The Justice Department has moved to dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Government lawyers said in a 20-page court filing Friday evening that information provided since the indictment of David Hearn shows that the damage was the result of a “flawed installation by the contractor” as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.” Hearn’s lawyers say the case against him should never have been brought.

The parents of four teenagers who died by suicide are suing Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. They claim the platforms caused “years of escalating harms” leading to their deaths. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Delaware. The Social Media Victims Law Center represents the families from Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Tennessee. The teens reportedly suffered from social media addiction, sleep deprivation, depression, and anxiety. The complaint alleges the companies knew they were causing harm. Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap face numerous lawsuits over harms to minors.

A federal appeals court says the Trump administration cannot deny immigrants detained inside the United States a chance for release on bond. The 2-1 decision Thursday by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals deepens a split between federal appeals courts over the administration’s mandatory detention policy. Under previous administrations, most noncitizens without a criminal record who were arrested inside the U.S. were allowed to seek a bond hearing while their immigration cases were pending. Last July, immigration officials issued guidance expanding mandatory detention to immigrants in the U.S. interior. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement it was confident in its legal position regarding mandatory detention.

A man has been convicted of federal terrorism charges in the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie. A jury delivered its verdict Wednesday in Buffalo, New York. Jurors found Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. The 28-year-old had pleaded not guilty. Matar already is serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction in the August 2022 attack. Rushdie has faced a decades-old death threat over his novel “The Satanic Verses.”

A judge in Wisconsin has ruled that voters who have already returned their absentee ballots for the state’s primary election are not allowed to void those and request a new one. The Dane County Circuit Court judge on Wednesday ruled against Democrats, who filed a last-minute lawsuit ahead of the Aug. 11 primary. Three Democratic candidates for governor have dropped out of the race and one has reentered it, creating a chaotic party primary. The ruling comes after more than 117,000 voters have already returned absentee ballots.

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 judge is allowing a police interview of the man charged in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur to be used in his upcoming trial. Duane “Keffe D” Davis is charged with murder, and his trial is scheduled to start Aug. 10. His attorney argued during a hearing on Tuesday that Davis' 2008 interview with law enforcement was supposed to be confidential, and that Davis was unaware it was being recorded. Prosecutors say there is no basis to exclude the interview from the trial.

A teenager who killed two students and two teachers in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia has been sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sixteen-year-old Colt Gray had pleaded guilty Friday to charges including murder in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting that also left several others wounded. Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm handed down the sentence Tuesday after hearing testimony and considering evidence from both sides. Gray was 14 at the time of the shooting and was charged as an adult. Investigators testified that Gray idolized other mass shooters and studied their methods before carrying out the attack.