In the Courts

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered orders in two separate civil actions, barring eight individuals and entities from continuing to facilitate the transmission of massive volumes of fraudulent robocalls to consumers in the United States, the Department of Justice announced today. In one of the matters, United States v. Nicholas Palumbo, et al., the District ...

A federal judge swatted away an attempt by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to release a group of illegal aliens in a Washington state detention center amid the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. District Judge James L. Robart — who serves in the District Court for the Western District of Washington — on Thursday shot down a temporary restraining order request ...

A Rhode Island official acknowledged in 2019 that the state’s climate lawsuit against Exxon Mobil is partially designed to secure a steady stream of income for the state, court documents show. Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit told attendees at a meeting in New York that the state sued the industry to find a “sustainable funding stream,” ...

The Supreme Court delivered a win for the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, blocking a federal court injunction that would have limited a program that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico. The nation’s highest court on Wednesday ruled that the White House’s Remain in Mexico program, also known as Migrant Protection Protocols, can remain effective for the entire southern border ...

The House of Representatives can review secret grand-jury information cited and redacted from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian election interference in 2016, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a previous ruling by a D.C. District Court judge who sided with the Democratic-led ...

A federal appeals court has said it will block the Migrant Protection Protocols program within its jurisdiction next week, unless the Supreme Court chooses to wade in. In the latest back-and-forth between the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Trump administration, the appeals court announced late Wednesday that it will block Migrant Protection Protocols — more popularly known as the ...

Supreme Court Justice John Roberts chastised House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Wednesday for Schumer’s “dangerous” and “threatening statements.” Schumer spoke Wednesday at a rally in front of the United States Supreme Court where justices heard June Medical Services v. Russo, a case in which an abortion provider challenges a 2014 Louisiana state law that requires abortion providers to have admitting ...

A federal appeals court dealt House Democrats a heavy blow on Friday, ruling in favor of President Donald Trump in his efforts to prevent former White House counsel Don McGahn from complying with a congressional subpoena for his testimony. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned a lower court’s decision to force ...

In a major blow to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday that migrants can’t be sent to Mexico to await their asylum decisions. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals halted the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” program. In a 2-1 decision on Friday, the Ninth Circuit upheld ...

Facebook, YouTube and other big tech companies are not bound to abide by the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, a court ruled Wednesday, dealing a blow to conservatives online. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court Appeals decision came in a case brought by Prager University, a nonprofit that produces videos promoting conservative positions on politics. PragerU sued YouTube in 2017 ...

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the White House can withhold funds from sanctuary cities, delivering a major victory for President Donald Trump’s fight with jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The Trump administration is legally allowed to withhold millions of dollars in federal law enforcement grants from states and other localities that refuse ...

Roger Stone’s attorneys on Friday filed a motion to disqualify Judge Amy Berman Jackson from future proceedings in his case because she said during his sentencing hearing on Thursday that the Trump confidante’s jury served with “integrity.” Jackson, who sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison, will soon decide whether to grant Stone’s request for a retrial. The GOP operative ...

A U.S. appeals court dealt a big blow Thursday to opponents of the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to repeal an Obama-era regulation that conservatives believe restrained the open internet. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declined to rehear an October 2019 ruling that upheld the repeal of net neutrality rules. More than a dozen U.S. ...

The Supreme Court will discuss a challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate in private conference on Feb. 21.  Democrats who are defending Obamacare in court want the justices to hear the case immediately so it can be resolved by June. The Trump administration says the high court’s involvement at this stage would be premature.  The Supreme Court ...

The Supreme Court Monday allowed the Trump administration to enforce a new rule that will deny green cards to foreign nationals who use taxpayer-funded social services, lifting lower court injunctions that blocked the change. The 5-4 vote followed familiar ideological lines, with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan in dissent. The Immigration and Nationality Act ...