Some developments on the legal front this morning:
Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia without due process
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court order that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was forcibly and wrongly deported to El Salvador, where he is in prison.
But the Supreme Court in its decision told a Maryland federal district court judge to clarify his order last week that the administration “effectuate” the return of Abrego Garcia.
The decision also directed the Trump administration to prepare “to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps” related to his possible return.
The Trump administration had opposed the order to return the El Salvador native even after acknowledging that he “was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal,” the Supreme Court noted in its ruling.
The Supreme Court decision is a major rebuke to the administration, which, since the return of President Donald Trump to the White House, has made the forcible deportation of purported gang members a top priority...
U.S. President Donald Trump has failed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of making defamatory statements about five Black and Hispanic men who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a white jogger in New York's Central Park.
Philadelphia-based U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled on Thursday that the men had presented enough evidence for now to pursue their lawsuit accusing Trump of defaming them in comments he made during the 2024 presidential campaign. The judge narrowed the lawsuit, however, by dismissing a claim by the plaintiffs of intentional infliction of emotional distress.The lawsuit was filed in federal court last October by Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise, called the Central Park Five. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages for reputational and emotional harms as well as punitive damages.Shanin Specter, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, in a statement on Thursday welcomed the judge's ruling and said he and his clients "look forward to discovery, trial and the ultimate vindication of these five fine men."...
A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump has scolded his administration and the Justice Department for dragging its feet in an ongoing birthright citizenship case, denying a request Wednesday for more time after firmly telling the DOJ that motions for extensions were “discouraged.”“Defendants appear to have had access to the relevant pleadings — both in this case and in the other identified cases — for at least two months,” a minute order read from U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Wednesday. “And despite Defendants’ conclusory assertion of ‘good cause shown,’ they do not explain why they were unable to file any response to the Complaint — or the contemplated motion to stay — before the expiration of the current deadline,” the minute order said.Kelly, appointed by Trump in 2017, noted the court’s standing order issued on Jan. 31, the day after the birthright citizenship case was first filed, outlining the rules and details of the ongoing proceedings. The order included specific guidelines about what would be required if the government wanted an extension.
Kelly said Wednesday that the DOJ followed none of them with its Monday motion for an extension...
A federal judge on Thursday will halt the Trump administration from ending a program that allowed hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to temporarily live in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani announced that she plans to issue a stay on the program, which was set to end later this month. The push to help more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans is part of a broader legal effort to protect nationals from Ukraine, Afghanistan and other countries who are here legally.
During a hearing on the case, Talwani repeatedly questioned the government’s assertion for ending the program — namely that it has the power to do and that it was no longer serving its purpose. She argued that immigrants in the program who are here legally now face an option of “fleeing the country” or staying and “risk losing everything.”
“The nub of the problem here is that the secretary, in cutting short the parole period afforded to these individuals, has to have a reasoned decision,” Talwani said, adding that the explanation for ending the program was “based on an incorrect reading of the law.”
“There was a deal and now that deal has been undercut,” she added later in the hearing.
Last month, the administration revoked legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, setting them up for potential deportation in 30 days. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they will lose their legal status on April 24.
They arrived with financial sponsors and were given two-year permits to live and work in the U.S. During that time, the beneficiaries needed to find other legal pathways if they wanted to stay in the U.S. Parole has been a temporary status.
President Donald Trump has been ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the U.S., implementing campaign promises to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally...
It's been said, with the legislative branch of the federal government neutered by subservient Republican MAGAt control and pusillanimous Democrats in key positions, the courts are the only branch offering resistance (for now) to the ambitions of our would- be fascist dictator. We anticipate the day coming soon when the unbound and lawless Malignant Fascist echoes the (likely apocryphal) quote by President Andrew Jackson on a case ruled on in 1832 by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall: "John Marshall has made his ruling, now let him enforce it." For someone who believes he's above the law, that's the clear course ahead.
🤔 Court decisions can be very clear when judges want them to be, but can also be designed to obfuscate and hide meaning. Danny Cevallos, the MSNBC legal analyst, reminded us this morning that the spin masters in this administration will be able to call this a Trump win because SCOTUS used the wiggle words "facilitate" and "effectuate," which means the game is still afoot! Cevallos referred back to the already adjudicated case in 2019 which gave protection that Abrego Garcia never be returned to El Salvador. If he is still alive, which I really doubt, Trump could just put him in a cell at Gitmo or wherever and keep playing.
ReplyDeleteCevallos also claimed that that one of the big reasons for the wiggle words is that Chief Justice Roberts wanted some 9-0 decisions to slap against the Trumpheads so they know not to attack judges and courts, but couldn't get all his justices on board if he used honest words.
Former Senator Claire McCaskill was also on MSNBC and made an important point that is getting lost and is almost never mentioned in media stories about this case...this is a business arrangement! Pam Bondi's arguments about courts getting too far into the executive powers on international relations are meaningless. Trump and El Salvador President Bukele are parties in a contract and it is contract law that should rule. As McCaskill said, "this is a contract to house people for a time certain (one year) for money certain ($6M)." The original number of housed persons was 300, which works out to $1600/month per unit (person). You can be sure that there are no personal identifiers for each unit, so just take out one unit, replace "it" with another and there is no breach of contract. What McCaskill did not mention, but I have been screaming for days, is that if even one unit Abrego Garcia) is dead/gone, Bukele is in breach of contract because he is charging us for housing a unit that no longer exists! At the least, we need to demand an inventory audit!! 🤬