Black people are disproportionately denied aid from state programs that reimburse victims of violent crime. That’s according to an AP examination of data from 23 states that shows Black applicants were nearly twice as likely as white applicants to be denied aid in some states, including Indiana, Georgia and South Dakota. The denials add up to thousands of Black families missing out on millions of dollars in aid each year. Experts say the disparities are rooted in biases embedded in the design of victim compensation programs, among other factors. States are starting to address the problem as part of a wider reckoning with racism across the criminal justice system.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch says emergency measures taken during the COVID-19 crisis that killed more than 1 million Americans were perhaps “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” The 55-year-old conservative justice points to orders closing schools, restricting church services, mandating vaccines and prohibiting evictions. Gorsuch's broadside is aimed at local, state and federal officials, and even his own colleagues. He says officials issued emergency decrees “on a breathtaking scale.” His comments came in an eight-page statement that accompanied an order formally dismissing a case involving the use of the Title 42 policy to prevent asylum seekers from entering the United States.

A federal magistrate judge says a Massachusetts Air National Guard member charged with leaking highly classified military documents will remain behind bars while he awaits trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Hennessy said Friday that releasing 21-year-old Jack Teixeira would pose a risk that he would attempt to flee the country or obstruct justice. The judge cited Teixeira’s “fascination with guns,” disturbing online statements and admonitions by Teixeira’s military superiors about his handling of sensitive information before his arrest. The judge said the case represented “a profound breach of the defendant’s word that he would protect information related to the security of the United States.”

FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when they searched a vast repository of foreign intelligence for information related to the insurrection at the U..S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and racial justice protests in 2020. That's according to a heavily blacked-out court order released Friday. FBI officials said the violations predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and Justice Department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that government officials say is needed to counter terrorism, espionage and international cybercrime.

A police officer has been arrested on charges that he lied about leaking confidential information to a leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group and obstructed an investigation after group members destroyed a Black Lives Matter banner in the nation's capital. Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice and other charges during his initial court appearance Friday. An indictment alleges that Lamond warned former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio that law enforcement had an arrest warrant for Tarrio related to the banner’s destruction. Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before Proud Boys members joined a mob in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Supreme Court says the 2016 publication of an Andy Warhol image of the singer Prince violated a photographer’s copyright. The high court sided 7-2 with photographer Lynn Goldsmith. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a majority opinion that: “Lynn Goldsmith’s original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists." The case involved images Warhol created of Prince as part of a 1984 commission for Vanity Fair. Warhol used a Goldsmith photograph as his starting point. Warhol died in 1987.

The Supreme Court says the 2016 publication of an Andy Warhol image of the singer Prince violated a photographer’s copyright. The high court sided 7-2 with photographer Lynn Goldsmith. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a majority opinion that: “Lynn Goldsmith’s original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists." The case involved images Warhol created of Prince as part of a 1984 commission for Vanity Fair. Warhol used a Goldsmith photograph as his starting point. Warhol died in 1987.

The Supreme Court has sided with Google, Twitter and Facebook in lawsuits seeking to hold them liable for terrorist attacks. But the justices sidestepped the big issue hovering over the cases — namely the federal law that shields social media companies from being sued over content posted by others. The justices unanimously rejected a lawsuit alleging that the companies allowed their platforms to be used to aid and abet an attack in Turkey and. In the case of an American college student who was killed in an Islamic State terrorist attack in Paris, a unanimous court returned the case to a lower court, but said there appeared to be little, if anything, left of it.

The Supreme Court says that Illinois can, for now, keep in place a new law that bars the sale of certain semiautomatic guns and large-capacity magazines. The high court denied an emergency request from people challenging the law, which bans so-called assault weapons. The law’s opponents had asked the court to put the law on hold while a court challenge continues. The court did not comment and no justice publicly dissented.

Appellate judges with a history of supporting abortion restrictions are hearing arguments over access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion. The case is likely to wind up at the Supreme Court. The high court already intervened to keep the drug, mifepristone, available while the legal fight winds through the courts. Three 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges were hearing what was expected to be at least two hours of arguments Wednesday afternoon. At issue are the Food and Drug Administration’s initial approval of mifepristone in 2000, and FDA actions making the drug more accessible in later years. The judges won’t rule immediately.

Writers’ group PEN America and publisher Penguin Random House have sued a Florida school district over its removal of books about race and LGBTQ+ identities. The federal lawsuit filed Wednesday marks the latest opposition to a policy central to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ agenda as he prepares to run for president. The case alleges the Escambia County School District and its School Board are violating the First Amendment through the removal of the books. It doesn't name DeSantis as a defendant though the Republican governor has championed policies that allow the censorship and challenging of books based on whether they are appropriate for children in schools.

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether South Carolina’s congressional districts need to be redrawn because they discriminate against Black voters. The justices said Monday they would review a lower-court ruling that found a coastal district running from Charleston to Hilton Head was intentionally redrawn to reduce the number of Black Democratic-leaning voters to make it more likely Republican candidates would win. The case probably will be argued in the fall, and decided in the run up to the 2024 elections, when all the seats in the closely divided House of Representatives, now under Republican control, will be on the ballot.

A Republican lawmaker says the ex-prosecutor who once oversaw Manhattan’s yearslong investigation of former President Donald Trump repeatedly declined to substantively answer questions at a closed-door meeting of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Darrell Issa says Mark Pomerantz, the former prosecutor, repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment that protects people from providing self-incriminating testimony. Pomerantz left Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office after disagreements. He was subpoenaed by the Republican-controlled House committee. The panel, chaired by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, is probing how Bragg handled Trump’s historic indictment. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a scheme to bury allegations of extramarital affairs.

U.S. Rep. George Santos, who has faced outrage and mockery over a litany of fabrications about his heritage, education and professional pedigree, has been charged with federal criminal offenses. That's according to two people who could not publicly discuss specific details of the case while it remains under seal and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The charges against Santos were filed in the Eastern District of New York. Santos said he hadn't been told of the charges, telling The AP, “This is news to me."

A union of government employees has  sued Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and President Joe Biden to try to stop them from complying with the law that limits the government’s total debt, which the lawsuit contends is unconstitutional. The lawsuit comes just weeks before the government could default on the federal debt if Congress fails to raise the borrowing limit. Financial markets have become increasingly nervous about the potential for default, with economists warning that a failure to raise the debt limit could trigger a global financial crisis. On Tuesday, Biden will meet with the top Republicans and Democrats in Congress to seek a potential breakthrough. The two sides remain far apart..

The seditious conspiracy convictions of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three lieutenants bolsters the Justice Department’s high-profile wins in its historic prosecution of the Capitol attack. The verdict handed down Thursday could further embolden the Justice Department and special counsel Jack Smith as his team investigates efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to undo President Joe Biden’s victory. Smith’s work is now proceeding rapidly. Just last week, a federal grand jury heard hours of testimony from former Vice President Mike Pence. Trump loomed large over the monthslong Proud Boys trial at the U.S. Courthouse in Washington, where the Capitol can be seen in the distance from the windows.

West Virginia has settled with Kroger for $68 million over its role in distributing highly addictive prescription painkillers into the U.S. state that has lost more lives to opioid overdoses per capita than any other. That brings West Virginia’s total opioid litigation dollars up to more than $1 billion. Kroger was the last remaining defendant in a lawsuit involving Walgreens, Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid. The state had been scheduled to go to trial with the pharmacy chain in June. The settlement with Kroger resolves the lawsuit that alleged the pharmacy chain failed to maintain effective controls as an opioid distributer in the state, contributing to oversupply.