Trump's war on the courts intensifies

Politico

7 days ago

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President DONALD TRUMP's administration is in a full-blown war with the federal courts, with the fate of American governance on the line.
That's the only way to read the increasingly confrontational, bare-knuckle tactics that the administration is deploying against the judiciary — and the steady, pointed resistance from judges.
On Tuesday night, the Justice Department filed an unusual lawsuit against the entire bench of the federal district court in Maryland — where dozens of cases against the administration are pending — over a blanket, automatic two-day pause on deportations in cases brought by detained immigrants. A department spokesperson said the lawsuit was intended to 'rein in unlawful judicial overreach.'
In an increasingly pointed Supreme Court showdown with immigration advocates, Solicitor General JOHN SAUER labeled a federal district judge's order reimposing restrictions on the deportation of eight men to South Sudan a 'lawless act of defiance.' Advocates for the men say the fight is even larger than their clients: It is about whether the high court will countenance the administration's defiance of the courts altogether.
While the justices ruminate, skirmishes between the courts and the administration are proliferating and intensifying.
In the most high-profile case of all, the criminal prosecution of KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA, a magistrate judge in Texas ripped the Justice Department for allegations that 'defy common sense' and relied on flimsy evidence. In another prominent legal showdown, a federal judge ordered the release of pro-Palestinian activist MAHMOUD KHALIL after determining that his continued detention was an unconstitutional attack on free speech.
But even in cases that are off the national radar, judges are expressing shock and dismay at mass deportation tactics that stretch the bounds of the law and Constitution:
The clearest distillation of this clash of co-equal branches comes in Trump's attempt to place a staunch loyalist onto the Philadelphia-based bench of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. After leading Trump's defense in three criminal cases, EMIL BOVE has become Trump's brashest Justice Department enforcer. He has directed purges of purportedly disloyal prosecutors and attacked the integrity of those who refused to follow orders to drop DOJ's corruption case against New York City Mayor ERIC ADAMS or who participated in the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
A day before Bove's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a former Justice Department attorney alleged that Bove spearheaded a drive to sidestep adverse court orders in crucial deportation cases. Those allegations were at the center of Democrats' questions today for Bove, who pledged to be an impartial interpreter of the law, despite his track record as a pro-Trump bulldog.
Attorney General PAM BONDI, who will have a role in reviewing the whistleblower complaint against Bove, told senators today that she would 'run through a wall for Emil Bove.' And after testifying, she filed into the Senate Judiciary hearing room to catch the end of Bove's confirmation proceedings.
Minutes after it ended, Bondi issued a statement slamming courts that had ruled against Trump, saying their orders were 'designed to halt his agenda.'
But the courts so far seem undeterred. This afternoon, a judge rejected DOJ's argument to keep Abrego behind bars while he awaits trial on immigrant smuggling charges in Tennessee. The judge, WAVERLY CRENSHAW, JR., said DOJ's position — that DHS might deport Abrego if he is not detained on his criminal charges — 'defies logic,' since the Trump administration controls both agencies.
'If the Government finds this case to be as high priority as it argues here, it is incumbent upon it to ensure that Abrego is held accountable for the charges in the Indictment,' Crenshaw said. 'If the Department of Justice and DHS cannot do so, that speaks for itself.'
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POTUS PUZZLER
Which former president was buried with a copy of the Constitution under his head?
(Answer at bottom.)
Knives Out
LAKE MAKES HER CASE: KARI LAKE, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, today defended the Trump administration's dismantling of the agency and its independent outlet Voice of America, where more than 600 full-time staffers received termination notices last week, telling the House Foreign Affairs committee that USAGM 'is not needed.'
Democratic lawmakers questioned whether Lake was qualified to lead the agency due to her repeated false claims that Trump did not lose the 2020 presidential election and that she did not lose her own gubernatorial and Senate races in 2020 and 2024, respectively.
'I can't imagine how people fighting for democracy today around the world could trust someone who so shamelessly lied about her own election,' said Rep. GREG STANTON (D-Ariz.).
One House Republican expressed concern related to the conflict between Israel and Iran, which prompted the agency's Farsi-language service to be hastily called back to work. 'I worry about the U.S. government's ability to win in the information domain during the next crisis, which could be just around the corner,' said Rep. YOUNG KIM (R-Calif.).
Agenda Setting
EVERY SINGLE STATE: Ahead of the Office of Management and Budget Director RUSS VOUGHT's testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee this afternoon on the $9.4 billion rescissions package, Vice Chair Sen. PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.) released a map of the 1,500 local radio and TV stations that would lose funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Some Republicans including Sen. MIKE ROUNDS (R-S.D.) have raised concerns about public broadcasting cuts.
'UNNECESSARILY CHAOTIC': Sen. MITCH McCONNELL, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, sharply criticized how the administration has executed its plan to root out government waste, our HASSAN ALI KANU writes in.
'There's plenty of absolute nonsense masquerading as American aid that shouldn't receive another bit of taxpayer funding, but the administration's attempt to root it out has been unnecessarily chaotic,' McConnell said to Vought. 'In critical corners of the globe, instead of creating efficiencies, you've created vacuums for adversaries like China to fill.'
McConnell has been sharply critical of some of the Trump administration's foreign policy moves, chiefly on its handling of Ukraine. But his comments today raise new questions about his support for the administration's rescissions package.
PAGING DR. CASSIDY: The newly formed vaccine advisory committee chosen by HHS Secretary ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. announced today that it would review childhood vaccines and shots not studied in more than seven years, our SOPHIE GARDNER and DAVID LIM report. The decision by the new group, tasked with reviewing the childhood immunization schedule, could open the door to changes on how and when children are vaccinated.
The chair of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices said the committee would maintain existing working groups tasked with examining vaccines and that new work groups will also be established.
MORE ON VACCINES: Kennedy announced today that the U.S. will withdraw financial support for Gavi, a global organization that helps purchase vaccines for children in poor countries, NYT's STEPHANIE NOLEN reports. Kennedy accused the group's leaders of having 'ignored the science' in immunizing children globally.
Kennedy argued that Gavi's leaders had been selective in their use of science to support vaccine choices and said that the U.S. would not deliver on its $1.2 billion pledge to support the program until it changed its processes. Gavi's leaders rejected the suggestion that its vaccine purchases were driven by anything other than scientific evidence.
In the Courts
WIN FOR UNIONS: A federal judge in San Francisco today blocked Trump's executive order seeking to terminate the collective bargaining rights of workers whose unions have opposed and sued the administration, Hassan writes in. Judge JAMES DONATO's order restores the status and rights of about 950,000 federal workers at 21 agencies who are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees and four other unions, according to the AFGE.
Trump sought to abruptly revoke collective bargaining rights from much of the public sector in March, relying on a law that allows agencies to be excluded from coverage if the president determines their primary function is national security work. But Donato held that the White House's own statements are fairly clear that at least part of the motivation is unlawful 1st Amendment retaliation.
Trump's anti-union policies have survived a separate challenge before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which temporarily revived the executive order last month in a case brought by the National Treasury Employees Union.
THE WHOLE GANG'S ON BOARD: Almost two dozen Democratic attorneys general are challenging the Trump administration's argument for cutting billions of dollars in federal grant funding for states and other recipients, POLITICO's E&E News' NIINA H. FARAH reports. The new lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts federal district court on Tuesday, is the latest challenge to the administration's 'slash-and-burn campaign' to freeze congressionally mandated funding for an array of programs.
The lawsuit does not ask the federal court to restore canceled grant funding, unlike previous, pending challenges. Instead, it asks for a judge to weigh in on the administration's reliance on a clause in a 2020 regulation that says agencies can cancel grant funding that 'no longer effectuates … agency priorities.'
WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT
(BIG) BALLS TO THE WALL: The infamous EDWARD CORISTINE, the 19-year-old DOGE staffer known as 'Big Balls,' has left his government role, WIRED's JAKE LAHUT, MAKENA KELLY, VITTORIA ELLIOTT and ZOË SCHIFFER report. 'Edward Coristine resigned yesterday,' a White House official told WIRED. Coristine received full-time employment status at the General Services Administration late last month, but as of Tuesday, his Google Workspace account with GSA was no longer active.
His name no longer appears on a White House contact list of current DOGE employees on the federal payroll maintained by a senior administration official. Coristine, according to another former DOGE staffer, 'was one of a small group of technologists who were highly trusted within DOGE and deployed across multiple federal agencies, and given multiple federal laptops,' WIRED writes.
What We're Reading
The Self-Deportation Psyop (The Atlantic's Nick Miroff)
U.S. Textile Makers, Feeling Forgotten by Trump, Hope Boom Days Are Ahead (NYT's Alan Rappeport)
A Military Ethics Professor Resigns in Protest (The Atlantic's Tom Nichols)
POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER
Former President ANDREW JOHNSON was buried in 1875 with a copy of the Constitution under his head and his body wrapped in an American flag, according to the National Park Service.