10 things you need to know today: December 20, 2023

1. Colorado justices disqualify Trump

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday disqualified former President Donald Trump from running in the state's presidential primary after concluding he participated in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. The 4-3 ruling was "historic," The Washington Post reported — the first time a court had barred a presidential candidate from the ballot under the post–Civil War 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits insurrectionists from holding office. Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called the decision "completely flawed" and said the Trump campaign would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to end "these un-American lawsuits." Several other states are considering efforts to disqualify Trump. The Denver Post, The Washington Post

2. Hamas, rivals discuss governing Gaza after war

Hamas political leaders have met with Palestinian rivals to discuss governing Gaza and the West Bank after Hamas' war with Israel ends, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. "We don't fight just because we want to fight," said Husam Badran, a member of Hamas' political bureau in Qatar. "We want the war to end." The remarks suggested potential tensions with Hamas' militant wing, which started the war with its deadly Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Cairo to discuss Gaza with Egyptian officials as the fighting, which has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, continued. Israel and Hamas recently relaunched indirect talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar on a new cease-fire and hostage release deal. The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press

3. Biden eulogizes Sandra Day O'Connor as 'American pioneer'

President Joe Biden praised the late Sandra Day O'Connor, the Supreme Court's first female justice, as an "American pioneer" at her funeral Tuesday. O'Connor died Dec. 1 at age 93. "She was especially conscious of the law's real impact on people's lives," Biden said. "One need not agree with all her decisions in order to recognize that her principles were deeply held." Chief Justice John Roberts said in his eulogy that Justice O'Connor's leadership helped shape the legal profession, as she rose to the high court at a time when "most men in the established profession did not want women lawyers — let alone judges." O'Connor stepped down in 2006 to care for her husband, who had Alzheimer's disease. The Associated Press, CNN

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4. New York becomes third state to look at reparations for slavery

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Tuesday signed a bill making the state the third in the nation to establish a task force to consider reparations for slavery. The commission will study the history of slavery, which was outlawed in New York in 1827, and examine its lingering effects, including housing discrimination, biased treatment by police and the disproportionate incarceration of Black Americans. So far, California and Illinois are the only other states to formally study the controversial issue of reparations for descendants of enslaved people. In California, the estimated multibillion-dollar cost has threatened to stall the project. The New York Times

5. Removal of Confederate memorial resumes

A federal judge on Tuesday cleared the way for the removal of a century-old Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery, a day after halting the work to review a report that gravesites were being disturbed. U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston said he toured the site after receiving an urgent call from memorial supporters but "saw no desecration of graves. The grass wasn't even disturbed." An independent commission reviewing Army bases with Confederate names recommended removing the statue last year. The memorial includes a bronze woman on a 32-foot pedestal and also features enslaved Black people, one of them a woman holding the child of a white Confederate officer. Politico

6. Southwest Airlines, pilots reach preliminary deal

Southwest Airlines and the union that represents its pilots reached a preliminary deal Tuesday on a new five-year contract, after three years of haggling. The deal is expected to cost $12 billion. "We are finally at a place where we think the value of our pilots and their productivity is being realized," Southwest Airlines Pilots Association President Casey Murray said in a statement. The union said its board would go over the proposal on Wednesday to decide whether to officially back it, setting up a vote by the union's nearly 11,000 members. Southwest called the agreement "a key milestone in the process, and we look forward to the next steps." Bloomberg, CNN

7. Immigrant advocates challenge Texas plan to deport border-crossers

Immigrant rights organizations filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block a Texas law that allows police to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the southern border illegally and authorizes state judges to deport them. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Civil Rights project said the law, signed Monday by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and scheduled to take effect March 5, violates the Constitution because Congress has empowered only the federal government to enforce immigration laws. Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney at the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said it also "will disproportionately harm Black and Brown people regardless of their immigration status." State Rep. David Spiller (R), who sponsored the bill, defended it as "the Texas solution to a Texas problem." Houston Chronicle, The Texas Tribune

8. Spanish journalist files rape complaint against Depardieu

Spanish journalist and author Ruth Baza, 51, has filed a criminal complaint in Spain against French actor Gérard Depardieu, accusing him of raping her when she went to interview him for Cinemania magazine. Baza was 23, Depardieu was 46. Baza said in the complaint, first reported by Barcelona's La Vanguardia newspaper, that the alleged assault occurred in the offices of the former Roissy Films production company. She described what happened as "an intrusion without any consent, at any time." Depardieu was charged in 2021 with the alleged rape of actor Charlotte Arnould in Paris in 2018. He called the accusation "baseless." The Guardian

9. Murder suspect accused of luring victims with promise of gold

A Washington state man accused of killing a woman after luring her into the woods promising to dig up buried gold has been identified as a suspect in three other murders. The man, 40-year-old Richard Bradley Jr., was arrested in May 2021 and accused in connection with the killing of Brandi Blake, 44, whose body was found in Game Farm Park in a Seattle suburb. Prosecutors alleged that Bradley got all of the victims to follow him into the woods with the same gold-hunting ruse. He reportedly told them he had buried loot he stole in previous robberies. Investigators said he killed the victims and buried them deep in the woods. USA Today

10. Epstein documents to be unsealed

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday ordered the unsealing of court documents that include the names of more than 170 associates of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Judge Loretta Preska scheduled the release for Jan. 1, giving anyone concerned time to object to making the documents public. The material was part of a settled lawsuit that accused Epstein's former paramour Ghislaine Maxwell of enabling the sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and procuring girls for Epstein and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. ABC News, BBC