Texas sues Biden administration to stop mask mandates on planes –

The day before a jury rejected former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s claims that the New York Times maliciously damaged her reputation by erroneously linking her campaign rhetoric to a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona, US District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that he would dismiss the case because Palin was unable to prove actual malice.

But because Palin was planning to appeal, the judge allowed the jury to continue to deliberate on a verdict. The next day, they returned in favor of the New York Times.

Today Rakoff revealed that several of the jurors received notifications of his decision during their deliberation, the Daily Beast is reporting.

The jurors assured the court’s law clerk that the notifications hadn’t “affected them in any way or played any role whatever in their deliberations,” but Rakoff said that parties could “promptly initiate” a joint phone call to determine if “further proceedings are appropriate.”

In a statement announcing his lawsuit against the Biden administration over the mask mandate for air travel, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton argued that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not go through Congress to issue the mandate, which makes it illegal.

“Biden’s repeated disregard of the individual liberties of Texans is not only disrespectful to the US Constitution, it is also troublesome that any president thinks they can act above the law while hardworking Americans standby,” said Paxton said. “President Biden cannot continue governing through executive edicts. Now is the time to strike down his administration’s air-travel mask mandate.”

A mild drama is playing out in the senate right now over the vote to confirm eight of Joe Biden’s nominees for US attorney.

Dick Durbin, chair of the judiciary committee, asked for unanimous consent, but Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas,…