By Jake Kaplan
Here are some of the legal news stories making headlines this week:
On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office announced that it is joining the Manhattan District Attorney’s criminal investigation into the Trump Organization.
- A spokesperson for James said, “We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA.”
- James’ office has been conducting a civil probe into the Trump Organization since 2019. Meanwhile, Manhattan DA Cy Vance’s wide-ranging criminal investigation is looking at, among other things, whether Trump and his organization committed tax, bank, and insurance fraud.
- In response to the news, Trump called the investigation “corrupt,” and said it is “a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of the United States.”
On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a major abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
- At issue in the case is the constitutionality of bans on “pre-viability” abortions. The law in question, Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act, bans abortions after 15 weeks.
- Many reproductive rights advocates see the Court’s decision to grant certiorari in this case as a threat to the long-standing precedent set in Roe v. Wade and subsequent cases, including Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which forbid bans on abortions before viability.
- The Court will hear oral arguments in the case during its next term, which starts in the Fall, and issue a decision by Summer 2022.
