U.S. Briefs: Kansas pro-lifers face a judicial setback

The Sunflower State may continue to be a Midwest abortion destination following a pair of July 5 decisions from the Kansas Supreme Court that struck down two pro-life laws. The high court said the two laws—one banning a common second-trimester abortion procedure called dilation and evacuation, and another creating new licensing requirements for abortion centers—violated the state constitution. The rulings reaffirm a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ­decision saying the state constitution guarantees a right to abortion. “The decision is as disappointing as it is unsurprising,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach wrote on X on July 5. “When the word liberty was included in the constitution, no one thought they were creating a right to an abortion.” The July rulings came nearly two years after Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have clarified that the Kansas Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion or the funding of abortion. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research group, reported in June that the number of abortion facilities in Kansas rose from four to six between 2020 and 2023, and the number of abortions increased by 12,440, a rise of 152 percent. —Emma Freire

Texas

San Antonio officials prevailed in a clash between worshipping and city ordinances when they confiscated the speakers of a Catholic chapel and shrine in late June. Residents began complaining about excessive noise that rattled windows in April 2023 after the chapel installed speakers in the house turned worship space. The chapel blasts music three times a day during the week and five times a day on weekends into a mostly single-family-home neighborhood, according to KSAT-TV. Father John Gabriel, priest of the Infant Jesus of Prague Catholic Church, ignored six citations for excessive noise before the city prevailed in municipal court in May. The Archdiocese of San Antonio doesn’t recognize the chapel. Gabriel said he’s not leaving quietly. “This has not ended by a long shot. Trust me, it has not.” —Todd Vician

Louisiana

A controversial new law will be the first in the U.S. to provide surgical castration as a possible punishment for sex offenders once it takes effect Aug. 1. Under the new statute, judges can order offenders guilty of certain sex crimes against children to undergo the surgery, which removes the testicles or ovaries. Offenders can refuse the procedure, but they receive additional prison time instead. Sen. Regina Barrow, a Democrat, authored the legislation that passed overwhelmingly in the Republican-led state. Critics argue the state should instead focus on the rehabilitation of those guilty of such crimes in an effort to lower recidivism rates. Chemical castration, a procedure that uses drugs to dull sex drive, has been legal as a punishment in Louisiana for 16 years but is rarely used. —Kim Henderson

North Dakota

The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation plans to use natural gas capture from oil production on its Fort Berthold Indian Reservation to grow crops in a huge 3.3 acre greenhouse—part of its goal for a tribal “food sovereignty revolution.” When completed this summer, the reservation greenhouse will be one of the country’s largest, with glass covering the equivalent of seven football fields. The Native Green Grow operation is expected ­eventually to include facilities spanning nearly 14.5 acres. It will grow produce for 8,300 tribal members, neighboring states’ tribes, and food banks for isolated and impoverished areas. The tribe has struggled with access to fresh produce since the mid-1950s. That’s when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Garrison Dam, creating Lake Sakakawea and flooding the tribe’s fertile land in remote western North Dakota along the Missouri River. Located on the Bakken shale ­formation, the reservation has nearly 3,000 active oil wells from which to harness natural gas ­burn-off to heat and power the greenhouse and make fertilizer. —Sharon Dierberger

Virginia

A roadside billboard in the state capital occupies the center of a debate over land significant to Richmond’s African American history. In July, community leaders released a report indicating scans showed a plot of land along Interstate 64 in the city still contained dozens of intact graves in a former African American burial ground. The larger site had once served as a burial ground for as many as 22,000 slaves and freedmen between 1816 and 1879, but construction over subsequent years disturbed many of the bones. Currently, the land houses the billboard and an abandoned gas station. Richmond city officials asked the billboard’s owners to remove the sign, but the owners wanted six billboards in other parts of the city in exchange for its removal, an offer the city rejected. Meanwhile, gravesite descendants and government officials differ on how to recognize the historical significance of the land without damaging remaining graves. For now, the city, which owns part of the property, has painted a mural over the abandoned gas station, and the state has placed a historical highway marker at the site. —Juliana Chan Erikson

Hawaii

State regulators must completely cut all transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, thanks to a historic settlement reached last month. The decision is a legal victory for 13 minors who sued the state’s Department of Transportation over its alleged role in fueling climate change. Young people have raised similar legal challenges in Montana and Oregon, but this is the first case of its kind to be settled in the plaintiffs’ favor. Under the new deal, Hawaii must devise a decarbonization plan in the next year and finish pedestrian, bicycle, and transit networks over the next five years. The transportation department is also expected to sink $40 million into a statewide electric vehicle charging network by 2030. That change alone likely will cause significant growing pains for Hawaii, the U.S. state most dependent on petroleum, according to the plaintiffs’ law firm. Hawaiians rely heavily on state highways and face regular traffic jams. —Grace Snell