.
The high court unanimously ruled in the case of Gabriel Olivier, who says his religious and free speech rights were violated when he was arrested for refusing to move his preaching away from a suburban amphitheater. The city said he had shouted insults like “whores,” “Jezebel,” and “nasty” at people, sometimes holding signs showing aborted fetuses.
Olivier wanted to challenge the law as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech, but lower courts stopped him from suing because he’d been convicted of breaking it. A Supreme Court case from the 1990s found people can’t use civil lawsuits to undermine criminal convictions.
But Olivier’s lawyers said he only wanted to block future enforcement of the measure. They said he was demonstrating peacefully when he was arrested for refusing to move to a designated “protest zone.” The legal principle, they argued, affects free-speech cases across the political spectrum.
The decision clears a path for him to file a civil-rights lawsuit, though it doesn’t guarantee an eventual win. Local governments have said that a ruling for Olivier could have wide repercussions by allowing a rush of new lawsuits against cities and towns.
The city of Brandon has said the restrictions weren’t about religion, and he had plenty of other legal avenues to challenge the law. The ordinance restricting Olivier to a designated “protest zone” has already survived another lawsuit, city attorneys said.
Oregon
Judge rules U.S. overreached with transgender health care declaration
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon.
Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t go through the proper administrative procedures in December when issuing the declaration, which warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide these treatments.
The ruling grants preliminary relief to health professionals who provide the treatments. The judge also denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case.
“Today’s win breaks through the noise and gives some needed clarity to patients, families, and providers,” Letitia James, the Democratic New York attorney general who led the lawsuit, said in a statement Thursday. “Health care services for transgender young people remain legal, and the federal government cannot intimidate or punish the providers who offer them.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
The New York Times reported that the judge spoke about the broader implications associated with this case, especially as it relates to democracy.
“The notion that ‘I will go forward and issue a declaration and see if we can get away with it’ is not a principle of governance that adheres to the overarching commitment to a democratic republic that requires the rule of law to be regarded and respected and honored as a sacred,” the judge said.
The decision is the second major legal setback for Kennedy and HHS this week. Another federal judge in Boston on Monday temporarily blocked several of Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes. The judge ruled Kennedy likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee and slimming down the childhood vaccine schedule without the committee’s input. Federal officials have indicated they plan to appeal that ruling.
A coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia had sued HHS, Kennedy and its inspector general over the declaration, alleging that it is inaccurate and unlawful and asking the court to block its enforcement.
The lawsuit says that HHS’s declaration seeks to coerce providers to stop providing gender-affirming care and circumvent legal requirements for policy changes. It also says federal law requires the public to be given notice and an opportunity to comment before substantively changing health policy — neither of which, the suit says, was done before the declaration was issued.
HHS’s declaration based its conclusions on a peer-reviewed report that the department conducted earlier this year that urged greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming care for youths with gender dysphoria.
The report questioned standards for the treatment of transgender youth issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and raised concerns that adolescents may be too young to give consent to life-changing treatments that could result in future infertility.
Major medical groups and those who treat transgender young people have sharply criticized the report as inaccurate, and most major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, continue to oppose restrictions on transgender care and services for young people.
The judge’s ruling was at the end of a roughly 6-hour hearing and will be followed by a written decision.
Michigan
West Bloomfield man arraigned in shooting at gym
Joseph Maroof, an 18-year-old West Bloomfield man, was arraigned on charges related to an alleged shooting outside of Edge Fitness in Sterling Heights, according to Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido.
On Sunday, March 15, 2026, a group of teens and young adults gathered at the Edge Fitness parking lot in expectation of a pre-planned fight. It is alleged that shots were fired from a Ford F150 driven by Maroof. A minor suffered a non-lethal injury when he was hit in his foot by a bullet. It is further alleged that, pursuant to a search warrant, authorities recovered counterfeit money from a safe and lock box belonging to Maroof.
On Wednesday, March 18, 2026, Maroof was arraigned before Magistrate Jean M. Cloud at the 41A District Court in Sterling Heights, MI. Maroof is charged with the following offenses: Weapons – Firearms – Discharge from a Motor Vehicle Causing Injury, a 15-year felony; Weapons – Carrying Concealed, a 5-year felony; Uttering and Publishing – Possession of Counterfeit Bank, State or Municipal Bills, a 5-year felony.
These are the maximum charges available under the law based on the evidence presented to date.
Magistrate Cloud set Maroof’s bond at $200,000 cash/surety, no 10%. If released, he must wear a steel cuff tether. He was ordered to have no contact with the Complaining Victim.
A Probable Cause Conference for Maroof is scheduled to be held before Judge Annemarie Lepore on Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 1:00 p.m.
Michigan
Wyandotte man sentenced for embezzling more than $166,000
Jason Garza, 46, of Wyandotte, was sentenced on Thursday by Judge Tracy Green of the 3rd Circuit Court in Wayne County to 24 to 240 months’ incarceration after pleading guilty to ten felony charges for embezzling more than $166,000 from his employer, Montway Auto Transport, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Garza, who was first charged in June 2025, was convicted of: One count of Embezzlement More Than $100,000; One count of Embezzlement More Than $50,000 but Less Than $100,000; One count of Embezzlement More Than $1,000 but Less Than $20,000; Three corresponding counts of Using a Computer to Commit a Crime; and Four counts of Failure to File Income Taxes.
In 2021 and 2022, while Garza was employed by Montway Auto Transport, located in Canton Township, he offered customers unauthorized discounts if they paid Garza directly through peer-to-peer mobile payment apps. Garza kept the payments for personal use and failed to remit any funds to Montway. Garza was ordered to pay full restitution to the Michigan Department of Treasury, Montway LLC, and Travelers Insurance, amounting to more than $500,000.
The case was referred to the Department of Attorney General by the FBI.
New York
Man pleads guilty to cyberstalking in threats to relative of murdered insurance CEO
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York man admitted to leaving harassing and threatening voicemail messages to a family member of slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as he pleaded guilty to cyberstalking in federal court Thursday.
Shane Daley, 40, was accused by federal prosecutors in August of placing multiple calls to a Thompson family member immediately after the December 2024 shooting and expressing glee about the insurance executive’s killing.
Thompson was fatally shot outside a New York City hotel by a man angered over what he viewed as corporate greed, according to prosecutors. The suspect, Luigi Mangione, has pleaded not guilty and faces trials in state and federal court.
As part of his guilty plea, Daley admitted to placing multiple calls to a work line used by a member of Thompson’s family in the days after he was killed and leaving messages with threatening and harassing language. He expressed satisfaction over the killing and said the family member and Thompson’s children deserved to meet the same violent end, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York.
Daley, a resident of Galway, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Albany, will be sentenced July 17. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the U.S., and his killing prompted an outpouring of public frustration with the country’s health care system. Some people have lionized Mangione as a sort of vigilante hero.
