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The Ninth Circuit on Sunday administratively stayed Judge Stanley A. Bastian’s (W.D. Wash.) preliminary injunction barring the removal of Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington while it considers the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal. (Order.) (Motion.) For background on the injunction, see a previous Roundup.
Judge Kathleen Cardone (W.D. Tex.) on Friday preliminarily enjoined border barrier construction and “ground disturbing activities” in the Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector, staying three waivers that had exempted the project from the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and more than two dozen other laws. The injunction remains in effect “until and unless Defendants comply with all applicable laws.” (Order.)
Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, a military judge, on Friday suppressed the statements that Mustafa al-Hawsawi, one of four men charged with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, gave FBI interrogators at Guantánamo Bay in January 2007. Colonel Schrama wrote that “[a] detainee who is shackled, transported to a former C.I.A. black site, and intentionally kept ignorant of both his right to remain silent and the inadmissibility of his prior coerced confessions, cannot be said to be making an ‘essentially free and unconstrained choice.’” Judges have now excluded the confessions of three of the four defendants, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammad in August; a ruling on the fourth, Walid bin Attash, is pending. (NYT.) For background on an earlier suppression ruling, see a previous Roundup.
The New York Times reports that the National Science Foundation (NSF) withheld $1.4 billion that Congress appropriated for research over the past year—about one-fifth of NSF’s primary research budget—under White House guidance. The White House reportedly seeks to redirect the funds to priorities including artificial intelligence and quantum computing. (NYT.)
Bob Bauer discussed election officials’ preparations for the midterm elections with Tammy Patrick of the Election Center, who stated that among election officials “in the last year, the number one topic on the word cloud has been federal intervention.” Patrick also emphasized that “in state and local offices all across the country, there are election professionals who are resilient and steadfast in making sure that their laws are upheld and that the rights of voters to participate will be taken care of.” (Executive Functions.)
Andrew C. McCarthy argued that Congress authorized third-country removals and stripped district courts of jurisdiction over removal, and predicted that the Supreme Court will rule against the district judge “not because he’s wrong on the policy but because the policy is none of his business.” (National Review.) For background on the Court’s stay of the third-country removal ruling, see a previous Roundup.
Mark A. Graber argued that the Trump administration and the Roberts Court “have altered fundamental constitutional practices without the strong popular support that characterized past constitutional revolutions in the United States.” (SSRN.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Trump v. Kingdom: The government filed an application to the Supreme Court on September 28 seeking a stay of the district court’s August 26 order barring enforcement of the Bureau of Prisons’ 2026 policy ending hormone therapy, “sex-trait-modification surgery,” and social accommodations for inmates with gender dysphoria. The Chief Justice requested a response to the application by 4 p.m. on October 8.