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For Immediate Release
January, 18 2018, 11:45am EDT
Contact:
jill@transgenderlawcenter.org
TLC Condemns Illegal HHS Rule Granting 'License to Discriminate'
WASHINGTON
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Trump-Pence administration announced a new rule to allow medical providers to illegally discriminate against patients based on who they are, as long as the providers cite religion. Transgender Law Center, the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people, issued the following statement from executive director Kris Hayashi:
"This extreme new HHS rule will quite possibly cost lives by giving medical providers cover not to treat people they disagree with, no matter how life-threatening or urgent the medical need. The rule grants an illegal license to discriminate against transgender people who come to the doctor or emergency room for help when our lives are in danger due to sickness, violence, or injury. It's also an attack against all people, including many in the transgender community, who rely on critical care ranging from reproductive services to emergency services to HIV medication.
The agency charged with protecting our health is now inviting providers to deny life-saving medical care to people based on who we are. Once again, the Trump-Pence administration has shown they will do everything in their power to undermine the health and survival of transgender people. We will see them in court."
Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people. Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, TLC employs a variety of community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation.
LATEST NEWS
'You Deserve Stability': Mamdani Vows 30% Discount on Staple Food Items at City-Run Grocery Stores
"A trip to the grocery store shouldn’t spell dread for New Yorkers," said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Jul 28, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged on Monday that city-run grocery stores set to debut next year will offer 30% cheaper prices on staple items such as eggs, chicken, and fruits and vegetables.
The discount could save New Yorkers—who have been hit hard by rising food costs—around $1,000 per year, the city's Economic Development Corporation has estimated.
“Every week, New Yorkers walk into a grocery store hoping the prices haven’t gone up again," Mamdani said during a press conference at the Campaign Against Hunger's food distribution center in Brooklyn.
"A trip to the grocery store shouldn’t spell dread for New Yorkers," the mayor continued. "That’s why we are guaranteeing a 30% discount on the most common and most critical groceries for families across the five boroughs—including eggs, milk, chicken, and fresh fruits and vegetables. In a city that’s defined by unpredictability, you deserve stability—no matter what aisle you’re in.”
New York City officials have presented the municipal grocery stores—which are not a novel idea but became a signature plank of Mamdani's mayoral campaign—as a potential model for other major American cities whose residents are struggling with high costs.
"This administration is building a grocery store model that puts affordability first, with a 30% discount on essential foods and quality jobs for the people who run these stores," Julie Su, New York City's deputy mayor for economic justice, said on Monday. "That’s what it means to make this city work for working people.”
New York City has committed $70 million in capital to fund store construction. According to officials, the city "will provide the foundation and deliver grocery-ready sites, cover rent and property taxes, fund initial buildout, and establish a single public brand for all NYC Groceries locations."
The first store is set to open in 2027 in the Bronx.
"All five stores—one per borough—will be open by the end of the mayor’s first term, including La Marqueta in East Harlem," Mamdani's office said on Monday.
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Five Months After US Bombing of Iranian Elementary School, Pentagon Still Hasn't Released Its Findings
"The White House and Pentagon have so far refused any accountability or transparency," said CNN host Jake Tapper.
Jul 28, 2026
Tuesday marks five months since the US carried out a deadly attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in the city of Minab, Iran, which killed more than 150 schoolchildren along with over a dozen teachers.
The US Department of Defense (DOD), however, has yet to release the results of the investigation it said it was conducting on the strike.
In a Tuesday social media post, CNN host Jake Tapper highlighted the DOD's silence about the school attack, noting that "the White House and Pentagon have so far refused any accountability or transparency."
Tapper then posted a timeline of accumulated evidence that the US was responsible for the deadly strike, while also including a quote from Rachel VanLandingham, a retired official from the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG), who said "it's atrocious that we haven't had an acknowledgement, an explanation, and an apology yet" from the Pentagon.
Earlier this month, CNN reported that the investigation into the school bombing was essentially complete, and it found that US military commanders "bypassed warnings" indicating that their database of strike targets inside Iran was badly out of date shortly before authorizing the attack on the building.
Two of CNN’s sources said senior commanders ignored the warnings out of “expediency,” as they did not want to significantly delay providing target lists during the outset of the war, which Trump illegally launched in February without authorization from the US Congress.
A group of experts at the United Nations last week renewed calls for the US to release the findings of its probe into the school bombing, noting that the US has "obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law."
“Five months following the school bombing in Minab, the US and Israel have not made any findings public, raising valid questions regarding the impartiality, effectiveness and transparency of any investigation that may be underway,” they said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Two weeks ago, a group of 25 Democratic US senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressing him to release the results of the Pentagon investigation and to submit to Congress a "prevention and remediation plan that identifies the specific corrective actions the Department will take to ensure this does not happen again."
"The United States military has a legal and moral obligation to take all feasible precautions to prevent civilian harm," the senators wrote. "When a U.S. strike kills civilians, the Department owes Congress, the American people, and the victims’ families a clear accounting of what happened and a credible plan to prevent future failures."
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Top DHS Statistics Official Resigns, Citing 'War on Immigrants' and Trump's 'Brazen Corruption'
"Since Trump took office last year, his office has been repeatedly blocked from sharing previously public data," said one expert of Marc Rosenblum.
Jul 28, 2026
A top immigration policy expert accused a right-wing online news source of spreading an "outrageous lie" on Monday about the US Department of Homeland Security's top statistician, who resigned over the weekend and cited President Donald Trump's "war on immigrants" as a major reason for his departure.
America First Post wrote in a post on social media that Marc Rosenblum, who until recently was the executive director of the DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS), "easily could’ve been underreporting deportations or illegal populations, ruining data."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, countered that Rosenblum sought under both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration to publish "the most transparent data on immigration enforcement ever; monthly information on [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection] arrests and removals, stuff that had NEVER been published before."
Such data has not been published since the first days of Trump's second term in the White House, said Reichlin-Melnick, as the president has ramped up deportation operations and federal agents have violently carried out his anti-immigration agenda—arresting more than 10,000 people in a recent five-day span and killing at least 11 people during enforcement operations.
In a post on LinkedIn, Rosenblum wrote that over 10 years, the team he managed at OHSS grew from 11 people to 45 people under the Biden administration.
"We matured official data processing to update monthly," wrote Rosenblum. "We launched new lines of daily and weekly internal reports. We massively expanded our analytic capacity."
"My OHSS co-workers are outstanding career federal civil servants. They are smart, mission-focused experts who produce high-quality results in a challenging and often hostile work environment," he continued. "But it will come as no surprise that I’m thrilled to end my relationship with the current administration. Between the war on immigrants, the war on feds, and the war on facts (not to mention the crazy war in Iran and the brazen corruption), I just need a change."
Daniel Delgado, a former DHS deputy assistant secretary for immigration policy, said the department was "far better off for the work that Marc accomplished, no matter how hard the current incompetent leadership try to hide it."
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute—which has found that the majority of immigration arrests made last year were of people who had no criminal convictions—told NOTUS last November that under the Trump administration, DHS was providing "no accountability, no way to assess, no public understanding about what’s really going on that is not curated by a press release from the agency."
Reichlin-Melnick has also frequently spoken out about the lack of data being publicly released by DHS to back up its claims about immigration arrests.
While DHS has repeatedly claimed in public statements that its agents are getting "the worst of the worst off our streets," the agency's own "Worst of the Worst" database released late last year showed less than 10,000 people who had been arrested—a tiny fraction of the 220,000 people who had been detained by federal agents up to that point.
"Marc Rosenblum was one of the most dedicated civil servants I’ve ever met, a man who spent his career working to get DHS to share more data," said Reichlin-Melnick. "Since Trump took office last year, his office has been repeatedly blocked from sharing previously public data."
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Susan Collins Votes to Advance Trump Lackey Jay Clayton for US Intelligence Chief
Hundreds of former officials warned that Clayton "has consistently shown an unwillingness to draw clear lines between the interests of the intelligence community and the political interests of the president."
Jul 28, 2026
Sen. Susan Collins, widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection in November, voted on Monday to advance President Donald Trump's pick to lead the US intelligence community as he faced opposition from former national security officials and press freedom organizations.
Monday's 51-43 vote along party lines all but guarantees that Jay Clayton, currently the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, will be confirmed as director of national intelligence on Tuesday.
Collins (R-Maine), who is commonly portrayed as a moderate despite almost always voting with Trump, waved away Clayton's election denial during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, when he refused to say Trump lost in 2020.
"The Office of the Director of National Intelligence does not certify elections, and he made very clear over and over again that Joe Biden had been certified as the winner of the election," Collins told reporters after the hearing. (When facing questions under oath, Trump nominees and officials often say Biden was "certified" as the 2020 winner to avoid directly contradicting the president's false claim that the election was stolen.)
Collins, who is running for a sixth Senate term, went on to say she believes Clayton "brings the experience" to the role and "did a good job" during his confirmation hearing.
Asked Susan Collins about Jay Clayton’s refusal to say Biden won in 2020.
The DNI “does not certify elections, and he made very clear over and over again that Joe Biden had been certified as the winner of the election. I'm not sure what my colleagues were seeking further.” pic.twitter.com/dlZxVS8LwY
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 16, 2026
Monday's procedural vote came as hundreds of former US national security and intelligence officials issued an open letter opposing Clayton's nomination, warning that he "has consistently shown an unwillingness to draw clear lines between the interests of the intelligence community and the political interests of the president who nominated him."
"Equally troubling is Mr. Clayton’s defense, during his hearing, of subpoenas issued to four journalists at The New York Times while he served as United States attorney for the Southern District of New York," the letter states. "The director of national intelligence sits at the intersection of secrecy and accountability, deciding what the public may know about the government’s most sensitive activities. A nominee who justifies forcing journalists to testify, instead of recognizing the First Amendment’s protections for a free press, does not demonstrate the sound judgment required for the office."
The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), which also opposes Clayton's nomination, argued Monday that Clayton appears to have lied to lawmakers during his testimony about the subpoenas for Times journalists. The subpoenas targeted journalists who reported on the new Air Force One, a $400 million luxury jet donated by Qatar.
During his Senate testimony, Clayton insisted that he followed "the procedures we have in place to protect the First Amendment and protect the freedom of the press" prior to signing the subpoenas. But Trevor Timm, FPF's executive director, wrote Monday that "this was likely impossible."
"Given the Times’ story came out on a Wednesday and the subpoenas were issued on a Friday (after an hourslong White House meeting discussing the case with FBI Director Kash Patel), there was almost no way 'all reasonable attempts' were made before the subpoenas were issued. These investigations usually take months," Timm wrote. "It sure seemed like false testimony to us."
"But on Friday, the Department of Justice itself seems to have confirmed that Clayton lied to Congress," Timm noted. "In a court hearing in the Times subpoena case, a federal judge castigated government lawyers for an hour for making a multitude of errors when issuing the subpoenas, misleading the court, and not following the law... The DOJ didn’t even attempt to argue they took any investigative steps before issuing the subpoenas. Instead, they claimed there was an “exception” to that rule that allowed them to bypass it entirely, which left the judge flabbergasted."
"Clayton should be immediately called back to the Senate to answer for his seemingly false statement," he added.
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Historic 'Monster' Wildfires Scorch France and Spain
“It is the most painful manifestation of a climate emergency that is making… wildfires more voracious and heatwaves more frequent, and as a result our land more vulnerable," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Jul 27, 2026
More than 300,000 people have been displaced as historic wildfires tear across France and Spain, presaging what some have called a climate-fueled "crisis of habitability" across Europe, which is heating faster than anywhere else on the globe.
Record heat and drought have fueled multiple record wildfires around the French wine-growing region of Bordeaux and in central Spain near Madrid. As the region expects to see temperatures above 95°F later this week, firefighters are racing to quell the blaze as it grows out of control.
Across the two countries, at least one person has been killed, and more than 100 have been sickened or injured. In France, 80 firefighters have been injured.
About 448 square miles of terrain have been scorched across France since the beginning of 2026, the highest annual total in modern history, even though it's only July.
The fires in France have grown so powerful and unwieldy that they've formed what the National Firefighters Federation of France described as a “pyrocumulonimbus”—an unprecedented fire-generated thunderstorm cloud that generates its own wind and lightning, which spreads the flames across the landscape.
In Spain, fires around Ávila burned about 193 square miles in five days—an area roughly five times the size of Barcelona—making it the largest wildfire in the nation's history. Civil protection chief Virginia Barcones said her country was facing a "monster."
Extreme wildfires are becoming more common around the world as global temperatures increase. Across Europe, where temperatures have soared twice as fast as the global average, the pattern has been even more intense.
Last year was the worst fire year on record in the European Union, with nearly 4,170 square miles of land burned—almost double the annual average from 2006-24.
Speaking at a climate conference, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez emphasized that the fires should not be viewed as isolated incidents.
“It is the most painful manifestation of a climate emergency that is making… wildfires more voracious and heatwaves more frequent, and as a result our land more vulnerable,” Sánchez said. “It is no longer an exception. It is the rule.”
In an op-ed for Le Monde, philosopher Cynthia Fleury and the Socialist mayor of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles in southwestern France, Stéphane Delpeyrat-Vincent, wrote that where previous fires and heatwaves have posed threats to individuals, "the 2026 heatwave has been something else entirely."
"No longer are only individuals at risk, but entire regions," they wrote. "Extreme heat now goes hand in hand with megafires, the destruction of whole landscapes, the collapse of environments and the evacuation of entire towns. The health crisis has become a crisis of habitability."
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'Americans Will Give Trump an F': Analysis Shows Surging Costs of School Supplies
"If the president continues to treat our economy like a schoolyard game, our students and their families will pay the price."
Jul 27, 2026
Even as President Donald Trump continues dismissing Americans' concerns about affordability heading into the 2026 midterm elections, a study released on Monday reveals that US parents are about to pay a hefty premium to ensure their children are prepared for school this fall.
A joint analysis from Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation finds that a typical basket of school supplies costs nearly 8% more than it did last year, with typical school lunch items costing 11% more.
Lunch boxes have posted the largest yearly price increase, as the analysis estimates they will cost nearly 27% more this year than in 2025. Other items whose prices have soared include one-subject notebooks (23% yearly increase), index cards (22%), and notebook paper (20%).
Trump's illegal war with Iran, which has caused fuel prices including diesel to surge higher, has played a large role in increasing prices, as have his tariffs on foreign imports, the report notes.
The increase in diesel has been particularly troublesome for the price of food, the analysis points out, as the fuel is used both by farmers to power their agricultural equipment and by delivery trucks that ship food to grocery stores.
When it comes to the tariffs, the report points to Newell Brands—the company that makes Sharpies, Paper Mate, Elmer's glue, and other school supply staples—which has been hit with a $174 million tax bill thanks to Trump's policies and has consistently raised prices over the last year.
The report also points to changes made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) made in Republicans' 2025 budget law that will make it harder for low-income kids to qualify for food assistance this school year.
Lindsay Owens, president of Groundwork Collaborative, said Trump's policies are forcing parents "to worry about whether they can afford to buy what their students need to be successful in the classroom."
"If the president continues to treat our economy like a schoolyard game, our students and their families will pay the price," said Owens. "When report cards come this year, Americans will give Trump an F.”
Janelle Jones, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, noted that school supplies aren't luxuries for families, but rather "the baseline for a kid to show up ready to learn."
"When notebooks and paper are up over 20%," Jones emphasized, "we’re not just squeezing family budgets, we’re setting students up to fall behind. We know where this leads: lower test scores, more kids repeating grades, and worse outcomes well into adulthood."
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'I'm Humbled Beyond Words': Troy Jackson Raises $2 Million After Maine Senate Nomination
"People across Maine and the country are ready to come together and finish the job" of defeating Susan Collins, said the Democratic candidate.
Jul 27, 2026
With Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins backed by nearly 100 billionaires, Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson has been open about the fact that beating Collins in November will be an uphill battle—but he said Monday that $2 million that's poured in from small donors in recent days gave him hope about the "extraordinary grassroots momentum" behind his campaign.
Jackson officially became the Democratic nominee on Saturday at the party's convention—planned in a matter of weeks after former nominee Graham Platner dropped out due to rape allegations—with Democrats across the state apparently eager to throw their support behind a candidate who backs the same progressive policies that his predecessor did.
Since securing the nomination, said Jackson's campaign Monday, he has raised $2 million from more than 58,000 donors, including 30,000 new contributors.
"I'm humbled beyond words by the tens of thousands of people who have stepped up to become part of this campaign," said Jackson in a statement. "Every contribution—whether it was $5, $20, or more—is a vote of confidence in the working-class movement we're building together."
Without a billionaire-backed super political action committee (PAC) like the one set up by Collins' allies, Pine Tree Results—which is planning to spend $20 million on attack ads against Jackson this fall, according to The New York Times, the fifth-generation logger and former state Senate president is relying on donations that must be $3,500 or smaller per donor.
Collins' campaign and her allies have reserved about $60 million in air time for ads through the fall, according to AdImpact, while the Democrats have allocated about $24 million for ads in Maine.
Jackson told The New York Times Monday that he will likely need to raise at least $40 million-$50 million to beat Collins due to her fundraising advantage, but emphasized that he believes he is in a good position to win voters over based on the issues they'll be voting on in November.
“I’m going to definitely bust my ass in these next four months to make up the difference," Jackson said regarding the fundraising challenge. “And in the end, I think I’m on the right side of the issues compared to Susan Collins. So I feel very good about the race.”
Jackson is a strong supporter of Medicare for All, abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ending US military support for Israel, and taxing the ultrawealthy and corporations to address massive wealth inequality in the US—all issues that are increasingly popular with voters.
"In the end, I think I’m on the right side of the issues compared to Susan Collins. So I feel very good about the race.”
He has condemned Collins, the chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, in recent weeks for backing President Donald Trump's agenda and for her vote to fund ICE earlier this year—expressing anger over the vote after a federal agent fatally shot a young father in Biddeford, Maine earlier this month.
A poll released by University of New Hampshire last week showed 49% of respondents backing Jackson, compared with 46% who supported Collins.
"Susan Collins has spent years voting with Donald Trump 96% of the time, helping him stack the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and supporting an agenda that guts healthcare while handing more power to billionaires and corporations," said Jackson Monday. "Defeating her won't be easy, and we'll need everyone in this fight."
The early fundraising numbers, said Jackson, prove "that people across Maine and the country are ready to come together and finish the job."
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New Trump Asylum Rule Would Send Hundreds of Thousands of Applicants Straight to Deportation Proceedings
Under the new rule, an immigrant rights activist said, many asylum seekers "will never get a chance to argue their case."
Jul 27, 2026
The Trump administration published a new regulation on Monday that will immediately allow it to potentially send almost a third of asylum applicants straight into deportation proceedings without an interview to evaluate their claims.
US asylum law requires the government to give asylum seekers a “reasonable opportunity” to present evidence that they face persecution in their country of origin as a result of race, religion, nationality, social group membership, or political opinion.
For more than three decades, US Citizenship & Immigration Services explicitly stated that this process includes the "right" to an interview, where those seeking asylum have the opportunity to describe the persecution they fear and provide facts that may not have been included in their written asylum application.
But an interim final rule is scheduled to take effect on Tuesday that will scrap this right, allowing USCIS to skip the interview and refer applicants directly to immigration judges based solely on other documents they have submitted, which are often prepared without the help of an attorney in a language the applicant may not speak fluently.
In the filing for the new rule, USCIS acknowledged that applicants may be more likely to provide greater detail in face-to-face interviews, but that the overwhelming backlog of cases makes this unsustainable.
The filing states that the new rule will “more quickly place certain aliens into removal proceedings” at the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency within the Department of Justice (DOJ_ that runs the federal immigration court system.
While these officials are referred to as "judges," they are really part of the executive branch, appointed at the discretion of the attorney general and not subject to any Senate confirmation process.
Critics say that under President Donald Trump, these appointees have been selected to carry out his restrictive immigration agenda.
For these positions, which the administration has advertised as “deportation judges,” The Washington Post found that two-thirds of those appointed as of April 2026 had no immigration law experience. Immigration judges granted asylum in fewer than 5% of cases in February 2026, compared with 48% in 2024.
In September, the Trump DOJ gave immigration judges broader discretion to toss out claims by allowing them to "pretermit" those that they decide are "legally deficient," meaning that applicants can be deported without a full hearing.
As it has carried out its "mass deportation" campaign, the administration has often violated the due process of immigrants in the US by removing them without notice or hearings, detaining longtime residents without the opportunity to secure bond, restricting access to legal counsel, and using mass court procedures to prevent claims from being meaningfully heard in court.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that the new rule will allow USCIS to "deny hundreds of thousands of applications without an interview, sending applicants directly to deportation proceedings."
According to the filing, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that the new rule could affect as many as 444,724 pending cases and roughly 132,000 future applicants each year.
"This means many people will never get a chance to argue their case," Reichlin-Melnick said.
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'Never Should Have Gotten This Far': Trump DOJ Moves to Drop Case Against Union Leader David Huerta
"This case, like others, sought to silence criticism of the administration's improper immigration actions," said attorneys representing California labor leader David Huerta.
Jul 27, 2026
The US Department of Justice on Monday moved to drop its criminal case against California labor leader David Huerta, who was charged with conspiring to impede an officer after being arrested last year while protesting federal immigration enforcement operations.
In a two-page filing, the DOJ said it was moving to dismiss charges against Huerta, president of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West.
As noted by a Monday Politico report, the DOJ had originally hit Huerta with a felony obstruction count, then downgraded it to a misdemeanor, before moving to drop the case altogether.
Heurta's arrest caused an outcry last year, as video footage taken from the protest showed a masked law enforcement officer shoving the labor leader to the ground during a demonstration against a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Los Angeles.
EVERYBODY WATCH.
ICE IS OUT OF CONTROL.
Video of SEIU California’s President David Huerta getting assaulted & arrested during an ICE raid in the warehouse district of Downtown Los Angeles today.
He’s an LA native, American citizen and labor leader.
Don’t turn away. pic.twitter.com/TuDDSHaISC
— Fight for a Union (@FightForAUnion) June 6, 2025
In a statement released after the government's motion to dismiss the case, Huerta said that the Trump DOJ "is finally admitting what we knew from day one and what was obvious to anyone who saw the videos: the charge against me was baseless, meant to intimidate anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice."
Attorneys Abbe Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, who are representing Huerta, delivered a scathing assessment of the DOJ's conduct.
"This case, like others, sought to silence criticism of the administration's improper immigration actions," the attorneys said. "Today's filing is proof that David and other critics will not be silenced."
Lowell and Bednarski added that, even though their client is no longer facing criminal charges, the choice to pursue prosecution in the first place inflicted significant costs upon him.
"This case revealed that the Department of Justice was willing to charge a labor leader, hold it over him for months, and then walk away from it once the charge couldn't survive scrutiny," they said. "That is not how a justice system is supposed to work."
The California Federation of Labor Unions expressed a similar sentiment, arguing that the decision to charge Huerta showed the DOJ has gone off the rails.
"Today, justice prevailed," the federation said. "But it never should have gotten this far. The arrest of our union brother David Huerta was an assault on the entire labor movement by the Trump administration. The decision to drop these outrageous charges reflects the power of working people standing together."
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, told The Los Angeles Times on Monday that she wasn't surprised to see the government move to dismiss charges against Huerta because there were "problems with this case from day one."
“When you look at the photos and videos, there’s certainly an argument from the defense that it was law enforcement acting in a defensive manner and he was just protesting," Levenson said. "It would have been a tough case for the prosecution to win if this went to trial."
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Fury as Council of Trump Loyalists Votes to Steamroll Historic Preservation Law
"At its core, the revisions strip communities of their right to be heard."
Jul 27, 2026
Preservationists are reacting with fury after allies of President Donald Trump moved to weaken federal restrictions on construction projects built on historic sites.
Trump-appointed members of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) on Friday voted move forward with rules that would weaken Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires the federal government to both evaluate how construction projects might impact protected places and to consult with people and groups affected by such projects, including Tribal Nations.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, on Monday ripped Trump for stacking the council with loyalists who appear determined to "tear down the safeguards that protect America's history so he and his billionaire friends can build whatever they want, wherever they want."
"Right now, a developer has to stop and listen before paving over a tribal burial ground, a Revolutionary War battlefield, or the church where your grandparents were married," Huffman added. "Trump's council wants to end that and cut tribal nations, states, counties, towns, and communities out of that conversation entirely."
Greg Werkheiser, founding partner at the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners, said in an interview with NPR published on Friday that the vote amounted to an "attempt to gut historic preservation protections."
"There are millions of these sites in this country," Werkheiser emphasized, "and all of them are made less protected by this effort by the Trump administration."
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) on Monday denounced the council's vote, describing it as "a significant step back for historic preservation, community participation, and the inclusive design processes that serve the public good."
"At its core, the revisions strip communities of their right to be heard," said the AIA. "These revisions place approximately 1.4 million historic sites at greater risk by shifting decisions away from the communities where they are rooted. The revisions make public comment optional rather than mandatory, narrow the definition of historic property, and shift decision-making authority almost entirely to federal agencies—sidelining state historic preservation officers, tribal historic preservation officers, tribes, and local governments."
Michaela Pavlat, manager for the National Parks Conservation Association Indigenous Partnerships Program, said the Friday vote was a "calculated, yet unwarranted attack on tribal consultation, historic preservation, and the regulations that have protected the places that tell our country’s diverse stories."
Gussie Lord, managing attorney for tribal partnerships at Earthjustice, noted that the National Historic Preservation Act "has not slowed the pace of new roads and power plants in this country, but it has given Tribes a seat at the table and preserved irreplaceable Indigenous sites from destruction."
"What happens when entire landscapes are bulldozed without a thought to their cultural and historic importance?" Lord asked. "No one should support cutting Tribes out of the decision-making process for projects that impact their rights and sacred places."
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