A new voting rights law in New York is already having a dramatic effect, with lawsuits in several local communities seeking to reverse decades of minority voter disenfranchisement. The lawsuits help dispel a longstanding narrative that racial voting discrimination happens only in the South or in deeply Republican states. In Long Island's Nassau County, a handful of Latino residents and a local civil rights organization allege that a redistricting map drawn by the county Legislature dilutes the voting power of Black, Latino and Asian residents. Whites are just 56% of the county’s nearly 1.4 million people but account for nearly 80% of the county governing body.

Jury selection in the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump is set to resume after a frenetic day that eventually saw all 12 jurors sworn in along with one alternate juror. Lawyers on Friday will focus on selecting five alternates to round out the panel that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president. The case is the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial. Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records and making payoffs to two women as part of a scheme to bury stories he worried would hurt his 2016 campaign. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts.

The man who blew the lid off decades of abuse allegations at New Hampshire’s youth detention center continued testifying at his civil trial Thursday. In the seven years since David Meehan went to police, the state has set up a $100 million fund for former residents of the Sununu Youth Services Center and brought criminal charges against 11 former state workers, including four accused of abusing Meehan. But facing more than 1,100 lawsuits from former residents, the state also argues it should not be held liable for the actions of what it calls “rogue” employees. Meehan’s lawsuit – the first to be filed — went to trial last week. He testified Thursday about how a counselor he initially trusted as a father figure subjected him to horrific abuse.

A southern Arizona jury heard closing arguments Thursday in the trial of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border. George Alan Kelly was charged with second-degree murder in the January 2023 death of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who lived south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. The trial started March 22 and included a visit by jurors to Kelly's cattle ranch. The case attracted national attention amid increased interest in border security during a presidential election year and garnered the sympathy of some on the political right.

A man who’s served more than half of his life in prison for his role in the 2001 stabbing deaths of two married Dartmouth College professors as part of a plan to rob and kill people before fleeing overseas has been granted parole. James Parker was 16 when he was part of a conspiracy with his best friend that resulted in the deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop in Hanover, New Hampshire. Now nearly 40, he appeared before the state parole board on Thursday, years after pleading guilty to being an accomplice to second-degree murder and serving nearly the minimum term of his 25-years-to-life sentence. His lawyer says he’s taken many steps to rehabilitate himself.

Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the deaths of four University of Idaho students in late 2022, was out for a drive the night they were killed. That's what his attorneys say in a new court filing that lays out more details of the alibi defense he intends to use at his trial. Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were stabbed to death at a rental home near the university campus in Moscow, Idaho, early on Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger was then a criminal justice student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington. He has been charged with four counts of murder.