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The Supreme Court on Monday denied the Justice Department’s application for an injunction pending appeal in United States v. California, the ballot-segregation case. The Court’s one-sentence, unsigned order came down within hours of the filing. No dissents were noted. (Docket.) For background, see yesterday’s Roundup.
Judge James E. Boasberg (D.D.C.) on Monday temporarily restrained the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that California election officials segregate ballots, or otherwise deviate from state election procedures, based on voters’ inclusion on the government’s suspected-noncitizen lists at issue in United States v. California. Judge Boasberg held that the demands likely violate the Elections Clause, and found that “the lists are flawed.” (Opinion.) In a separate case the same day, Judge Boasberg denied for lack of standing the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s motion to enjoin DOJ and DHS from making such demands of election officials nationwide. (Opinion.)
Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui (D.D.C.) on Monday dismissed for lack of probable cause the criminal complaint against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, the former FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about the bureau’s investigations of Hunter Biden. Judge Faruqui stated from the bench that “[w]hat has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization.” (Docket.) (NYT.) For background, see a previous Roundup.
Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai (D. Or.) on Monday granted a motion to enforce his preliminary injunction limiting warrantless immigration arrests in Oregon, and ordered the government to produce all arrest records and body-camera footage for arrests since Sept. 1. Judge Kasubhai found that ICE officers repeatedly recorded warrantless arrests as warrant-based and that the sole officer to testify “lied in an official record,” and concluded that the presumption of regularity no longer holds for ICE and DHS. (Opinion.)
Judge April M. Perry (N.D. Ill.) on Monday ordered U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros and three assistant U.S. attorneys to testify under oath on Nov. 16 about whether prosecutors made “willful false statements” to the court in the “Broadview Six” case, the dismissed prosecution of six protesters at an ICE facility. Judge Perry cited a lawsuit filed Monday by the FBI’s former Chicago chief alleging that Boutros met with Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel about the case, which would directly contradict a prosecutor’s assurances that no one outside the office weighed in on charging decisions. (Order.) (Sun-Times.)
Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher (D. Md.) on Monday denied the government’s motion to dismiss former NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo’s challenge to her September 2025 firing. Following the Comey and Comans decisions, Judge Gallagher held that a removal made under Article II, rather than “for such cause as will promote the efficiency of the service,” cannot be channelled through the Civil Service Reform Act. (Opinion.)
Judge Myong J. Joun (D. Mass.) on Monday dismissed without prejudice the Justice Department’s suit to compel Harvard to produce applicant-level admissions data for the government’s Title VI review. Judge Joun held that the government had not shown that it satisfied the regulatory prerequisites to judicial enforcement. (Opinion.)
Three watchdog groups on Monday sued the Department of Defense under the Federal Advisory Committee Act over a war-planning panel created by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and co-directed by Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich. The complaint alleges that the panel has met behind closed doors without a charter and draws 19 of its 21 members from the private sector. (Complaint.)
The Justice Department on Monday announced charges against 63 people in 20 federal districts for voting or registering to vote as noncitizens, including four it described as illegal aliens. Attorney General Todd Blanche called the announcement “the largest surge of voter-fraud arrests since President Trump returned to office,” and the department said that it has charged 195 noncitizens in the past nine weeks. (Press Release.)
David Manners-Weber argued that Trump v. United States cabined Congress’s oversight authority, and predicted that a Democratic Congress might try to work around the decision by investigating under its impeachment power or its Article V power to propose constitutional amendments. (Lawfare.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Mullin v. Friends of the Ruidosa Church: The government on October 21 asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay pending appeal of a district court preliminary injunction halting government construction of barriers along a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border. The government asked the Court to construe its application as a petition for a writ of certiorari and grant the petition. (Application.) The respondents filed their opposition on October 29, and the government filed its reply on October 30.