Tag: lawsuits

Another Detransitioner Wins A Huge Settlement

A woman who underwent a double mastectomy after identifying as “nonbinary” has reportedly secured a confidential $3.5 million settlement after suing the mental health professionals who approved her for the life-altering procedure. Camille Kiefel, 36, alleged in a malpractice lawsuit that two Oregon therapists signed off on the surgery after only brief telemedicine consultations, despite a documented history of mental health issues. The settlement was reached just days before the case was set to go to trial. 

The case is already fueling renewed scrutiny of how quickly some medical providers have approved irreversible gender procedures for vulnerable patients struggling with serious mental health issues.

The settlement comes after another detransitioner, Fox Varian, won a $2 million judgment back in February against the providers who referred her for a double mastectomy at age 16. Soon after the settlement was announced, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons announced its position on gender transition surgeries for minors, concluding “there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents.” According to reporter Benjamin Ryan, at least 30 detransitioners have sued healthcare providers in the past four years.

Kiefel’s complaint, filed in 2022, named licensed clinical social worker Amy Ruff and licensed professional counselor Mara Burmeister, along with their respective employers, Brave Space and the Quest Center for Integrative Health. According to the suit, it took only two telemedicine Zoom sessions, each lasting about an hour or less, for Kiefel to get approval for the surgery.

Kiefel’s history at the time of those consultations showed obvious signs of mental health issues that should have been taken into account, but clearly were not. She had a documented record of trauma, depression, ADHD, and suicidal ideation. Her path toward identifying as “nonbinary” began even earlier.

She has described a childhood incident in which her best friend was sexually assaulted when both girls were in the fifth grade. “I started dressing more masculine after that,” she recalled. “I just wanted to protect myself.” In college, a women’s studies course introduced her to the concept of being nonbinary, and she came to believe adopting that identity could explain the gender-related distress she had carried since childhood.

Despite the approval of the mental health professionals, the surgery did not resolve her gender dysphoria, and within two years, she detransitioned. 

In the interim, she developed vertigo, tinnitus, and Raynaud’s syndrome, a condition that causes extremities to go numb and cold. She eventually began working with a naturopath and exploring the relationship between gut health and mental wellbeing. Once she addressed her physical health through nutrition, she says both her mental and physical condition improved substantially. 

That improvement is what forced the harder question.

“So while I’m addressing all my physical health issues, I start to question whether or not the surgery was helpful for me,” she told Fox News Digital. “And then about a year and a half later, I de-transitioned.”

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Federal Judge Dismisses Prohibitionist Lawsuit Challenging Medicare CBD Program

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit led by Smart Approaches to Marijuana challenging the Trump administration’s Medicare-linked CBD program, finding the plaintiffs failed to show they had standing to bring the case.

Judge Trevor N. McFadden, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, dismissed the case Friday, finding that SAM, MMJ International Holdings, its subsidiaries and the other plaintiffs failed to meet the basic requirement needed to sue in federal court.

SAM and its allies had asked the court to halt a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services program connected to hemp-derived CBD access for certain Medicare patients. The challenge had been placed on an expedited track after the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint and again asked for emergency court intervention.

“Each claims an injury too abstract or too remote to open the courtroom doors,” McFadden wrote.

Rather than weighing the broader legal claims raised in the lawsuit, McFadden said the case could not proceed because the plaintiffs did not establish Article III standing.

“At the outset, the Court notes that it need not tackle the bulk of questions that Plaintiffs raise in their motions,” McFadden wrote. “That is because Plaintiffs’ case suffers from a fatal flaw: the failure to establish Article III standing to bring their claims. The Court addresses only this jurisdictional hole and will dismiss the entire suit and deny Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction as moot.”

Because of that finding, the court did not rule on whether the plaintiffs were entitled to a preliminary injunction. McFadden instead concluded that the alleged harms outlined by the plaintiffs were not concrete enough to keep the lawsuit alive.

The case was brought by SAM, allied prohibitionist organizations, individual activists and MMJ International Holdings, a cannabis-focused biopharmaceutical company. The plaintiffs claimed the program raised legal and public health concerns, but McFadden found their alleged injuries were too distant from the policy to support federal jurisdiction.

The decision is a major loss for opponents of the Medicare-linked CBD policy, which has drawn attention as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to expand medical marijuana and cannabidiol (CBD) research and access.

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Arkansas whites–only community sued for discrimination by woman with black husband whose application to buy land was denied

A whites-only community in Arkansas is being sued by a Caucasian woman who claims her membership application was rejected because she has a black husband.

Michelle Walker, 49, claims in a lawsuit that she was discriminated against when her request to join Return to the Land (RTTL)’s 160-acre site near the rural town of Ravenden was refused in November last year.

RTTL, which was launched in 2023, is described on its website as a private association ‘for individuals and families with traditional views and common continental ancestry.’ 

Walker, a real estate worker who lives in St. Louis, Missouri, said she was not drawn to RTTL for its principles but was simply captivated by its ‘exceptionally low’ sale price. 

RTTL is selling an acre of land for $1,000, significantly lower than the average price of land in the Ozarks which is around $4,000 per acre.

Walker, who ‘self–identifies as white,’ believed she would be eligible to join the community based on its requirements and disclosed that she has Jewish ancestry on her mother’s side, according to the complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas viewed by the Daily Mail.

Her husband is black and they have three biracial children, per the legal filing.

She was given an interview by the community in which her background was explored, and about a month later her application was denied, the lawsuit states.

On Wednesday, she sued RTTL for ‘refusing to sell her land on the basis of race and religion,’ marking the first civil case against the group.

She cited the Fair Housing Act and civil rights laws stretching back to 1866 in support of her argument.

Walker said in her filing that her application saw her complete the group’s application form in which she answered questions about her ancestry and religion.

Walker said her father’s side of the family came to the US in the 1600s and that her mother’s side of the family was made up of Russian Jewish immigrants, per the complaint.

The filing added that Walker’s husband was specifically of Irish and African descent.

When asked about her religion, Walker allegedly replied: ‘I am a Christian. I believe Jesus died for my sins and through believing in him, I will have a heavenly eternal life.’

Walker also faced questions about whether she supported ‘segregation,’ ‘multiculturalism,’ ‘gay marriage’ and ‘transgenderism,’ the filing added.

Per the lawsuit, Walker was ‘surprised’ to see those sorts of questions on the housing application.

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Elon Musk Offers To Fund LAWSUIT Against UK Police In Henry Nowak Stabbing Tragedy

Elon Musk has stepped forward to hold UK police accountable in what appears to be one of the most disturbing policing failures to emerge from Britain in years.

The tech mogul publicly offered to bankroll a wrongful death lawsuit against officers who allegedly prioritized an attacker’s claims of “racism” over saving the life of 18-year-old Henry Nowak.

Musk’s intervention comes as harrowing bodycam footage from the scene plays out in Southampton Crown Court during the ongoing murder trial of Vickrum Singh Digwa, the 23-year-old man of Indian Sikh heritage accused of stabbing Nowak four times with a 21cm blade.

He followed up with another pointed question: “Has any action been taken against the police officers who handcuffed this boy and made him bleed to death in the street? Who are they?”

In a further post, Musk declared: “Unconscionable. I am happy to fund a wrongful death lawsuit against these disgusting excuses for law enforcement. They damn well better have been fired.”

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Tennessee man jailed for Charlie Kirk meme wins $835,000 settlement

Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old retired police officer, was arrested in September after sharing memes on Facebook about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Tennessee officials have now agreed to pay $835,000 to settle the lawsuit filed by Bushart against Perry County, its sheriff, and the investigator who obtained the arrest warrant.

Bushart’s case drew national attention because, while many people across the U.S. reportedly lost jobs over social media posts about Kirk’s death, his was a rare case where online speech led to criminal prosecution. Authorities later dropped the felony charge against him in October.

The post that prompted Bushart’s arrest featured President Donald Trump and the words “We have to get over it,” referencing a remark made in 2024 after a school shooting at Perry High School in Iowa. AP reported that the meme was posted with the caption: “This seems relevant today…”

Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems said last year that most of Bushart’s posts were lawful free speech, but claimed residents were alarmed by the school shooting reference because there is also a Perry County High School in Tennessee. However, Weems also said he knew the meme referred to the Iowa school shooting.

“Investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community,” Weems said in a statement to The Tennessean last year.

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Jury Sides Against Musk in OpenAI Lawsuit

A federal jury in Oakland, California, went against Elon Musk Monday in a case he brought against OpenAI, alleging the company’s leadership “stole a charity” when they converted it into a for-profit entity.

Through his lawsuit, Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, sought the removal of Sam Altman as CEO and company president Greg Brockman from their leadership roles, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Musk also wanted an “unwinding of the company’s recent conversion to a more traditional governance structure and damages worth more than $180 billion to be paid into an OpenAI foundation,” the news outlet added.

The jury found all of Musk’s claims fell outside the statute of limitations.

Fox Business reported that Musk left OpenAI in 2018 when he was unable to persuade the company’s leadership to merge with Tesla. OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT.

“In his lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI of violating its founding mission as a nonprofit to develop AI for the benefit of humanity when the startup created a for-profit entity in 2019,” Fox Business said.

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Lawsuit: D300 secretly gender transitioned student; Seeks to nix IL gender ‘guidance,’ too

A mother from Chicago’s far northwest suburbs has lodged a lawsuit against her child’s public school district, accusing Community Unit School District 300 of allegedly attempting to secretly transition her child’s gender and of blocking the parent’s attempt to learn more about what was happening and be involved, even when the student struggled with suicidal thoughts and required hospitalization for mental health purposes.

However, the class action lawsuit also seeks to more broadly overturn policies at the district and potentially throughout Illinois, which the mother and her lawyer claim trample parents’ constitutional rights.

On May 10, attorney Ajay Gupta, of Naperville, filed suit in Chicago federal court against District 300.

Based in the village of Algonquin, District 300 ranks as the sixth largest public school district in Illinois, has a student population of more than 20,000 students from communities within a 118 square mile radius in Chicago’s northwest suburbs mostly in Kane County, near the McHenry County line.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a named plaintiff, identified in the complaint only as S.K. According to the complaint, she is the mother of a student at one of the district’s three high schools. District 300 high schools include Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, Harry D. Jacobs High School in Algonquin, and Hampshire High School in Hampshire.

The complaint does not identify which high school the student attended.

According to the complaint, staff at the student’s school allegedly began in 2022 using “alternate name and pronouns” for S.K.’s child, identified in the complaint only as T.K.

The complaint asserts the student at that time “experienced declining mental health and difficulty completing schoolwork.”

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PARENTAL RIGHTS OUTRAGE! Illinois Mother Sues School District, Alleges Officials SECRETLY Socially Transitioned Child After Mental Health Crisis

An Illinois mother has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Community Unit School District 300 of secretly socially transitioning her child at school, withholding key information from her, and cutting her out of a “gender support” plan even after the student had been hospitalized for suicidal ideation.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, names Community Unit School District 300 and Superintendent Dr. Martina Smith as defendants. 

The mother, identified in the complaint only as S.K., alleges that the Algonquin-based district violated her constitutional rights by allowing school officials to make major identity and mental-health-related decisions involving her minor child without parental consent.

“This case challenges a public school district’s policies, practices, and customs of subjecting minor students to psychological and identity-based interventions, while deliberately excluding their parents from participation, consent, and even knowledge,” the complaint states.

The complaint alleges that District 300 officials “socially transitioned minor students at school,” developed “gender support” plans, coordinated with mental-health providers, and withheld material information from parents. 

The lawsuit argues that these actions were “not routine educational judgments,” but rather “state-directed psychological intervention into a minor’s identity, mental health, and familial relationships.”

According to the lawsuit, school personnel began using an alternate name and pronouns for S.K.’s child, T.K., in certain classes in 2022 without informing the mother. 

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Rubio Is Sued Over Visa Bans on Foreign Censorship Supporters

A nonprofit that supports online speech restrictions is suing the Trump administration for sanctioning people who pushed platforms to delete speech. The case landed in a D.C. courtroom on Wednesday and the irony runs deep.

The Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR) wants a federal judge to block a State Department visa policy announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May 2025.

The policy allows the US to deny entry, revoke visas, or deport foreign nationals the government considers “complicit in censoring Americans.”

CITR filed for a preliminary injunction, and Chief Judge James Boasberg heard oral arguments on May 13 in Coalition for Independent Technology Research v. Rubio.

The five people sanctioned under this policy in December 2025 are not random academics. Thierry Breton helped build the EU’s Digital Services Act, which compels American tech companies to delete speech Europeans find objectionable.

Imran Ahmed runs the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has campaigned to get accounts banned from platforms.

Clare Melford runs the Global Disinformation Index, which compiled advertiser blacklists to financially punish news outlets it decided were spreading “disinformation.”

Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg co-founded HateAid, a German group pushing legal action against speech it calls “digital violence.”

Rubio accused them of leading “organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”

CITR’s attorney Carrie DeCell argued that “the government is subjecting CITR members and other non-citizens to exclusion, detention and deportation simply for reporting on speech on social media and the harms that might arise from it, and advocating for different content moderation policies and other policies that might govern internet platforms.”

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Iowa Hospital Accused of Illegally Harvesting Air Force Veteran’s Organs, Skin, Eyes and Tissue – Daughters Sue for Malpractice and Emotional Distress

The daughters of a 69-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran have filed a federal lawsuit against an Iowa hospital, claiming staff improperly harvested their father’s organs, skin, eyes, and tissue without his prior consent or any authorization from his next of kin.

The lawsuit claims the harvesting was done without even attempting to contact his children.

Martin Gillespie, a proud Air Force veteran described by family as a loving father of three and grandfather of eight, was pronounced dead on April 1 at Alegent Health Community Memorial Hospital in Missouri Valley.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by Law & Crime, Gillespie never authorized any anatomical gifts or organ donation during his lifetime.

The complaint alleges that hospital staff made “no attempt to contact” Gillespie’s next of kin, his daughters, Christina Gubbels and Daun Stoddard, before referring his body to the Iowa Donor Network.

Hours later, on the same day, the Iowa Donor Network harvested his organs, skin tissue, and eyes.

Gillespie’s body was then transported to Hennessey Funeral Home in Missouri Valley for cremation.

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