A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw |
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Good morning. The DOJ will ask a federal judge to block his colleagues on the bench in Maryland from impeding deportations. Plus, Media Matters will ask a judge to block an FTC probe over Elon Musk’s X boycott claims; the 11th Circuit will hear a challenge to a 2021 Georgia voting law; and a lot more going on in court (it’s a busy calendar today). These hungry goats fight fires. Let’s forge ahead into midweek.
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DOJ to ask judge to block fellow jurists in Maryland from impeding deportations |
Today, the DOJ will take an unusual step in an unusual lawsuit. The government will ask a federal judge to block 15 other federal judges from implementing a court order that prevents the immediate deportation of migrants. Here’s what to know: |
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In June, the Trump administration sued the federal court in Maryland and all 15 of its judges over an order issued by Chief U.S. District Judge George Russell. The order that automatically halts, for two business days, the deportation of migrants in the state who file a new lawsuit challenging their detention. Read the complaint.
- The DOJ argues that the order runs afoul of U.S. Supreme Court precedent governing the standards for how courts can issue injunctions and flouts congressional intent.
- Legal experts called the DOJ’s lawsuit surprising. Normally, to challenge a trial court's order, a litigant would do so in a case in which it arose or by asking an appeals court to set the order aside.
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The DOJ asked that the Maryland federal judges recuse themselves from the case and instead have a federal judge from another state hear it. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, who normally hears cases in the federal court in Roanoke, Virginia.
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The DOJ is seeking a court ruling declaring the order to be unlawful and an injunction blocking the judges from enforcing it. Read the government’s motion here.
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In their reply, the judges called the lawsuit “unprecedented” and that it was “fundamentally incompatible with the separation of powers.” Read the reply here.
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Prominent conservative U.S. Supreme Court lawyer Paul Clement and others at Clement & Murphy are representing the judges, stepping into a role that DOJ attorneys would typically fill, had their department not been the one suing the judges. Read more about that here.
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U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco will consider whether to broaden an injunction that has prevented the Trump administration from withholding federal funding from more than a dozen “sanctuary” jurisdictions that have declined to cooperate with the Republican president's hardline immigration crackdown. Read the injunction.
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Media Matters will urge U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in D.C. to block the FTC’s probe into whether media watchdogs coordinated advertising boycotts, calling it retaliation for the group's criticism of Elon Musk. Read the complaint.
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A group of Democratic state AGs will urge U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston to block the implementation of portions of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule that they say could lead to nearly 2 million people losing their health insurance. Read the complaint.
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U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Frink Wolf will hold a discovery conference in a lawsuit by the Trump administration filed against Maine as part of its conflict with the state for refusing to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's and girls' sports. Read the complaint.
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The 11th Circuit will consider whether the Materiality Provision in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to vote-by-mail paperwork in a legal challenge stemming from a 2021 Georgia law that requires voters mailing in an absentee ballot to write their birthdate on the envelope. The district court ruled that the law likely violated the provision. Read the district court decision. The court will also consider whether to leave in place an order blocking Georgia’s line relief ban outside of the 150-foot zone around polling places, which prohibits distributing food and water to people waiting in line to vote.
- The Family Planning Association of Maine will urge Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker in Maine to block the Trump administration’s termination of its federal Medicaid funding over abortion-related restrictions in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Read the complaint.
- U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in D.C. will hold a motion hearing in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s withholding of $65.8 million in Title X federal family planning grants. Read the complaint.
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U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island will hold a hearing to discuss whether the Trump administration is violating a court order by failing to release $760 million of frozen federal grant money intended to support low-income senior housing. Read the order.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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