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President Trump on Friday filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal seeking $10 billion in damages for the Journal’s allegedly defamatory reporting on a card Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. (Complaint and demand for jury trial.) Benjamin Wittes argued that, given the risks associated with discovery, Trump likely sued the Journal with the intention to intimidate rather than to see the lawsuit to its end. (Lawfare.)
Judge Royce Lamberth (D.D.C.) on Friday ordered government defendants to restore monthly disbursements of congressionally appropriated funds to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for the rest of the fiscal year. The court denied plaintiff’s request for the exclusion of specific grant terms in future agreements between the parties. (Order.) (Opinion.)
Judge Paul Gardephe (S.D.N.Y.) on Friday dismissed for failure to state a claim Trump’s lawsuit against Bob Woodward, Simon & Schuster, and its parent company Paramount that alleged, among other things, that publication of Woodward’s interviews with Trump violated copyright law. (Order and opinion.)
Judge Nancy Torresen (D. Me.) on Friday enjoined the government from imposing penalties on two U.S. human rights activists under an executive order targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for providing certain services to the ICC. (Order and opinion.)
Judge Brian Murphy (D. Mass.) on Friday enjoined the government from imposing a 15 percent cap on indirect cost rates for Defense Department-funded research grants to plaintiff universities. The indirect cost rate is the ratio of indirect costs to direct costs. (Order and opinion.)
Judge Emmet Sullivan (D.D.C.) on Monday declared unlawful the Trump administration’s removal offline of a public database displaying the executive branch’s decisions about the allocation of congressionally appropriated funds. (Order and Opinion.)
The Venezuelan government on Friday freed 10 U.S. citizens and American permanent residents in exchange for the release into Venezuela of 252 Venezuelans that the U.S. government had sent to prison in El Salvador. The deal also included an agreement for Venezuela to release 80 Venezuelan prisoners. (NYT.)
A Department of Homeland Security official declared in a Friday court filing that the U.S. government has “obtained assurances from the Maduro regime” that the regime would “not impose obstacles to” the travel to the United States of any of the Venezuelans released from El Salvador as part of the deal if the U.S. government sought to return the person to the United States for immigration proceedings and if the individual agreed to return to the United States for the purpose of these proceedings. The official made this statement as part of a status report required by a federal judge regarding the physical location and status of return of one of the Venezuelans deported to El Salvador. (Declaration.)
Bob Bauer argued that progressive arguments for disengagement from the Supreme Court overlook the Court’s response to the administration’s “radical constitutionalism.” (Executive Functions.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Trump v. Mary Boyle: Government filed application on July 2 to stay district court order that invalidated Trump’s firing of three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Plaintiffs filed response to application on July 11. Government filed reply on July 14.
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