Court order

A divided 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel paused a lower court ruling that had found Idaho's near-total abortion ban unconstitutional for lacking a health exception. The 2-1 decision said a doctor challenging the law is unlikely to prevail on claims that the Constitution protects abortion access to preserve a patient's health, citing the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. The lower court's order, the first since Dobbs to recognize a constitutional right to abortion in limited circumstances, had barred enforcement against the plaintiff pending appeal. Idaho's attorney general praised the outcome; the plaintiff's lawyer called it a temporary setback and vowed to continue the appeal.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen P. Kelly held Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin, and an acting ICE field office director in civil contempt after Nain Vasquez Gonzalez, a Salvadoran man she had ordered released following 38 months of detention, was rearrested by ICE agents in New Jersey hours later. Kelly said officials gave "inconsistent stories" and failed to produce body camera footage, with one agent's camera reportedly uncharged. She criticized ICE's use of masks to conceal agents' identities, calling it "unamerican," and imposed sanctions covering attorney's fees. Immigration attorneys called the contempt finding unusual but an even-handed application of court authority.

A pardon from Ohio's governor removes legal restrictions tied to a conviction but does not establish innocence or automatically seal court records, according to a review of state law. The clarification comes as Gov. Mike DeWine's expedited pardon program has reached 323 pardons as of Oct. 6, though that figure does not indicate how many recipients also had their records sealed.

Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2967.04, an unconditional pardon relieves legal disabilities from a conviction but is not a judicial finding of innocence. The governor may separately direct sealing via a written writ under Section 2967.04(C), while pardon recipients can also petition a court for sealing under Section 2953.33, which requires a hearing and prosecutor notice. Access rules differ depending on the sealing route: governor-directed sealing allows broader law enforcement and background-check exceptions, while court-ordered sealing offers narrower access and added protections against being questioned about sealed records. A September 2025 amendment also altered which offense exclusions apply to court-based sealing requests.

A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel has thrown out a lower court order requiring Oregon to house transgender women inmates in prisons matching their gender identity. The unanimous ruling, authored by Judge Eric Tung and joined by two other Trump-appointed judges, reversed an April decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke that had mandated individualized safety assessments before placement decisions.

The panel found the plaintiffs failed to show Oregon acted with deliberate indifference toward transgender inmates, saying the lower court relied on outdated evidence and disregarded contrary evidence from the state. Two transgender women had sued the Department of Corrections in 2025, alleging severe risk of sexual and physical violence in men's prisons.

Tung's opinion, which repeatedly referred to transgender women as "male inmates who claim to be female," drew criticism from civil rights attorneys and even Oregon's own Attorney General's Office, which welcomed the outcome but disavowed the court's language. The underlying lawsuit continues in federal district court, and attorneys for the plaintiffs say they intend to keep pursuing the claims.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 unsigned order, declined to disturb a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of a new U.S. Postal Service rule ahead of the 2026 midterms, drawing praise from officials in Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, and other states. The rule, issued after a March executive order from President Trump, would have required states to submit lists of mail-eligible voters and adopt standardized, trackable envelopes, with USPS withholding delivery of noncompliant ballots. The court said the government was unlikely to succeed on the merits given the midterms' proximity; Justices Alito and Thomas dissented, while Kavanaugh agreed the restrictions should not take effect for this election but suggested the government's underlying arguments could be reconsidered if similar rules were proposed earlier for a future election.

Michigan and 24 other states, including Illinois, sued within hours of the rule's publication, leading to a restraining order and then a Sept. 4 injunction that the high court left intact. Officials in Michigan, Illinois, and Colorado called the ruling a win for state authority over elections, while Trump denounced the decision on social media, criticizing the justices he appointed. The court did not rule on the rule's underlying legality, leaving that fight to continue in lower courts; existing mail-ballot processes remain unchanged as states begin distributing ballots for November. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the ruling turned partly on timing and that election-security efforts would continue beyond this cycle. In North Carolina, postal workers and union leaders have publicly defended mail-in voting's integrity amid ongoing fraud claims, as absentee voting proceeds under established security measures.

Former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin was arrested by the Bourbon County Sheriff's Office while working as a featured extra on a Christmas movie set at a horse farm in Paris, Kentucky, after a tip alerted deputies to his location. He was booked into a local detention center before being transferred to the Louisville Metro Detention Center on a charge tied to a Jefferson Family Court contempt order. He later appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs.

Judge Angela Johnson ruled Bevin must serve the full 60-day sentence, rejecting his attorney's request for home detention, saying he had shown "complete disregard" for the court. The contempt stemmed from Bevin's repeated failure to turn over financial records and appear at hearings in a child support dispute brought by his son Jonah, one of four children the Bevins adopted from Ethiopia, who alleges he was abandoned at an abusive, now-closed Jamaican facility. Johnson said she may revisit the sentence in 30 days; it remains appealable. Bevin served as governor from 2015 to 2019.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a lower court to block enforcement of a Minnesota voter-interference law as applied to the Minnesota Voters Alliance, siding with the group in a First Amendment dispute over statements about felon voting rights. The case centers on House File 3, which criminalizes spreading certain election-related information within 60 days of a vote, and HF 28, which restores voting rights to felons no longer incarcerated for their offense. Both were signed by Gov. Tim Walz in 2023.

Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, Judge David Stras found the law amounted to a prior restraint lacking procedural safeguards, allowing the state to endorse one interpretation of Minnesota's constitution while criminalizing a competing one. The ruling lets the Alliance publicly argue, without risk of prosecution, that felons should not vote before their civil rights are restored while its broader legal challenge proceeds. The decision adds to a string of First Amendment fights over Minnesota's election and speech laws, including its deepfake and social media warning label statutes.