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The Trump administration on Friday submitted an application to the Supreme Court for an immediate administrative stay and a stay pending appeal of a district court temporary restraining order barring the administration from deploying the National Guard to Illinois. (Application.) (NYT.) Justice Barrett requested Illinois officials file a response by Monday, but the justice did not issue an administrative stay. (Docket.) For background on the legal proceedings, see prior Roundups.
Judge Susan Illston (N.D. Cal.) on Friday ordered the Trump administration to disclose by Monday any “imminent” reductions-in-force (RIFs) the government is planning. (Order.) (NYT.) The judge issued a temporary restraining order last week enjoining the administration from issuing RIFs “during or because of the federal government shutdown.” For background on the legal proceedings, see a prior Roundup.
Tennessee officials filed a lawsuit on Friday in state court challenging the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis. (Complaint.) (NYT.)
President Trump asserted in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News that he plans to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco. (NYT.)
Former national security adviser John Bolton pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges that he illegally retained and transmitted national defense information. (NYT.) See a previous Roundup for background. Commentators noted that the prosecution is more traditional than other high-profile cases recently brought by the Justice Department. Shane Harris argued Trump’s animus toward Bolton does not make the charges against him baseless. (The Atlantic.) Benjamin Wittes and Olivia Manes argued the allegations against Bolton do not appear frivolous on their face and were brought by career prosecutors. (Lawfare.) Andrew C. McCarthy asserted Bolton’s case is both an example of “lawfare” and based on real misconduct. (National Review.)
The Department of Justice reportedly dismissed an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who had resisted President Trump’s demand to bring criminal charges against Letitia James. (NYT.) For background on the prosecution of the New York attorney general, see a prior Roundup.
President Trump on Friday commuted former U.S. Representative George Santos’s prison sentence. (WSJ.)
The U.S. military on Friday killed three men aboard a boat in the Caribbean Sea suspected of smuggling drugs, marking the seventh lethal military strike carried out by the Trump administration against an alleged drug trafficking boat. (NYT.) Meanwhile, President Trump announced on Truth Social that his administration was repatriating two survivors of a drug boat strike “for detention and prosecution.” (NYT.)
A bipartisan group of senators is preparing to force a vote on legislation that would prohibit the president from carrying out military action “within or against” Venezuela unless it was explicitly authorized by Congress. (NYT.)
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith argued for congressional reform of the Insurrection Act, a collection of laws “written for a different century and a different conception of the presidency and presidential self-restraint.” (NYT.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
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.
Trump v. Orr: The government filed an emergency application on September 19 requesting the Supreme Court to stay an injunction issued by a district court that requires the State Department to allow transgender and nonbinary people to choose the sex designation on their passports. Justice Jackson formally set a deadline of October 4 for a response to the application. Orr submitted a response on October 6, and President Trump filed a reply on October 7.