Ahead of a major hearing scheduled for Wednesday in a closely watched case which could further limit abortion access across the United States, reproductive rights advocates and journalists are decrying what one attorney called a right-wing judge's "informal gag order... bordering on judicial misconduct."

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is scheduled to preside over the first hearing in a case brought by right-wing group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in Amarillo, Texas on Wednesday, with lawyers for the organization arguing that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should never have approved mifespristone for medication abortion use in 2000, and the U.S. Justice Department opposing that claim. ADF aims to force the FDA to revoke its approval.

As The Washington Post reported Saturday, the right-wing judge scheduled the hearing last Friday in a call with lawyers on both sides, and in what one expert called a "very irregular" move, directed the attorneys to keep the hearing under wraps in order to minimize the possibility of protests.

Kacsmaryk also said he would delay putting the hearing on the public court docket, as judges usually do to keep the public and media informed about developments. He indicated he would make the hearing public knowledge only on Tuesday evening, making it difficult for Texans and members of the media to travel to Amarillo from other parts of the state and country. The city is a five-and-a-half hour drive from Dallas, the closest major Texas city; a nearly four-hour drive from Oklahoma City; and served by few daily direct flights...

After many meetings with Manhattan prosecutors, the day has finally arrived for Michael Cohen to testify before the grand jury that’s considering indicting his former boss, Donald Trump. It’s the latest sign that charges for Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case may be on the way.

Recall the recent reports of former Trump White House aides Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks meeting with prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office. As I’ve noted, prosecutors were likely testing what Conway and Hicks would say about their conversations with Trump and/or Cohen around the time of Cohen’s 2016 payment to keep Daniels, a porn actress, quiet about her alleged affair with Trump ahead of the election. Now that prosecutors know what those other potential witnesses would say — or should at least have a better idea — they’re at the point where they’re ready to put Cohen, who would be a pivotal witness in any trial that comes, under oath in the grand jury.

New Yorkers on a grand jury who will decide whether to indict former President Donald Trump are finally hearing directly from two witnesses on Monday, damning testimony that was years in the making.

Jurors are hearing from Jennifer Weisselberg, a one-time Trump family confidant embroiled in a bitter divorce who explained how the real estate mogul ordered his top finance executive to dodge taxes and cook the books.

Asked about the investigation outside the DA’s office at 12:30 p.m., Weisselberg told The Daily Beast that “something has changed and it's up-leveled.”

“It’s bigger than any taxes, paper, insurance, banks, insurance… it's bigger than money,” she said.

They are also hearing from Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, who...

TAMPA — Until her teacher brought up her race, it had been an otherwise unremarkable American government class at Wharton High. One of Melanie Copeland’s parents was Black, the other white. Her teacher, Todd Harvey, wanted to know what she put as her race on government forms.

What she should put, he told her, was “mutt.” Melanie struggled to process what was happening. Did her teacher really just call her a dog? She remembers Harvey grinning, while she and other students sat stunned.

Mr. Harvey is a tall, mercurial white man who has taught in Hillsborough County Public Schools since the late ‘90s, after working as a salesman and briefly pitching in the minor leagues for the Kansas City Royals. He’s spent the bulk of his career at Wharton High, which serves mostly students of color.

The impact of Melanie’s 2017 encounter with Mr. Harvey has been lasting, proving so haunting she wrote her college admission essay about it. The summer after her high school graduation, she read a Tampa Bay Times story about Blake High mishandling sexual harassment complaints that later prompted the federal government to investigate.

Melanie emailed the Times...