Saturday, May 03, 2025
Friday, May 02, 2025
Justice Department ends Civil Rights-era school desegregation order in Louisiana
Justice Department ends Civil Rights-era school desegregation order in Louisiana
“When the Justice Department lifted a school desegregation order in Louisiana this week, officials called its continued existence a “historical wrong” and suggested that others dating to the Civil Rights Movement should be reconsidered.
The end of the 1966 legal agreement with Plaquemines Parish schools announced Tuesday shows the Trump administration is “getting America refocused on our bright future,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said.
Inside the Justice Department, officials appointed by President Donald Trump have expressed desire to withdraw from other desegregation orders they see as an unnecessary burden on schools, according to a person familiar with the issue who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Dozens of school districts across the South remain under court-enforced agreements dictating steps to work toward integration, decades after the Supreme Court struck down racial segregation in education. Some see the court orders’ endurance as a sign the government never eradicated segregation, while officials in Louisiana and at some schools see the orders as bygone relics that should be wiped away.
The Justice Department opened a wave of cases in the 1960s, after Congress unleashed the department to go after schools that resisted desegregation. Known as consent decrees, the orders can be lifted when districts prove they have eliminated segregation and its legacy.
The small Louisiana district has a long-running integration case
The Trump administration called the Plaquemines case an example of administrative neglect. The district in the Mississippi River Delta Basin in southeast Louisiana was found to have integrated in 1975, but the case was to stay under the court’s watch for another year. The judge died the same year, and the court record “appears to be lost to time,” according to a court filing.
“Given that this case has been stayed for a half-century with zero action by the court, the parties or any third-party, the parties are satisfied that the United States’ claims have been fully resolved,” according to a joint filing from the Justice Department and the office of Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Plaquemines Superintendent Shelley Ritz said Justice Department officials still visited every year as recently as 2023 and requested data on topics including hiring and discipline. She said the paperwork was a burden for her district of fewer than 4,000 students.
“It was hours of compiling the data,” she said.
Louisiana “got its act together decades ago,” said Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, in a statement. He said the dismissal corrects a historical wrong, adding it’s “past time to acknowledge how far we have come.”
Murrill asked the Justice Department to close other school orders in her state. In a statement, she vowed to work with Louisiana schools to help them “put the past in the past.”
Civil rights activists say that’s the wrong move. Many orders have been only loosely enforced in recent decades, but that doesn’t mean problems are solved, said Johnathan Smith, who worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during President Joe Biden’s administration.
“It probably means the opposite — that the school district remains segregated. And in fact, most of these districts are now more segregated today than they were in 1954,” said Smith, who is now chief of staff and general counsel for the National Center for Youth Law.
Desegregation orders involve a range of instructions
More than 130 school systems are under Justice Department desegregation orders, according to records in a court filing this year. The vast majority are in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, with smaller numbers in states like Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. Some other districts remain under separate desegregation agreements with the Education Department.
The orders can include a range of remedies, from busing requirements to district policies allowing students in predominately Black schools to transfer to predominately white ones. The agreements are between the school district and the US government, but other parties can ask the court to intervene when signs of segregation resurface.
In 2020, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund invoked a consent decree in Alabama’s Leeds school district when it stopped offering school meals during the Covid-19 pandemic. The civil rights group said it disproportionately hurt Black students, in violation of the desegregation order. The district agreed to resume meals.
Last year, a Louisiana school board closed a predominately Black elementary school near a petrochemical facility after the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund said it disproportionately exposed Black students to health risks. The board made the decision after the group filed a motion invoking a decades-old desegregation order at St. John the Baptist Parish.
Closing cases could lead to legal challenges
The dismissal has raised alarms among some who fear it could undo decades of progress. Research on districts released from orders has found that many saw greater increases in racial segregation compared with those under court orders.
“In very many cases, schools quite rapidly resegregate, and there are new civil rights concerns for students,” said Halley Potter, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation who studies educational inequity.
Ending the orders would send a signal that desegregation is no longer a priority, said Robert Westley, a professor of antidiscrimination law at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.
“It’s really just signaling that the backsliding that has started some time ago is complete,” Westley said. “The United States government doesn’t really care anymore of dealing with problems of racial discrimination in the schools. It’s over.”
Any attempt to drop further cases would face heavy opposition in court, said Raymond Pierce, president and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation.
“It represents a disregard for education opportunities for a large section of America. It represents a disregard for America’s need to have an educated workforce,” he said. “And it represents a disregard for the rule of law.”
Thursday, May 01, 2025
Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act for swift deportations is illegal, Trump-appointed judge rules
Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act for swift deportations is illegal, Trump-appointed judge rules
The article describes a federal judge's ruling that Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act for swift deportations is illegal. The judge ruled that the act only applies when the country is facing an armed, organized attack, which Trump's claims about the gang do not meet.
The Alien Enemies Act applies only when the country is facing an armed, organized attack, the judge ruled.
Trump has described the gang as an international criminal enterprise operating at the behest of the Venezuelan government. But Rodriguez noted that even Trump has not formally claimed that the gang is “entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation.”
Trump issued a proclamation in March deploying the Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua. The act has been invoked just three other times in U.S. history — during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
Trump’s proclamation “exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful,” Rodriguez concluded. Trump and other administration officials “do not possess the lawful authority under the AEA, and based on the Proclamation, to detain Venezuelan aliens, transfer them within the United States, or remove them from the country.”
Several other courts, including the Supreme Court, have pushed back in various ways against Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act in the past month and a half. But those other rulings have been preliminary and temporary. Rodriguez is the first judge to issue a definitive decision on whether the deportations are justified under the law, and his “permanent injunction” is more durable than the short-term blocks issued by other judges.
Still, Rodriguez’s ruling only covers his southern Texas-based district, and the Trump administration can appeal his decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most conservative federal appeals court in the country.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of Washington, D.C., was the first judge to try to stop the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg entered an emergency block on March 15, but the administration had already set the first round of deportations in motion. Hours after Boasberg’s order, 137 Venezuelan men who had been living in the U.S. were delivered to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Advocates for the men say that many of them have no ties to Tren de Aragua or any other gang — and that they were given no meaningful opportunity to contest their deportations.
The Supreme Court lifted Boasberg’s block, saying lawsuits challenging Trump’s invocation of the AEA had to be filed in different courts, not in Washington, D.C. But the justices also directed the administration to provide meaningful due process to anyone else targeted for deportation under the AEA.
The justices stepped in a second time last month when the administration appeared to be amassing another group of alleged “alien enemies” in northern Texas and preparing them for hasty deportations with minimal notice. In a highly unusual, middle-of-the-night ruling, the high court ordered the administration not to deport those people until further notice.
Federal judges in Colorado and Manhattan last month also granted broad yet temporary blocks on deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
Shortly after Rodriguez’s ruling, the judge separately denied the administration’s request for explicit permission to quickly deport one of the alleged “alien enemies” — Daniel Zacarias Matos — under a different immigration authority. Though prosecutors said the administration was prepared to move as quickly as Thursday to begin that deportation, Rodriguez said he needed more time to weigh the issues involved.“
Georgia man faces murder charges after allegedly failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to his wife - Face2Face Africa
Georgia man faces murder charges after allegedly failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to his wife
"A Georgia man, Cleveland Broadie, has been indicted on malice and felony murder charges after allegedly failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to his wife, Denise Broadie, a cancer survivor.
Prosecutors claim his actions led to her 2022 death just two days after she was diagnosed with AIDS. The Rockdale County case centers on what officials describe as Cleveland’s “reckless conduct.”
Cleveland has pleaded not guilty to reckless conduct but has yet to enter a plea on the malice and felony murder charges tied to his wife’s death.
He and Denise Broadie married in 2014, three years before she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she went into remission twice, her health continued to decline, ultimately leading to a 2022 AIDS diagnosis — just days before her death on April 2, which prosecutors link to Cleveland’s alleged failure to disclose his HIV status.
Cleveland, 62, now faces multiple legal battles as more allegations emerge. Originally charged with three counts of reckless conduct in 2023 after several women claimed he hid his HIV-positive status, investigators say Broadie had been taking HIV medicationsince 2006.
His late wife’s family intensified efforts to seek justice by hiring private investigators to prove he knowingly exposed Denise Broadie.
Cleveland was first arrested in July 2023 and booked again on April 16, 2025, following his recent indictment in the murder case.
Karen Young, Denise’s daughter who described her mom as a family matriarch with a heart of gold, told Fox 5 Atlanta that she believes there was “malice” in Cleveland’s actions. “At any time, he could have told her and given her the right to make the decision to stay with him,” she said. “Not that she would have.”
In a 2023 interview with Atlanta News First, Young revealed her mother unknowingly lived with untreated HIV for at least five years. She described Denise’s rapid health decline during her second fight with cancer — especially as it spread to her lungs — as devastating and unexplained at the time.
“If he would have just gave her that one courtesy, just to tell her to test herself for it and that could’ve been it and she got treatment for it,” Young said at the time. “It’s almost like God kept her alive so we could know what was really killing her.”
According to the outlet, which cited her death certificate, she died from pneumonia and respiratory failure “due to Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.”
Denise Broadie’s family is urging the public to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases in the wake of her tragic death.
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Trump Says He Could Free Abrego Garcia From El Salvador, but Won’t
Trump Says He Could Free Abrego Garcia From El Salvador, but Won’t
“President Trump acknowledged he could facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from El Salvador but refused to do so, believing Garcia is a gang member. This contradicts previous statements by his administration, which claimed they lacked the authority to bring Garcia back. Despite a Supreme Court order and evidence suggesting Garcia’s deportation was an error, Trump defended the decision, citing Garcia’s tattoos and alleged MS-13 ties.
Trump’s comments undermined previous statements by his top aides and were a blunt sign of his administration’s intention to double down and defy the courts.
President Trump, whose administration has insisted it could not bring Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador to the United States, said he does have the ability to help return the wrongly deported Maryland man, but is not willing to do so because he believes he is a gang member.
“You could get him back, there’s a phone on this desk,” said Terry Moran, an ABC News correspondent, noting a Supreme Court order to “facilitate” the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia.
“I could,” Mr. Trump replied.
Mr. Moran said Mr. Trump could call President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and get Mr. Abrego Garcia back immediately.
“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Mr. Trump said. “But he is not.” Mr. Trump added that government lawyers do not want to help bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
Mr. Trump’s comments not only undermined previous statements by his top aides, but were a blunt sign of his administration’s intention to double down and defy the courts. Before the interview with ABC News, the administration had dug in on its refusal to heed the Supreme Court order to help return Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is a Salvadoran migrant. Trump officials have said that because he was now in a Salvadoran prison, it was up the Salvadoran government to release him.
The Justice Department has argued that it can respond to the Supreme Court’s demand that the administration “facilitate” Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release by doing little more than letting him enter if he manages to present himself at a port of entry.
“That’s up to El Salvador, if they want to return him,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said during an Oval Office meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bukele this month. “That’s not up to us.”
During that meeting, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff and the architect of his immigration agenda, also argued that any question about releasing Mr. Abrego Garcia needed to be directed to Mr. Bukele rather than Mr. Trump.
“It’s very arrogant even for American media to suggest that we would tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens as a starting point,” Mr. Miller said. “That is the president of El Salvador. Your questions about the court can only be directed to him.”
Mr. Bukele also refused to help bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States, arguing it would be akin to releasing a terrorist from prison.
But Mr. Trump appeared to acknowledge during his interview with ABC News that he did have the power to help bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday night.
Mr. Trump also told ABC News his administration was right to send Mr. Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador designed for terrorists, known as CECOT, despite various government officials previously saying in court that the deportation was an “administrative error.” Mr. Abrego Garcia, who entered the United States illegally in 2012, was arrested in March of 2019 while looking for work near a Home Depot.
In October 2019, an immigration judge ruled that Mr. Abrego Garcia could not be deported back to El Salvador because he faced a credible fear of persecution from the gang Barrio 18. The judge allowed him to stay in the United States under a status called “withholding of removal,” and he obtained a work permit.
But despite that order forbidding his deportation, the administration arrested him in March of this year, accused him of having ties to MS-13 and deported him to the prison in El Salvador.
“This is a MS-13 gang member,” Mr. Trump said during the interview.
Mr. Abrego Garcia has never been charged with or convicted of being a member of a gang. During his deportation proceedings, some evidence was introduced that he belonged to MS-13, and judges decided it was enough to keep him in custody while the matter was resolved. But other judges have expressed doubt about that evidence.
“The ‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived,” Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the efforts to bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States, wrote in an order this month.
During the interview with ABC News, Mr. Trump also argued that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s tattooed hands were evidence of his gang ties. Mr. Trump has accused him of being a member of MS-13, previously sharing a photograph of the tattoos, altered with the label MS-13 above the symbols.
In the interview, Mr. Trump appeared to conflate the label with the actual tattoos as he argued that Mr. Abrego Garcia was a gang member.
The tattoos themselves appear to be real, but some gang experts have questioned whether they are truly MS-13 symbols.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.“
Former president Thabo Mbeki says he's a target of apartheid case
Former president Thabo Mbeki says he's a target of apartheid case
“THABO Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela to become the second president of democratic South Africa, has entered a legal fray between the government and the families of victims of apartheid-era crimes.
In a bid to intervene in a court case between the state and 20 victims or representatives of families impacted by the murder, torture and abductions meted out by apartheid security forces, Mbeki said he’s being unfairly accused of stymieing their attempts to get justice. The applicants are seeking R167 million in damages and the establishment of a commission of inquiry into why those crimes have never been prosecuted.
“They have placed me at the center of the political interference,” Mbeki said in a more than 50-page submission that he filed with South Africa’s High Court on Monday on behalf of himself and Brigitte Mabandla, who served as Mbeki’s justice minister from 2004 to 2008. “This makes it that I am the principal target of the commission of inquiry that they seek.”
The lawsuit is an attempt to resolve a decades-old dispute over the alleged failure of successive African National Congress-led administrations to pursue the cases after the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission - set up by Mandela after his victory in the first all-race elections in 1994 - ended its work and handed them over to prosecuting authorities.
It alleges that governments, including that led by Mbeki, deliberately frustrated attempts to move forward with prosecutions and suggests there may have been a deal with officials of the former apartheid government.
Mbeki denied there was a secret pact that would have spared himself and other ANC members from potential prosecution for activities during the anti-apartheid struggle. He added that he never interfered in the cases.
“Those allegations are highly defamatory and damaging,” Mbeki said. “Ms. Mabandla and I deny we, or the administration of which I was president, interfered with the National Prosecuting Authority’s prosecution of TRC cases and committed unconstitutional, unlawful and criminal acts.”
Other respondents in the case including President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s current leader, have said they won’t oppose it and will seek to come to a settlement. Substantial talks are yet to be held.
South Africa’s TRC recommended that about 300 cases be pursued when it finished its work in the early 2000s. There have only been a handful of prosecutions since.“