Flock camera regulations and more news from the states

Good morning, readers. Thanks for stopping by. We’re starting off this morning’s lineup with news out of Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly issued an order that temporarily blocks President Donald Trump’s ban of three news organizations from the White House. The judge ruled that the White House must “immediately return, reinstate, and restore the White House ‘hard pass’ press credentials held by employees of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO that were revoked,” States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports.

In immigration news, a federal judge denied a request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent the Tennessee Highway Patrol from conducting pretextual traffic stops in tandem with federal immigration agents. The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition had not made a “clear showing” it was entitled to the injunction at this stage of the litigation, according to the ruling.

And in criminal justice news, voters in nine states will weigh changes to their criminal legal systems and drug policies this fall. The Nov. 3 ballot measures include questions about pretrial release, fentanyl and human trafficking penalties, immigration enforcement, traffic cameras, drug cartels and marijuana regulation, Stateline reports.

National: States cannot be penalized under a Trump administration deadline that gave them too little time to put new federal food assistance rules into effect, a federal judge in Oregon ruled. The decision also rejects federal guidance that would have denied benefits to some lawful permanent residents.

Arizona: The Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission says that its investigation into whether two Green Party candidates fraudulently qualified for campaign funding is squarely within the scope of its legally mandated job, and that a Maricopa County Superior Court judge should throw out the candidates’ lawsuit to block the commission from doing that job. 

Ohio: Unpaid landing fees are mounting for the three air charter companies providing deportation flights out of the Akron-Canton Regional Airport for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Invoices released recently show that Eastern Airlines, Global X and Air Wisconsin owe a combined $46,513 for 148 landings since the end of April.

Minnesota: The union representing about 150 Allina hospital doctors announced a tentative agreement on a first labor contract covering wages and benefits. The agreement follows a four-day strike last week, believed to be the first by private sector hospital doctors in U.S. history. 

Washington: California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his authorization to move forward with linking Washington to the carbon market shared with Quebec, Canada. Washington officials also completed the rulemaking process to allow the linkage.

See the rest of the news of the day from all 50 states, plus our D.C. Bureau and Stateline, on News From The States.

As backlash against Flock and other license plate-tracking cameras grows, some states are exploring limiting the technology. New Hampshire is already a decade ahead, New Hampshire Bulletin reports.

Since 2016, New Hampshire has had one of the strictest laws in the country regulating and limiting automated license plate readers. The result: While license plate-tracking cameras from companies such as Flock, Axon and Motorola Solutions have proliferated in other states in recent years, New Hampshire’s years-old law appears to have prevented those companies from establishing a foothold in the state. 

With states such as Florida, Arizona, Connecticut and South Dakota seeking to restrict the cameras, New Hampshire has provided a possible template.

But some New Hampshire lawmakers say the state’s laws should be tightened further. Rep. Michael Granger, a libertarian-leaning Milton Republican, has filed a legislative service request for the 2027 session “relative to surveillance on public ways and on public property” — the first step toward a bill.  

In 2001, Charles Fain was exonerated and released from an Idaho prison after nearly 20 years on death row for a rape and murder he did not commit, thanks to the Idaho Innocence Project. That project has been shuttered for more than two years, but Fain is helping usher in a new group to continue the work of overturning wrongful convictions, Idaho Capital Sun reports. 

Fain has joined Innocence Project founder Greg Hampikian and fellow exoneree Amanda Knox to form The Innocence Center, a San Diego-based nonprofit, free law firm that will take on cases in Idaho to try and free wrongfully convicted inmates. Knox sits on the board.

Hampikian, a forensic DNA expert, lent his expertise to Knox’s defense team in her highly publicized case and helped free her from an Italian prison after she was wrongfully sentenced for the murder of her roommate while studying abroad. 

Mike Semanchik, executive director of The Innocence Center, was just admitted to the Idaho bar so that he may work as an attorney for these cases in Idaho.