Supreme Court won’t say if transgender teen can pick bathroom ADVERTISING Supreme Court won’t say if transgender teen can pick bathroom WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving the issue of transgender rights in schools to lower courts for
Supreme Court won’t say if transgender teen can pick bathroom
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving the issue of transgender rights in schools to lower courts for now after backing out of a high-profile case Monday of a Virginia high school student who sued to be able to use the boys’ bathroom.
The court’s order in the case of teenager Gavin Grimm means that attention now will turn to lower courts around the country that are grappling with rights of transgender students to use school bathrooms that correspond to their chosen gender, not the one assigned at birth.
The appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, and other appellate panels handling similar cases around the country will have the first chance to decide whether federal anti-discrimination law or the Constitution protects transgender students’ rights.
Monday’s action by a court that has been short-handed for more than a year comes after the Trump administration pulled back federal guidance advising schools to let students use the bathroom of their chosen gender, not the one assigned at birth.
The justices rejected a call from both sides to decide the issue in a case that was dramatically altered by the election of President Donald Trump.
French conservatives in crisis as candidate Fillon flounders
PARIS (AP) — For France’s conservatives, this year’s presidential election should have been effortless.
Instead, the Republicans party — once all but certain to take back the Elysee Palace in 2017 — is in disarray over the corruption-tainted campaign of its candidate Francois Fillon. Riven by dissent as Fillon tenaciously clings to his bid, the conservatives are watching their presidential hopes sink by the day.
Far-right nationalists, meanwhile, are gearing up for what they hope is their Donald Trump moment, in which National Front leader Marine Le Pen proves the pollsters wrong and harnesses the anti-immigration, anti-establishment sentiment percolating around Europe to capture a presidential victory.
In this prediction-defying French presidential campaign, anything could still happen between now and April 23, when the voting begins.
One thing is clear: The conservatives are in trouble. And no one is eager to take Fillon’s place with less than seven weeks left to campaign.
Ex-sect members: Prosecutors obstructed abuse cases
SPINDALE, N.C. (AP) — At least a half-dozen times over two decades, authorities investigated reports that members of a secretive evangelical church were being beaten. And every time, according to former congregants, the orders came down from church leaders: They must lie to protect the sect.
Among the members of the Word of Faith Fellowship who coached congregants and their children on what to say to investigators were two assistant district attorneys and a veteran social worker, the ex-followers told The Associated Press.
Frank Webster and Chris Back — church ministers who handle criminal cases as assistant DAs for three nearby counties — provided legal advice, helped at strategy sessions and participated in a mock trial for four congregants charged with harassing a former member, according to former congregants interviewed as part of an AP investigation of Word of Faith.
Back and Webster, who is sect leader Jane Whaley’s son-in-law and lives in her house, also helped derail a social services investigation into child abuse in 2015 and attended meetings where Whaley warned congregants to lie to investigators about abuse incidents, according to nine former members.
Under North Carolina law, prosecutors cannot provide legal advice or be involved in outside cases in any manner. Violation of those rules can lead to ethics charges, dismissal and disbarment.
White House aides defend Trump’s wiretapping claim
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House officials on Monday defended President Donald Trump’s explosive claim that Barack Obama tapped Trump’s telephones during last year’s election, although they won’t say exactly where that information came from and left open the possibility that it isn’t true.
The comments came even as FBI Director James Comey privately asked the Justice Department to dispute the claim because he believed the allegations were false.
When asked whether Trump accepted Comey’s view, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC’s “Good Morning America”: “I don’t think he does.”
Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, another top adviser, said the president still firmly believes the allegations he made on Twitter over the weekend. The aides said any ambiguity surrounding the issue is all the more reason for Congress to investigate the matter.
“We’d like to know for sure,” Sanders told NBC’s “Today” show.
