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Judge Jia M. Cobb (D.D.C.) issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from continuing its National Guard deployment in Washington D.C., finding the operation likely unlawful but staying her order for 21 days “to permit orderly proceedings on appeal.” (Memorandum opinion.) (Order.) (NYT.) Chris Geidner noted that the D.C. case differs from the National Guard cases in California, Oregon, and Illinois since the Trump administration is using different authorities to justify the deployment. (Law Dork.)
The Seventh Circuit on Thursday issued an administrative stay blocking a district court’s Oct. 7 and Nov. 13 orders that would have required ICE to begin releasing certain Chicago-area immigrant detainees by Friday, and set argument on the stay request for Dec. 2. (Order.) (NYT.) For background, see a previous Roundup.
Judge Sarah Ellis (N.D. Ill.) on Thursday issued an opinion defending her now-stayed preliminary injunction restricting federal agents’ crowd-control tactics during Illinois anti-ICE protests. (Opinion and Order.) For background, see yesterday’s Roundup.
President Trump said on Truth Social on Thursday that Democratic lawmakers who appeared in an online video urging U.S. service members to disobey illegal orders “should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL” for seditious behavior. In a subsequent post, he wrote: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” (WaPo.)
Senate Democrats opened an investigation into Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell over steep discounts, waived fees, and spending benefiting Trump-aligned groups. (NYT.)
The Justice Department has opened an inquiry into whether some Trump administration officials, including Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, mishandled or improperly shared information related to its mortgage-fraud probe of Sen. Adam Schiff. (WSJ.)
Molly Roberts argued that filings by James Comey and Letitia James, taken together, “show the breadth and depth of the manners in which the current Justice Department has perverted the prosecutorial process” to satisfy President Trump’s retaliatory aims. (Lawfare.)
Chris Mirasola contended that the Trump administration’s assertion of an inherent Article II “protective power” to deploy active-duty troops domestically is flawed in multiple respects. (Lawfare.)
Jeremy Chin, Margaret Lin, and Aidan Arasasignham provided a timeline of major events relating to the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. (Just Security.) Brett Max Kaufman argued that “the hollowness of law in this area is nothing new,” writing that the campaign of lethal strikes is a product of decades of “always-secret and often-unreviewable executive-branch legal reasoning.” (Just Security.)
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.
Trump v. Illinois: The government filed an emergency application on October 17 requesting the Supreme Court stay a district court order barring the deployment of the National Guard to Illinois. Justice Barrett formally set a deadline of October 20 for a response to the application. Illinois and the City of Chicago submitted a response on October 20. President Trump filed a reply on October 21. On October 29, Justice Barrett requested supplemental briefs to be filed by November 10. President Trump, as well as Illinois and the City of Chicago, both filed supplemental letter briefs on November 10 and supplemental letter replies on November 17.
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.