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Judge Amit P. Mehta (D.D.C.) on Tuesday denied the former Stars and Stripes ombudsman’s request to be temporarily restored to her position but allowed the plaintiff’s lawsuit to proceed against the Department of Defense. The suit accuses the agency of violating her First Amendment rights by terminating her from the government-operated newspaper for authoring a critical column. (Memorandum Opinion & Order.) (Stars and Stripes.)
Judge J.P. Stadtmueller (E.D. Wis.) on Monday held that a noncitizen was denied due process in a bond hearing and ordered his immediate release instead of remanding the case for a second hearing due to “compelling” and uncontested evidence of “the systemic rigging of bond hearings against detainees” in immigration courts. (Order.)
Judge Gary R. Brown (E.D.N.Y.) on Monday provisionally granted a 26-year-old petitioner’s request for a writ of habeas corpus, holding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents unlawfully arrested and detained the petitioner and an American citizen and then falsified records to hide their illegal actions. (Memorandum & Order.) (NYT.)
Court documents unsealed Monday show that Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Miller (E.D. Va.) recommended denying a New York Times freelance reporter’s motion to quash a grand jury subpoena issued by the Justice Department as part of its investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding a SEAL Team 6 mission in 2019 in North Korea. (Report and Recommendation.) (NYT.)
Documents obtained by the legal nonprofit Democracy Forward released Wednesday show that the investigative division of ICE collected millions of voter records and considered pursuing undercover investigations against voting registration groups to crack down on voter fraud in the midterm elections. (Documents.) (Democracy Docket.) (CNN.)
The New York Times reported that the Justice Department has struggled to staff its Civil Rights Division during the second Trump administration, resorting to hiring lawyers who have made “hyperpartisan, conspiratorial and, in some instances, bizarre statements.” (NYT.)
Lawyers for a former Olympian who was cleared of charges of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool called for investigations into the conduct of Justice and Interior Department officials in a Tuesday letter to the inspectors general of each agency. (Letter.) (NYT.)
The New York Times reported that the U.S. military has moved an unidentified number of MQ-9 Reaper drones, which are often used for precision strikes, from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador as the Trump administration intensifies its military operations against Latin American trafficking groups. (NYT.)
Bob Bauer argued that “a perfect storm”—a contractor-spending ban “shot through with loopholes,” a politicized unitary executive, and a multi-trillion-dollar AI industry seeking influence—makes an “exceptionally powerful” case for strengthening the 1940 federal contractor ban. (Executive Functions.)
Andrew C. McCarthy argued that Supreme Court decisions staying district court injunctions of Trump administration immigration policies—including third-country removal and the elimination of Venezuela’s Temporary Protected Status designation—are examples of the Court “upholding separation of powers and restoring order in the judiciary, not rubber-stamping Trump policy.” (National Review.)
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.