I previously wrote about Pres. Trump’s clearly unlawful attacks on big law firms here and here. Since then, all four big law firms which challenged that very strange Executive Order won motions to dismiss at the district court level. That means even without a formal hearing, the judges agreed that Pres. Trump’s silly EO
West Virginia US District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin has criticized ICE tactics before. But, now he has found their tactics to violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. ICE arrested an immigrant from El Salvador while they were wearing masks, driving unmarked vehicles, and without a warrant of any sort. The immigrant, Anderson Jesus
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 amended the prior law, which was passed in 1883. The current law is found at 5 U.S.C. §1101, et seq. The first Civil Service Act of 1883 changed what had been a political spoils system to a much more professional, stable work force. Prior to 1883, the
In Oral arguments on Nov, 5, 2025, the issue was the power of the Trump administration to set tariffs on many products, from many countries for an unsopeofied amunt of time. Congress has delegated some tariff powers to the Executive branch over the decades. But, Pres. Trump claims a statute, known as the International Emergency
In a recent survey, only 12 out of 65 Federal Judges agreed that the U.S. Supreme Court makes appropriate use of the emergency docket. The emergency docket refers to the process by which a litigant can bypass the courts of appeals and go straight to the U.S. Supreme Court. There have been far more emergency
When you are a lawyer, you hear that phrase “selective prosecution” now and then. Someone’s brother-in-law or cousin is being picked on by the local County District Attorney. But, sometimes, we see actual selective prosecution in real life. One day, Pres. Trump publicly directs AG Pam Bondi to prosecute James Coney. Days later, the U.S.
Pres. Trump stated his intention to activate Oregon National Guardsmen to protect “war ravaged Portland.” The state then sued. Early Saturday, Oct. 4, U.S. District Judge Immergut issued an order finding that there is no ongoing violence or crisis that would justify a call-up in accordance with 10 U.S.C. §12406. Sec. 12406 specifically allows a
Former Department of Justice officials are “stunned” at what they are seeing today. Pres. Trump openly urged AG Pam Bondi to indict two of his political opponents. The US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia resigned under pressure to cook up some basis for indicting James Coney. Other Federal prosecutors in Maryland, Georgia and
As a young National Guard officer, my colleagues and I discussed the Posse Comitatus Act often. We always knew that as Guardsmen. we would be called up for national disasters. But, we all knew there were limits to out authority. We knew we could not perform law enforcement functions except in specific circumstances, such as
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, the MyPillow CEO, Michael Lindell lodged claims of fraud against Eric Coomer, former executive at Domino Voting Systems. Mr. Lindell was a very vocal supporter of Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election had been stolen. Cooper Then sued Lindell for defamation. In June, a jury agreed with