Biden highlights grant for Hudson tunnel, takes aim at GOP

NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday showcased a $292 million mega grant that will be used to help build a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, part of a broader effort to draw a contrast between his economic vision and that of Republicans.

The money is part of $1.2 billion in mega grants being awarded under the 2021 infrastructure law. The Democratic president’s trip to New York City on Tuesday comes on the heels of his stop Monday in Baltimore to highlight the replacement of an aging rail tunnel there, where he pledged that government spending on infrastructure will boost economic growth and create blue-collar jobs.

The New York stop also gave Biden a chance to highlight his administration jumpstarting a project that languished during President Donald Trump’s time in office. The yearslong modernization of the Hudson project started in 2013 but stalled as Trump battled with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer over funding for the project.

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“This is one of the biggest, the most consequential projects in the country,” Biden said. “But we finally have the money, and we’re going to get it done. I promise we’re going to get it done.”

The New York and Baltimore trips amount to a form of counterprogramming to the new House Republican majority. GOP lawmakers are seeking deep spending cuts in exchange for lifting the government’s legal borrowing limit, saying that federal expenditures are hurting growth and that the budget should be balanced.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Biden are scheduled to meet on Wednesday, with the Republican lawmaker intending to press his case for spending cuts even though White House officials say Biden won’t negotiate over the need to increase the federal debt limit.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in America who doesn’t agree that there’s some wasteful Washington spending that we can eliminate,” McCarthy told CBS News on Sunday.

Mitch Landrieu, the White House senior adviser responsible for coordinating implementation of the infrastructure law, told reporters on Tuesday that if Republicans are looking to “take away money from projects, they ought to, I think, identify which projects they don’t want.”

“And then you can have that discussion with the American people,” Landrieu added.

To some in the Biden administration, the Hudson Tunnel Project demonstrates what could be lost if spending cuts are put into place. In total, the construction is projected to result in 72,000 jobs, according to the White House.

The project will renovate the 1910 tunnel already carrying about 200,000 weekday passengers beneath the Hudson between New Jersey and Manhattan, a long-delayed upgrade after decades in which the government underfunded infrastructure.

“We cannot lead the world in this century if we depend on infrastructure from early in the last one,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.

The grant would be used to help complete the concrete casing for an additional rail tunnel beneath the river, preserving a right of way for the eventual tunnel. In total, the project is expected to cost $16 billion and help ease a bottleneck for New Jersey commuters and Amtrak passengers going through New York City.

Biden made the case the project is critical far beyond greater New York.

“If this line shuts down for just one day it would cost our economy $100 million,” Biden said. “And the current Hudson River rail tunnel can be a major chokepoint.”

Other projects to receive mega grants include the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Kentucky and Ohio; the Calcasieu River Bridge replacement in Louisiana; a commuter rail in Illinois; the Alligator River Bridge in North Carolina; a transit and highway plan in California; and roadways in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Mississippi.

Not everyone has been pleased by the mega grant program. Some Republican lawmakers in Arizona say it gave preference to mass transit and repair projects over expansion and new construction.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., noted that the northeast corridor produces roughly 20% of the U.S. GDP and that Biden was finally ushering in long-awaited modernization to an essential artery that moves countless people and goods through the heart of the U.S. economy. Booker called it poetic that Biden — who regularly commuted from his home in Delaware and Washington during his years in the Senate — was the one getting the project back on track.

“This is a hallelujah moment,” Booker said.

Schumer criticized Trump for slowing the project during his term as he feuded with the Democrats.

“Get on the Joe Biden Express now because we are not stopping,” Schumer said. “For four years, the former president was shoveling you know what and now we’re going to put real shovels in the ground, wielded by real American workers.”

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Top 8 today

National

For 10 tons of cocaine, witness says, Mexico’s top cop was paid $10M

A former member of a Mexican drug cartel testified in U.S. federal court Monday that he paid his country’s top security official millions of dollars to secure the transport of massive cocaine shipments and to protect traffickers from raids and arrests. 

(U.S. Department of Justice via Courthouse News)

‘Don’t leave’: Tarrio’s orders for Jan. 6 riot on display

Putting the social media of five Proud Boys front and center in their seditious conspiracy trial, prosecutors called an FBI agent to testify Monday in front of a series of poster boards with their activity on Parler.

(Justice Department via Courthouse News)

Regional

Winter storm brings icy conditions to south-central US

Winter weather has begun to settle in on large parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky as southerners prepare for days of potentially icy conditions.

(National Weather Service via Courthouse News)

Chicago jury hears opening arguments in billion-dollar fraud trial

The three heads of pharmaceutical advertising company Outcome Health were in Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Monday to face trial on a collective 26 counts of wire, mail and bank fraud.

(U.S. General Services Administration via Courthouse News)

Minnesota appeals court upholds stricter emissions standards

The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the state’s adoption of California car emissions standards Monday, finding that state pollution regulators had the authority to do so despite the objections of car dealers. 

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

International

Czechs vote for pro-EU retired NATO general for president

The Czech Republic’s turn toward a pro-NATO and pro-Western stance was consolidated over the weekend with the election of a retired NATO general as the next president.

(AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Lawyer admits to plagiarism of Mexico Supreme Court justice’s undergrad thesis

A plagiarism scandal involving the undergraduate thesis of a justice on Mexico’s Supreme Court has taken a surprising turn. 

(Twitter via Courthouse News)

Armenia calls Azerbaijan blockade an act of ‘ethnic cleansing’

Amidst rising tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the United Nations’ highest court opened two days of hearings Monday for the Caucasus neighbors. 

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

from Courthouse News

UW System bans TikTok use on system devices

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin System officials said Tuesday that they will ban the use of TikTok on system devices.

System spokesman Mark Pitsch told The Associated Press about the move in email statements.

Nearly half of the states nationwide have blocked the popular social media app owned by a Chinese company. Earlier this month, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers banned the use of TikTok on Wisconsin state phones and other devices, citing potential risks to privacy, safety and security.

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The order didn’t apply to the UW System, which employs 40,000 faculty and staff, because it isn’t an executive branch agency. UW-Madison, the system’s flagship school, has multiple TikTok accounts, including one for the women’s volleyball team. Universities often use TikTok accounts as a recruiting tool to connect with high school students.

A number of other universities across the country have banned TikTok in recent weeks, including Auburn, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa and Texas.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. It has been targeted by critics who say the Chinese government could access user data, such as browsing history and location. U.S. armed forces also have prohibited the app on military devices.

TikTok is consumed by two-thirds of American teens and has become the second-most popular domain in the world. But there has long been bipartisan concern in Washington that Beijing would use legal and regulatory power to seize American user data or try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation.

from Courthouse News

Storm-weary South targeted by more severe weather

(CN) — The upper Gulf Coast is not unfamiliar with hurricane-force winds, but they are typically associated with summer months, when warm, moist air fuels tropical weather systems from the Atlantic or Caribbean. So it was unusual when the first offshore storm warning since 1994 was issued Tuesday, with the coastal forecast calling for “extremely dangerous conditions,” including wind gusts reaching 70 mph and seas as high as 11 feet.

The warning from the the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, comes as the storm-battered South is facing its latest round of severe weather Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. About 150 miles inland, communities including Selma and Marbury are still picking up debris from destructive tornadoes that killed nine people in Alabama and Georgia on Jan. 12.

Tornadoes are also a threat with this system, according to NWS meteorologist Don Shepherd, with areas of enhanced risk encompassing much of southeast Mississippi, southwest Alabama and the western Florida panhandle. Particularly concerning is the timing of the system, which is expected to peak between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 4 a.m. Wednesday, when fewer people are awake and tuned into severe weather warnings. 

“It is one of the higher-potential systems we’ve seen this season — the instability is a little bit of a question — but if everything materializes and comes together, it could be a pretty active event,” Shepherd said by phone Tuesday morning. “So the main thing is to make sure people are aware of the potential and have multiple ways of receiving warnings and taking action, especially with it coming in the overnight hours.”

The Deep South has been wracked with several rounds of severe weather since late December’s arctic blast, which froze more than half the country. At least 11 tornadoes touched down in central Alabama Jan. 3-4, before the region came under fire again just nine days later. 

In addition to destroying parts of historic downtown Selma, the deadly Jan. 12 outbreak included a long-track tornado that traveled more than 76 miles and reached a peak intensity of 150 mph.

Shepherd said for the most part, the weather on the eastern half of the nation has been powered by the same jet stream, or “atmospheric rivers,” that have soaked the West Coast with rain over the past several weeks, while also blanketing the Mountain West with several feet of snow. 

“It is a very active season and really looks like it will remain active, so we’re probably going to be looking at more severe weather as we go through the spring,” Shepherd said. “It’s really a very typical type pattern, but there’s a lot of moisture and perhaps a little more instability than usual and the Gulf is a little warmer for this time of the year than you typically see so that’s why it’s been a little more active.” 

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency after the storms Jan. 12, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist state and local governments with the ongoing recovery effort. Organizers in Selma have since announced the 57th annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee will resume as scheduled. 

Autauga County EMA Director Ernie Baggett, whose county recorded seven of the nine deaths Jan. 12, said the area was continuing to clean up while they were also monitoring the latest weather system, although its most intense effects are expected to be experienced southward along the Interstate 65 corridor. 

“Our bigger concern at this point is this is coming in overnight and we still have trees and tree limbs that were broken but haven’t fallen down,” Baggett said Tuesday morning. “So we’re asking people not to drive and to be real cautious around trees. There will also likely be power outages if trees come down.”

Baggett added that he has also seen an uptick in severe weather.

“It’s been a busy past few years, to be very honest with you,” he said. “I’ve been doing this on the civilian side for 12 years and we’ve had a few [tornadoes], but our neighboring Elmore County has had 12 tornadoes in the last four years.” 

According to the NWS, the same storm system has spawned high wind warnings from eastern Texas through parts of Arkansas, nearly all of Tennessee and the western half of Georgia. Behind it, winter storm warnings and advisories are in effect in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The system is expected to sweep up the eastern seaboard Wednesday, producing rain and snow from Florida to New York.

from Courthouse News

30-year-old death sentence tossed over ‘delusional’ defendant’s self-representation

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — The California Supreme Court on Monday threw out the 1992 death sentence of a man convicted of a series of murders and robberies because he was allowed to represent himself at trial even though a psychological examination had found he likely suffered from a delusional thought disorder.

The court on Monday issued a ruling that Billy Ray Waldon’s conviction and sentence had to be vacated. The trial judge who in 1989 allowed Waldon to represent himself at trial, the court said, had been wrong to reverse the decision by another judge from a year before finding Waldon didn’t rationally perceive his situation and didn’t realize the risks and consequences of not having a defense lawyer representing him.

“Judge Boyle abused his discretion by overturning Judge Zumwalt’s Faretta denial while intentionally ignoring her findings and the bases for her decision, and by ignoring relevant evidence, including testimony from three mental health experts that caused Judge Zumwalt to conclude that Waldon was not competent to validly waive counsel or represent himself,” Associate Justice Goodwin Liu wrote for the court, referring to the the two trial judges.

Representatives of the California Attorney General’s office, which fought Waldon’s appeal, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. California hasn’t executed an inmate since 2006, and in 2022 Governor Gavin Newsom ordered death row to be dismantled.

Waldon, who is imprisoned in San Quentin, was convicted of three counts of first degree murder, as well as attempted murder, rape, burglary, seven counts of robbery, and two counts of animal cruelty. Because he was sentenced to death, his appeal was automatic.

The Tahlequah, Oklahoma, native was accused of going on a two-week crime spree in San Diego in December 1985, including shooting a woman and killing her daughter by setting their house on fire, raping a woman in her apartment, and robbing four other women on separate occasions. When police tried to arrest him, he fled and killed a man nearby. In his car, police found belongings of his victims as well as a box of bullets consistent with the ones used in the murders.

The crime spree landed Waldon on the FBI’s most wanted list and he was arrested the following June after he again tried to flee police who had stopped him for a traffic violation.

At his trial, he argued that federal agents framed him for the crimes to thwart his efforts to promote world peace, spread new languages, and advance Cherokee autonomy. After being discharged from the Navy in 1984, Waldon had founded several organizations, including the World Humanitarian Church, the World Esperanto Organization and the World Poliespo Organization, which he claimed was a “rapid thinking” language that he invented by combining Esperanto and Cherokee.

Before trial, Waldon asked the judge to dismiss his lawyers and to represent himself. The judge assigned to his case ordered a psychiatric examination to assess whether he had the mental capacity to waive counsel, and a court-appointed psychiatrist concluded that Waldon did not appreciate the ramifications of waiving counsel and likely had a delusional thought disorder.

Although Waldon was found competent to stand trial, the same judge denied his request to represent himself, saying that while he had “the cognitive ability to understand the proceedings, he cannot formulate and present his defense with an appropriate awareness of all ramifications.”

The case was then delayed while Waldon’s lawyer tried to get excused from representing him. The next year, Waldon’s case had been assigned to Judge Boyle and he renewed his bid to represent himself. He submitted sworn declarations from people who knew from Esperanto classes and conferences, and Boyle found these a “testament” to Waldon’s intelligence and competence.

The justices didn’t see it that way.

“Here, the reasons Waldon gave for wanting to represent himself offered no indication that he ‘actually’ appreciated the ‘significance and consequences’ of that decision,” Liu wrote for the court. “He explained in a public filing that his trial strategy consisted of surprising the prosecutor by insisting on a speedy trial; he said he needed to bring criminal charges against his former trial counsel; he told others he was prepared to die for the principle of self-representation; he claimed that the assistance of counsel violated his religion.”

Further, Liu said Waldon’s behavior, including his preoccupation with alleged conspiracies and wrongdoing unrelated to the criminal trial, and his inability or unwillingness to focus on potential defenses, did not signal an appreciation of the dangers and disadvantages he faced.

from Courthouse News

Arizona poised to drop legislator age requirement from 25 to 18

PHOENIX — The Arizona House government committee will hear a bill this week that supporters say will increase civic engagement and voter turnout in young Arizonans. 

The Civic Participation Act, a constitutional amendment proposed by Representative Matt Gress, a Republican from Phoenix, would lower the minimum age to run for both chambers of the Arizona Legislature from 25 to 18. Arizona, currently tied for the highest age requirement, would become the 13th state with a minimum age of 18. 

Supporters say the change will encourage young voters to take a more active role in politics, engaging more with representatives that look like them and can speak to their needs. 

But one expert says those results are far from guaranteed.

What would the Civic Participation Act do?

The idea came from a 15-year-old Young Republican named Nick Delgado, who pitched it to Gress.

Gress ran for a township trustee position in his hometown of Cyril, Oklahoma, when he was 18. Now 37, he said he empathizes with those who want to make a difference but are deemed too young to do so.

“One of the common threads in my career in public service has been care for community,” Gress said. “With age comes wisdom, but care for community is a quality that’s timeless.”

The proposal comes on the heels of the second-highest young voter turnout for a midterm election in 30 years. About 27% of people 18 to 29 voted in the 2022 midterm. About 50% voted in the 2020 presidential election, an 11-point increase from 2016.

Gress said those people, especially those younger than 25, can bring a “unique perspective” to politics.

“There are a lot of young Americans who care about their community,” he said. “They bring a really good fresh perspective to some of the long-standing problems we’re facing. Problems created by older people — people who came before them.”

Gress sponsored the bill alongside the youngest state representatives from each side of the political aisle: Austin Smith, a Republican from Whittmann, and Cesar Aguilar, a Democrat from Phoenix, both of whom are 27.

Aguilar said young people may be better fit to solve some of the challenges facing the nation.

“It definitely is a generational thing,” he said. “Young people are more tech savvy (and) they have more knowledge about how the world operates.

“A lot of things you think are nonpolitical become political. Older people make (issues) political, but young people just look at trying to solve the problem.”

Will it fire up young people?

Sponsors hope the constitutional amendment will encourage young people to engage in politics through what Gress called “descriptive representation.” 

But Tom Volgy, a political science professor at the University of Arizona, said descriptive representation alone isn’t enough to make a change. 

“Reducing the age is not very important unless what that means is that those people 18 to 25 would speak to issues that people 18 to 25 would care about.”

He said being young and advocating for young people’s issues aren’t one in the same. One can be young and advocate for older people, or be old and advocate for younger people. Volgy pointed to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent and past presidential nominee, as an example of the latter.

“Some people in their 20’s can’t address those issues,” he said. “Given the divisions in our society right now, my guess is people 18 to 25 are likely to reflect these divisions the same as (older representatives do).

Francisco Pedraza, a political science professor from Arizona State University, agreed that young legislators would have to speak to their peers’ issues to increase their civic engagement, but he said that’s a lot more likely that Volgy makes it seem.

A politician like Sanders is rare, he said, and in most cases, youth are far more likely than older people to care about youth issues.

But allowing young people to run for office doesn’t mean they’re likely to win, Volgy said. 

“There’s a reason why elected officials are typically older,” he said. “You need experience to know how to run and how to run successfully.”

Rather than gaining political experience at such a young age, Volpy said he’d rather see Arizonans pursuing education.

“The age between 18 and 22 is very critical for people getting a higher education,” he said. “People who have the chance to get a bachelor’s degree and don’t never catch up in terms of economic well being.”

But people like Aguilar can do both. 

Aguilar served as a student body senator at Northern Arizona University when he was 18, managing a budget of $1 million dollars. 

“A lot of people get involved in government at an early age,” he said. “They’re already getting experience.”

‘A youth movement’

In 2022, 10 people younger than 25 were elected to state legislative positions across the U.S. Four of them were younger than 20. 

While a small percentage of all legislators, it represents a stark contrast from the average. At the start of the 117th Congress, the average age of members of the House was 58, and average for senators was 64. In Arizona, the average state representative’s age is 53 while the average state senator’s age is 56.

“I think you’re just seeing a youth movement,” Aguilar said.

Young politicians are particularly successful in New Hampshire. Of the 25 youngest state legislators in American history, 14 of them hail from New Hampshire.

“The proof is in the pudding,” said state Representative Jonah Wheeler, a Democrat from Peterborough, New Hampshire. “New Hampshire is a civically engaged state. They are vocal and passionate about what happens in their community.”

Wheeler took office in December at age 19. 

“Everyone should feel there’s a place for them in the halls of Congress,” he said. “That includes young people, who have just as much a voice as older people.”

Wheeler was elected alongside Valerie McDonnell, who was 18 years and 196 days old when she took office on Dec. 7, making her the youngest current state legislator in the country and the third youngest of all time. 

“I think I surprised many people,” she said. “I didn’t realize I was the youngest person until after I won.”

She joked that people thought she was selling Girl Scout cookies when she went knocking on doors. 

Both McDonnell and Wheeler say their perspectives as young people help them to look at old problems in new ways, and both said their candidacy and subsequent wins inspired more political interest and involvement from their peers. 

“(Winning the election) inspired some of my classmates (and) people I knew to text me and say ‘oh, that’s cool. Maybe I can do that,’” McDonnell said. 

She said there’s no reason why people of voting age shouldn’t run for office.

“The voting age of the population is 18 years old,” she said. “These people are deemed qualified to make these decisions, so they, as society has decided, are qualified to have a larger say.” 

Pedraza believes people like McDonnell and Wheeler will soon populate the halls of the Arizona Legislature if the Civic Participation Act is passed. 

“A lot of folks younger than 25 feel really strongly about important issues, he said. “They’ll think to themselves, ‘why wait?’”

Being an amendment to the state constitution, the decision would be left in the hands of the voters if the bill is first approved by the House and Senate. 

The House government committee will hear the bill on Jan. 25 at 9 a.m. to decide whether it goes to the House floor. 

from Courthouse News

Treasury Department can’t enforce American Rescue Plan tax cut rule, 11th Circuit says

ATLANTA (CN) — A provision of the American Rescue Plan Act which would have prevented states from using pandemic relief funds to offset new tax cuts cannot be enforced, a unanimous panel of the 11th Circuit ruled on Friday.

The Atlanta-based appeals court found that the rule barring states from using relief funds to offset a decease in their net tax revenue through the end of 2024 violates the spending clause of the U.S. Constitution. The language of the provision is too ambiguous and leaves state governments unable to ascertain the conditions imposed on their acceptance of the money, the 42-page ruling explains.

“The Rescue Plan’s offset provision has affected the states’ sovereign authority to tax by binding them to a deal with ambiguous terms and placing them on the hook for billions of dollars in potential recoupment actions,” U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher wrote on behalf of the panel.

The decision applies only to the tax offset provision and does not apply to other portions of the plan.

Passed by Congress in 2021 to help hasten the nation’s recovery from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan distributed $195.3 billion in flexible relief funds to the states. The money was earmarked to support essential workers, invest in infrastructure and respond to the public health emergency caused by the pandemic.

Accepting a cut of the stimulus package required states to comply with certain conditions. One of those conditions is a rule asking states to agree that they will not use relief funds to directly or indirectly offset a reduction in net tax revenue resulting from state laws that reduce tax burdens.

But state officials have argued that the law is unclear on what it means to “directly or indirectly” offset tax cuts with relief funds.

The mandate prompted six federal lawsuits, including one filed in federal court by Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia. The states alleged that the tax cut rule could be read to prohibit states from passing tax relief of any kind because it did not make clear how reductions in net tax revenue would be measured to determine compliance.

An Alabama federal judge sided with the states in 2021, finding that the provision is “a federal invasion of state sovereignty.” The federal government appealed, landing the case before the 11th Circuit in September.

The appeals court upheld the Alabama judge’s decision on Friday, ruling that it is not enough for states to know that there are strings attached to federal funds — they must also fully understand the obligations of the deal.

“We remain unable to surmount the linguistic hurdle before us––because of the fungibility of money, Rescue Plan funds could conceivably ‘indirectly offset’ any reduction in net tax revenue caused by a change in law,” Brasher, a Trump appointee, wrote, adding that the provision “alters the traditional balance of federalism by imposing a condition on a state’s entire budget process.”

What does the phrase “directly or indirectly offset” mean? Brasher wrote that the panel agrees with the states that the phrase “seems ‘extraordinarily expansive,’” noting that “an indirect offset could be boundless.”

“We simply cannot pin down when an offset becomes attenuated enough to no longer be ‘indirect,’” the ruling states.

The panel also rejected arguments proffered by a Justice Department attorney that any confusion about the provision was cleared up by a regulation issued by the Treasury Department last year. The regulation assured states that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen does not intend to enforce the provision to recoup money based on tax cuts so long as states can pay for the tax cuts using their own funds.

But the appeals court ruled that even a narrow reading of the provision represents an “unconstitutional condition” on federal funds.

In any case, the plan fails to provide a baseline or other way to determine whether net tax revenue have been reduced, the decision says.

Brasher was joined on the panel by fellow Trump appointee U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Luck and Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Ed Carnes, a George H.W. Bush appointee.

from Courthouse News

Judge pins Illinois River pollution on poultry farms

Read the ruling here.

from Courthouse News

US divided over Roe’s repeal as abortion foes gird for march

(AP) — Anti-abortion activists will have multiple reasons to celebrate — and some reasons for unease — when they gather Friday in Washington for the annual March for Life.

The march, which includes a rally drawing abortion opponents from across the nation, has been held annually since January 1974 — a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision established a nationwide right to abortion.

This year’s gathering — 50 years after that decision — will be the first since the high court struck down Roe in a momentous ruling last June.

Courthouse News’ podcast Sidebar tackles the stories you need to know from the legal world. Join our hosts as they take you in and out of courtrooms in the U.S. and beyond.

Since then, 12 Republican-governed states have implemented sweeping bans on abortion, and several others seek to do the same. But those moves have been offset by other developments. Abortion opponents were defeated in votes on ballot measures in Kansas, Michigan and Kentucky. State courts have blocked several bans from taking effect. And myriad efforts are underway to help women in abortion-ban states either get abortions out of state or use the abortion pill for self-managed abortions.

“It’s almost like the old wild, wild West … everything is still shaking out,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee.

With numerous Democratic-governed states taking steps to protect and expand abortion access, Tobias likened the current situation to the pre-Civil War era when the nation was closely divided between free states and slave states.

“I will not be surprised if we have something like that for a few years,” she said. “But I do know that pro-lifers are not going to give up — it’s a civil rights issue for us.”

The theme for this year’s March for Life is “Next Steps: Marching Forward into a Post-Roe America.” Scheduled speakers include Hall of Fame football coach Tony Dungy and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who won the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe.

The president of March for Life, Jeanne Mancini, depicted the June ruling as “a massive victory for the pro-life movement.”

“But the battle to build a culture of life is far from over,” she said. “March for Life will continue to advocate for the unborn and policies that protect them until abortion becomes unthinkable.”

Prospects for any federal legislation restricting abortion nationwide are negligible for now, given that any such measures emerging from the Republican-led House would face rejection in the Democratic-led Senate. The main battlegrounds will be in the states.

Since June, near-total bans on abortion have been implemented in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Legal challenges are pending against several of those bans.

Elective abortions also are unavailable in Wisconsin, due to legal uncertainties faced by abortion clinics, and in North Dakota, where the lone clinic relocated to Minnesota.

Bans passed by lawmakers in Ohio, Indiana and Wyoming have been blocked by state courts while legal challenges are pending. And in South Carolina, the state Supreme Court on Jan. 5 struck down a ban on abortion after six weeks, ruling the restriction violates a state constitutional right to privacy.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research group which supports abortion rights, says the overall result is “a chaotic legal landscape that is disruptive for providers trying to offer care and patients trying to obtain it.”

“When people do not have access to abortion care in their state, they are forced to make the difficult decision to travel long distances for care, self-manage an abortion or carry an unwanted pregnancy to term,” Guttmacher staffers Elizabeth Nash and Isabel Guarnieri wrote last week.

Looking ahead, some anti-abortion leaders hope the Republicans nominate a 2024 presidential candidate who will aggressively push for nationwide abortion restrictions, rather than keep it as a state-by-state matter.

“The approach to winning on abortion in federal races, proven for a decade, is this: state clearly the ambitious consensus pro-life position and contrast that with the extreme view of Democrat opponents,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America.

Dannenfelser says she’s not surprised by the divisive ups-and-downs that have unfolded since the June ruling.

“This is what it looks like when democracy is restored and we have a voice in the debate,” she said. “For 50 years, we had no voice because the judiciary was always going to shield public opinion from having an effect on the law.”

“We always knew it wouldn’t be a straight line (after Roe’s repeal),” she said, adding “we know neither side is going to lay down and die.”

Multiple public opinion polls since June have found that a majority of Americans support access to legal abortion. According to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in July, 53% of U.S. adults said they disapproved of the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe, while 30% approved.

Professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, suggested the anti-abortion movement may suffer from a perception among many Americans that it’s more concerned with controlling women’s bodies than helping them cope with unintended pregnancies.

“It’s about consolidating their political power, more than about babies,” she said.

Some abortion opponents are trying to counter such perceptions. In Texas, for example, anti-abortion groups are urging lawmakers to spend more money on services for pregnant and parenting Texans, including expanding Medicaid coverage for mothers.

According to Texas Right to Life, the state’s new abortion ban has had a major impact — it says only 68 abortions were recorded by state health officials in July 2022, compared to 4,879 in July 2021.

The group noted the data does not include illegal, unreported abortions — which are widely believed to be increasing as women obtain abortion pills by mail from overseas or from Mexico suppliers.

Charles Camosy, a medical humanities professor at Creighton University School of Medicine who opposes abortion, has analyzed the high-profile election defeats suffered by the anti-abortion movement. Voters in Kansas and Kentucky rejected constitutional amendments that would have declared there is no right to abortion; Michigan voters approved an amendment enshrining the right to abortion in the state constitution.

“Pro-lifers have clearly and badly lost the PR battle since June and this has shaped how people are voting,” Camosy said via email. He said abortion-rights supporters were better organized and better funded, while many anti-abortion politicians either avoided the issue or sounded too extreme.

“There are obviously very good things that have happened, however,” added Camosy, citing the drop in abortions reported in states with bans.

“Pro-lifers also now relish the chance to actually debate the issues in a democratic, open context … as opposed to constantly running into the fiats of various courts,” he said. “We may lose some battles early on… but it is worth it to have the debates.”

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By DAVID CRARY AP National Writer

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

from Courthouse News

Oklahoma executes man who killed elderly couple in 2003

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday who was convicted of killing an elderly couple and committing other crimes 20 years ago before authorities caught up to him in Texas following a manhunt.

Scott James Eizember, 62, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m.

“I’m at peace,” Eizember said, strapped to a gurney with an intravenous line in his left arm. “My conscience is clear, completely. I love my children.”

Once the lethal drugs began to flow, Eizember, who had a close-cropped beard, could be seen chatting with his spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeffrey Hood, who was inside the execution chamber with him. He lifted his head at one point and mouthed the words, “I love you,” toward his daughter and attorneys who were among 17 people seated in the witness room.

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Eizember’s breathing became labored and he was declared unconscious at 10:07 a.m. He appeared to stop breathing at 10:10 a.m. He was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m.

Eizember’s attorneys did not deny he killed A.J. Cantrell, 76, and his wife, Patsy Cantrell, 70, on Oct. 18, 2003. But they told the state’s Pardon and Parole Board last month that the killings were unplanned and spontaneous and his life still had value.

The board voted 3-2 to reject a clemency recommendation.

“He has felt remorse every day of his imprisonment. There is no reason to kill him next month other than revenge,” attorney Mark Henricksen told the board.

After the execution, several members of the Cantrell spoke of the pain the family has endured and voiced concern at the length of time it took for Eizember to be executed.

“After living this nightmare, I must say that 20 years is too long for justice to be served,” Johnny Melton, the slain couple’s nephew, said in a statement read on behalf of the family. “We want to get it right and we absolutely want to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected, but the process is much too slow.”

Melton also stressed the importance of addressing domestic violence and improving mental health treatment, in the state of Oklahoma and across the nation.

“I know this is going to be a controversial statement, but I believe it to be a fact. It is the abuser who needs help. They need it when they are young,” Melton said. “By the time the victim needs help, it’s too late.”

Prosecutors allege Eizember broke into the Cantrells’ home in Depew, Oklahoma, after he saw them leave so he could lie in wait for his ex-girlfriend, Kathryn Smith, who lived across the street. When the couple came home unexpectedly, prosecutors say Eizember shot and killed Patsy Cantrell with a shotgun he found inside the home and then bludgeoned A.J. Cantrell to death with the weapon.

Eizember was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for killing A.J. Cantrell and convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 150 years in prison for killing Patsy Cantrell. Eizember’s attorneys had argued that Patsy Cantrell was shot and killed while he and A.J. Cantrell struggled over the shotgun.

After killing the couple, Eizember walked across the street and entered Smith’s home, shot her son in the back and attacked her mother, prosecutors say. Both survived and authorities say Eizember ultimately sped out of town in a stolen vehicle.

Police believe Eizember hid out in wooded areas around the towns of Depew and Bristow for more than 30 days while law enforcement agencies launched a large manhunt to track him down.

“He wasn’t afraid to kill again,” Assistant Attorney General Tessa Henry told the pardon board.

Eizember eventually made his way to Arkansas in a stolen car and kidnapped a physician and his wife at gunpoint, prosecutors said. After driving with the couple to Texas, he finally was captured near the town of Lufkin after the physician pulled out a pistol stashed in the couple’s van and shot Eizember four times, authorities said.

A federal jury in Arkansas convicted Eizember in December 2005 on two counts of kidnapping and one count each of carjacking and using a firearm in a crime of violence. He was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in that case.

Eizember filed a last-minute lawsuit seeking to have his spiritual adviser with him inside the death chamber during his execution after the Department of Corrections rejected the minister because of Hood’s history of anti-death penalty activism, including arrests. The DOC reversed course on that decision Wednesday, citing concerns from the Cantrell family that the decision could lead to Thursday’s execution being called off.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to have their pastors pray aloud and even touch them during their executions.

Oklahoma uses a three-drug lethal injection method starting with the sedative midazolam, rendering the person unconscious, followed by a paralytic vecuronium bromide and finally potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Eizember’s execution was the eighth in Oklahoma since the state resumed executions in 2021.

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By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

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Ukrainian troops to train on Patriot system in Oklahoma

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 100 Ukrainian troops will head to Oklahoma’s Fort Sill as soon as next week to begin training on the Patriot missile defense system, getting Kyiv closer to obtaining a long-sought protection against Russia’s continued missile attacks.

Ukraine has requested that the U.S. provide the Patriot surface-to-air guided missile defense system for months because it can target aircraft, cruise missiles and shorter-range ballistic missiles. During his late December visit to the U.S., Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the battery would make a significant difference in bolstering Kyiv’s defenses against Russia’s invasion.

The number of Ukrainians coming to Fort Sill is approximately the number it takes to operate one battery, and they will focus on learning to operate and also maintain the Patriot, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday.

Kyiv’s decision to take troops off the battlefield to train across the Atlantic in the U.S. is unusual, although it has sent forces for short-term training at European bases for other more complex systems it has received, such as on the longer-range High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

Patriot training normally can take several months, but “the longer those troops are off the line, they’re not actually engaged in combat,” Ryder said, so the training will be shortened.

Fort Sill was selected because it already runs Patriot training schools, Ryder said.

The U.S. pledged one Patriot battery in December as part of one of several large military assistance packages it has provided Ukraine in recent weeks. Last week Germany pledged an additional Patriot battery.

Each Patriot battery consists of a truck-mounted launching system with eight launchers that can hold up to four missile interceptors each, a ground radar, a control station and a generator. The Army said it currently has 16 Patriot battalions.

The Patriot batteries will complement a variety of air defense systems that both the U.S. and NATO partners have pledged to Ukraine, as it faces an evolving barrage of missiles and drones against its civilian population and infrastructure from Russia in the nearly 11-month-old conflict. In the last few months, Germany has pledged four IRIS-T air defense systems; the U.S. has also pledged eight mid-range National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and Avenger air defense systems.

The training at Fort Sill was first reported by CNN.

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By TARA COPP Associated Press

from Courthouse News

Kevin McCarthy nears victory for speaker after grueling fight

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Kevin McCarthy flipped more than a dozen colleagues to support him in dramatic votes Friday for House speaker, a major sign of progress for the embattled leader on the fourth day and 12th ballot of a grueling standoff that is testing American democracy.

The changed votes from conservative holdouts, including the chairman of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, put McCarthy closer to seizing the gavel.

The stunning turnaround came after McCarthy agreed to many of the detractors’ demands — including the reinstatement of a longstanding House rule that would allow any single member to call a vote to oust him from office. That change and others mean the job he fought so hard to gain will be somewhat weakened.

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The showdown that has stymied the new Congress came against the backdrop of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which shook the country when a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

A few minutes before voting began in the House chamber, Republicans tiring of the spectacle walked out when one of McCarthy’s most ardent challengers railed against the GOP leader.

“We do not trust Mr. McCarthy with power,” said Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida, as colleagues streamed out of the chamber in protest of his remarks.

Contours of a deal with conservative holdouts who have been blocking McCarthy’s rise emerged, but an agreement had seemed still out of reach after three dismal days and 11 failed votes in a political spectacle unseen in a century.

But an upbeat McCarthy told reporters as he arrived at the Capitol Friday morning, “We’re going to make progress. We’re going to shock you.”

One significant former holdout, Republican Scott Perry, chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, tweeted after his switched vote for McCarthy: “We’re at a turning point.”

But several holdouts remained.

Voting resumed after Republican Rep. Mike Garcia nominated McCarthy for a 12th time, also thanking the U.S. Capitol Police who were given a standing ovation for protecting lawmakers and the legislative seat of democracy on Jan. 6.

The chamber is unable swear in members and begin its 2023-24 session. McCarthy told lawmakers there were no plans to adjourn for the weekend, one Republican said, but it might be difficult to keep them in town.

So far Republicans have been unable to settle on a new speaker — normally an easy, joyous task for a party that has just won majority control. But not this time: About 200 Republicans have been stymied by 20 far-right colleagues who said he’s not conservative enough.

The agreement McCarthy presented to the holdouts from the Freedom Caucus and others centers around rules changes they have been seeking for months. Those changes would shrink the power of the speaker’s office and give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence in drafting and passing legislation.

Even if McCarthy is able to secure the votes he needs, he will emerge as a weakened speaker, having given away some powers, leaving him constantly under threat of being voted out by his detractors. But he would also be potentially emboldened as a survivor of one of the more brutal fights for the gavel in U.S. history.

At the core of the emerging deal is the reinstatement of a House rule that would allow a single lawmaker to make a motion to “vacate the chair,” essentially calling a vote to oust the speaker. McCarthy had resisted allowing a return to the longstanding rule that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had done away with, because it had been held over the head of past Republican Speaker John Boehner, chasing him to early retirement. But it appears he had no other choice.

The chairman of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who had been a leader in Trump’s efforts to challenge his presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, appeared receptive to the proposed package, tweeting an adage from Ronald Reagan, “Trust but verify.”

Other wins for the holdouts include provisions in the proposed deal to expand the number of seats available on the House Rules Committee, to mandate 72 hours for bills to be posted before votes and to promise to try for a constitutional amendment that would impose federal limits on the number of terms a person could serve in the House and Senate.

Lest hopes get ahead of reality, conservative holdout Ralph Norman of South Carolina said: “This is round one.”

It could be the makings of a deal to end a standoff that has left the House unable to fully function. Members have not been sworn in and almost no other business can happen. A memo sent out by the House’s chief administrative officer Thursday evening said that committees “shall only carry-out core Constitutional responsibilities.” Payroll cannot be processed if the House isn’t functioning by Jan. 13.

After a long week of failed votes, Thursday’s tally was dismal: McCarthy lost seventh, eighth and then historic ninth, 10th and 11th rounds of voting, surpassing the number from 100 years ago in the last drawn-out fight to choose a speaker.

The California Republican exited the chamber and quipped about the moment: “Apparently, I like to make history.”

Feelings of boredom, desperation and annoyance seemed increasingly evident.

Democrats said it was time to get serious. “This sacred House of Representatives needs a leader,” said Democrat Joe Neguse of Colorado, nominating his own party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as speaker.

What started as a political novelty, the first time since 1923 a nominee had not won the gavel on the first vote, has devolved into a bitter Republican Party feud and deepening potential crisis.

Democratic leader Jeffries of New York won the most votes on every ballot but also remained short of a majority. McCarthy ran second, gaining no ground.

Pressure has grown with each passing day for McCarthy to somehow find the votes he needs or step aside. The incoming Republican chairmen of the House’s Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees all said national security was at risk.

Republican Party holdouts repeatedly put forward the name of Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, ensuring continuation of the stalemate that increasingly carried undercurrents of race and politics. They also put forward Republican Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, splitting the protest vote.

Donalds, who is Black, is seen as an emerging party leader and a GOP counterpoint to the Democratic leader, Jeffries, who is the first Black leader of a major political party in the U.S. Congress and on track himself to become speaker some day.

Ballots kept producing almost the same outcome with 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support McCarthy, leaving him far short of the 218 typically needed to win the gavel.

In fact, McCarthy saw his support slip to 201, as one fellow Republican switched to vote simply “present,” and later to 200. With just a 222-seat GOP majority, he could not spare votes.

The disorganized start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House, much the way that some past Republican speakers, including Boehner, had trouble leading a rebellious right flank. The result: government shutdowns, standoffs and Boehner’s early retirement.

The longest fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged on for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.

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By LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press

AP writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

from Courthouse News

Texas inmates say state is ready to execute them with long-expired drugs

HOUSTON (CN) — Texas doles out the ultimate punishment far more than any state and uses only one drug – pentobarbital – for executions. Three Texas inmates set to die early this year are fighting for reprieves, claiming the state’s supply of the drug expired years ago.

John Balentine, 53, was convicted of capital murder by a jury in Amarillo in 1999 and sentenced to death after confessing to police he had snuck into his ex-girlfriend’s home in January 1998 and killed her brother and two of his friends, shooting them each once in the head with a pistol.

First scheduled to die in 2009, Balentine has received at least three court-ordered stays of execution over the years, but he makes clear in a lawsuit – filed with fellow death row inmate Wesley Ruiz in Travis County District Court against the Texas Department Criminal Justice and two of its top officials – he is not seeking another stay.

Ruiz, 43, received a death sentence in 2008 for fatally shooting Mark Nix, a Dallas police corporal, in March 2007. Police had boxed in Ruiz’s vehicle after he led them on a high-speed chase. With Nix breaking out his car’s windows with his baton, Ruiz fired at Nix. The bullet struck the officer’s badge and a fragment severed an artery in his neck.

“Petitioners are not challenging their convictions or sentences of death in this action,” the men say in their lawsuit. “Nor are petitioners arguing that the use of pentobarbital violates their state or federal constitutional rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. Nor are petitioners seeking a stay of execution.”

They claim TDCJ is planning to execute them with compounded pentobarbital that expired years ago, obtained from an “unknown pharmacy and pharmacists,” who they also name as a defendants, in violation of the Texas Pharmacy Act, Texas Controlled Substances Act, Texas Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and Texas Penal Code. TDCJ keeps the pharmacy’s name confidential.

“Expired medications can cause nausea, vomiting, acute renal failure, and other severe side effects,” the complaint states.

Shortly after the inmates filed suit in December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to issue a writ of prohibition, barring the trial judge from issuing any execution-stay orders for Balentine, Ruiz, or Robert Fratta.

The appeals court obliged Paxton on Wednesday with a brief 7-2 order.

In dissent, Judge David Newell complained the court has created a “Catch-22 in which death-row inmates have a civil remedy to pursue claims regarding the method of execution but may not stop the execution to raise them.”

Fratta, 65, intervened in the case and is in most urgent need of relief. His execution is scheduled for Jan. 10, while Ruiz’s and Balentine’s are set for Feb. 1 and Feb. 8, respectively.

Fratta is on death row following his May 2009 capital murder conviction, in a retrial, for hiring hitmen to kill his estranged wife. One of the men fatally shot Fratta’s wife in her home’s garage in November 1994. At the time, Fratta was employed as a police officer by Missouri City, a Houston suburb.

Citing TDCJ lab reports they obtained with open-records requests, Balentine’s and Ruiz’s attorneys say in their lawsuit the agency has stockpiles of compounded pentobarbital in 50- and-100-millimeter vials.

Though the maximum beyond use date is 45 days if the vials are kept frozen, the plaintiffs claim, the TDCJ’s 50-ml vials are at least 636 days old and its 100-ml vials are at least 1,325 days old.

According to the inmates’ counsel, not only is the pentobarbital expired but TDCJ has not tested its pH as required of compounded drugs in guidelines established by the United States Pharmacopeia, nor has the agency visually inspected its vials of the drug for particulates, which raises concerns it could obstruct the inmates’ IV lines and cause unnecessary pain.

“Expired drugs fall out of solution. When that happens the drugs themselves get grainy. That would obstruct the IV lines,” their attorneys – Shawn Nolan, Peter Walker and Alex Kursman of the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Jennae Swiergula of the Texas Defender Service – said in an email.

Texas executes inmates with 5-gram injections of pentobarbital, a barbiturate prescribed to treat seizures and insomnia, and successfully used the protocol on five men last year.

The inmates’ legal team said they do not believe that cuts against their claims that Texas’ expired stock is potentially dangerous. “First we don’t know if they experienced pain. And second, the drugs are even more expired today than they were then,” they said.

According to the complaint, the TDCJ does not consider its pentobarbital to be expired because it periodically sends vials back to its pharmacy source and has it run potency tests on them, thereby extending its beyond use date, a process the plaintiffs’ counsel decries as “unscientific and invalid.”

The lawsuit continues: “On November 29, 2022, TDCJ’s general counsel’s office informed petitioners that respondents were claiming to have yet again extended the BUD of the pentobarbital vials, and were now claiming that all 50ml vials in TDCJ’s possession expire on September 27, 2023, and all 100ml vials expire on November 1, 2023.”

Reached for comment on the lawsuit Thursday, TDCJ communications director Amanda Hernandez said, “All lethal injection drugs are within their use dates and have been appropriately tested.”

Texas has executed 578 prisoners since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a four-year ban on the death penalty in 1976. The next leading state is Oklahoma. which has put to death 119 inmates.

from Courthouse News

Oklahoma AG announces 4 new opioid settlements worth $226M

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma entered settlement agreements with three major pharmacy chains and an opioid manufacturer totaling more than $226 million, Attorney General John O’Connor announced Wednesday.

Including the new settlements with drugmaker Allergan and pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, Oklahoma has received more than $900 million from opioid makers and distributors to help address the state’s opioid crisis, O’Connor said.

“The opioid crisis has inflicted unspeakable pain on Oklahoma families and caused the deaths of thousands of Oklahomans,” O’Connor said in a statement. “Between 2016 and 2020, more than 3,000 Oklahomans died from opioid overdoses.”

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Nearly all the settlement funds must be used to help remediate the effects of the opioid crisis in Oklahoma, including prevention and treatment services.

In November, three of the largest U.S. pharmacy chains reached settlements with states over the toll of opioids worth a total of about $13 billion. Under the separate deals, CVS Health and Walgreen Co. are each paying about $5 billion and Walmart is paying more than $3 billion. None has admitted wrongdoing.

Allergan didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the Oklahoma settlement.

The settlements are the latest in a wave of deals that state and local governments have struck with companies, including drugmakers, distribution companies and even a consulting firm, even as some lawsuits over how the drugs are marketed and sold continue. The total of proposed and finalized settlements is now more than $50 billion. Unlike with tobacco company settlements in the 1990s, the bulk of the money is required to be used to address the opioid crisis, which has been linked to well over 500,000 U.S. deaths since 2000.

In 2019, Oklahoma, under then-Attorney General Mike Hunter, was the first state to reach a settlement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, for $270 million. Most of that money was used to establish a National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa.

Oklahoma was also the first state to go to trial in a lawsuit against the makers of opioids blamed for contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis. A district court judge in 2019 found that New Jersey-based drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and its Belgium-based subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals violated the state’s public nuisance statute and ultimately ordered the company to pay the state $465 million to help address the state’s opioid crisis. However that decision was later overturned by the state’s Supreme Court, which determined the trial court judge wrongly interpreted the state’s public nuisance law.

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By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

from Courthouse News