Reuters US Domestic News Summary

In landmark ruling, Supreme Court bars discrimination against LGBT workers The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered a watershed victory for LGBT rights and a defeat for President Donald Trump's administration by ruling that a longstanding federal law barring workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. New projection puts U.S. COVID-19 deaths at over 200,000 by October

A new forecast projects 201,129 deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States through the beginning of October mainly due to reopening measures under way, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington said on Monday. The IHME raised its estimate by 18 percent from 169,890 and said Florida would be among the hardest hit states, with an estimated 18,675 deaths, up 186 percent from a previous estimate of 6,559 on June 10. Trump says ex-adviser Bolton will break the law if he publishes book

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday his former national security adviser John Bolton will have broken the law and face criminal liability if a book he has written about his time in the White House is published. Trump told reporters that Bolton knows he has classified information in his book, and that he had not completed a clearing process required for any book written by former government officials who had access to sensitive information. Some scold, others cheerlead: U.S. states tackle reopening differently

The two most populous U.S. states took markedly different approaches to reopening on Monday with New York scolding local governments for not enforcing social distancing and California encouraging counties to restart economies if they met criteria. Scenes of merrymakers gathering outside bars prompted the governor of New York, the state hardest hit along with New Jersey by the coronavirus pandemic, to urge local officials and businesses on Monday to strictly enforce reopening guidelines. Trump to sign police reform executive order on Tuesday

U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday that will seek to improve how police officers treat African Americans and others by improving credentialing, training and mental health resources, administration officials said. The order comes after Trump has struck a strict "law and order" tone in his response to protests around the country sparked by the death of African American George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. Supreme Court rejects cases over 'qualified immunity' for police

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear eight cases involving a legal defense called qualified immunity that can be used to shield government officials from lawsuits, including seven involving police accused of excessive force or other misconduct. In six of the seven cases involving police, plaintiffs who sued officers were challenging actions in lower courts that protected the defendants through qualified immunity. The other one involved two officers who argued they deserve such protection but lost in a lower court. In landmark ruling, Supreme Court bars discrimination against LGBT workers

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered a watershed victory for LGBT rights and a defeat for President Donald Trump's administration by ruling that a longstanding federal law barring workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees. The landmark 6-3 ruling represented the biggest moment for LGBT rights in the United States since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. Two conservative justices joined the court's four liberals in the decision: Neil Gorsuch, a 2017 Trump appointee who wrote the ruling, and Chief Justice John Roberts. 'Golden State Killer' suspect to plead guilty: LA Times

An ex-policeman in California charged with murder and kidnapping attributed to a serial predator dubbed the 'Golden State Killer' is expected to plead guilty in a deal that will spare him the death penalty, the L.A. Times reported on Monday. The office of Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, one of six prosecutors involved in the case against Joseph James DeAngelo, declined to confirm the report when reached by Reuters on Monday. Next LGBTQ rights legal battle looms after Supreme Court victory

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling protecting LGBT rights in the workplace sets the stage for another major legal fight over the scope of religious-rights exemptions to certain federal laws that could dilute the landmark decision's impact. The justices ruled 6-3 on Monday that federal employment law safeguards gay and transgender employees from discrimination but failed to resolve some related legal questions. One of them is whether the court, which has 5-4 conservative majority, will expand the ability of individuals, businesses and organizations to cite religious beliefs when contesting government actions such as enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. Rayshard Brooks should have been allowed to walk home instead of being shot by police, say family lawyers

Police officers involved in the shooting of Rayshard Brooks, a black man whose death reignited protests in Atlanta over the weekend, should have let him walk home or found other ways to de-escalate the situation, his family's lawyers said on Monday. An autopsy conducted on Sunday showed that Brooks, 27, died from blood loss and organ injuries caused by two gunshot wounds to his back, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office said in a statement, ruling his death a homicide. New York City police disband rough street unit amid pressure for reform

The New York Police Department is disbanding its aggressive anti-crime unit, a move aimed at turning alienated residents into crime-stopping allies, part of a nationwide push for policing reforms following the killing of George Floyd. In a major redeployment, the country's largest police force will reassign some 600 plainclothes officers in the anti-crime unit, the target of numerous complaints, to other duties, effective immediately, Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Monday.