The Trump regime, grudgingly doing the absolute minimum required by law to help hungry Americans, has complied with a court order to use contingency funds Congress already appropriated and fund SNAP food benefits - but only at at a 50% level. #LawFedi 1/
More explanation to come in this thread but I am morally compelled to ask you to contribute what you can to the Mastodon for Hunger relief fundraiser at https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/xBnCKKa/Mastodon-for-Hunger-Relief
Judge Sara Ellis is ruling from the bench now as to whether Bovino and ICE and CBP troops have violated her orders preventing the use of certain riot control tactics and requiring warnings to crowds before tear gassing them. She is detailing all the evidence of Bovino’s and other DHS employees lying about their conduct in Chicago. #LawFedi 1/
The Supreme Court has issued an administrative stay, putting off the need for the Trump regime to comply with lower court orders to fully fund SNAP food benefits. Justice Jackson issued the order giving a strange reason for it IMO. 1/ #LawFedi https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/110725zr_pnk0.pdf
FTC takes action against trade associations for having standards. "Safe spaces" for conservative media.
The Wyoming State Supreme Court has struck down the state law explicitly banning abortion pills. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/abortion-stays-legal-wyoming-top-164916889.html
The court held that the ban conflicts with the state constitutional provision protecting individual right to make healthcare decisions.
Interestingly, that civil right was constitutionalized by Wyo in opposition to the ACA. #LawFedi
The Trump regime is busily protecting Steve Bannon from his criminal conviction for defying a Congressional subpoena. Corrupt AND further disregard for a co-equal branch of government. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/supreme-court-clears-path-for-doj-to-erase-bannon-conviction #LawFedi
This is great coverage of the absolutely disgusting and frightening dissents by Alito and Thomas from the shadow docket Roberts Court order in the mifepristone litigation in the Fifth Circuit. https://www.autonomynews.co/supreme-court-maintains-mifepristone-access-but-thomas-calls-for-comstock-act-prosecutions/ #LawFedi 1/
Todd Blanche hopes the headlines will not highlight DoJ’s collusive settlement with Trump over IRS audits. But that won’t protect him from the sanctions he is subject to if a federal judge finds he participated in fraud upon the court.
This is a bit complicated, but worth unpacking, I think - so here we go! #LawFedi 1/
The U.S. Attorney for DC, Jeanine Pirro, has had to dismiss its indictment of Davey Hearn, the Olympian the Trump regime accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. The motion to dismiss is something else. 1/ https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/28528042/260731-hearn.pdf #LawFedi
An extraordinary and excellent judicial opinion granting habeas corpus to a Liam Conejo Ramos, a child the Trump regime detained and held on the basis of only an administrative warrant. Also granting habeas to Liam’s father. My annotated copy at https://drive.proton.me/urls/2NVJSW3K8R#eTJeXmYjZcYa. 1/ #LawFedi
A federal judge has just found that Musk and DOGE likely acted unconstitutionally in shutting down USAID. He has granted a preliminary injunction which means that for the remainder of proceedings USAID personnel must be reinstated, no buildings may be closed, etc. Text of injunction at https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69636722/75/does-1-26-v-musk/. Opinion in support at https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69636722/73/does-1-26-v-musk/. #LawFedi
Immigrants held in Camp East Montana in Texas have filed a class action against DHS alleging violations of their Fifth Amendment rights and the Administrative Procedure Act. Their complaint makes clear that the Trump regime, particularly DHS, now headed by Markwayne Mullin, is intentionally running a wretched concentration camp. 1/ #LawFedi
Law students from multiple law schools have put their names to a letter in which they refuse to work for firms giving in to Trump on DEI. They will only work for firms that stand up to Trump regime in specific ways. I urge you to read the letter. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10POW8J0MVRSNUvMm8zBpyYLW0d7VWlGxd50Nw-Ql9SI/edit?usp=drivesdk
I applaud the courage and integrity of these students. I’m especially proud of the signers who I taught. #LawFedi 1/2
A federal district court judge has today ordered the Trump executive branch to return a Maryland resident wrongly deported to El Salvador. The deadline is April 7. This could produce the direct conflict between the federal executive and the federal judiciary that will eventually arrive, if not in this case, in another. 1/ https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-judge-hear-lawsuit-man-deported-el-salvador-error-2025-04-04/ #LawFedi
On March 28, people will gather in #SantaFe #NewMexico for #NoKings 3, to celebrate and fight for constitutional democracy in the United States. They will exercise their First Amendment rights to assemble and freely express their views.
That is, they will if local government lets them. So far the City of Santa Fe still isn't giving me much confidence. 1/ #LawFedi
The Fourth Circuit refuses to get further involved in Judge Xinis’ handling of Abrego Garcia’s case. A good development. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca4.178400/gov.uscourts.ca4.178400.8.0.pdf #LawFedi
As ashamed as I mostly am of the U.S. Supreme Court, I am proud of some lower federal courts, including the district courts presided over by Xinis and Boasberg and, today, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has refused the Trump executives request that halt Judge Xinis' ongoing efforts to learn what has become of Abrego Garcia and who in the executive is responsible for his continued detention in El Salvador. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca4.178400/gov.uscourts.ca4.178400.8.0.pdf #LawFedi 1/
Two days ago, I wrote a newsletter entry about the state of Alien Enemies Act litigation. See https://heidi-says.ghost.io/the-latest-legal-developments-in-trumps-effort-to-use-the-alien-enemies-act-to-disappear-venezuelans/. Today, the Supreme Court weighed in, as I said it might, using the situation in the Northern District of Texas to do so. Its opinion is at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1007_g2bh.pdf. 1/ #LawFedi
Right now, fresh consequences of Trump executive disobeying court orders and opinions are playing out in Texas. The situation is moving swiftly but I’m going to try to capture what is happening in this 🧵. Essential point: ignoring Supreme Court, DHS seems about to ship Venezuelans held under Trump’s AEA Proclamation to prison in El Salvador without proper notice and opportunity to rebut. 1/ #LawFedi
Alito has just filed his dissent from last night’s Supreme Court order directing the Trump executive not to remove any Venezuelans detained pursuant to AEA in Northern District of Texas. Thomas joins. They take the position I sketched in an earlier thread today: that there was no appealable order or rulings before the Supreme Court bc the trial court judge had not ruled on plaintiffs’ TRO and class certification motions. #LawFedi 1/ https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1007_22p3.pdf
👀 Jim Jordan sneaking a provision into the reconciliation bill intended to protect Bondi, Blanche, Noem et al from being cited for contempt of court. https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/judiciary_recon_ans_xml.pdf #LawFedi
The Trump regime has wrongly deported another immigrant to El Salvador. “Held for more than 2 years at the ICE detention center in Batavia, federal judges ruled Jordin Melgar-Salmeron could remain in the U.S. until his court case was resolved.“ The regime promised the court it would comply with the ruling, then deported Melgar-Salmeron early. Now, we’ll see whether they fall back on their position that they can’t get him back bc they don’t have custody. https://www.investigativepost.org/2025/05/30/another-ice-deportation-in-defiance-of-court-order/ #LawFedi
D.V.D. v. Trump, the case involving immigrants removed to third-party countries without due process, just gets wilder and wilder. Two developments today. This thread is about the judge's latest opinion and order for yet another preliminary injunction in the lawsuit. Full document at https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282404/gov.uscourts.mad.282404.132.0.pdf. #LawFedi 1/
Regular readers of my threads will recall this one, where I discussed the extreme bonkers of the Trump regime filing seeking a stay of Judge Murphy's preliminary injunction in D.V.D. v. DHS. That thread is at https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman/114561031034280710. Today, Judge Murphy issued his opinion denying a stay, and it is a doozy! Murphy is incredulous over the point I emphasized: the Trump regime's complaints are all about a problem of its own making. Here's today's opinion in full. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282404/gov.uscourts.mad.282404.135.0.pdf #LawFedi 1/
Well, well, well - it seems that somebody in the Trump regime understands the thin ice Noem, Bondi, and the other defendants in D.V.D. v. DHS et al are on. Several days ago I wrote about one of the plaintiffs, O.C.G., who DHS sent to Mexico, without any notice or hearing as to his fear for his safety there. See thread at https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman/114560831079476108 1/ #LawFedi
