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The Second Circuit on Tuesday vacated a district court order releasing Columbia University activist Mohsen Mahdawi from immigration detention and ordered his habeas petition dismissed. The panel held that the Immigration and Nationality Act routes his claims, including his First Amendment challenge to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s foreign-policy removal determination, through the immigration system rather than federal court. (Opinion.) (CNN.)
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday affirmed former Trump adviser Peter Navarro’s two contempt-of-Congress convictions for defying the House Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena. The panel held that only the president or his designee may invoke executive privilege, and that no valid invocation occurred here. (Opinion.) (WaPo.)
Roger Rogoff sued the Trump administration in the Western District of Washington and moved to be reinstated as U.S. Attorney, after the district court’s judges appointed him on July 15 and the administration fired him by email less than an hour later. The complaint argues the removal violates the appointment statute and the Appointments Clause. (Complaint.) (NYT.) (CNN.) See a previous Roundup for background.
The Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday it was withholding another $1 billion in Medicaid payments from California and Minnesota over claims it called fraudulent, including billing for deceased enrollees. That adds to $1.3 billion already withheld from California since May. (Press Release.) (NYT.)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that the Iran war has cost $37.5 billion so far, as he pressed President Trump’s $87.6 billion supplemental. Asked about the war’s legal basis, Hegseth backed the White House’s position that “we have all the authorities” needed, though its July 10 letter to Congress restarted a 60-day clock to seek approval. (Hearing.) (WSJ.) (WaPo.)
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division demanded that New Jersey hand over the names, birthdates, nationalities, and addresses of roughly 6,600 noncitizens the state said were mistakenly registered to vote, plus voting details for the fewer than 400 who cast ballots. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon gave the state five business days and said the disclosure strengthens the department’s pending suit to obtain New Jersey’s full voter roll. (X.) (NBC News.) (Democracy Docket.)
Faiza Patel argued that pairing the Pentagon’s new commercial-AI deals with the warrantless data the government already buys on Americans gives it a domestic-surveillance capability that the current legal framework does not adequately constrain. (Just Security.)
Bob Bauer argued that Trump’s clash with the networks over his July 16 “election integrity” speech, which three declined to carry live, could escalate to an invocation of emergency powers under federal communications law to seize or shut down stations, a move he said would face serious legal challenges. (Executive Functions.)