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The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan’s June order vacating a Department of Homeland Security program that checks voters’ citizenship against Social Security data, allowing the Trump administration to use the program while the appeal proceeds. A dissent by Justice Jackson, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, criticized the decision as rendering “questionable interim rulings about two statutory provisions it has never before interpreted” and questioned the balancing of harms between the government and lawful voters. (Opinion.) (SCOTUSblog.) (WSJ.)
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Eighth Circuit’s order and the district court’s injunctions requiring Missouri to use its newly redrawn congressional map. In leaving Missouri’s 2022 map rather than the 2025 map in place for the 2026 congressional election, the Court reasoned that switching maps so close to the election date would incur “electoral chaos.” For background, see a previous Roundup. (Opinion.) (Missouri Independent.)
Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher (D. Md.) on Friday held DHS in contempt for its removal of an asylum-seeker protected by the class settlement in J.O.P v. DHS to El Salvador in violation of three prior court orders. Judge Gallagher ordered DHS to return the asylum-seeker to the United States. (Order.)
The Trump Administration on Friday informed Congress of a $810 million rescission of funding predominantly for refugee resettlement and immigration assistance programs. The notification builds on a legal theory that the Administration first floated in the foreign aid context last year, and is timed to make it difficult for lawmakers to reject it before the end of the fiscal year. (Proposed Rescission.) (NYT.)
An advertisement that President Trump used to campaign for the presidency in 2024 has returned to national airwaves, though it is now being paid for by the US government. Some have argued that this is a violation of federal laws banning the expenditure of public funds for propaganda. The White House responded that the ads were not political and claimed that they were not dissimilar from ads run by prior administrations. (Press Release.) (NYT.)
Major news networks have agreed to resume their pool coverage of President Trump, even though the White House blocked CNN from participating in the press pool on Air Force One during President Trump’s trip to Tennessee on Saturday. (NYT.) (WSJ.) Eugene Volokh argues that keeping CNN off Air Force One is “very likely” constitutional, given that “restricted presidential spaces…are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion.” (Volokh Conspiracy.)
Andrew C. McCarthy argues in the National Review that Trump Media’s sale of early access to Trump’s Truth Social posts is “probably illegal” under the STOCK Act. However, he also argues that it is less clear whether any legal action against the President would be successful, and he concludes that Congress, rather than the legal system, is most capable of addressing executive misconduct. (National Review.) (See earlier coverage by Executive Functions.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D.: The government filed an application to the Supreme Court on September 24 seeking a stay of a district court judgment setting aside the Department of Homeland Security’s third-country removal guidance. Justice Jackson requested a response to the application by 4pm ET on September 28.