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A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday heard argument in American Historical Association v. Trump, the government’s appeal of a preliminary injunction requiring the White House to continue to comply with the Presidential Records Act, which the Office of Legal Counsel declared unconstitutional in April. Justice Department counsel John Bailey argued that the act is an “unconstitutional intrusion on the presidency” and that “the president’s papers belong to the president.” (Oral Argument.) (NYT.) (Politico.) For background, see a previous Roundup.
The Justice Department on Friday moved to disqualify Judge Ana C. Reyes (D.D.C.) from the lawsuit over the renovation of East Potomac Golf Links, arguing that she has displayed “deep-seated and unequivocal antipathy toward the Trump Administration.” (Motion to Disqualify.) On Sunday, after President Trump announced a “plan to build a World Class Championship Golf Course” on the site starting Nov. 15, the government maintained in a court-ordered response that there is “no final agency action” on the matter. (Response.) (NYT.)
The NAACP and three voters sued the Justice Department on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over the department’s plan to send roughly 1,000 of its employees, including criminal prosecutors, to monitor polls in the midterm elections. The complaint alleges voter intimidation under the Voting Rights Act and contends that “[t]here is no federal statute that gives Defendants the authority to turn polling places into interrogation rooms.” (Complaint.)
President Trump signed an executive order on Friday waiving nearly all of the tariffs and sanctions required by the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which he signed on Sept. 18 and which was to take effect Sunday. (NYT.) (WSJ.) Trump wrote that he did not “want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” (Truth Social.) Andrew C. McCarthy argued that the president is “subordinating vital American interests to the Kremlin’s interests,” and “there should be immediate congressional hearings.” (National Review.)
The Washington Post reported that the White House election-fraud task force has turned to releasing files from the Mueller and Smith investigations of President Trump. Trump allies reportedly view the releases as support for the Justice Department’s Florida ‘grand conspiracy’ case against officials who investigated Trump, which so far “has produced many subpoenas but no indictments.” (WaPo.)
Hannah Bloch-Wehba argued that although “contractarian architecture of the ‘social contract’ for science was meant to protect against government overreach and concentration of power,” it has “handed the Trump administration a weapon for reshaping scientific discovery, public discourse, and knowledge itself.” (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 respondents filed their opposition on October 8, and the government submitted its reply on October 9.