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The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a pair of orders by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that had barred the government from removing noncitizens who are designated as members of a Venezuelan gang under a March 15 executive order issued by President Donald Trump.… In an unsigned opinion on Monday evening, five of the court’s conservative justices – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh – indicated that they would “not reach” the plaintiffs’ arguments regarding the application of the AEA to them. Instead, the majority explained, because the relief that...

The Trump administration has been inundated with lawsuits. While this is hardly surprising, the sheer volume — well over 100 as of this writing — and the speed at which unfavorable rulings have been issued against the president are remarkable. The rapid pace of these cases has muddled key legal issues. Notably, many cases involving contracts, back pay, and civil service protections likely do not belong in federal district court at all. These courts have, in turn, successfully backlogged Trump’s agenda by issuing temporary restraining orders — a unilateral command to back down without any opportunity to appeal. The Department...

President-elect Donald Trump urged the US Supreme Court Wednesday to take the extraordinary step of halting his sentencing later this week in his Manhattan “hush money” case. Trump’s lawyers urged the nation’s highest court to step in after a New York appeals court refused to postpone the Friday hearing, at which he is set to face a no-punishment sentence.The attorneys argued that going ahead with the sentencing would unconstitutionally interfere with Trump preparing for his second term. This Court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to...

The House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release the findings of its investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against former Rep. Matt Gaetz, according to a new report. Gaetz (R-Fla.) resigned from Congress on Nov. 13 when President-elect Donald Trump announced him as his pick for attorney general — before Gaetz withdrew eight days later due to Senate Republican concerns about those allegations. The Republican-led Ethics Committee’s secret vote occurred sometime in December, CNN first reported Wednesday, and the document is expected to be released sometime before the end of the month. The panel’s spokespeople did not immediately respond to The...

ALL CASES AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP MUST EITHER BE DROPPED BY PROSECUTORS OR DISMISSED BY THE RELEVANT COURTS For half a century, it has been the position of Democrat and Republican administrations, that the DOJ cannot indict a sitting president. This position has been justified for a myriad of reasons, all of which come down to the fact, that the president is the head of the executive branch, and unelected prosecutors, juries, and judges cannot exercise a power that makes it impossible for a president to carry out his constitutional duties while defending his liberty and reputation in a courtroom. To...

A motion filed in the Fulton County “election interference” case against Donald Trump and 18 codefendants, also known as “The Fulton 19,” hasn’t garnered much attention but has the potential to upend the entire case. Meet Harrison Floyd. He fought for his country as a marine, interned at the Heritage Foundation, was a senior staff member on President Trump’s 2020 campaign, and led a nationwide effort known as “Black Voices for Trump.” He is also one of the defendants indicted last year, along with President Trump, by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Floyd was charged with a violation of...

Governor Kevin Stitt (R-OK) said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead” that he agreed with Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) defying the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that federal agents may remove razor wire at the southern border. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Twenty-five Republican governors from across the country have signed a joint statement supporting the Texas governor as he thumbs his nose at the highest court in the land.”

Former president Donald Trump’s legal effort to thwart a Justice Department investigation into classified documents seized from his palatial Palm Beach estate was officially tossed out Monday. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, after being rebuked by a federal appellate court for allowing Trump’s lawsuit to move forward, brought his controversial lawsuit to a halt after the court had ordered her to end it. “This case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” Cannon wrote in a one-page order released Monday. “The Clerk of Court shall close this case.” At the beginning of the month, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in...

A raid of an (Logansport) Indiana specialty car shop by San Mateo County (California) Sheriff’s Office deputies is facing scrutiny over allegations Sheriff Carlos Bolanos did so as a favor to a friend. The issue stems from an alleged payment dispute between Mark Racop, the owner of Fiberglass Freaks, which makes classic 1966 Batmobile cars, and (San Francisco) Bay Area real estate broker Sam Anagnostou, who ordered one in 2017. According to Racop, a missed 2019 payment from Anagnostou and a lack of contact over nine months about the payment bumped Anagnostou to the end of the line for a...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Native Americans prosecuted in certain tribal courts can also be prosecuted based on the same incident in federal court, which can result in longer sentences. The 6-3 ruling is in keeping with an earlier ruling from the 1970s that said the same about a more widely used type of tribal court. The case before the justices involved a Navajo Nation member, Merle Denezpi, accused of rape. He served nearly five months in jail after being charged with assault and battery in what is called a Court of Indian Offenses, a court that deals exclusively...

The U.S. Capitol Police will open a field office in Tampa and another in San Francisco. Six months after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. Capitol Police will open a field office in Tampa to investigate threats to members of Congress. In a news release Tuesday titled, “After the Attack: The Future of the U.S. Capitol Police,” the agency detailed changes since Jan. 6, including boosting recruiting, training and equipment for officers. The agency is also in the process of opening its first field offices. “The new USCP field offices will be in the...

New Jersey’s Attorney General Gurbir Grewal is suing to Florida gun dealers over their refusal to turn over sales records to his office. Grewal wants to know if the firms sold any magazines banned in the state of New Jersey to residents, after investigators with Grewal’s office were able to purchase several banned magazines in an undercover sting operation. After the two companies received a seize and desist letter ordering them to stop selling magazines to New Jersey residents, Grewal says his investigators haven’t been able to successfully purchase any of the banned magazines. That’s not enough. As NJ.com reports, the...

A dozen migrants from Honduras filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against Pres Trump, DHS, and others, claiming a violation of their due process under the Fifth Amendment.....that "no person… shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." A recent PBS report cited former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who ruled in 1993 case that "it is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in a deportation proceeding." Twelve Honduran nationals, including six children, are listed as...

A dozen migrants traveling by foot from Honduras to the U.S. to seek asylum filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and others, claiming a violation of their due process under the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment states that, "no person… shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." A recent PBS report cited former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who ruled in 1993 case that "it is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens...

I found this commentary on citizenship interesting, specifically the third paragraph topic of 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof'. ---- “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Amendment XIV, Section 1 Teacher's Companion Lesson (PDF) Before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, citizens of the states were automatically considered citizens of the United States. In 1857, the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision had held that no black of African descent (even a freed black) could be a citizen of the...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is scheduled to be in Sacramento on Wednesday to make what his office describes as a “major sanctuary jurisdiction announcement,” just blocks from the state Capitol, where a new law making California a sanctuary state was passed and signed. Sessions did not provide advance details of his announcement, but his Justice Department has been in an escalating legal battle with California, dozens of cities and counties in the state, including San Francisco, and hundreds nationwide whose laws and policies restrict local police and jailers from taking part in federal immigration enforcement. His targets have included the...

On Friday, September 15, the Associated Press reported on a fascinating new wrinkle in the centuries-old face of unconstitutional federal activity, and the details might surprise many who are concerned about the sticky issue of “immigration”. According to the report, Federal District Judge Harry Leinenweber just ruled that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department cannot withhold federal “public safety” grants to so-called “Sanctuary Cities” if the politicians in those cities did not conform to federal immigration policies. This, in effect, temporarily removes a powerful tool in the Trump Administration’s work shed as the President attempts to wrangle with...

A U.S. appeals court refused Friday to clarify the scope of the Supreme Court's lifting of the blockade against President Trump's travel ban, citing a lack of jurisdiction. Earlier Friday, the state of Hawaii had asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to expand the categories of people who can bypass the travel ban. On Thursday, a U.S. district judge had refused to act on Hawaii's request, leaving in place the Trump administration's rules regarding what classes of people to exempt from the travel ban. The judge in that case, Derrick Watson, also claimed he did not have the...

U.S. Supreme Court United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) United States v. Wong Kim Ark No. 18 Argued March 5, 8, 1897 Decided March 28, 1898 169 U.S. 649 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA Syllabus A child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicil and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or...

From last night's speech to the New England Police Benevolent Association, which voted to endorse him. Rarely can you tell whether a new Trump policy idea was gamed out beforehand or just something he came up with on the fly while in front of a mic, and this is no exception. His advisor, Dan Scavino, tweeted it out after Trump said it, though, so if it wasn't official campaign policy before, I guess it is now. Is it worth critiquing this? Krauthammer’s ready to give up on arguing against Trump policies, partly because they're all obviously political panders rather than...