☀️ Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal news:
⚖️ US Supreme Court justices testify on Capitol Hill as threats to judges surge
The U.S. Supreme Court police expect a 38% increase in security threats this year, Justice Elena Kagan told Congress, warning that "for some of us, those threats have come very close" as the court seeks a roughly 10% annual budget increase to bolster security.
The appearance by Kagan along with fellow Justice Amy Coney Barrett before the appropriations subcommittee of the House of Representatives is the first by sitting justices before Congress since 2019, excluding Senate confirmation hearings for nominees.
The Supreme Court Police Department expects a "substantial 38% annual increase in threats this year, which follows a 25% increase last year," Kagan told lawmakers in an opening statement.
"For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize," she said.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett told lawmakers that threats against her and her family intensified around the time of the 2022 leak of the court's draft opinion in the abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, prompting her security detail to send her home with a bulletproof vest.
Kagan and Barrett were also due to testify before a Senate subcommittee later today.
Two weeks ago the Supreme Court ended a nine-month term highlighted by legal disputes involving President Donald Trump and his administration. The court has backed major elements of Trump's expansive use of executive authority.
The court's 6-3 conservative majority has reshaped U.S. law with landmark rulings on abortion, presidential power and other contentious issues, while facing sustained ethics scrutiny and a decline in public approval.
Barrett, one of Trump's three conservative appointees, and Kagan, one of three liberal justices, are expected to defend the court’s nearly $230 million request for the next fiscal year, a roughly 10% increase from this year.
More than $14 million would go toward expanding the Supreme Court Police Department's "protective activities for justices' residences and families," according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the judiciary's administrative arm.
The court asks Congress for money every year to support its operations but the justices don't always appear in person to testify about these requests.
📝 Trump officials turn over withheld evidence in immigration agents' killings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has turned over to Minneapolis prosecutors evidence it had withheld on immigration agents' killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and wounding of a Venezuelan man during deportation sweeps in January, local officials said on July 13.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the city's lead prosecutor, said that the federal government handed over the "voluminous" evidence in the three shootings after six months of discussions, jurisdictional disputes and a lawsuit.
The material includes videos from agents' body cameras, other digital evidence and Good's bullet-damaged car, Moriarty said at a press conference, thanking federal officials for their willingness to "consider changing course."
"We need cooperation. Our community needs it," she told reporters. "Our democracy requires it."
Moriarty said the evidence was provided after discussions with Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen's office in Minneapolis and the FBI's field office there, neither of which responded to requests for comment on July 13.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Good in her vehicle on January 7, and Border Patrol agents fatally shot Pretti on a street during protests on January 24. Both were U.S. citizens. An ICE agent shot Venezuelan citizen Julio Sosa-Celis in the leg, wounding him, on January 14.
Moriarty's office is still investigating the killings of Pretti and Good, and she has not announced whether she will bring charges under state law against the federal agents who shot them. But she has already brought charges in the Sosa-Celis shooting, indicting ICE agent Christian Castro under Minnesota law with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.
💻 Meta used AI to target workers with medical conditions for layoffs, lawsuit claims
Twenty-six former employees of Meta Platforms have filed a lawsuit against the tech company, accusing it of using AI-powered software that disproportionately targeted people with disabilities or who took medical leave in selecting people for mass layoffs.
The lawsuit, filed in Oakland, California, federal court late July 13, says that the company relied on factors such as productivity and AI token usage when it began slashing thousands of jobs earlier this year, disadvantaging people who missed work because of medical conditions.
Meta earlier this year said it planned to lay off 10% of its global workforce, or nearly 8,000 people, beginning in May, with more job cuts coming later.
The 26 plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit anonymously, are accusing Meta of violating federal and state laws that ban discrimination or retaliation against workers who have disabilities, take medical leave or are pregnant. The plaintiffs come from six states, including California and New York plus the District of Columbia.
📜 Trump slashes the size of two Utah national monuments
U.S. President Donald Trump signed orders on July 13 that slashed the size of two national monuments in southern Utah by more than 90% to allow for grazing, motorized recreation, logging and other resource development in the region, the White House said.
The proclamations reduced the Bears Ears National Monument to 121,100 acres from 1.36 million acres, and cut the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to 181,500 acres from 1.87 million acres.
Environmental group Earthjustice said it would take legal action "to maintain protections for these treasured landscapes."
Trump made the announcement at the White House alongside Utah Governor Spencer Cox and the state's two U.S. senators, Mike Lee and John Curtis, all Republicans.
"We're doing something very dramatic and very important for the people of Utah, and the people of our country, because many people use it," Trump said.
Trump reduced the size of the monuments during his first term, and they were later expanded by former President Joe Biden despite opposition from Utah state officials.
That's all for today, thank you for reading The Legal File, and have a great day!
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