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A federal judge in Boston on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration’s directive to strip Harvard University of its ability to admit international students. Judge Allison Burroughs issued the ruling from the bench after an emergency hearing on the administration’s move, which upended the lives of the 27 percent of Harvard’s student body that is made up of foreign students. “I want to maintain the status quo,” Burroughs said from the bench, according to CNN. Harvard quickly sued the administration last week after the directive was given by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which also...

A U.S. federal judge has inflicted another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to end a multiple Biden-era parole program for hundreds of thousands of migrants*** U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of Massachusetts on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to resume processing applications from those migrants who are seeking work permits or renewing their status. Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, rejected the Trump administration's claim that suspending the parole programs was within its broad discretion to direct immigration policy. Federal law still requires agencies under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to follow a lengthy process for...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. The administration said it would challenge the ruling.U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to shut down the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president’s campaign promises.The ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump’s plan amounted to an illegal closure...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that U.S. officials must retain custody and control of migrants apparently removed to South Sudan in case he orders their removals were unlawful. U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts issued the ruling after an emergency hearing, after attorneys for immigrants said the Trump administration appears to have begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan — despite a court order restricting removals to other countries. Murphy said the government must “maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other...

federal judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order that blocks the Trump administration from deporting illegal Asian migrants to the African country of Libya, or any other third world country. The move comes after lawyers filed an emergency motion earlier in the day, seeking to stop the deportations that were reportedly scheduled for sometime this week. The Trump administration has not formally commented on the plans. The lawyers claimed that the migrants, who came from Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam, among other places, were expected to be loaded onto a U.S. military aircraft and transported to Libya, according to...

(Reuters) -A U.S. judge barred the Trump administration from rapidly deporting hundreds if not thousands of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to show they fear being persecuted, tortured or killed there. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy's preliminary injunction on Friday was the latest setback to an immigration crackdown launched by President Donald Trump when he took office on January 20.

US District Judge Indira Talwani said the DHS did not interpret the law properly and asserted the migrants have a right to be in the US. The DOJ argued that the parole programs were discretionary and it is up to the government to decide when it can cut the program. Last month is was reported that President Trump was set to strip the status of 532,000 migrants living in the United States who were flown in on Joe Biden’s parole program.

A federal judge on Monday blocked President Trump’s mass cancelation of the Biden-era parole program that ushered in hundreds of thousands of migrants. US District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee in Boston, said Trump’s decision to cancel the parole program was premised on legal error. Last week Judge Talwani blocked the Trump Administration from revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants flown in on Joe Biden’s parole program. Judge Talwani said the DHS did not interpret the law properly and asserted the migrants have a right to be in the US.

The admin filed a brief telling the justices that a federal judge in Massachusetts had exceeded his authority by interfering in “a contract dispute.” The Supreme Court has granted President Donald Trump’s request to halt the reinstatement of millions of dollars in Department of Education grants that the government targeted over concerns about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Chief Justice John Roberts would have denied the administration’s request for relief, according to a court document. Justice Elena Kagan issued a dissent, as did Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose dissent was joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. This is a breaking...

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said agents detained Ozturk because she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.” “Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student who was granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa. DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of [[Hamas]], a foreign [[terrorism|terrorist]] organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” the statement read. “A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”... However, Ozturk was already...

Last month, the National Institutes of Health lobbed a bombshell at universities that receive NIH grants by proposing to slash billions of dollars in overhead payments they receive to support cutting-edge research on their campuses. But on 5 March a federal judge in Massachusetts defused the bomb before it could explode. In response to a lawsuit brought by 22 states and a coalition of research organizations, U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley issued an injunction that prevents NIH from implementing the rule change, which would lower the rate to a flat 15%—far below what NIH has previously negotiated with many...

A panel of U.S. Circuit judges upheld a Massachusetts school district’s policy, allowing staff to use a different name and gender pronouns for a student — without notifying the child’s parents. A lawsuit filed by the parents of a middle school student was dismissed in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The parents had brought attention to how staff at Baird Middle School in Ludlow, Massachusetts, “violated their constitutional rights” as guardians by concealing the fact that their 11-year-old daughter had asked to be identified by a different name and pronouns. The parents, Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, argued...

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF STATES' EX PARTE EMERGENCY MOTION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER ANGEL KELLEY, D.J. Plaintiff States' Ex Parte Emergency Motion For Temporary Restraining Order (Dkt. 4) is GRANTED. Defendants and their officers, employees, servants, agents, appointees, and successors are hereby enjoined from taking any steps to implement, apply, or enforce the Rate Change Notice (NOT-OD-25- 068) within Plaintiff States until further order is issued by this Court. Counsel for Defendants shall file a status report with the Court within 24 hours of the entry of this Order, and at biweekly intervals thereafter, confirming the regular disbursement and obligation of...

Topline A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s buyout offer to federal civilian employees from taking effect Thursday, hours before the deadline the administration set for more than 2 million employees to decide whether to take resignation packages with pay through September. Timeline Feb. 6: A federal judge in Massachusetts pushed back the deadline for employees to accept the offer, initially set for 11:59 p.m. Thursday, until at least Monday in response to a lawsuit filed by federal workers unions that argued the administration could not guarantee pay beyond March 14 expiration date for the existing budget. Feb. 5:...

A federal judge paused Thursday’s deadline for federal employees to accept the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer while more proceedings on the program’s legality play out. The government will send a notice to the employees informing them that Thursday’s deadline is on hold. Before the judge’s ruling, eligible federal workers had until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday to decide whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will generally allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September. The pause stems from a lawsuit that the American Federation of Government Employees and several...

With just hours remaining for federal workers to decide whether to take the Trump administration's offer to resign from their jobs now while keeping their pay and benefits through Sept. 30, a federal judge in Massachusetts will weigh a request from labor unions to issue a temporary restraining order and stay today's deadline. U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr., a Clinton appointee, will preside over a virtual hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. The lawsuit, filed by the legal group Democracy Forward on behalf of unions representing more than 800,000 civil servants, alleges that the Trump administration's resignation offer...

A federal judge dismissed the defamation charges in a lawsuit filed by Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino against the University, dealing a major blow to the embattled professor's efforts to rehabilitate her reputation and win millions from the school.In a Wednesday ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Myong J. Joun partially granted Harvard's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, writing that Gino had failed to plausibly allege that the University defamed her, violated her privacy, or unlawfully interfered with her relationships with publishers.Still, Joun allowed one key plank of the lawsuit to proceed: Gino's claim that Harvard breached its contract with...

Brian Murphy (Senate Judiciary Committee/Twitter) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Senate Democrats hailed President Joe Biden’s pick for the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts as a committed advocate for criminal justice. As a defense attorney, Brian E. Murphy defended rapists and violent criminals while leading a firm that touted its ability to protect the "reputation" of convicted sex offenders. Murphy & Rudolf, a criminal defense firm Murphy founded in 2011, touts its "notable case results," including a dismissal of charges for clients accused of rape, child rape, and murder. In one post on its website, Murphy & Rudolf touts its "50 years of combined...

Lawyers representing migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard nearly two years ago by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis can sue the charter flight company that transported them to the island off the Massachusetts coast, according to a ruling Monday by a federal judge in Boston. The 50 Venezuelans were sent to Martha’s Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas, and had been promised work and housing opportunities. Under Monday's ruling, the migrants can proceed with their suit against Florida-based Vertol Systems Co., which had agreed to fly them to the island for hundreds of thousands of dollars. An email to the company seeking comment...

On Friday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled a shirt that read "THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS" could be construed as bullying of a protected class and is not protected speech after a 12-year-old and his father filed suit against officials in the Middlesbrough Public School district for First and Fourteenth Amendment rights violations. Judge Indira Talwani said in the court ruling, the boy and his father had "not established a likelihood of success on the merits where he is unable to counter Defendants’ showing that enforcement of the Dress Code was undertaken to protect the invasion of the rights...