The federal District Court in Massachusetts (William G. Young), in “perhaps the most important [case] ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court,” has held that non-citizen students lawfully present in the United States have the same free speech rights as American citizens and cannot be arrested and deported because of pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel speech or association.

A Magistrate Judge in the federal District Court of Oregon has recommended that a nonprofit organization be permitted to continue its suit against two former employees and their new business entity for misusing the nonprofit’s donor lists and other trade secrets and disclosing confidential information obtained while they worked for the organization.  The judge has rejected motions to dismiss claims for misappropriation of trade secrets, intentional interference with economic relationships, defamation, and breach of the duty of loyalty.

More than half of all 501(c) public charities filing a full Form 990 tax information return with the Internal Revenue Service in 2022 had assets of less than $1 million, according to statistics released by the IRS recently.

The federal District Court for the Northern District of California (Susan Illston) has temporarily restrained the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and a variety of federal departments from implementing Reduction in Force notices issued to implement layoffs during the governmental shutdown.

The Court said the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO and other plaintiffs are likely to win in their case and would suffer irreparable harm if the RIF notices were carried out without a full hearing.

The federal District Court in Illinois (April M. Perry) has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the deployment of National Guard troops from Texas in Chicago.  The Court has said that it is likely the state of Illinois and the City of Chicago will prevail on their claims that the action would violate the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution and the Posse Comitatus Act.

A taxpayer contesting the imposition of a civil fraud penalty for an improper claim of a charitable contribution deduction for a conservation easement has no right to a jury trial on the issue, the Tax Court has held.  The Seventh Amendment of the Constitution requiring a jury trial in suits “at common law” does not apply to the sovereign and Congress has not otherwise consented to trial by jury in tax appeals of the nature before the Court, it said.

The federal District Court in New Hampshire (Landya McCafferty) has preliminarily enjoined a pair of anti-DEI laws passed by the state legislature.

The first law prohibits political entities, including school districts, from implementing, promoting or otherwise engaging in any DEI-related initiatives, programs, training, or policies or expending state funds for DEI-related activities, including implicit bias training, DEI assessments, critical race theory or race-based hiring, promotion or contracting preferences.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals (Opinion by Chief Judge David J. Barron) has affirmed a preliminary injunction to stop enforcement and implementation of President Trump’s Executive Order seeking to limit birthright citizenship.  The Order would deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. if their fathers are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and their mothers are in the country either unlawfully or temporarily.  The District Court in Massachusetts had previously issued preliminary injunctions in two separate suits.