#BREAKING: Ideologically diverse Third Circuit panel unanimously *affirms* district court ruling that Alina Habba was *not* lawfully appointed to serve as Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey *or* to otherwise exercise the functions of that office: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... Opinion Filed – #81 in United ...
“I can’t recall any other example of a federal policy that provoked quite so much litigation in such a short period of time—or in which so many judges from across the geographical and ideological spectrum so overwhelmingly rejected the executive branch’s new interpretation of the relevant statutes.” 195. The Immigration Detention...
Me on DOJ’s behavior: “it’s malevolence *exacerbated* by incompetence. That’s problematic enough for the government’s credibility before federal district judges. But at some point soon, one suspects that the Supreme Court itself may well have to grapple with its consequences—or risk being duped.” 194. Another Bad Week for the ...
If you had told me Mamdani and MTG would both be in the news today, and gave me eleventy thousand guesses as to why, I’d … still be guessing.
#BREAKING: Just hours after Texas asked #SCOTUS to pause Tuesday’s ruling that had blocked its new House congressional district maps, Justice Alito has issued a temporary “administrative” stay pausing that ruling (and putting the new maps back into place) while the full Court considers next steps: https://amanita.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:nwnlnixtjh3qhkwpz2uy5uwv&cid=bafkreicgytldjpxulbftwg2x5v27abivj3darx6ctqxmpoib2gkszusmqm
"Before folks assume that one side of this fight clearly acted in bad faith and the other didn’t, it’s worth indulging the possibility that Purcell itself is the culprit—and that its standardless-ness creates perverse incentives for lower courts in election cases." Me on the TX redistricting case: Bonus 193: The Pernicious Effe...
The Federalist Society has apparently taken down the video of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's "Fireside Chat" at the National Lawyers Convention on November 7 (the one where he said that he and the Justice Department are at "war" against federal district courts): I wonder why... 2025 National Lawyers Conventi...
Today's bonus "One First" tries to read the (many) tea leaves in #SCOTUS's cryptic Tuesday order in the SNAP case; how unusual it is for the full Court to effectively take a case away from a circuit justice; and what that teaches us about the Court's procedures—and, as importantly, Justice Jackson: Bonus 192: The Court vs. the C...
This is inside baseball, but to me, there are three ways in which this development *bears out* Justice Jackson's unusual intervention Friday night—about which there was much confusion. First, this makes it clear that a majority of the Court was *not* going to force the USDA to fund SNAP by Friday. View quoted note →
Indeed, the text of the order doesn’t include the usual “and by her referred to the Court.” So Jackson clearly got overruled here. https://amanita.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:nwnlnixtjh3qhkwpz2uy5uwv&cid=bafkreie57ikekngq62gkeexuwdgvrpe5kmvc7f2x3ohhuzownq7okrfpvu