By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s White House Pride Month celebration, expected to be the largest in history, will be postponed from Thursday evening until Saturday, officials said, as Washington is enveloped in a cloud of smoke from Canadian wildfires.

“Today’s Pride event on the White House South Lawn will be postponed until Saturday based on the projected air quality in the region,” the White House said in a statement.

The party, which is expected to include thousands of guests on the White House’s South Lawn, is a deliberate contrast to a cascade of Republican legislation and other attacks targeting LGBTQ+ people, Biden officials have said.

Forest fires continued to burn across Canada on Thursday as the country endured its worst-ever start to wildfire season, sending a smoky haze billowing across U.S. cities and grounding flights.

Biden, a Democrat, planned an evening celebration of LGBTQ+ families featuring singer Betty Who and Baltimore DJ Queen HD.

He was also expected to announce new measures Thursday to help schools and LGBTQ kids navigate book bans, community centers fight threats, and transgender youth access better care, domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether those announcements would be postponed as well.

“This year we’re seeing a disturbing surge in violent threats against LGBTQ community organizations,” Tanden told reporters on a conference call Wednesday evening. “In too many parts of our country, LGBTQ Americans are being targeted for who they are, and that, simply put, is discrimination.”

REPUBLICAN BANS

Republican-led states have signed a flurry of bills targeting transgender youth. Some states have banned teachers of younger children from discussing gender or sexuality and conservative lawmakers have proposed or passed laws restricting drag performances.

In April, the White House warned that bills targeting LGBTQ kids and gender-affirming care for youth set a dangerous precedent.

The White House will announce a new coordinator in the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights to train schools on how to navigate book bans, the impact they have on LGBTQ kids and how they violate civil rights laws, Tanden said.

The Department of Homeland Security will announce new training for community groups against active shooters and bomb threats; the Department of Justice will expand work with state and local law enforcement to protect the community; and the Department of Health and Human Services will put out a new advisory for mental health care providers supporting transgender kids.

Florida has been at the forefront of restrictions aimed at the LGBTQ community under Governor Ron DeSantis, who says he is protecting children, and recently entered the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination to challenge Biden.

LGBTQ+ EVOLUTION

Biden’s own views on gay rights have evolved over his decades in public life. A watershed moment was his endorsement of same-sex marriage in 2012 as vice president, which pushed then-President Barack Obama to express his support for gay marriage a few days later.

As president, Biden has overturned a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, issued a new order to stop conversion therapy and signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which federally recognizes same-sex marriages, into law.

American support for same-sex marriage has doubled since the late 1990s to more than 70%, Gallup polls show, and the percentage of people who identify as LGBTQ has doubled in the past decade to over 7%.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the United States, declared its first national state of emergency, citing the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ legislation in statehouses across the country.

More than 70 bills HRC considers anti-LGBTQ were passed in statehouses this legislative session, double last year’s previous record, and over 500 were introduced.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt, Heather Timmons, Gerry Doyle and Jonathan Oatis)

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s White House Pride Month celebration, expected to be the largest in history, will be postponed from Thursday evening until Saturday, officials said, as Washington is enveloped in a cloud of smoke from Canadian wildfires.

“Today’s Pride event on the White House South Lawn will be postponed until Saturday based on the projected air quality in the region,” the White House said in a statement.

The party, which is expected to include thousands of guests on the White House’s South Lawn, is a deliberate contrast to a cascade of Republican legislation and other attacks targeting LGBTQ+ people, Biden officials have said.

Forest fires continued to burn across Canada on Thursday as the country endured its worst-ever start to wildfire season, sending a smoky haze billowing across U.S. cities and grounding flights.

Biden, a Democrat, planned an evening celebration of LGBTQ+ families featuring singer Betty Who and Baltimore DJ Queen HD.

He was also expected to announce new measures Thursday to help schools and LGBTQ kids navigate book bans, community centers fight threats, and transgender youth access better care, domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether those announcements would be postponed as well.

“This year we’re seeing a disturbing surge in violent threats against LGBTQ community organizations,” Tanden told reporters on a conference call Wednesday evening. “In too many parts of our country, LGBTQ Americans are being targeted for who they are, and that, simply put, is discrimination.”

REPUBLICAN BANS

Republican-led states have signed a flurry of bills targeting transgender youth. Some states have banned teachers of younger children from discussing gender or sexuality and conservative lawmakers have proposed or passed laws restricting drag performances.

In April, the White House warned that bills targeting LGBTQ kids and gender-affirming care for youth set a dangerous precedent.

The White House will announce a new coordinator in the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights to train schools on how to navigate book bans, the impact they have on LGBTQ kids and how they violate civil rights laws, Tanden said.

The Department of Homeland Security will announce new training for community groups against active shooters and bomb threats; the Department of Justice will expand work with state and local law enforcement to protect the community; and the Department of Health and Human Services will put out a new advisory for mental health care providers supporting transgender kids.

Florida has been at the forefront of restrictions aimed at the LGBTQ community under Governor Ron DeSantis, who says he is protecting children, and recently entered the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination to challenge Biden.

LGBTQ+ EVOLUTION

Biden’s own views on gay rights have evolved over his decades in public life. A watershed moment was his endorsement of same-sex marriage in 2012 as vice president, which pushed then-President Barack Obama to express his support for gay marriage a few days later.

As president, Biden has overturned a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, issued a new order to stop conversion therapy and signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which federally recognizes same-sex marriages, into law.

American support for same-sex marriage has doubled since the late 1990s to more than 70%, Gallup polls show, and the percentage of people who identify as LGBTQ has doubled in the past decade to over 7%.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the United States, declared its first national state of emergency, citing the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ legislation in statehouses across the country.

More than 70 bills HRC considers anti-LGBTQ were passed in statehouses this legislative session, double last year’s previous record, and over 500 were introduced.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt, Heather Timmons, Gerry Doyle and Jonathan Oatis)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called on Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to double the number of U.S. personnel available to help fight wildfires raging in Canada and to mitigate the risk to American air quality.

The chamber’s top Democrat said he would send a letter to Vilsack laying out his requests, while calling the wildfires that have led to unhealthy air quality in major U.S. cities the latest example of the global climate crisis.

“The climate crisis is real and it is here to stay. We must take action against the climate crisis, both short-term and long-term,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.

“I am calling on Secretary Tom Vilsack to double the number of Forest Service personnel deployed to fight these fires,” he added. “I am calling on the secretary of Agriculture to double the number of personnel to mitigate the risk in the air for millions of Americans.”

(Reporting by David Morgan, Katharine Jackson and Rami Ayyub; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will host the largest White House Pride Month celebration in history on Thursday, in a deliberate contrast to a cascade of Republican legislation and other attacks targeting LGBTQ+ people.

Biden, a Democrat, will host thousands of people on the White House’s South Lawn for an evening celebration of LGBTQ+ families that will feature singer Betty Who and Baltimore DJ Queen HD.

Biden will also announce new measures to help schools and LGBTQ kids navigate book bans, community centers fight threats and transgender youth access better care, domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden said.

“This year we’re seeing a disturbing surge in violent threats against LGBTQ community organizations,” Tanden told reporters on a conference call. “In too many parts of our country, LGBTQ Americans are being targeted for who they are, and that, simply put, is discrimination.”

Republican-led states have signed a flurry of bills targeting transgender youth; some states have banned teachers of younger children from discussing gender or sexuality and conservative lawmakers have proposed laws restricting drag performances.

In April, the White House warned bills targeting LGBTQ kids and gender-affirming care for youth set a dangerous precedent.

Biden’s own views on gay rights have evolved over his decades in public life. A watershed moment was his endorsement of the same-sex marriage in 2012 as vice president, a move that pushed former President Barack Obama to express his support for gay marriage a few days later.

As President he overturned a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, issued a new order to stop conversion therapy and signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which federally recognizes same-sex marriages, into law.

American support for same-sex marriage has doubled since the late 1990s to more than 70%, Gallup polls show, and the percentage of people who identify as LGBTQ has doubled in the past decade to over 7%.

The White House will announce on Thursday a new coordinator in the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights to train schools on how to navigate book bans, the impact they have on LGBTQ kids and how they violate civil rights laws, Tanden said.

The Department of Homeland Security will announce new training for community groups against active shooters and bomb threats; the Department of Justice will expand work with state and local law enforcement to protect the community and the Department of Health & Human Services will put a new advisory for mental health care providers supporting transgender kids.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the United States, declared its first national state of emergency, citing the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ legislation in statehouses across the country.

More than 70 bills HRC considers anti-LGBTQ were passed in statehouses this legislative session, double last year’s previous record and over 500 introduced.

Florida has led restrictions of the LGBTQ community under governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who recently entered the battle for the 2024 presidential election, challenging Biden.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington, Additional reporting by Jeff Mason. Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt, Heather Timmons and Gerry Doyle)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump on Thursday asked for a new trial in the civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll, in which a Manhattan jury last month found the former U.S. president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer and awarded her $5 million in damages.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump on Thursday asked for a new trial in the civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll, in which a Manhattan jury last month found the former U.S. president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer and awarded her $5 million in damages.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York)

By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed a major victory to Black voters who challenged a Republican-drawn electoral map in Alabama, finding the state violated a landmark law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and paving the way for a second congressional district with a Black majority or close to it.

The 5-4 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts affirmed a lower court’s decision that the map diluted the voting power of Black Alabamians, running afoul of a bedrock federal civil rights law, the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Roberts was joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberals, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

With Thursday’s ruling, the Supreme Court elected not to further roll back protections contained in the Voting Rights Act as it had done in two major rulings in the past decade. The decision centered upon Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a provision aimed at countering measures that result in racial bias in voting even absent racist intent.

“We find Alabama’s new approach to (Section 2) compelling neither in theory nor in practice,” Roberts wrote. “We accordingly decline to recast our (Section 2) case law as Alabama requests.”

At issue was the map approved in 2021 by the Republican-controlled state legislature setting the boundaries of Alabama’s seven U.S. House of Representatives districts. The map featured one majority-Black district, with six majority-white districts, even though Black people comprised 27% of Alabama’s population.

The ruling on Thursday affirmed the lower court’s order that Alabama configure a second House district where Black voters could hold a “a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.” That marked a shift from an emergency 5-4 ruling the court issued last year that let Alabama use the disputed map for the 2022 U.S. congressional elections in which Republicans seized control of the House from Democrats.

The new congressional map, expected to be in place for the 2024 elections, could boost Democratic efforts to regain a majority in the House, which Republicans now control by a narrow 222-212 margin.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland hailed the ruling, saying it “rejects efforts to further erode fundamental voting rights protections, and preserves the principle that in the United States, all eligible voters must be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote free from discrimination based on their race.”

The Voting Rights Act was passed at a time when Southern states including Alabama enforced policies blocking Black people from casting ballots. Nearly six decades later, race remains a contentious issue in American politics and society more broadly.

Conservative states and groups had previously succeeded in prodding the Supreme Court to limit the Voting Rights Act’s scope. Its 2013 ruling in another Alabama case struck down a key part that determined which states with histories of racial discrimination needed federal approval to change voting laws. In a 2021 ruling endorsing Republican-backed Arizona voting restrictions, the justices made it harder to prove violations under Section 2.

‘TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE’

Black voters and advocacy groups who sued Alabama argued that the state’s map reduced the influence of Black voters by concentrating their voting power in one district while distributing the rest of the Black population in other districts at levels too small to form a majority. A three-judge federal court panel last year sided with the challengers.

Abha Khanna, who argued the case on behalf of one set of challengers, said, “Thankfully, the court today identified Alabama’s redistricting scheme as a textbook violation of the landmark civil rights law,” Khanna said.

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority and, based on the questioning during oral arguments in the case in October, had appeared to lean toward favoring Alabama.

UCLA School of Law election law expert Rick Hasen said that “to have Roberts and Kavanaugh join the liberals in upholding the Voting Rights Act is a big surprise, and a good result for minority voters.”

Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito wrote separate dissenting opinions. Thomas wrote that the question before the court was whether Section 2 required Alabama “to intentionally redraw its longstanding congressional districts so that black voters can control a number of seats roughly proportional to the black share of the state’s population.”

Thomas wrote, “Section 2 demands no such thing, and, if it did, the Constitution would not permit it.”

Alabama officials argued that drawing a second district to give Black voters a better chance at electing their preferred candidate would itself be racially discriminatory by favoring them at the expense of other voters. If the Voting Rights Act required the state to consider race in such a manner, according to Alabama, the statute would violate the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.

Electoral districts are redrawn each decade to reflect population changes as measured by a national census, last taken in 2020. In most states, such redistricting is done by the party in power, which can lead to map manipulation for partisan gain.

(Reporting by John Kruzel in Washington; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Thursday refused to reinstate a lawsuit by Amy Cooper, the white woman who became known as “Central Park Karen” after calling police on a Black bird-watcher, against the employer that fired her following the encounter.

In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Cooper did not prove that Franklin Templeton illegally dismissed her on the basis of race or defamed her by branding her a racist.

Cooper had been an insurance portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton, a unit of San Mateo, California-based Franklin Resources.

“Karen” is sometimes used as a pejorative for an entitled white woman.

The case arose from a May 25, 2020 video that went viral, in which Cooper confronted bird-watcher Christian Cooper, who is not related.

Amy Cooper said she would tell police “there’s an African-American man threatening my life” after Christian Cooper asked her to leash her dog to comply with park rules.

Franklin Templeton fired Amy Cooper the next day, saying it had conducted an internal review and that “we do not tolerate racism of any kind.”

The appeals court said Franklin Templeton’s statements said nothing about Cooper’s race, and that if reasonable readers thought it were accusing her of racism they would have considered it an “expression of opinion” based on the video.

That video, the court added, had been circulated “in the midst of an ongoing national reckoning about systemic racism,” having been taken the same day a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, who was Black.

Lawyers for Cooper did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Franklin Templeton said it was pleased with the decision. “We continue to believe the company responded appropriately,” it added.

The decision upheld a lower court judge’s dismissal of Cooper’s case last September.

The case is Cooper v Franklin Templeton Investments et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 22-2763.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Richard Chang and Bill Berkrot)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday preserved the ability of people to sue for civil rights violations under an 1871 law as it rejected a bid to prevent an Indiana nursing home resident’s family from suing over his care at a government-run facility.

The justices in a 7-2 ruling written by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson upheld a lower court’s ruling that allowed the wife of Gorgi Talevski, a nursing home resident diagnosed with dementia, to sue Indiana municipal corporation Health and Hospital Corp of Marion County over claims it violated his rights.

The lawsuit was filed under a measure known as Section 1983 that was enacted as part of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a law passed in the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era to protect the rights of Black Americans. Section 1983 gives people the power to sue in federal court when state officials violate their constitutional or statutory rights.

Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the decision.

The lawsuit stemmed from Talevski’s admission in 2016 to Valparaiso Care and Rehabilitation, a nursing home operated by the Health and Hospital Corp after his family determined his dementia needed professional care.

In a 2019 lawsuit, his wife, Ivanka Talevski, said Talevski was subjected to harmful psychotropic drugs and unlawfully transferred to an all-male facility. He died in 2021, while the litigation was pending.

A law called the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act places limits the use of physical or chemical restraints and on transferring patients. Talevski’s wife contended her husband’s rights under it were violated.

President Joe Biden’s administration had urged the justices to reject a broad limitation on lawsuits pursued under Section 1983. But it had also argued that the federal nursing home statute provided comprehensive administrative processes and remedies that made a lawsuit unnecessary by exposing nursing homes that violate residents’ rights to financial penalties and the termination of their Medicaid funding.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)