President Donald Trump and his administration are asking the Supreme Court to dismiss an $83 million defamation verdict won by writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault. This is the first time a court has assessed damages against a president for statements made while in office. Trump previously asked the justices to dismiss another verdict, for $5 million. The Supreme Court refused in June to hear that appeal. The Justice Department filed papers seeking to invoke the Westfall Act, which shields government employees from being sued for doing their jobs. Carroll's lawyers have declined to comment.

A planned vote this week to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general appears in doubt. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas called off a scheduled meeting with Blanche on Wednesday morning. Cornyn told reporters that the Justice Department has not adequately addressed in writing his concerns about the federal settlement that afforded President Donald Trump and members of his family protection from tax audits. Without Cornyn's vote, Blanche's nomination can’t advance through the Republican-led committee to a floor vote. Another Republican on the committee, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, has backed Cornyn’s position. Blanche is serving as acting attorney general while he awaits confirmation.

Newly released audio tapes appear to show Joe Biden sharing classified information with a biographer and sometimes claiming memory lapses during interviews that occurred before his election to the presidency in 2020. About three hours of audio and 117 pages of transcripts were released by the conservative Oversight Project, an arm of the Heritage Foundation. The audio and transcript feature frequent redactions. The conversations were released after Biden lost a prolonged legal fight to keep his talks with memoir ghostwriter Mark Lewis Zwonitzer private. In the sessions, Biden discusses a range of matters, shares notes from his vice presidency and appears to confirm to Zwonitzer that he retained some classified material.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. The lawsuit, filed by an interfaith group, argued that the commission's overwhelmingly conservative Christian makeup lacked a legally required balance of viewpoints. On Monday, U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan ruled that while federal law requires advisory commissions to have a balance of viewpoints, it doesn't specify how this should be done. The lawsuit sought a more ideologically and religiously diverse commission. However, Cronan said the commission is diverse in other ways.

A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling that halted President Donald Trump's efforts to create a federal voter list and limit who can receive a mail ballot. Judges of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday rejected the Trump administration's effort to overturn an injunction blocking the mail-in voting restrictions in 23 U.S. states that sued ahead of November's midterm elections. Trump's March executive order directed the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on a government-created list of eligible voters. A federal judge last month ruled that the states and Congress, not the president, have the authority to set election rules.

Trump’s tariffs are headed to court — again. Two lawsuits filed by small businesses are challenging Trump’s sweeping tariffs announced Thursday that impose double digit levies on 60 trading partners. The tariffs, implemented for what the Trump administration says is countries’ failure to prevent imports produced by forced labor, cover 99% of U.S. imports. Critics say that’s a pretext and the goal is to replace the worldwide tariffs that Trump imposed last year that were struck down by the Supreme Court in February. They came just as temporary 10% worldwide tariffs — that had also been challenged in court — expired.

Skydance-owned Paramount has agreed to delay closing its $81 billion buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery well into next year. The move comes as a judge continues to consider a challenge from 12 states seeking to block the deal altogether. In a court filing, Paramount said it wouldn’t close the merger until a court ruling on the merits of the lawsuit or June 1, 2027. Just days ago, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted a temporary restraining order requested by the states to freeze the transaction for several weeks. The states allege the merger would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers.