Appeals court rejects academic s libel suit over claims of affair with Flynn politico.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from politico.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
March 12, 2021
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held oral argument Wednesday in Svetlana Lokhova’s appeal from a lower court’s dismissal of her suit against confidential human source Stefan Halper and a slew of media outlets. For 50 minutes, the three-judge panel peppered attorneys with an array of questions.
Wednesday’s appeal followed a federal judge’s dismissal of Lokhova’s lawsuit against Halper, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, and NBC. Lokhova, a former Ph.D. student at Cambridge University and an expert in communist Russia’s intelligence operations, alleged Halper peddled false claims that she was a Russian spy and a paramour of Michael Flynn, with various media outlets then pushing that narrative in the run-up to the 2016 election and following.
Court: Principal Was Right to Ban Fourth-Grader s Pro-Trans Essay
The principal had said that it s not age-appropriate to discuss transgenders, lesbians and drag queens outside of the home.” March 03 2021 4:32 PM EST
An elementary school principal in South Carolina was correct when she decided to keep a student s supportive essay about transgender people out of a school publication, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
As part of an assignment to write a 100-word essay on “society,” a 10-year-old fourth-grader wrote about being nice to trans people. “I don’t know if you know this but peoples view on Tran’s genders is an issue,” the essay read. “People think that men should not drees like a women, and saying mean things. They think that they are choosing the wrong thing in life. In the world people can choose who they want.”
(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
RICHMOND, Va. (CN) The Fourth Circuit sided with a South Carolina elementary school Tuesday afternoon in a dispute involving a student’s transgender-affirming essay. While the student argued her principal’s removal of her essay as part of a classroom assignment amounted to a First Amendment violation, the unanimous panel found the move was within the school’s authority.
“Principal Foster’s initial refusal to include [the student’s] essay in the fourth grade class’s essay booklet was actuated at least in part by her concern that the essay’s topic was ‘not age appropriate’ for fourth graders,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker, a Barack Obama-appointee. The judge cited 1988’s
The exterior of a Planned Parenthood Reproductive Health Services Center is seen on May 28, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. | Getty Images/Michael B. Thomas
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over the legality of the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule barring Title X funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
In an order issued Monday, the high court consolidated three cases regarding the Title X funding dispute:
American Medical Association v. Cochran,
Oregon v. Cochran, and
Cochran v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.
At issue is whether the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services acted lawfully when the Trump administration barred Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions from receiving Title X family planning funds.