Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A federal judge on Tuesday struck down Tennessee's first-of-its-kind law requiring businesses to post special signs if they allow transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger makes permanent her previous decision from July 2021 that blocked enforcement of the law just days after it took effect. Businesses had sued over the law, arguing the signs would violate their First Amendment rights by compelling them to communicate language they find offensive.
In her latest decision, the judge deemed the law "a brazen attempt to single out trans-inclusive establishments and force them to parrot a message that they reasonably believe would sow fear and misunderstanding about the very transgender Tennesseans whom those establishments are trying to provide with some semblance of a safe and welcoming environment."
The 2021 law was signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who has approved a wide range of bills targeting the LGBTQ community with the support of the state's GOP-controlled Legislature. In the past several years, Tennessee has enacted more anti-LGBTQ laws than almost any other state in the country, with five approved last year and more signed this year.
The signage law was quickly met by multiple federal lawsuits. It was inserted into the state building codes and threatened potential violators with a warning followed by a misdemeanor offense, punishable by up to six months in jail and up to a $500 fine. Officials had conveyed unclear messages about how the measure was going to be enforced.
The law would have required that signs be posted in bold, uppercase letters outside public multiperson bathrooms, locker rooms or changing rooms wherever transgender people are not prevented from using the facilities of their choice. The sign, topped by the word "Notice," would say: "This facility maintains a policy of allowing the use of restrooms by either biological sex, regardless of the designation on the restroom."
The law also applied to public facilities on government-owned grounds.
The state of Tennessee has argued in court that the signs are merely factual. A spokesperson for the state attorney general's office did not immediately provide a comment in response to the ruling.
The law's sponsor, Republican state Rep. Tim Rudd, has said the law was needed because he is concerned about sexual predators taking advantage of loose restroom policies to assault or rape other restroom users.
The judge, meanwhile, wrote that there was nothing in the legislative record or in the course of the court challenge provided as evidence for the claims of supposed risk of sexual assault or rape, and no reason to think the signs would address such an alleged issue.
She wrote that state officials were relying on an "imagined consensus on issues of sex and gender" and "have no authority to wish those opposing viewpoints away."
Bob Bernstein and his restaurant company are plaintiffs in the case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and its state chapter. Bernstein said Tuesday that the "government can't just force people to post discriminatory, inaccurate, and divisive signs in their places of business."
------
Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville contributed to this report
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.