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Judge Indira Talwani (D. Mass.) on Saturday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from terminating family reunification parole programs for nationals of Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and El Salvador. Judge Talwani concluded that the agency likely violated its own regulation, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Due Process Clause by failing to provide individualized written notice. (Order.) (NYT.)
Judge John Chun (W.D. Wash.) on Friday ruled that portions of President Trump’s elections executive order violate separation-of-powers principles, granting in part states’ motion for summary judgment and permanently enjoining provisions governing voter registration requirements, voting system standards, and ballot receipt deadlines. The ruling blocks the Trump administration from conditioning federal election funding on state compliance with the executive order. (Order.) (NYT.) Judge Chun is the third federal judge to block large portions of the executive order. (Politico.)
Judge Arun Subramanian (S.D.N.Y.) on Friday granted a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from freezing roughly $10 billion in federal child care and social services funding to five Democratic-led states. The court ordered the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families to lift restrictions on states’ ability to draw down funds pending further litigation. (Order.) (NYT.)
The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over his testimony to Congress regarding renovations to the Fed’s headquarters. (Politico.) In a statement on Sunday night, Powell rebuked the threat of criminal charges and stated that the move came as “a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.” (Federal Reserve.) Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discussed the law and politics of weaponizing the Justice Department against Powell. (Executive Functions.)
Homeland Security Secretary Krisi Noem ordered new restrictions on congressional oversight visits to ICE facilities. The policy requires lawmakers to request to visit facilities with a minimum of seven days advance notice. (Memorandum.) (Politico.)
Secretary Noem announced on Sunday that the administration will send “hundreds more” federal officers to Minneapolis. (WaPo.)
On Friday, Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that her agency would suspend a payment of $129 million in federal funding for food stamps and other hunger relief programs in Minnesota. (Letter.) (NYT.)
According to the New York Times, President Trump is considering military strikes in Iran in response to Tehran’s crackdown on protesters. (NYT.)
CENTCOM announced that the United States “conducted large-scale strikes against multiple ISIS targets across Syria” on Saturday. (X.)
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Russell Vought on Friday submitted a $145 million funding request to the Federal Reserve to keep the agency operating. He did so in compliance with a court order requiring the bureau to continue requesting funds notwithstanding the administration’s efforts to wind it down. (Letter.) (NYT.)
A New York Times analysis found that across the 13 appellate courts, judges appointed by President Trump “voted to allow his policies to take effect 133 times and voted against them only 12 times.” (NYT.) Josh Blackman criticized the Times’ analysis as methodologically flawed. (Volokh Conspiracy.)
President Trump stated in an interview last week that he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states following his electoral loss in 2020. (NYT.)
Elizabeth Goiten argued that the logic of the majority opinion in Trump v. Illinois “poses significant challenges for any future attempt to deploy active-duty troops under a claim of inherent constitutional authority or to invoke the Insurrection Act for the purpose of protecting federal property, personnel, and functions.” (Just Security.)
Isaac Stanley-Becker and Vivian Salama wrote that Trump’s national security-case for acquiring Greenland is undercut by his administration’s shuttering of the Pentagon office created to counter China and Russia in the Arctic. (The Atlantic.) Andrew McCarthy argued that Trump lacks constitutional authority to acquire Greenland unilaterally. (National Review.)
Bruce Ackerman contended that Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s questioning in Trump v. Slaughter signals a potential defense of Humphrey’s Executor. (Center for American Progress.) In a series of blog posts on The Volokh Conspiracy, Steven Calabresi surveyed presidential removal power from 1933 to 1945, 1945 to 1969, and 1969 to 1989, arguing that “Humphrey’s Executor has been controversial ever since the opinion was handed down.”
Charlie Savage criticized Trump’s and Vance’s assertion that all presidents have considered the War Powers Resolution to be unconstitutional. (NYT.)
The Washington Post Editorial Board argued that former special counsel Jack Smith embraced an overly expansive theory of criminal fraud that would dangerously narrow First Amendment protections for political speech. (WaPo.)
Michael Mannheimer argued that ICE agents do not enjoy “absolute immunity” from state prosecution and that Supremacy Clause immunity is narrow, applying only where a federal officer’s conduct is indisputably lawful and leaves no factual disputes for a jury. (Volokh Conspiracy.) Reynolds Holding wrote that recent Supreme Court precedent undermines any claim that the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis was clearly justified. (Better Judgment.)
Caitlin Dickerson Dickerson reported that Trump-era cuts have hollowed out DHS oversight, reducing independent scrutiny of the Minneapolis ICE shooting. (The Atlantic.)