On Monday night, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to shield Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from being deposed in a lawsuit over the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. But the Court declined to block the deposition of acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore, as the...
When it comes to judges, the President has a lot in common with North Carolina.
While the White House finds itself thwarted on an almost hourly basis by federal district judges, the Tar Heel State languishes under the iron heel of the Fourth Circuit, a federal appellate court based in Richmond, Virginia. ...
Most people assume that when the Supreme Court decides a case, it’s over. Final. That’s usually how it is, but not always. Sometimes when Court issues an opinion, it also sends the matter back to the lower courts for further consideration in light of the new guidance.
For procedural reasons I’ll explain soon,...
A three-judge federal court panel has denied Pennsylvania Republicans’ request to immediately suspend implementation of a court-imposed remedial Congressional map.
For more information, see our prior post on the unfolding Pennsylvania redistricting drama. This is a separate proceeding from the request for a stay made to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As we reported...
A new theater has opened up in the great Pennsylvania Redistricting Battle of 2018, with Republicans filing a federal lawsuit to halt court-ordered redistricting that could cost the GOP four seats in the House this November.
On January 22, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared that the state’s Congressional map, which had been...
Republicans probably just lost at least 4 or 5 seats in the House.
This afternoon, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unveiled its remedial Congressional map for the midterm elections in November. [See Featured Image] The Supreme Court Order imposing the map is here.
On January 22, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, on a 5—2 party-line vote, struck down the state’s congressional map and ordered the legislature to draw a new one by February 9. See my prior post, Bad news for GOP: Pennsylvania Supreme Court tosses state’s congressional maps.
Two members of PA’s state legislature—its Speaker of...
U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker in Tallahassee has ruled that Florida’s process for restoring voting rights to convicted felons violates both the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The implications of the ruling, however, may not be so far-reaching since the judge hasn’t yet decided on a specific remedy.
In October 2016, a conservative panel on the D.C. Circuit ruled, 2–1, that too much unilateral power was concentrated in the independent Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, unconstitutionally infringing upon the President’s Article II executive powers.
In February, the full D.C. Circuit agreed to en banc rehearing of this case—entitled PHH Corporation...
Three days ago, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania struck down the state’s congressional map, holding that it “clearly, plainly and palpably violates the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
Offering no rationale for this decision, which upends districts that have been in place for six years, the State Supreme Court further instructed the...
Last Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced 17 Trump judicial nominees, eight of them along an 11–10 partisan split. And yesterday, the White House announced its 10th wave of judicial nominees.
In a January 7 post, I examined Trump’s probable impact on...
The GOP may have just lost as many as four seats in the House—certainly at least one.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled, by a vote of 5–2, that the state’s congressional districts amounted to an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
We’re now on day 36 without a 4th Circuit decision on Trump’s third travel order.
Unveiled as a presidential proclamation on September 24, 2017, the third travel order (we’ll call it EO-3) restricts entry by most nationals of Chad, Iran, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, as well as some nationals of North Korea...
Year One of President Trump’s much-vaunted “judge story” was far more successful than anyone could have expected.
Trump nominated and confirmed more appellate circuit court judges in his first year than any modern president. His judges were, on average, just 50 years old and all of them were well-credentialed conservatives. Several are potential...
It’s official: as of 12:00 a.m. January 1, 2018, the U.S. military will be open to transgender recruits—a change in policy that had been set in motion by Former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in 2016.
Last night, the Department of Justice announced that it would not ask the Supreme Court to stay...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled against President Trump’s Third Travel Order on virtually the same grounds it blocked a March iteration of the order.
A copy of the Opinion (pdf.) is embedded at the bottom of this post.
The “judge story” that Trump crowed about in October continues apace.
Tonight the Senate confirmed Leonard Steven Grasz, by a 50–48 vote, to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit. Grasz had received a unanimous “Not Qualified” rating from the American Bar Association, an influential legal organization...
