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Sen. Mark Kelly filed a complaint on Monday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Kelly alleges that the letter of censure and grade redetermination proceedings launched against him by Hegseth violate numerous constitutional provisions and several statutes. (Complaint.) (WSJ.) See a previous Roundup for background.
Illinois sued the Department of Homeland Security on Monday seeking to enjoin Customs and Border Protection from “conducting civil immigration enforcement in Illinois” and challenging ICE’s alleged use of roving patrols, tear gas, warrantless arrests, concealed plates, and collection of biometric data. (Illinois Complaint.) Minnesota also filed a complaint against DHS on Monday asking the district court to “[p]reliminarily and permanently enjoin Defendants from implementing the unprecedented surge” of federal agents in the state. (Minnesota Complaint.) (NYT.) DHS plans to send 1,000 more agents to Minneapolis this week. (NYT.)
Judge Royce Lamberth (D.D.C.) issued a preliminary injunction blocking an order from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to stop work on an offshore wind project off the coast of Rhode Island “for reasons of national security.” (Preliminary Injunction.) (Preliminary Injunction.) (NYT.)
Judge Amit P. Mehta (D.D.C.) ruled that the Energy Department’s termination of seven clean-energy grants totaling $7.5 billion violated the Fifth Amendment and vacated the termination notices. (Memorandum Opinion & Order.) (NYT.)
Judge Beryl A. Howell (D.D.C.) granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Health and Human Services from terminating roughly $12 million in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Memorandum Opinion.)
Twelve members of Congress filed a motion asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to issue an order to show cause compelling the Department of Homeland Security to explain how its policy requiring seven-days notice prior to congressional oversight visits of ICE facilities does not violate Section 527 of the DHS Appropriations Act and the court’s Dec. 12 stay order of a similar notice policy. (Motion.) See yesterday’s Roundup for background.
Anonymous sources told the New York Times that the Sept. 2 boat strike in the Caribbean was conducted using an aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane and which carried munitions inside the fuselage rather than visibly under its wings. (NYT.)
President Trump on Monday announced that the U.S. will levy a 25 percent tariff on any country doing business with Iran. (WSJ.)
Federal investigators are looking into possible connections between activist groups opposed to the administration immigration law enforcement policies and Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot and killed by a federal agent in Minneapolis last week. (NYT.) The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has not been brought into the investigation. (WaPo.)
Anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal that President Trump has privately expressed frustration with Attorney General Pam Bondi, specifically regarding her handling of the Epstein files and the prosecutions against James Comey and Letitia James. (WSJ.)
Robert K. McBride was fired from his position as first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, the top deputy to Lindsey Halligan while she was U.S. attorney for the district. There are conflicting explanations for McBride’s dismissal, including that McBride refused to reindict Comey while also running the U.S. Attorney’s Office or that McBride secretly met with judges to persuade them to appoint him U.S. Attorney. (NYT.)
Several Republican senators have voiced their opposition to the Justice Department’s indictment of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. (WSJ.) Senator Thom Tillis said he “will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved.” (X.)
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer said today he would schedule a vote to hold Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress after the Clintons refused to testify in the committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. (Politico.) In a Jan. 12 letter to Comer, the Clintons’ lawyers asserted that the subpoenas were “invalid and legally unenforceable” because the subpoenas did not serve a valid legislative purpose, were not pertinent, and were “an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers.” (Letter.)
The Environmental Protection Agency weakened air pollution regulations and said that it will no longer measure the health costs of pollution. (WaPo.) Cass Sunstein discussed some of the legal issues with this move. (Cass’s Substack.)
Bob Bauer argued that the administration’s Office of Legal Counsel opinion on Venezuela, which it has not released, will likely have little credibility, but that any such conclusion will ultimately depend on disclosure of both the opinion and the process that produced it. (Executive Functions.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Blanche v. Perlmutter: The government filed an emergency application on October 27 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a district court interlocutory injunction that temporarily reinstated Shira Perlmutter to her role as Register of Copyrights while litigation over her removal continues. Chief Justice Roberts formally set a deadline of November 10 for a response to the application. Perlmutter submitted a response on November 10. Blanche submitted a reply on November 12. The Court deferred the application for stay on November 28 pending the Court’s decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook.
Trump v. Cook: The government filed an emergency application on September 18 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a preliminary injunction issued by a district court that blocked President Trump from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Cook filed an opposition to the request on the same day. The Chief Justice formally set a deadline of September 25 for a response to the application. Cook filed a response on September 25. On October 1, the Court deferred action on the stay application pending oral argument in January 2026 and established a supplemental briefing schedule. Additional amicus briefs were filed on October 29. The Court set argument for January 21, 2026, and both sides filed supplemental briefs on November 19.