T/law

  1. Manhattan Judges Approve Trump’s Choice for U.S. Attorney New York, Today

    Jay Clayton, whose Senate confirmation was stalled, could serve for the rest of the Trump presidency. He faced criticism after a prosecutor in his office was fired by the administration.

  2. Marco Rubio Once Filed a Brief Embracing Birthright Citizenship U.S., Today

    Rubio, a son of immigrants and now secretary of state, was responding to a 2016 lawsuit questioning his eligibility for the presidency.

  3. Allowing Churches to Endorse Politicians Can Be Perfectly Liberal Opinion, Today

    The I.R.S. just needs to get the details right.

  4. North Carolina Confederate Monument Goes Too Far, Lawsuit Says U.S., Yesterday

    A long battle over the pro-slavery words on a Tyrrell County statue intensifies as the Trump administration reclaims Confederate imagery.

  5. Ecuador, el país con más visión medioambiental, está bajo ataque En español, August 16

    El progreso medioambiental del país sudamericano está amenazado por una serie de reformas impulsadas por su joven presidente populista, Daniel Noboa.

  6. The Most Environmentally Imaginative Country on Earth Is Under Assault Opinion, August 15

    Ecuador’s ecological progress is threatened by a series of reforms steamrolled by its young populist president, Daniel Noboa.

  7. Judge Blocks White House Effort to Defund Schools With D.E.I. Programs U.S., August 14

    The Trump administration had asked states to certify that their schools did not practice “illegal D.E.I.” and threatened to cut off billions of dollars from schools that did not comply.

  8. As Trump Seizes D.C.’s Police, Critics Say He’s Undercut Its Ability to Fight Crime U.S., August 14

    The Trump administration has taken steps that have hobbled Washington’s efforts to reduce crime, such as gutting its U.S. attorney’s office and enacting budget cuts of more than $1 billion.

  9. Supreme Court Allows Mississippi Law on Children’s Use of Social Media, for Now U.S., August 14

    A trade group representing sites like Facebook and X said the law ran afoul of the First Amendment.

  10. Trump Isn’t the Only One to Blame for the Gerrymander Mess Opinion, August 14

    The Supreme Court’s conservative majority kicked away the best, even last, chance at a national solution to a national problem.

  11. The U.S. Is Auctioning a Seized Russian Yacht. Will Anyone Buy It? World, August 14

    The Justice Department said the yacht, Amadea, was worth at least $300 million when it was seized in 2022 from a Russian oligarch. It’s unlikely to sell for that price.

  12. Law Firms That Settled With Trump Are Pressed to Help on Trade Deals U.S., August 14

    Boris Epshteyn, a personal lawyer for President Trump, connected two firms — Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden Arps — to the Commerce Department.

  13. Trump Administration Can Withhold Billions in Aid, Appeals Court Rules U.S., August 13

    In a 2-to-1 vote, a federal appeals court panel ruled that foreign aid groups that sued to recover funds that President Trump froze cannot challenge the decision.

  14. Judge Appears Skeptical of Lawsuit Against Federal Bench in Maryland U.S., August 13

    The spectacle of the White House suing an entire district court in the name of the United States of America underscored just how rancorous relations between the two branches had become.

  15. Why Trump Always Wants a Crisis Opinion, August 13

    If the actual conditions of reality will not give him a state of exception, he’ll create one himself.

  16. Court Ruling Casts Doubt on New York’s Cannabis Licensing Process New York, August 12

    A federal appeals court said that it appeared to be unconstitutional for New York to prioritize some of its own residents for licenses to open cannabis businesses.

  17. Russia Is Suspected to Be Behind Breach of Federal Court Filing System U.S., August 12

    Federal officials are scrambling to assess the damage and address flaws in a sprawling, heavily used computer system long known to have vulnerabilities.

  18. Appeals Court Allows DOGE Access to Sensitive Data at Several Agencies U.S., August 12

    The decision cited a Supreme Court order in June granting DOGE analysts sweeping access to other data stored at the Social Security Administration.

  19. Kennedy’s Next Target: the Federal Vaccine Court Health, August 11

    The system for compensating people injured by vaccines needs significant reform. But the health secretary could alter it in ways that ultimately reduce vaccine access for everyone.

  20. Will Judges Approve Trump’s Choice for U.S. Attorney in Manhattan? New York, August 11

    Jay Clayton, the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District, was named on an interim basis after Senator Chuck Schumer blocked his nomination.

  21. How the Supreme Court Set the Stage for Redistricting Video, August 10

    Adam Liptak, a New York Times reporter covering the Supreme Court, explains a recent decision by the court on gerrymandering. He spells out how the justices may be poised to eliminate the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act.

  22. In Election Cases, Supreme Court Keeps Removing Guardrails U.S., August 10

    The justices, having effectively blessed partisan gerrymandering, may be poised to eliminate the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act.

  23. This Federal Judge Is the ‘Tip of the Spear’ of Trump-Era Conservatism U.S., August 9

    Judge James C. Ho has recast the role of jurist as a vociferous combatant in the culture wars. Could that be exactly what Trump is looking for?

  24. Bragg May Ask Supreme Court to Uphold Conviction in Patz Case New York, August 8

    Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is asking for more time to decide whether to seek a review of the overturned murder conviction of Pedro Hernandez in the Etan Patz case.

  25. Appeals Court Ends Judge Boasberg’s Contempt Inquiry of Trump Officials U.S., August 8

    The case involves deportation flights to El Salvador and whether the administration ignored the judge’s verbal order that they return to the United States.

  26. The U.S. Says Britain Is Chilling Free Speech. Many Britons Point the Finger Back. World, August 8

    To some in the U.K., the criticisms from the American right over arrests of people for hate speech seem hypocritical, given President Trump’s attacks on those who disagree with him.

  27. Trump Asks Supreme Court to Lift Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops U.S., August 7

    A lower court had ordered agents not to make indiscriminate stops relying on factors like race or speaking Spanish.

  28. California Supreme Court Requires New Review of Rooftop Solar Policy Business, August 7

    The court revived a legal challenge to a 2022 regulation that significantly reduced the compensation utilities paid to owners of home solar systems for the electricity they sent to the grid.

  29. The Climate of Fear Has Reached Into Unexpected Places Opinion, August 7

    Judges are under threat. This is no way to run a country.

  30. Trump Administration Begins to Strip Federal Workers of Union Protections U.S., August 6

    The Department of Veterans Affairs appeared to be the first agency to begin terminating union contracts, affecting more than 400,000 workers.

  31. Stanford Newspaper Challenges Legal Basis for Student Deportations U.S., August 6

    A new lawsuit brought by a First Amendment watchdog group argues that the use of a rarely invoked immigration law to target pro-Palestinian demonstrators is unconstitutional.

  32. The August 5 Trump News live blog included one standalone post:
  33. Maxwell Opposes Request to Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Papers New York, August 5

    The disgraced financier’s former companion said disclosure would harm her legal rights. “Jeffrey Epstein is dead,” her lawyers wrote. “Ghislaine Maxwell is not.”

  34. The Supreme Court Has Finally Found a President It Likes Opinion, August 5

    Its six-member conservative majority has become a key enabler of Trump’s agenda.

  35. El presidente de El Salvador es un autócrata para algunos, un enviado de Dios para otros En español, August 4

    Los legisladores salvadoreños abolieron los límites presidenciales y ahora Nayib Bukele podrá permanecer en el poder indefinidamente. ¿Por qué ahora?

  36. El Salvador’s Leader Is Autocrat to Some, Godsend to Others World, August 4

    Lawmakers approved constitutional changes abolishing term limits and allowing President Nayib Bukele to stay in power indefinitely. Why now?

  37. As the Supreme Court Focuses on the Past, Historians Turn to Advocacy U.S., August 4

    Spikes in the number and influence of briefs filed by historians have prompted questions about the role scholars should play in litigation.

  38. This Attack on a Federal Judge Is Preposterous Opinion, August 4

    Once again, it looks like Pam Bondi’s Justice Department is attempting to undermine the rule of law.

  39. New Firm Seeks to Confront Trump on Executive Power U.S., August 4

    The Washington Litigation Group is the latest nonprofit group to join the legal challenges against the president, with a strategy of focusing on appeals early in the case.

  40. Appeals Court Allows Trump Order That Ends Union Protections for Federal Workers U.S., August 2

    A famously liberal circuit court ruled in President Trump’s favor, authorizing a component of his sweeping effort to assert more control over the federal bureaucracy.

  41. Michael Cardozo, 84, New York City’s Longest-Serving Chief Lawyer, Dies New York, August 1

    As the city’s corporation counsel under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he defended stop-and-frisk policing and a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

  42. Judge Bars Expedited Deportations of Migrants Paroled Into U.S. U.S., August 1

    The ruling halted the Trump administration from pursuing the deportation of hundreds of thousands of migrants accepted into the United States, who now retain only minimal legal safeguards.

  43. Jury Says Tesla Was Partly to Blame for Fatal Crash Business, August 1

    Lawyers for the family of a woman struck and killed by a Tesla sedan in 2019 argued that the company’s Autopilot software should have avoided the crash.

  44. Kavanaugh Defends Supreme Court’s Terse Emergency Orders U.S., July 31

    Speaking at a judicial conference, the justice said that saying too much risked premature judgments, adding that the court had been trying various approaches.

  45. Unnoticed Whistle-Blower Document Alarms Justice Department Veterans U.S., July 31

    A complaint concerning a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, went unnoticed for more than two months, raising worries that an internal watchdog has gone dormant.

  46. Legal Watchdog Files Bar Complaints Against Justice Dept. Lawyers U.S., July 31

    The move represented a rare attempt to seek accountability for rank-and-file lawyers who have represented the Trump administration in court.

  47. Someone Is Defying the Supreme Court, but It Isn’t Trump Opinion, July 31

    The defiance is coming from inside the judicial branch itself.

  48. Judge Bars Trump Administration From Punishing 2 Law Professors for I.C.C. Work U.S., July 31

    A federal judge in New York permanently blocked the government from pursuing penalties against the professors over their assistance to the International Criminal Court.

  49. Judge Excoriates Trump Officials for Violations of Laws on Voice of America U.S., July 30

    The judge had ruled that the administration must restore news programming at Voice of America and has brought back only a fraction of the coverage it provided.

  50. In Massachusetts, a Work Stoppage Forces Judges to Dismiss Criminal Cases U.S., July 30

    Seeking higher pay, lawyers for indigent defendants won’t take new clients. As a result, judges must dismiss cases against people accused of crimes who lack lawyers.

  51. How Conservative Christians Cracked a 70-Year-Old Law U.S., July 30

    The I.R.S. recently said that churches could endorse candidates from the pulpit, a shift from a longstanding interpretation of American nonprofit law.

  52. Senate, Rejecting Whistle-Blower Alarms, Confirms Bove to Appeals Court U.S., July 30

    The Trump loyalist was narrowly approved as Republicans brushed aside concerns about his conduct as a senior Justice Department official.

  53. Trump Bypasses Congress to Keep Interim Prosecutors in California and Nevada U.S., July 30

    A similar approach in New Jersey has led to cancellations of court proceedings, as judges question whether the president’s designee for U.S. Attorney has any authority.

  54. Grassley, a Champion of Whistle-Blowers, Spurns Them in a Fight Over Bove U.S., July 29

    The senator’s treatment of whistle-blowers detailing allegations against Emil Bove, the Trump loyalist and appeals court nominee, has had a chilling effect, critics say.

  55. New Trump Administration Guidelines Stress Workplace Religious Freedoms U.S., July 28

    The guidance protects employees and supervisors seeking to recruit fellow federal workers to their religion. The Clinton White House issued similar guidelines in 1997, though with more caveats.

  56. You May Not Be Trump’s Target This Time. But You Could Be Next. Opinion, July 27

    Trump’s actions against civil society harm us all.

  57. Trump, Obama and the Question of Treason Opinion, July 25

    President Trump’s history of intemperate remarks has earned him a perverse kind of immunity; the more outrageous his statement, the faster it is often dismissed.

  58. Fired FEMA Official Files Suit, Saying Board to Hear Worker Disputes Is Paralyzed U.S., July 24

    Fired employees have struggled to get a judge to hear their cases because Congress set up a separate system to referee such employment disputes.

  59. Justice Kagan Urges Supreme Court to Explain Itself in Emergency Decisions U.S., July 24

    In remarks before judges and lawyers in California, the justice said she believed the court had a responsibility to share its reasoning.

  60. The Justice Dept. Interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, While Opposing Her Appeal U.S., July 24

    Even as top Justice Department officials brokered an interview with a longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein’s, they asked the Supreme Court to reject her appeal.

  61. Appeals Court Blocks California’s Background Checks for Ammunition Buyers U.S., July 24

    The law violates the Second Amendment, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision.

  62. MyPillow Founder Will Not Pay Winnings for Election Challenge, Court Rules U.S., July 24

    A court overturned a previous ruling requiring Mike Lindell to pay out $5 million to a software engineer who had entered Mr. Lindell’s challenge to skeptics of his election interference claims.

  63. Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s Attempt to Restrict Birthright Citizenship U.S., July 24

    The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit brings the White House’s theory of citizenship closer to a full Supreme Court review.

  64. The Chatbot Culture Wars Are Here Technology, July 23

    Conservatives, including President Trump, are accusing A.I. companies of left-wing bias, following a playbook that worked well against social media platforms.

  65. Thomas A. Durkin, Civil Liberties Lawyer for the Reviled, Dies at 78 U.S., July 23

    He relished skewering the U.S. government as he represented unpopular defendants in public corruption and national security cases, like those at Guantánamo.

  66. Supreme Court Lets Trump Fire Consumer Product Safety Regulators U.S., July 23

    The court’s order was the latest in a series of emergency rulings on the scope of the president’s power over independent agencies.

  67. A D.O.J. Whistleblower Speaks Out The Daily, July 23

    In a complaint, a former Justice Department lawyer said his former colleagues were being forced to choose between the president’s agenda and their ethical obligations as attorneys.

  68. Who Is Desiree Grace, New Jersey’s Newly Named Top Federal Prosecutor? New York, July 22

    Ms. Grace became a federal prosecutor in New Jersey in 2016. She rose quickly through the ranks before district court judges appointed her U.S. attorney on Tuesday.

  69. William H. Neukom, Microsoft Lawyer Who Led Antitrust Fight, Dies at 83 Business, July 22

    In the 1990s, the U.S. called Microsoft a bullying monopoly and sought to rein it in. The company lost in a landmark decision, but emerged intact.

  70. Judges Ask Justice Dept. to Submit Epstein Case Transcripts With Proposed Redactions U.S., July 22

    Federal judges responded to a request from the attorney general to release grand jury transcripts from cases against Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

  71. Tesla Driver Testifies Autopilot Failed to Prevent Fatal Crash Business, July 21

    The driver gave testimony in a federal trial about Tesla’s role in a 2019 accident that killed a woman in Florida.

  72. Big Law Firms Bowed to Trump. A Corps of ‘Little Guys’ Jumped in to Fight Him. U.S., July 21

    Solo practitioners, former government litigators and small law offices stepped up to help challenge the Trump administration’s agenda in court after the White House sought to punish many big firms.

  73. Miami Can’t Delay Its Election by a Year, Judge Rules U.S., July 21

    City commissioners said the move was meant to save money and improve turnout. Critics noted that it would give some city officials an extra year in office.

  74. Trump’s Perversion of Justice Has Reached a New Phase Opinion, July 20

    The president is determined to transform America’s legal system into his personal political weapon.

  75. The Cat Lawyer Figured Out His Zoom Settings Express, March 12

    “I’m glad it happened, even at my expense,” said Rod Ponton, who is (still) not a cat.

  76. The June 28 Supreme Court Chevron live blog included one standalone post:
  77. Germany Cannot Shift Covid Funds to Climate Projects, Court Rules Business, November 15

    The decision could rip a hole in Berlin’s budget and complicate the transition to a greener economy.

  78. Supreme Court to Hear N.R.A.’s Free Speech Case Against New York Official Washington, November 3

    The case is the second one this term asking the justices to decide when government activity crosses the line to become coercion forbidden by the First Amendment.

  79. Appeals Court Rules White House Overstepped 1st Amendment on Social Media Business, September 9

    A Fifth Circuit panel partly upheld restrictions on the Biden administration’s communications with online platforms about their content.

  80. How Might the Government Avoid Default? Biden Offers Clues. Washington, May 10

    After making little progress with Republican leaders at the White House on Tuesday, the president previewed two possible endgames to resolve a debt-limit standoff.

  81. Video Testimony in the Covid Era Faces a Constitutional Test Washington, March 20

    Two criminal defendants have asked the Supreme Court to decide whether remote testimony against them violated the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause.

  82. Supreme Court Hints That It May Duck Two Big Cases Washington, March 7

    Recent orders suggest that the justices are thinking of dismissing cases involving the “independent state legislature” theory and Title 42, an immigration measure imposed during the pandemic.

  83. Supreme Court Cancels Arguments in Title 42 Immigration Case Washington, February 16

    The justices, who had been set to hear arguments on March 1, acted after the Biden administration filed a brief saying that the measure would soon be moot.

  84. Back on the Bench to Announce Opinions, Supreme Court Rules Against a Veteran Washington, January 23

    The unanimous ruling was the first one summarized by a justice since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and an indication that the court is off to a slow start this term.

  85. Chief Justice Roberts Briefly Halts Decision Banning Border Expulsions Washington, December 19

    At issue is Title 42, a public health measure invoked by the Trump administration during the pandemic to block migrants from seeking asylum in the United States.

  86. Supreme Court to Hear Student Debt Forgiveness Case U.S., December 1

    The justices left in place an injunction blocking the Biden administration’s authority to forgive up to $20,000 in debt per borrower.

  87. How the Right Became the Left and the Left Became the Right Op Ed, November 2

    A pair of prominent headlines highlights the reversals.

  88. Sorry, Summer Styles, July 20

    We all know what happened with summer 2020. Then 2021 was dampened by Delta. This year, any anticipated return to revelry has been hampered by … *waves hands at everything.* Is there hope for enjoying the once fun season?

  89. Hey, Is Anybody Watching the Interns? Business, July 19

    School is out for the summer — but in some cases, so are the bosses.

  90. Hey, Is Anybody Watching the Interns? Business, July 19

    School is out for the summer — but in some cases, so are the bosses.

  91. Why Is the Supreme Court So Secretive? Letters, May 10

    Readers call for more openness and discuss judicial restraint and the justices’ religious beliefs. Also: Mask decisions; Twitter’s dark side; skipping school.