Second judge blocks citizenship executive order
A federal judge in Seattle has issued a second nationwide injunction blocking President Trump’s citizenship order. The first came from a judge in Maryland Wednesday.
In Seattle, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour accused Trump’s order of playing “policy games” with the U.S. Constitution.
"It has become ever more apparent that to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals," Coughenour said. "The rule of law is according to him something to navigate around or simply ignore.”
Trump’s order would eliminate automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are neither citizens nor permanent legal residents.
Two plaintiffs have been added to the case in Washington state, both pregnant women who are requesting asylum.
Attorneys say under the executive order, one plaintiff’s five year old would have U.S. citizenship while his younger sibling would not, which they called arbitrary and capricious.
Bill aims to help defrauded WA insurance customers recoup costs
A new bill in the Washington legislature would require insurance carriers who violate a law in any way that financially harms a client to pay restitution to the customer.
Under current law, if a consumer is found to have been defrauded by an insurance company, they can be fined.
But the only way the customer can get their money back is to take the company to court.
Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer says while her agency can issue a fine to the company, that money doesn’t go to the consumer. It goes to the state’s general fund:
"Most of the time they voluntarily pay back their policy holders. But there are some that don’t," Kuderer said. "And we don’t have the authority to say you are going to pay back the policyholder you just harmed by violating the statute."
She cited an example of a company that sold policies under the name Quick Health and charged customers for insurance they never delivered.
The company and CEO were fined, but customers never received anything.
The bill would require restitution to be paid with 8% interest from the date the obligation arose and to be paid within 30 days of the order’s date.
ID lawmaker's appeal rejected
The Idaho Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a former state legislator convicted of raping an intern in 2021.
An Ada County jury in 2022 convicted former Republican state Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger of raping a 19-year-old intern he met at the Idaho Capitol.
In his appeal, von Ehlinger said a district court judge violated his constitutional right to confront his accuser in open court and claimed his lawyer was ineffective.
His victim, who went by her initials, J.V., briefly testified at trial, but eventually fled the courtroom saying quote “I can’t do this.”
The prosecution instead relied on testimony from a forensic nurse who treated J.V. to prove to a jury he had raped her.
Von Ehlinger’s attorney objected to parts of the nurse’s testimony, but not on constitutional grounds. He also chose not to ask for a mistrial after J.V. left the stand.
Justices unanimously ruled there’s no evidence his lawyer’s actions weren’t part of his larger trial strategy, something that cannot be appealed. Von Ehlinger is serving a 20-year sentence — eight years of which is mandatory.
Union believes Boeing violated collective bargaining agreements in layoffs
A union that represents Boeing employees believes the company violated its collective bargaining agreement in last year’s layoffs.
Over 600 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace lost their Boeing jobs last year.
The union has been looking into the layoffs. And, they now think the company violated union contracts.
Rich Plunkett is the director of strategic development with the union. He said the union believes the company is using non-Boeing, and non-union workers, to replace union jobs.
"We have individuals, we believe, who've been laid off, while these purchase service personnel have been retained, performing similar, if not identical, work," Plunket told NWPB.
Plunkett said the union wants to pursue these actions because they want to see impacted workers made whole.
Some workers had to leave their jobs immediately. Plunkett said this left employees with no time to finish projects.
"That's the first time we've experienced that employees are coming to us to help them get the work done because they're being shoved out the airlock, so to speak, rather quickly," he said.
A Boeing spokesperson responded to a request for comment that all layoffs in this process have been done in accordance with the union contract.
Raises to come for ID state employees
Idaho lawmakers have agreed on a compromise for state employee raises after weeks of deadlocked votes.
Public workers will get a minimum one dollar and five cent an hour raise beginning in July, which their employers could hike up to a dollar fifty-five based on merit.
"I do believe this motion strikes a nice balance between recognizing and rewarding excellence and recognizing that everyone is experiencing inflation right now," Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee co-chair Wendy Horman said.
Lawmakers on the committee repeatedly killed different attempts to thread the needle over the past several weeks.
Some wanted raises to exclusively be merit-based to favor high performers and those at the top of the pay scale.
Others felt an across-the-board pay hike would best help lower-income earners who’ve felt the brunt of recent inflation.
Firing squad bill goes to ID Senate
Idaho House lawmakers quickly adopted a bill making the firing squad the state’s primary execution method Thursday.
The proposal’s sponsor says this change is needed to more efficiently execute death row inmates.
One of Idaho’s nine death row inmates, Gerald Pizzuto, has been appealing the lethal injection execution method since 2002.
Just two lawmakers briefly spoke against the bill, including Democratic Rep. John Gannon. He said other states are still carrying out lethal injections just fine.
Gannon said he’s also concerned about the cost of building a new facility.
"You can build a gorgeous, gorgeous mansion for $1 million and I don’t know why a firing squad facility is costing so much," he said.
Lawmakers already approved funding for the building two years ago.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
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Reporting contributed by Amy Radil, Steve Jackson, James Dawson and Lauren Gallup.