Judge Wise finds that ICE coerced a 20-year-old Tongan man — admitted legally to the country three years ago — to sign a document accepting deportation, despite no criminal record or immigration proceedings against him. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: A wistful Judge Mehta closed the book on the last lingering Jan. 6 case — the seditious conspiracy conviction of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, a man Mehta has called an ongoing threat to society/democracy but whose case was spiked by DOJ. www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

A deeply reluctant Judge Mehta has dismissed the Jan. 6 Oath Keepers case after DOJ moved to drop the seditious conspiracy conviction of Stewart Rhodes and others. "The court cannot write a different ending," Mehta writes. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Jeanine Pirro has pushed a slew of flimsy, short-lived, Trump-endorsed prosecutions — but Trump's fury over her failure to prosecute Reflecting Pool vandalism is a sign of his 2nd-term obsession and desire to use DOJ to fulfill it w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

Jeanine Pirro struggles to give Trump the wins he craves the most

She’s delivering on some core priorities — but the Reflecting Pool is just the latest politically charged prosecution to fall flat.

politico.com

Judge Burroughs speeds up her consideration of Somali TPS termination but not before taking a swipe at DHS General Counsel James Percival and what she calls "shameful cruelty" of refusing to give people a short window to prepare for deportation. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

DOJ loses for the 19th time in efforts to obtain state voter rolls, this time in Colorado, courtsey of Judge Philip Brimmer, a George W. Bush appointee: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: DOJ says tort claims by Jan. 6 defendants that were not lodged by 2023 are "forever barred" by the statute of limitations. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: The 9th Circuit has rejected ICE's unprecedented mass detention policy — the 5th striaght appellate loss for the Trump administration and perhaps the most significant, covering California, Arizona, Nevada and Washington, among others. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

NEW: The Trump administration activate the never-before-used "Alien Terrorist Removal Court" to deport a woman whose son and son-in-law conspired to commit a "mass casualty" attack on Election Day 2024 in support of ISIS. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

JUST IN: A judge in New Jersey just became the latest to reject DOJ’s demand for state voter rolls. He acknowledges the latest flap over noncitizen registrants but says it’s not relevant to this particular legal dispute. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Kalshi has won a federal court ruling to block a Minnesota law from taking effect that would have banned prediction markets in the state. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Joe Biden drops his effort to block his ghostwriter interview tapes from going to the House Judiciary Committee

CAN'T MAKE IT UP: ICE deported a man to Mexico in violation of a court order in Nov., acknowledged the error and returned him to the U.S. Then they deported him to El Salvador, in violation of court-ordered torture protection. He's currently imprisoned. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: A day after the 2nd Circuit upheld the detention of Columbia activist Mohsen Mahdawi, the 4th Circuit goes the other way, upholding the *release* of Georgetown research Badar Khan Suri. 2-1 ruling. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/28...

Judge Claria Horn Boom, a Trump appointee in Kentucky, has denied the administration bid to obtain Kentucky's voter rolls, the latest in an unbroken string of legal defeats on this issue. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

So far, it appears the district judges in CA5 are operating as though this stay ruling does not bind them. Here's the latest from Judge Saldana, who acknowledges it but says the lack of analysis means there's nothing to follow. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · 2w ago

On Tuesday, the full Fifth Circuit granted DOJ's request for a "precedential stay" of district court rulings holding that the Due Process Clause requires bond hearings for immigration detainees w/in 90 days of their arrest. Today's "One First" explains why that's a really big (and problematic) deal:

Here's a new one: ICE *prevented* a man from self-deporting by a June 11 deadline — he asked ICE to let him leave and had a one-way plane ticket for June 10. Then ICE re-detained him because he missed the deadline. Due process violation, judge rules. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Roger Rogoff, who was appointed interim US attorney by judges in Washington state and immediately fired by President Trump, is suing to block his removal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Preliminary Injunction – #8 in Rogoff v. Trump (W.D. Wash., 2:26-cv-02566) – CourtListener.com

MOTION for Preliminary Injunction, filed by Plaintiff Roger Rogoff. Oral Argument Requested. (Attachments: # 1 Proposed Order) Noting Date 8/18/2026, (Rittereiser, Jason) (Entered: 07/21/2026)

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BREAKING: A federal appeals court panel has upheld White House aide Peter NAVARRO's criminal conviction for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: FBI Director Patel is planning to go to Moscow and St. Petersburg in October. w/ @nahaltoosi.bsky.social, John Sakellariadis, @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

Kash at the Kremlin? FBI director plans Russia trip.

The plans come as the U.S. and Russia have failed to come to terms on ending the war in Ukraine.

politico.com

JUST IN: A federal judge in Minnesota — Trump appointed chief judge Eric Tostrud — has rejected the administation's effort to force Minnesota to cooperate in enforcing federal immigration law. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: A federal judge has paused the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger, saying it likely violates antitrust laws. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEWS: The Trump administration has activated a secretive and never-before-used legal process to quickly deport foreign nationals deemed to be “alien terrorists” or their immediate family members. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

JUST IN: A 16th straight district court has rejected DOJ’s bid to obtain state voter rolls — this one in Connecticut. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Order on Motion to Compel AND Order on Motion to Dismiss AND Order on Motion to Dismiss AND Order on Motion to Dismiss – #109 in United States v. Thomas (D. Conn., 3:26-cv-00021) – CourtListener.com

ORDER denying 9 Motion to Compel; granting 60 Motion to Dismiss; finding as moot 56 and 58 Motions to Dismiss. For the reasons set forth in the attached Memorandum of Decision, the United States' 9 Mo...

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The Justice Department appears to have included a fake AI-generated. citation in an ICE detainee's case. Judge Jarbou, a Trump appointee in Michigan, called it out: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: A judge said today that President Trump’s policy facilitating visas for World Cup players undercuts his claims that other immigration benefits — for nationals from some of the same countries — need to be halted for security reasons w @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/live-updates...

Judge handling challenge to Trump immigration halt cites exceptions for World Cup visas

“If the categorical ban on those countries was needed," the Obama appointee asked, "why did we let the soccer players in?"

politico.com

JUST IN: 13th straight rejection of DOJ's legal effort to compel states to turn over their voter rolls. George W. Bush-appointed Judge Thomas Johnston wonders what DOJ is really driving at. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: A federal judge said President Trump attempted to manipulate the courts, concocting a lawsuit to justify the settlement that established the "anti-weaponization" fund and shielded his family from IRS scrutiny. w/ @hassankanu.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

NEW: A race to succeed Lindsey Graham erupted in the open even as lawmakers and allies grieved the senator’s abrupt, unexpected death. w/ Meredith Lee Hill and @alecahernandez.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

Lindsey Graham’s death prompts public grief and private maneuvering

His death leaves a major void in Washington and South Carolina.

politico.com

JUST IN: It's over. Judge Kelly has granted DOJ's motion to dismiss the J6 seditious conspiracy case against Proud Boys leaders He takes a couple parting shots, suggesting Trump's view of the riot is based on "fiction" and notes PB prosectuion started under him www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...