Please consider taking a few minutes to complete a brief survey about the Executive Functions Roundup. Your feedback will help us improve the Roundup and better serve our readers.
New Mexico sued the Justice Department and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to secure access to unredacted Epstein files for the state’s criminal investigation into activities at Epstein’s “Zorro Ranch.” (Complaint.) (Press Release.) (WSJ.) (NBC.)
Judge Ana C. Reyes (D.D.C.) on Wednesday recognized that her stay of the administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians “is no longer in effect” after the Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe, and denied the government’s request to stay discovery on the plaintiffs’ claim that the termination was racially motivated. (Order.) (WaPo.)
Judge Noël Wise (N.D. Cal.) on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order requiring the government to release a Visa Waiver Program entrant seized at Oakland International Airport, finding “a strong likelihood that he is entitled to a pre-deprivation hearing before an immigration judge.” She also enjoined his removal and re-detention pending a hearing. (Order.)
The New York Times reports that the C.I.A. has created a Cuba task force aimed at splitting the country’s political elite and pressuring it to replace anti-American leaders with individuals more open to the Trump administration’s demands. The task force reportedly cannot authorize lethal operations. (NYT.)
The White House is pushing Congress to delay the start of a ban on intoxicating hemp products as part of the continuing resolution currently under consideration. The delay would benefit White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’s son-in-law, the chief executive of companies that sell such products. (NYT.) (NBC.)
Camille Mackler argued that the Department of Homeland Security’s “untested, undisclosed, and unreviewed” use of artificial intelligence in immigration enforcement offers a “preview of how AI could reshape executive power.” (Lawfare.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Trump v. California: The government filed an application on July 27 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a district court injunction that blocked federal agencies from implementing certain portions of the president’s March 31 executive order entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” The 23 states and the District of Columbia challenging the order filed a consolidated opposition on August 3, arguing that a stay “would allow the federal government to rush out an unprecedented, legally indefensible voter-verification and ballot-interception program.” The government filed a reply on August 4, arguing that the states rest their challenge on “speculation about what impact the Executive Order would have if it were ultimately implemented in violation of federal law.”
Alabama v. California: Twelve states filed an application on July 29 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a district court injunction that blocked federal agencies from implementing certain portions of the president’s March 31 executive order entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” The 23 states and the District of Columbia challenging the order filed a consolidated opposition on August 3. The twelve states filed a reply on August 4, arguing that the executive order “imposes zero obligations on the States or public.”