Summary: Three-judge panel hears case at U.S. Court of International Trade Tariffs imposed under Section 122 of Trade Act of 1974 States and small businesses challenge tariff authority By Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK, April 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. trade court on Friday considered the legality of a 10 percent global import tax imposed by the Trump administration, which several states and small businesses say sidesteps a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated most of Trump's previous tariffs. A group of 24 mostly Democratic-led states and two small businesses sued the Trump administration to stop the new tariffs, which went into effect on February 24. The hearing is before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade. Oregon's lawyer Brian Marshall told the judges that the latest tariffs are based on archaic authority that was meant to protect the U.S. dollar from sudden depreciation in the 1970s, when dollars could be exchanged for gold reserves held in Fort Knox. Marshall said that authority was meant to resolve significant "balance of payments deficits," and Trump cannot repurpose it to address routine trade deficits. "They have a different meaning of what 'balance of payments deficits' means," Marshall said at the court hearing. Trump has made ​tariffs a central pillar of his foreign policy in his second term, claiming sweeping authority to issue tariffs without input from Congress. The administration has said that global tariffs are a legal and appropriate response to a persistent trade deficit caused by the fact that the U.S. imports more goods than it exports. Trump imposed the new tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade ​Act of 1974, which authorizes duties of up to 15 percent for up to 150 days on imports during “large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits” or to prevent imminent depreciation of the dollar. The states and small businesses argue that the Trade Act's tariff authority is meant only to address short-term monetary emergencies, and routine trade deficits do not match the economic definition of “balance-of-payments deficits." Trump announced the new tariffs on February 20, the same day the Supreme Court handed him a stinging defeat when ⁠it struck down a broad swath of tariffs he had imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), ruling that the law did not give him the power he claimed. No U.S. president before Trump had used the IEEPA or Section 122 to impose tariffs. The two lawsuits do not challenge other Trump tariffs made under more traditional legal authority, such as recent tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper imports. (Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Lisa Shumaker and Franklin Paul)

Jasveen Sangha, a drug dealer who pleaded guilty in September to drug-related charges, including providing actor Matthew Perry with the dose of ketamine that killed him, was sentenced on April 8 to 15 years in prison. “These were not mistakes. They were horrible decisions,” Sangha said at the hearing, adding that her choices “shattered people’s lives and the lives of their family and friends,” per the AP. Sangha, 42, was known to her clients as the “Ketamine Queen,” according to court documents. Following an investigation into the “Friends” actor’s fatal overdose in 2023 at age 54, Sangha was charged alongside four others in August 2024. She pleaded guilty to one count of using her home for drug distribution, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Before her guilty plea, Sangha’s attorney, Mark Geragos, denied the allegations against Sangha, saying in a documentary last year that she had “never met Matthew Perry.” Sangha, who has been in custody since August 2024, is a dual citizen of the United States and Britain. Ahead of Sangha’s sentencing, prosecutors asked Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett to sentence Sangha to 15 years in prison. “For years … Sangha operated a high-volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood residence,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. “To cultivate her business, marketed herself as an exclusive dealer who catered to high-profile Hollywood clientele. … While worked to expand and profit from her drug trafficking, she knew — and disregarded — the grave harm her conduct was causing.” In a victim impact statement that read like a poem, Perry’s stepmother, Debbie Perry, asked the court for a maximum sentence for Sangha. “The pain you’ve caused/ to hundreds maybe thousands,” she wrote, “Is irreversible.” Matthew Perry, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on “Friends,” the sitcom that became a cultural behemoth in the 1990s, wrote openly about his struggles with addiction. In his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” he recounted his struggles with Vicodin, alcohol, cocaine, Xanax and Suboxone, as well as scores of rehab stints. “You can track the trajectory of my addiction if you gauge my weight from season to season,” Perry wrote of his 10 seasons on “Friends.” “When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol. When I’m skinny, it’s pills. When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills.” He also starred in films such as “The Whole Nine Yards” (2000) and “17 Again” (2009), and was Emmy-nominated for his appearances on “The West Wing” and in the TV movie “The Ron Clark Story.” Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his home in October 2023. Around the time of his death, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety, but he was also addicted to the drug, according to prosecutors. The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office concluded the actor had died of the acute effects of ketamine, ruling the death an accident with no signs of foul play, before an investigation was launched into the death. Sangha is the third of the suspects connected to Perry’s death to be charged. In December, Salvador Plasencia was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for multiple drug charges. Later that month, Mark Chavez received a sentence of eight months of home confinement. Both Plasencia and Chavez are physicians. Perry’s acquaintance Erik Fleming and his live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa both pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine in October 2024 and will be sentenced in the coming weeks.

Summary: Massachusetts House plans social media ban for under 14 Bill requires age verification and parental consent Attorney General Andrea Campbell supports the bill The Massachusetts House of Representatives is planning on passing a bill April 8 that would ban social media use for children under 14 in the state. The ban would be “among the most restrictive in the entire country,” Speaker Ron Mariano, D-Quincy, and Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, D-Boston, said in a statement April 6. “The simple reality is that Massachusetts must do more to ensure that our laws keep pace with modern challenges – especially when it comes to protecting our children, and to setting students up for success in the classroom and beyond,” they continued. The measure was added to a bill passed by the Senate in July 2025 that would ban cellphones for students throughout the school day. What to know about the social media, cell phone ban bill The bill creates restrictions on both social media and cell phone use for minors, according to a bill summary provided by the House. It would require social media platforms to implement an age-verification system that would prohibit minors under the age of 14 from using their site; and 14- and 15-year-olds could use social media platforms, but only if given verifiable consent from the parent. Social media platform is defined as “a public website, online service, online application or mobile application that displays content primarily generated by users and allows users to create, share and view user-generated content with other users,” according to the bill summary. It doesn’t include text messaging services like email or SMS. The bill directs the attorney general to create regulations for implementation by Sept. 1 and the policy would go into effect Oct. 1. The bill would also require school districts to create policies to prohibit students from using personal electronic devices like cellphones during the school day including during school-sponsored activities during the school day. Ten districts would participate in a pilot program that renders students’ personal electronic devices inoperable on school grounds during the school day. Will the bill pass? The bill was expected to pass the Democratic-controlled House Wednesday, April 8. Then, since the House changed the bill from its original Senate version, the House is expected to set up a six-person conference committee to create consensus legislation that will then have to go back to both chambers for approval before heading to the governor’s desk. There’s a lot of support for this type of bill at the state level. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who has filed several lawsuits against social media companies such as TikTok and Meta for harming young users, filed the original version of the Senate bill, which was dubbed the STUDY Act. Massachusetts Gov. Maura T. Healey has also voiced support for stronger social media protections for users under 18 years old: In her 2026 State of the Commonwealth address, Healey proposed mandatory age-verification systems, requiring parental consent and disabling features like continuous scrolling and notifications between certain hours. Additionally, many high schools in the state already ban cell phone use including Barnstable High School, Newton Public Schools and Gardner Public Schools.