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Judge Charles R. Simpson III (W.D. Ky.) on Friday granted the government’s motion to dismiss with prejudice charges against two former Louisville-Metro police officers involved in drafting a no-knock search warrant that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. (Order.) (NYT.)
President Trump signed a memo on Friday ordering the Department of Homeland Security to use funds for Transportation Security Administration operations to pay TSA screeners. (Memo.) (NYT.) The presidential action came after the House rejected a bill passed in the Senate to partially fund DHS except for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (CNN.) For background, see a prior Roundup.
The U.S. has reportedly deployed several hundred U.S. Special Operation forces, 2,500 Marines, and 2,500 sailors to the Middle East to give President Trump options in his military campaign against Iran. (NYT.)
President Trump is reportedly considering a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium inside Iran that would likely require boots on the ground. (WSJ.)
The Washington Post reported that FBI Director Kash Patel is pushing to publicly release materials related to a decade-old investigation into Democratic lawmaker Eric Swalwell’s potential ties to a suspected Chinese spy, despite no finding of criminal wrongdoing. (WaPo.)
Hackers claiming to be a part of the Iranian regime took responsibility on Friday for publishing stolen emails and photos from Kash Patel’s personal email account. The stolen files were published on a website that included the name “Handala,” a pro-Iranian hacking group, however, cybersecurity data reportedly suggests that the website was hosted in Russia. (NYT.)
Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer discussed Congress’s failure to limit the president’s military campaign in Iran as well as contemporary legal debates over military operations without congressional authorization. (Executive Functions.)
Michael McNulty argued that the 2026 midterms will be a “stress test for whether election outcomes are determined by the will of the voters or by who controls the machinery of elections.” (Just Security.)
Andrew C. McCarthy analyzed the injunction blocking the Trump administration from designating Anthropic a supply chain risk. (National Review.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Blanche v. Perlmutter: The government filed an emergency application on October 27 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a district court interlocutory injunction that temporarily reinstated Shira Perlmutter to her role as Register of Copyrights while litigation over her removal continues. Chief Justice Roberts formally set a deadline of November 10 for a response to the application. Perlmutter submitted a response on November 10. Blanche submitted a reply on November 12. The Court deferred the application for stay on November 28 pending the Court’s decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook.
Trump v. Cook: The government filed an emergency application on September 18 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a preliminary injunction issued by a district court that blocked President Trump from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Cook filed an opposition to the request on the same day. The Chief Justice formally set a deadline of September 25 for a response to the application. Cook filed a response on September 25. On October 1, the Court deferred action on the stay application pending oral argument in January 2026 and established a supplemental briefing schedule. Additional amicus briefs were filed on October 29. Both sides filed supplemental briefs on November 19 and the Court heard oral argument on Jan. 21, 2026.
Noem v. Doe: The government filed an application on February 26 requesting the Supreme Court stay pending appeal of a preliminary injunction issued by a district court preliminarily enjoining Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from terminating temporary protected status designation for Syria. The government asked the Court to construe the application as a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment and grant the petition. On March 16, the Court consolidated the case with a challenge to the Department of Homeland Security’s termination of Temporary Protected Status designations for Haiti and granted certiorari before judgment of the consolidated cases while deferring action on the government’s request for a stay.
Trump v. Miot: The government filed an application on March 11 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a lower court order postponing then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s decision to terminate temporary protected status designation for Haiti. The government also asked the Court to treat the application as a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment and grant the petition.