Part of Nebraska city’s immigrant law rejected

OMAHA, Neb. – A federal judge Monday rejected a portion of a Nebraska city’s ordinance that would have denied housing permits to illegal immigrants but upheld a requirement that employers verify the citizenship status of people they hire.

U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp found some of the housing provisions in Fremont’s ordinance, approved by voters in 2010, are discriminatory in violation of federal law.

Both sides in the contentious immigration debate claimed victory after the ruling, which stemmed from a combined lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Fremont’s attorney Kris Kobach, who is also Kansas’ secretary of state, said 75 percent of the ordinance was upheld, including a requirement that Fremont employers use the federal E-Verify database to ensure employees are legal.

Women protest anti-abortion bills

RICHMOND, Va. – Hundreds of women locked arms and stood mute outside the Virginia State Capitol on Monday to protest a wave of anti-abortion legislation coursing through the General Assembly.

Capitol and state police officers, there to ensure order, estimated the crowd to be more than 1,000 people – mostly women. The crowd formed a human cordon through which legislators walked before Monday’s floor sessions of the Republican-controlled legislature.

The silent protest was about bills that would define embryos as humans and criminalize their destruction, require “transvaginal” ultrasounds of women seeking abortions, and cut state aid to poor women seeking abortions.

Associated Press