Please click here to opt in to receive the Executive Functions Roundup via email and to subscribe to Executive Functions.
A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday held that two district court orders, which obligated LinkedIn to disclose journalists’ records to the Justice Department without revealing the existence of the disclosure, were overbroad. The government requested the records, which would reveal journalists’ confidential sources, as part of a leak investigation. The panel remanded the case to the district court to narrow the orders to conform with the First Amendment and the Stored Communications Act. (Opinion.) (Politico.) (The Hill.) (NYT.)
Judge Sanket J. Bulsara (E.D.N.Y.) on Monday barred Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Price from appearing in a case challenging federal immigration enforcement practices after finding a prima facie violation of Rule 11 based on a letter the attorney submitted to the judge earlier this month that misstated another court’s injunction. Judge Bulsara said at a Monday hearing that the letter marked “a deliberate attempt to mislead the Court” and “perpetuate a fraud on the tribunal.” (Docket.) (Letter.) (Just Security.)
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a lower court’s permanent injunction barring the U.S. Agency for Global Media from removing the director of Voice of America, an international broadcaster funded by the U.S. government, without approval from the International Broadcasting Advisory Board. The panel held that the removal procedures for network heads set forth by Congress are consistent with Article II. (Opinion.) (NYT.)
Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz (S.D. Fla.) on Tuesday allowed Donald Trump’s defamation claim against the British Broadcasting Corporation to proceed but dismissed his claim under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Judge Kuntz held that Trump’s lawyers had plausibly alleged that the BBC acted with actual malice by airing a 12-second segment that spliced together statements Trump made during a speech to his supporters on January 6, 2021. (Order.) (The Volokh Conspiracy.)
White House counsel William Scharf wrote in a Monday letter to the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) that he is “monitoring” threats by Democratic lawmakers to investigate senior members of the Trump administration, warning that the use of congressional oversight functions to abuse or instill fear in targets “may cross the line into blatant criminality.” (Letter.) (Politico.)
The government last week filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the White House ballroom case, asking the Supreme Court to summarily reverse a district court preliminary injunction that halted construction of a new East Wing ballroom or alternatively to grant review and hear oral arguments. The Court previously paused the lower court’s injunction in a 5-4 decision, holding in an unsigned opinion that the National Trust for Historic Preservation likely lacked standing to challenge the construction. (Petition.) (SCOTUSblog.)
Nine members of the Kennedy family filed a motion on Tuesday to intervene as plaintiffs in two consolidated cases pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the construction of President Trump’s triumphal arch. Attorneys for the family members contend that the planned 250-foot arch would obstruct views of and cast a shadow over the gravesites at Arlington Cemetery where Robert F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy are buried. (Motion to Intervene.) (Proposed Complaint.) (NYT.) (WaPo.)
The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 211-204 to refer articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to a committee, which will effectively block a vote on his impeachment during the current congressional session. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who introduced the resolution, was the only Republican to vote with Democrats against referring the resolution to committee. (NYT.) For background on the eight articles of impeachment, see yesterday’s Roundup.
The New York Times reported that a company with familial ties to a Venezuelan billionaire pardoned by President Trump terminated Trump’s former personal lawyer Alina Habba Mildon days after Trump called the company’s $50 million contract with Mildon “totally obnoxious and outrageous.” (NYT.)
Tess Bridgeman and Ryan Goodman argued that the United States is entering “a new era” of accountability for senior officials that will increase—not reduce—faith in the rule of law. (Just Security.)