Category: Politics

Federal Lawsuit Claims Tennessee’s New PBM Law of Violates U.S. Constitution, State Lawmakers ‘Will Be Personally Enriched’

Tom Pappert
Pharmacy

A federal lawsuit claims Tennessee’s new law prohibiting vertical integration between pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) violates the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, federal law governing employer-sponsored health plans, rules specific to Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans, and the Constitution’s Takings Clause, which prohibits private property from being taken for public use without compensation.

The lawsuit was filed by CVS and affiliated PBM and insurance companies in the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Tennessee last Thursday, shortly after Governor Bill Lee signed Senate Bill (SB) 2040, the Freedom, Access, and Integrity in Registered Pharmacy (FAIR Rx) Act, beginning the countdown for vertically integrated companies to divest by January 1, 2027, ahead of a complete prohibition that will start in January 2028.

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Tennessee U.S. Attorney ‘Evaluating Appeal’ After Obama-Appointed Judge Drops Human Smuggling Case Against Abrego Garcia

Tom Pappert
US Atty Braden Boucek

U.S. Attorney Braden Boucek on Monday told The Tennessee Star that prosecutors in the Middle District of Tennessee are evaluating plans to appeal the Friday ruling by Obama-appointed District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who dropped the federal human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, determining the Department of Justice (DOJ) “failed to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness.”

“The undisputed evidence shows that the decision to charge Abrego was made by a career prosecutor based solely on the facts and the substantial evidence that a serious crime had been committed and deserved prosecution,” said Boucek.

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Trump’s Pollster Found Voters Were Highly Concerned About Vaccines but It Never Saw Daylight

Daily Caller News Foundation
Vaccine

An unreleased poll appears to undermine the White House’s stated rationale for pivoting away from policies that inflame pharmaceutical companies.

The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained a secret poll conducted in October 2025 by President Donald Trump’s longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio finding that 73% of voters expressed concern about childhood vaccine mandates, while a whopping 90% of voters expressed concern about the pharmaceutical industry’s corrupting influence.

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Thomas Massie Files to Run for Congress Again in 2028

Daily Caller News Foundation
Thomas Massie

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie filed to run for his seat in 2028 on Sunday after losing his primary seat to a challenger backed by President Donald Trump.

Massie said he filed with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) in order to raise funds for his political operations as a potential candidate, though he has not made a final decision on which office to seek. He lost his primary race to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein by a 9-point margin after Trump aggressively campaigned against Massie over his opposition to the Iran war, his multiple votes against the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act and his successful calls to release the files surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.

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Obama-Appointed Judge’s Dismissal of Human Smuggling Case Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia Ignored Evidence Biden-Era FBI Quashed Investigation into 2022 Traffic Stop

Tom Pappert and Michael Patrick Leahy
Judge Wavery Crenshaw and Kilmar Abrego Garcia courtroom sketch

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw omitted key evidence from his Friday ruling dismissing the federal human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, including reporting by The Tennessee Star that was seemingly referenced during testimony, revealing the “Biden-era FBI” directed Tennessee authorities to release Abrego Garcia during a 2022 traffic stop despite suspecting human trafficking. Instead, the Obama-appointed judge sided with the foreign national, ruling the Trump administration failed to overcome a presumption of vindictive prosecution.

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Trump Insists That Six Muslim Countries Join Abraham Accords If They Want to Be Part of Iran Deal

Just the News
trump podium

President Donald Trump said Monday that he has demanded that the leaders of six Muslim countries must join the Abraham Accords if they want to be part of the deal that is currently being negotiated with Iran, which Trump said is “proceeding nicely!”

Trump stated that demand in a Memorial Day post on Truth Social. He said that during a Saturday phone call, he told the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, and Jordan that he wants them all to normalize relations with Israel by agreeing to the 2020 Abraham Accords, which were brokered by the U.S. during Trump’s first term as president. 

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Gov. Bill Lee Signs PBM Bill Backed by Tennessee’s Pharmacist Lawmakers amid ‘Pending’ Legal Challenge from CVS

Tom Pappert
Bill Lee

Governor Bill Lee on Friday signed Senate Bill (SB) 2040, the Freedom, Access, and Integrity in Registered Pharmacy (FAIR Rx) Act into law. Once fully active in January 2028, it will prohibit vertical integration between pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and pharmacies in Tennessee. It will force divestment from any already vertically integrated companies by January 1, 2027.

The legislation was passed with the support of the Tennessee Pharmacists Association (TPA), and chief executive officer Dr. Anthony Pudlo recently commended the pharmacists elected to the General Assembly for successfully pushing the legislation through.

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DOJ Promises Appeal After Obama-Appointed Judge Tosses Abrego Garcia Case Despite Insufficient Evidence of Vindictive Prosecution

Tom Pappert
Kilmar Abrego Garcia

The federal human smuggling indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador accused of participating in a human smuggling ring for years, was dismissed for vindictive prosecution on Friday by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice told The Tennessee Star on Friday that the federal government intends to appeal Crenshaw’s decision. 

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Phillips, Leahy Say Nashville ‘Needs Its Own Spencer Pratt’ Ahead of 2027 Mayoral Race

Kaitlin Housler
Spencer Pratt

Tea Party Nation Founder Judson Phillips and The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy argued that Nashville could become fertile ground for an “insurgent” political campaign modeled after the AI-driven strategy used by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt.

Speaking during Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Phillips praised Pratt’s unconventional campaign style, saying, “Pratt’s campaign, anybody who’s thinking about running as a Republican, particularly if you’re running for a significant office, you need to emulate Spencer Pratt’s campaign.”

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Litigants in State Court for Tennessee Redistricting Lawsuit Told to Expect Quick Decision from Three-Judge Panel

Tom Pappert
Judge James Gass, Chancellor Ann Davis, and Chancellor Tony Childress

The litigants in the lawsuit seeking to block the newly-approved congressional districts, arguing the General Assembly exceeded the mandate authorized by Governor Bill Lee in their special legislative session, were reportedly told to expect a quick decision on Wednesday by a panel of three Tennessee state judges appointed to oversee the case. 

Arguments were made on Wednesday before the three-judge panel (pictured above, left-to-right), which reportedly consists of Judge James Gass of Sevierville, Chancellor Anne Martin of Nashville, and Chancellor Tony Childress of Dyersburg.

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Federal Judge Authorizes U.S. Marshals to Serve Lawsuit Against Mitch Snow in Candace Owens Defamation Case

Tom Pappert
Mitch Snow, Candace Owens

A federal magistrate judge in Tennessee on Wednesday granted the request by Brian Harpole, the former head of security to Charlie Kirk, for the U.S. Marshals Service to serve Mitch Snow with the defamation lawsuit targeting him and Candace Owens over his claim that Harpole, Erika Kirk, and members of the military attended a secret meeting in Arizona one day before Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

In his three-page order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Luke Evans offered two reasons justifying the intervention of the Marshals, beginning with the alleged failure by process servers to reach Snow despite multiple attempts.

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Commentary: Harris and Democrats Play for Keeps with ‘No Bad Ideas’ Push to Pack Supreme Court, House, Senate and Electoral College

The Daily Torch
Former Vice President Kamala Harris

“I think that we need an expanded playbook in a way that we invite all ideas that we have basically look that we say look this is a moment where there are no bad ideas. A no bad idea brainstorm is what I’d like to call it. And in that no bad ideas brainstorm, we talk about what we need to do and think about doing around the Electoral College. …”

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Trump to Stump for Republican Who Pushed Mass Amnesty Bill Alongside Democrats

Daily Caller News Foundation
Mike Lawler

President Donald Trump will campaign with Republican New York Rep. Mike Lawler on Friday after he sided with Democrats to push a mass amnesty bill.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston said Trump and Lawler would campaign on affordability and tax cuts, The Hill reported. Lawler attempted to resurrect The Dignity Act, a mass amnesty plan for illegal aliens and has introduced several pieces of legislation aimed at backing Israel.

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Metro Nashville Council Urges NES for ‘Moratorium’ on New Tree Trimming, Cite Canopy Concerns

Tom Pappert

The Metro Nashville Council on Tuesday passed a resolution urging the Nashville Electric Service (NES) to place a “moratorium” on its new tree trimming strategy, citing a series of concerns about cutting the city’s “tree canopy,” just months after Winter Storm Fern caused the largest outage in the history of the publicly owned utility, with about half of its 470,000 customers without power during the peak.

After the storm, NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin said the utility was “planning on moving forward with a more aggressive tree trimming approach,” and in the interim version of the third-party report recently commissioned by NES, analysts noted the company engaged in extensive tree trimming immediately after the storm.

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Purported Manifesto Left by San Diego Mosque Shooters Names Antioch High School Killer Among Inspirations

Tom Pappert
Islamic Center San Diego

The Tennessee Star on Wednesday obtained a copy of the manifesto purportedly written by one of the teens who attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing three before taking their own lives shortly after, revealing the Antioch High School killer was listed among the author’s inspirations to commit violence.

Law enforcement has identified the attackers in San Diego as Caleb Vazquez, 18, and Cain Lee Clark, 17. The FBI has additionally confirmed that law enforcement recovered a manifesto and extremist writings connected to the suspects, and multiple news outlets have claimed to receive a copy of the manifesto from law enforcement sources that matches the document obtained by The Star.

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Trump’s Endorsement Juggernaut Marches on, Crushing Once-Popular Republicans Who Crossed Him

Just the News
Donald Trump

Normally U.S. presidents approaching the midway point of their second term are beginning to experience the effects of declining political capital as lame ducks. But not Donald Trump, who continues to wield the power of election endorsements with unparalleled success.

America’s 47th president kept his impressive 2026 primary winning streak rolling Tuesday night, with more than three dozen Republicans winning outright or advancing to a runoff in states like Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

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Senators Call for Nationwide Campaign to Identify Chinese Components in Critical U.S. Infrastructure

Just the News
Rick Scott

A pair of senators are making a bipartisan argument for launching a nationwide campaign to identify Chinese components in vulnerable critical infrastructure across the United States, especially in the U.S. maritime industry after unusual components were found in port cranes imported from China. 

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Just the News on Tuesday that if the United States remains dependent on components from China for running any critical sector in American infrastructure, it could give China the capability to shut them down at will. 

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UTC Requires Students Seeking Bachelor’s Degrees to Complete Diversity, Inclusion Curriculum Despite Federal DEI Crackdown

Tom Pappert
UTC students

More than one year after President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at ending all federal funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), including in academia, the University of Tennessee – Chattanooga (UTC) continues to require students seeking a bachelor’s degree to complete a curriculum that appears to be influenced by the controversial ideology.

The university’s website explains that, since 2023, the UTC general education program has included four desired outcomes for students. In its third desired outcome, the university says its students should be educated to, “Cultivate inclusion by recognizing, examining, and reflecting on the diversity of cultural and individual experiences.”

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Vance Defends DOJ’s Nearly $1.8B ‘Weaponization’ Fund

The Center Square
JD Vance

Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday defended a nearly $1.8 billion taxpayer fund through the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at supporting victims of “lawfare and weaponization.”

The $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” would support individuals who have been targeted by “lawfare and weaponization,” according to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The fund came out of the settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit between President Donald Trump and the IRS over the leaking of his tax returns.

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Commentary: America Is the Real Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

American Greatness
Trump and XI

One American view of China—now increasingly popular on the Left and the Right alike, especially among the hate-Trump crowd—is that the communist colossus will be forever ascendant, with continued astonishing levels of food production, ship construction, and industrial output. In this pessimistic view, China will soon replace America as the world’s predominant power. We are, supposedly, like an exhausted British Empire circa 1945, and China is the new version of the postwar American powerhouse.

Yet even Beijing’s miraculous 30-year leap out of poverty into first-world affluence and Westernized power is hardly the same as parity with the US. In truth, Trump held almost all the cards at the current summit and will do so again when Xi Jinping visits the US this autumn. According to nearly every historical measure of power, the US leads China by sizable margins—in wealth, economic output, fuel, food, and military strength.

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All Three Federal Lawsuits Attempting to Block Tennessee Redistricting Now Consolidated Under Trump-Appointed Judge

Tom Pappert
TN Lawsuit

Three federal lawsuits filed to stop Tennessee’s successful mid-term redistricting, which saw the state’s final Democratic congressional district reshaped to be friendly to Republican candidates for the first time in more than 50 years, have now been consolidated under a case assigned to a U.S. District Court judge appointed by President Donald Trump. 

U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and the Tennessee Democratic Party filed the first lawsuit challenging the redistricting process on May 7.

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Trump Endorses Ken Paxton for Texas Senate

Daily Caller News Foundation
Trump and Paxton

President Donald Trump endorsed Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Tuesday over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn ahead of the Senate runoff.

Cornyn and Paxton competed in a tight matchup as they both campaigned to run against Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. Trump made endorsements for over two dozen Republican candidates across the country, but waited until early voting in the runoff to make an endorsement in the Texas GOP Senate primary.

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ACLU Files Federal Lawsuit Against Memphis Safe Task Force over Tennessee Law Requiring Retreat from Law Enforcement When Ordered

Tom Pappert
TN National Guard

In a Monday notice to the court, the four Memphis residents represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who are suing over claims they faced retaliation from the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) due to Tennessee’s law making it a crime to stand within 25 feet of police after being ordered to move,  confirmed their litigation will directly challenge the constitutionality of the law. 

The lawsuit filed on Wednesday accuses the MSTF of maintaining an unconstitutional policy, pattern, and practice of retaliation against individuals in the city who observe, gather information, and record the task force’s operations in public, alleging that law enforcement has engaged in harassment, surveillance, intimidation, unreasonable stops, and abuses of Tennessee’s Halo Law, which made it a Class B misdemeanor to intentionally approach or remain within 25 feet of a law enforcement officer after being ordered to move. 

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Pro-Israel Lobby Spending Millions to Help Unseat Massie in History’s Most Expensive House Primary

Just the News
Gallrein and Massie

The pro-Israel lobby has spent millions on an effort to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie in the Kentucky Republican Primary on Tuesday, making it the most expensive House primary on record. 

Pro-Israel interest groups have dropped $9 million into the effort, and prominent Republican pro-Israel donors spent millions more on a super PAC supported by President Donald Trump’s political operations, which has spent $7 million on the race. Altogether, spending on the race has topped $32 million, according to Politico, which cited figures from AdImpact. 

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Candace Owens Retains Nashville ‘Super Lawyer’ Whose Focus Includes ‘Crisis-Driven Litigation,’ Clients ‘Facing Reputational Risk’

Tom Pappert
Rob Peal

Federal court documents released on Monday reveal that Candace Owens has retained Robert A. Peal, recognized as a “Super Lawyer” from the Nashville firm Sims Funk, to represent her in the defamation lawsuit by Brian Harpole, the former head of security for Charlie Kirk.

Peal announced his appearance on behalf of Owens in a notice to the court last week, confirming he will represent Owens personally, as well as the associated limited liability company (LLC) and the incorporated entity named as defendants in Harpole’s lawsuit.

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California Treasurer Has Long History of Socializing with Chinese Gov’t and CCP Intel Officials

Daily Caller News Foundation
Fiona Ma

California’s two-term treasurer, Fiona Ma, has met with high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials and intelligence personnel dozens of times in the last several decades, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

During these many meetings in the U.S. and China, the Democratic frontrunner in California’s 2026 lieutenant governor race has introduced American lawmakers to Chinese intelligence officials and also repeatedly presented awards to CCP members and influence operatives, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.

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‘People First’ Security Division of Block by Block Founded Two Months Ago Starts Patrolling Downtown Nashville

Tom Pappert
Civicity patrol

Civicity, a new security company founded in March by the Kentucky-based Block by Block, reportedly joined law enforcement patrolling downtown Nashville over the weekend, amid the suspension of the city’s last private security partner over allegations its security guards posed as uniformed police, whose five-year contract just expired. 

Originally reported in April to be the new choice of the Central Business Improvement District (CBID), which collects a portion of revenue from downtown businesses and directs them to the nonprofit District Management Corporation (DMC), which in turn is operated by the Nashville Downtown Partnership (NDP), Civicity has reportedly already been contracted to provide services for the remainder of the year.

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Ex-Nashville Mayor Megan Barry Absent on List of Candidates Who Submitted Signatures to Run in Redrawn Districts

Tom Pappert
Megan Barry

Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry was not included on the Tennessee Secretary of State’s list of candidates who submitted signatures to qualify for the ballot in one of Tennessee’s congressional districts, following the successful redrawing by Governor Bill Lee and the General Assembly.

Barry was included on the state agency’s Tuesday list of candidates, and the Secretary of State confirmed she had obtained a petition to begin gathering the 25 valid signatures required to obtain ballot access in the newly redrawn districts.

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London Lamar Submits Signatures to Qualify for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District in Blow to Justin Pearson as Steve Cohen Leaves Race

Tom Pappert
London Lamar

The Tennessee Secretary of State published a final list of candidates who had returned petition signatures to qualify for the ballot under the newly passed congressional map, revealing State Senator London Lamar (D-Memphis) submitted the necessary paperwork to compete with State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) for the Democratic nomination to represent the newly redrawn 9th Congressional District.

News first emerged earlier this week that Lamar had pulled a petition, and in its Friday update, the Tennessee state agency confirmed that Lamar had returned the necessary signatures to qualify.

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Filing in Federal Court Claims Co-Defendant in Candace Owens Defamation Case ‘Actively Avoiding Service,’ Requests U.S. Marshals Intervention

Tom Pappert
Candace Owens

Attorneys for Brian Harpole, the former head of security for Charlie Kirk, who is now suing Candace Owens and her former podcast guest Mitch Snow over their statements about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, on Thursday claimed that Snow is “actively avoiding service” from process servers, and asked a federal magistrate judge to authorize the U.S. Marshals Service to intervene.

Filed as a request for miscellaneous relief, Harpole’s attorneys claim that Snow refused to accept service on multiple occasions, including an incident when the process server allegedly encountered “a hostile environment” at his home.

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Federal Lawsuits Attempting to Stop Tennessee Redistricting Consolidated Under Judge Who Refused to Block New Map

Tom Pappert
NAACP

Both federal lawsuits challenging Tennessee’s newly redrawn congressional map have now been assigned to U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell, who on Thursday denied the request by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to grant a temporary restraining order.

The decision was announced in a Thursday order by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, who ruled that the claims in the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) were too similar to the first federal lawsuit filed over the new map, submitted by NAACP attorneys, to justify assignment to a separate judge.

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Democrat U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen to Retire from Congress amid Tennessee Redistricting

Kaitlin Housler
Rep. Steve Cohen

U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) said he has requested his name be taken off the ballot for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District amid the state’s implementation of a new congressional map.

In a press conference Friday, Cohen, from his D.C. office, called his decision to retire from Congress “by far the most difficult moment” he has had as an “elected official.”

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Trump Vows the War in Iran Will End on America’s Terms ‘One Way or Another’ and Not in Beijing

The Daily Torch
President Trump with the US delegation in China

“Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

That was the White House’s readout of the May 13 meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, conveying at least the U.S. understanding of how the meeting shaped up on the question of the Iran war — and the all-important fate of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

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Tennessee A.G. Jonathan Skrmetti Announces ‘Final Victory’ in Lawsuit Challenging Biden-Era Title IX Rules

Tom Pappert
Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Thursday announced that the special interest groups challenging his successful litigation to block Biden-era changes to Title IX agreed to drop their appeal, sealing a “final victory” in the legal challenge launched in early 2024. 

Skrmetti and the legal coalition behind the lawsuit, which includes the attorneys general of Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia, originally received a favorable ruling in January 2025, blocking the Biden administration’s attempt to rewrite Title IX to include gender identity and sexual orientation. 

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Congressman Andy Ogles Introduces ASSIMILATION Act to Dramatically Cut Immigration, Mandate E-Verify, Strangle H-1B Program

Tom Pappert
Rep Andy Ogles

U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) and Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) on Thursday introduced the American System for Sustainable Immigration and Mass Immigration Limitations Achieved Through Imposing Oversight Nationally (ASSIMILATION) Act, an 82-page bill that would result in a comprehensive revision of the process for legal immigration to the United States. 

Announcing his legislation in a post to social media, Ogles said he and Tuberville aimed to gut the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, which critics say incentivized immigration from non-European countries, as well as various provisions of the Immigration Act that became law during the 1990s. 

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