Please click here to opt in to receive the Executive Functions Roundup via email and to subscribe to Executive Functions.
Judge Indira Talwani (D. Mass.) on Thursday granted in part motions for a temporary restraining order by 24 states, the District of Columbia, and voting rights organizations. The fourteen-day order stays central provisions of the Postal Service’s ballot mail rule for elections on or before November 3. Judge Talwani found the government’s interest outweighed by “the overwhelming risk of pervasive disenfranchisement.” (Order.) (WaPo.)
Judge Rita F. Lin (N.D. Cal.) on Thursday vacated the designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk, holding that the designation was unlawful retaliation for the company’s criticism of the Department of Defense. “The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Judge Lin wrote. (Opinion.) (Order of Final Relief.) (NYT.)
Three Stars and Stripes staff members sued the Department of Defense in the District of Columbia on Thursday, alleging that the Pentagon moved to fire editor in chief Erik A. Slavin and reporter Lara S. Korte. The paper had reported a day earlier on conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. (Complaint.) (NYT.)
Judge Christopher R. Cooper (D.D.C.) on Thursday pressed Justice Department lawyers over the Kennedy Center’s plan to inscribe “renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump” on the building. The department notified the court later that day that the inscriptions would not be installed before October 8. (Notice.) (NYT.) (WSJ.)
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul sued the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office in state court on Thursday, seeking an order compelling the office to terminate its agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a declaration that the agreement is void and unenforceable. A federal judge declined to enjoin the ban earlier this month in a Justice Department suit. (Summons and Complaint.) (WSJ.)
Efforts to prosecute Anthony Fauci for contempt of Congress have reportedly stalled, with the Justice Department yet to receive a formal referral after Senator Rand Paul asked Vice President JD Vance to certify the contempt resolution and bypass a full Senate vote. (WSJ.)
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discussed the Postal Service’s mail-in ballot rule and the surrounding litigation. (Executive Functions.)
Jack Goldsmith argued that the Trump administration cannot “have it both ways” by claiming presidential control over prosecutions while defending the Comey indictment as an independent prosecutorial judgment. (Executive Functions.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation: The government filed an application on August 13 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a district court injunction blocking further construction of the White House ballroom. The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed its response on August 18. The government filed its reply on August 19. On August 21, the Chief Justice stayed the injunction “pending further order of The Chief Justice or of the Court.”