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Opponents of Missouri’s 2025 Republican-drawn congressional map asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to clarify that its Sept. 10 order bars enforcement of a subsequent district court injunction requiring the Missouri Secretary of State to use the map in the November elections. Alternatively, they asked the Court to stay the district court’s new injunction and the Eighth Circuit’s order requiring the district court to enter it. (Application.) (Opposition.) (Opposition.) (SCOTUSblog.) (WaPo.) For background on the litigation, see a previous Roundup.
Judge P. Kevin Castel (S.D.N.Y.) on Wednesday permanently enjoined New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, which imposed strict liability on businesses that extracted fossil fuels or refined crude oil. Judge Castel granted summary judgment to the U.S. government on its claims that the Act was preempted by the Clean Air Act and the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate foreign affairs. (Opinion and Order.)
The D.C. Circuit on Wednesday unsealed an opinion dated April 2023 in which a divided panel held that President Trump’s attempt to block a witness from testifying before a grand jury about his efforts to subvert the 2020 election lacked “grounding in the Constitution, the founders’ constitutional design or settled precedent.” (Unsealed Records.) The New York Times identified the witness as former Vice President Mike Pence.
A coalition of Democrats filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to block the Trump administration from deploying armed federal officers to polling sites, which are supposed to be “island[s] of calm in which voters can peacefully contemplate their choices.” (Complaint.) (Bloomberg.) (Democracy Docket.) For background on litigation challenging the potential use of federal troops in the midterm elections, see a previous Roundup.
The White House has reportedly withdrawn its plan to issue an executive order that would have established a commission with the authority to block National Institutes of Health research grants that did not align with the president’s agenda. (Semafor.) (NYT.)
Bob Bauer connected President Trump’s bans on the press to Attorney General Todd Blanche’s midterm political campaign activity, arguing that “both episodes reflect, in different ways, Trump’s exercise of presidential power to achieve maximum control of the information environment.” (Executive Functions.)
Joy Gordon examined how the Trump administration’s sanctions against Cuba have contributed to the island country’s current economic and humanitarian crises. (Lawfare.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Department of Homeland Security v. League of Women Voters: The government filed an application to the Supreme Court on September 8 seeking a stay pending appeal of a June 22 order issued by Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan (D.D.C.) that vacated a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program that used Social Security data to verify voters’ citizenship status. The League of Women Voters filed a response on September 15, and DHS filed its reply on September 16.