U.S. News You Might Have Missed This Week
Week ending March 14, 2025.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow its birthright citizenship ban in some states.
On Thursday, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to lift nationwide injunctions blocking a ban on birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants.
Judges in lawsuits, joined by 22 states and Washington D.C., have issued nationwide orders preventing the implementation of Trump's executive action, which civil rights groups and Democratic-led states argue contradicts the nation’s history and the Constitution.
Signed on Trump’s first day back in office, the executive order denies automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. if neither parent is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. Some estimates suggest this could affect over 150,000 newborns annually.
In its request to the Supreme Court, the administration asked the justices to limit the nationwide injunctions to the parties directly involved in the lawsuits while those cases progress through the courts, or, at the very least, allow federal agencies to begin developing plans and issuing guidance for banning birthright citizenship, should Trump's efforts be upheld.
The mayor of Miami Beach is seeking to evict an independent cinema from city-owned property after it screened No Other Land.
The mayor of Miami Beach is seeking to evict an independent cinema from city-owned property after it screened No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary about the forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank.
Mayor Steven Meiner is calling for terminating O Cinema’s lease and withdrawing $40,000 in promised grant funding. In a newsletter sent to residents on Tuesday, Meiner criticized the film as “a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people” and stated that it does not align with the values of the city and its residents.
The documentary (you know, the things that document reality) which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars, highlights the destruction of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli regime and illegal Jewish settlers.
Meiner had urged O Cinema to cancel scheduled screenings of the documentary, citing criticism from Israeli and German officials. After initially agreeing, the cinema decided to move ahead with screenings, selling out of all scheduled shows and adding additional dates in March.
A new bill in Alabama would cut funding for school districts that don’t require the Pledge of Allegiance and a “prayer reflecting Judeo-Christian values” at the start of each school day.
Alabama House Bill 231, introduced by Republican state Representative Reed Ingram, would amend the state constitution to mandate that local boards of education in the state implement policies to enforce a practice of requiring the Pledge of Allegiance and a “prayer reflecting Judeo-Christian values” at the start of each school day.
The bill also specifies penalties for noncompliance, allowing violations to be reported to the State Superintendent of Education. If a local board or school is found to have a "continued pattern of intentional refusal" to comply after an investigation, the State Superintendent would be authorized to withhold 25% of the state funding allocated to the noncompliant board for the following fiscal year. Ongoing violations could result in additional funding cuts by the state legislature.
The amendment's goal is to ensure that each school day begins with both the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer, which the bill defines as "representative of the Judeo-Christian values upon which the United States was founded."
Columbia University announced that it has suspended, expelled, and revoked the diplomas of pro-Palestine student protesters
Columbia University announced on Thursday that it had expelled, suspended, and revoked the diplomas of nearly two dozen students involved in the anti-genocide, pro-Palestine Gaza solidarity encampment protests last year.
The move to harshly punish the students comes just a week after the Trump administration announced that it was cancelling roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts with the university.
The Trump administration has demanded that Columbia compile a list of “immediate next steps” for discussions on restoring the $400 million that was revoked. According to the letter, the requested steps include banning face masks, expanding law enforcement powers on campus, and placing the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under external oversight.
Columbia is also under fire from people of conscience worldwide for their transparent refusal to help graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil as he has been abducted and held hostage by the U.S. government for his role in the encampments.
The USDA cancelled $1 billion in funding for schools and food banks to buy food from local suppliers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is eliminating two federal programs that allocated approximately $1 billion in funding to schools and food banks for purchasing food directly from local farms, ranchers, and producers. The agency stated this move is part of an effort to "return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives."
As a result, the decision halts about $660 million in funding for the Local Food for Schools program, which operates in 40 U.S. states, and approximately $420 million for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, which supports food banks and local organizations in providing food to their communities.
This action follows statements from the Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which have advocated for significant cuts in federal spending to curb government waste. The eliminated USDA programs were financed through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a Depression-era fund established to purchase products directly from farmers.
The Trump administration opened investigations into more than 50 universities for alleged “racial discrimination” DEI practices.
On Friday, Trump’s Department of Education announced that it has opened investigations into more than 50 universities nationwide for what they’re calling “racial discrimination” DEI practices.
The Education Department said that 45 schools are under investigation for partnering with the Ph.D Project. The DoE says that the Ph.D Project is “an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.” Seven more schools are under investigation for “alleged impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation.”
The list of schools impacted by this new federal investigation includes Ivy League schools, state universities and smaller higher education institutions.
Among those investigated are Yale University, MIT, University of Kentucky, University of Chicago, University of Alabama, and University of South Florida. The full list can be found here.
Wisconsin lawmakers passed a bill to require police presence in Milwaukee Public Schools.
The Wisconsin Assembly on Thursday passed Assembly Bill 91, which will require police presence in all Milwaukee Public Schools.
AB91, introduced by Republican state Representative Bob Donovan, will require the Milwaukee public school district to maintain at least 25 police officers within schools across the district. The bill will impose a penalty on the school district if the 25 officers are not placed in schools within 30 days of the bill being signed into law.
According to the bill, if the city and schools refuse to comply, the city of Milwaukee will lose 10 percent of its shared revenue, and Milwaukee Public Schools will lose 20 percent of its per-pupil aid.
Research has, for years, consistently shown that police presence in schools does “little to reduce on-campus violence or mass shootings, and their presence is often damaging to students of color and students with disabilities. Having [police] in schools can actually create higher rates of behavioral incidents and spikes in suspensions, expulsions, and arrests.”
The EPA announced dozens of environmental regulation rollbacks.
The Trump administration announced a series of regulatory rollbacks on Wednesday, including the repeal of Biden-era emissions limits on power plants and automobiles, and reduced protections for waterways.
These moves, led by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), align with Trump's pledge to reduce regulations and boost industries like coal, manufacturing, and oil production while weakening key environmental rules aimed at protecting air and water quality and combating climate change.
Lee Zeldin, EPA’s administrator, called the rollbacks "the most consequential day of deregulation in American history."
The agency unveiled over 30 deregulatory actions, starting with a decision to narrow the definition of protected waterways under the Clean Water Act, which will ease pollution limits from agriculture, mining, and petrochemicals in waterways.
Other rollbacks include limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks and regulations on greenhouse gases.