The Supreme Court’s repeated grants of emergency relief to the Trump administration is creating fissures in the judiciary, while empowering the president to fight any lower court judge’s intervention, @jacqthomsen.bsky.social and @justinfwise.bsky.social report news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Reed O'Connor, a conservative who's handled major national cases, is the new chief judge for the Northern District of Texas. The court's faced scrutiny for judge shopping by conservative litigants and O'Connor has defended the court's assignment rules. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

A Virginia federal judge is hearing arguments now in Baltimore on the Justice Department's suit against all fed judges in Maryland. "I think you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I have some skepticism," the presiding judge told a DOJ lawyer news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

A foreign adversary targeted sealed documents in espionage and other sensitive cases in a breach of the federal judiciary’s case management system, according to three people familiar with the matter. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

An entire news crew working for Al Jazeera was killed by Israel as they sought to bring the world firsthand reporting from #Gaza. Among them was prominent journalist Anas Al-Sharif, who had been previously smeared and threatened by the IDF. #NotATarget Full statement: cpj.org/2025/08/isra...

News: AG Pam Bondi's order to dismiss charges against Utah plastic surgeon accused of selling fake Covid vaccine cards ran counter to an earlier decision from her weaponization working group. In April, the group rebuffed an appeal from doctor's lawyer: news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

New: Star conservative lawyer Paul Clement has moved to defend Maryland's federal trial judges from a Justice Department lawsuit, the latest instance of him facing off with the Trump administration in court news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

There have been more than 400 threats to federal judges since October, surpassing the number of threats to judges in all of fiscal 2022 with over three months still left in this fiscal year.

News: Former Texas solicitor general Judd Stone resigned from the committee that vets candidates for federal judgeships and US attorney roles in Texas after a lawsuit this week accused him of sexual harassment. with Ryan Autullo for @bloomberglaw.com news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Another complaint rejected over federal judges not hiring clerks from Columbia -- but a circuit judge said there might an issue when judges "begin using their power as government officials to pressure private institutions to conform to the judges’ preferences" news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

New: Maryland's federal trial court adopted a standing order blocking the immediate removal of detained foreign citizens who file habeas petitions giving judges time to weigh those cases. It's the same court where Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case is being heard. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Scoop: A dozen people have interviewed to be federal judges in the Southern District of Texas. A former chief counsel for Cruz, state and magistrate judges, and current and ex-fed prosecutors are on the list, per sources familiar news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

News: Lawyers are lining up for the open federal judgeships in Texas. Folks interviewed include a new SCOTX member, a former Cruz counsel, a Paxton whistleblower and current magistrate judges. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

News: Lawyers are lining up for the open federal judgeships in Texas. Folks interviewed include a new SCOTX member, a former Cruz counsel, a Paxton whistleblower and current magistrate judges. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

News: Judge Mark Pittman now wants attorneys to prove their lawsuits belong in his Fort Worth federal court if there's no obvious ties to the division. Comes after an appeals court twice rejected his order transferring a national lawsuit out of his court news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Judge Lawrence VanDyke said his colleagues on the Ninth Circuit don't understand how guns work. His solution? An unusual video dissent, filmed in his chambers, in which he went over the parts of several handguns.

Fifth Circuit Judge Jim Ho said many of the US’s largest law firms are suffering from “institutional bias,” amid President Donald Trump’s attacks on firms that he views as enemies. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Federal judges raised concerns about recent impeachment push against judges who've ruled against Trump. Impeachment shouldn't be a "short circuiting" of normal appeals process, Judge Richard Sullivan told reporters. w/ @jacqthomsen.bsky.social news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Scoop w/ @justinfwise.bsky.social: Trump's DOJ plans to dismiss a Biden-era civil suit over sexual abuse of migrant children. “The United States is turning its back on children who are being abused in our country,” said a former civil rights division official. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

New: The federal judiciary is walking back ethics opinions that said law clerks shouldn't apply to political jobs during their clerkships, now saying it's up to individual judges. Courts say changes were made in response to feedback. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

New w/ @jacqthomsen.bsky.social: About 20 federal courthouses are on GSA’s list of non-core properties that could be sold, as part of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

The federal judiciary told staffers not to respond to a Trump administration email asking them to account for their work last week, @suzannemonyak.bsky.social and @jacqthomsen.bsky.social report news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

In an officewide email Wednesday morning, obtained by Bloomberg Law, interim US Attorney Ed Martin previewed his plan to “hold accountable those who threaten workers," including federal judges and DOGE staff, @suzannemonyak.bsky.social reports news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Trump’s allies have spent the last few days going after federal judges after a court ruling against Elon Musk’s DOGE. Some experts are concerned about the rule of law if compliance is up in the air, and a judge now says the admin hasn’t followed his ruling news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

The FCC told a wary Fifth Circuit today that it was still largely defending a requirement that broadcasters report their employees' demographic data, despite Trump's actions against DEI and after DOJ said it wasn't standing by its prior filing in the case news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Late breaking news: US attorneys got on a call with Trump DOJ No. 2 Emil Bove expecting to be fired. Instead they were told to deploy their prosecutors to the border to combat an invasion he likened to a terrorist attack. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

The Fifth Circuit said today that federal provisions against selling handguns to adults under the age of 21 are unconstitutional. It's the latest court ruling against gun restrictions based on age, but other recent cases have dealt with state bans news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

The US attorney in DC sent critical email to staff over leaks from the office after he announced probes on J6 prosecutions, per leaked email seen by @suzannemonyak.bsky.social. "Again, personally insulting and professionally unacceptable," Ed Martin wrote. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

News: Trump has tapped Nick Ganjei, Ted Cruz's chief counsel, to serve as interim US attorney for the Southern District of Texas. He'll be prosecuting immigration cases in a district that includes a broad swath of the US-Mexico border. w/ Ryan Autullo news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

The Northern District of Texas has 3 new single judge divisions as Judge Wes Hendrix is now the only one assigned cases in Lubbock, Abilene and San Angelo. The Trump nom has pushed back against claims of judge shopping, as Obama also tapped him for a judgeship news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

The federal judiciary won’t act on a pair of separate requests to refer members of the US Supreme Court to the attorney general for potential violations of federal ethics law, according to letters released Thursday @jacqthomsen.bsky.social reports. www.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberglaw...

Fifth Circuit Judge Jim Ho has been chatty post-election, including opening the door to striking down birthright citizenship for undocumented migrants. One of his ex-clerks says Ho's not interested in SCOTUS, but experts say it could be part of an audition news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Scoop -- Alan Albright, the Texas judge whose court became a magnet for patent litigation and drew criticism from Congress and the Supreme Court over it, is said to be moving from Waco to tech hub Austin. news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and...

An Alaska prosecutor alleges a judge touted his political ties as he sought explicit pics from her, suggesting he could help her become a judge. Asked about the judge's influence Sen Murkowski says "bullshit" @suzannemonyak.bsky.social @tianaheadley.bsky.social news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

ICYMI: Ex-Judge Joshua Kindred started sexting w/ a senior prosecutor at the Alaska US Attorney's office almost a year before a judiciary probe began, per newly unsealed court docs. Prosecutor described relationship as "abusive." w/ @jacqthomsen.bsky.social news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

A federal prosecutor in Alaska whose nude photographs to a federal judge have created ethics question has said she was in an abusive relationship with that judge, according to newly released court papers @suzannemonyak.bsky.social news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Scoop: The federal judiciary has said it won't pursue future action against "judge shopping," after a policy against the tactic faced backlash from Republican lawmakers. w/ @suzannemonyak.bsky.social news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

New: A former federal prosecutor has settled a whistleblower complaint alleging that she was retaliated against by leaders of the US attorney’s office in Alaska, after she reported sexual misconduct by a federal judge. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

The number of pending disputes by federal judiciary employees nearly doubled between 2021 and 2023, @suzannemonyak.bsky.social and @jacqthomsen.bsky.social report news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Exclusive: 300+ federal judges urged passage of legislation that would expand the federal trial courts for the first time in decades, per letter I obtained. “Enacting this legislation at the next possible legislative opportunity is essential," they wrote. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

New: A split Fifth Circuit decision -- dismissing racial harassment claims from a white student bullied for wearing a MAGA hat -- drew protests from the court's conservative members, and saw Jim Ho writing that today's culture accepts racism against whites news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

The Fifth Circuit may be cemented as an ultra-conservative powerhouse during Donald Trump’s second term, even as it’s unlikely to hear the kinds of high-profile policy challenges that it did during the Biden administration, @jacqthomsen.bsky.social reports news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Some law clerks say they’ve been frustrated by federal judges publicly weighing in on the Israel-Hamas war, even as they’ve been warned about openly discussing any topic that could be viewed as political, @jacqthomsen.bsky.social reports news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Read the full text of a Supreme Court opinion on Idaho's abortion ban that was briefly posted to its website

@jacqthomsen.bsky.social details how conservative groups have tactically ensured that their legal challenges to Biden administration policies get in front of their preferred judges in Fort Worth, Texas. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

“We’ve seen the dangerous consequences of allowing the moral rot of antisemitism to spread through the countryside,” US District Court Judge Roy Altman tells @jacqthomsen.bsky.social

A federal court in Washington state is the first where all the active judges are Biden appointees -- and offers a glimpse into a potential future where partisan nomination battles give one party a chance to reshape entire courts. From my colleague Suzanne Monyak news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

A man is facing two misdemeanor charges after he illegally entered the federal courthouse in downtown Portland and barricaded himself in the mail room: news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Judge Matthew Solomson of the US Court of Federal Claims said that he won’t hire law clerks who have signed onto letters that he believes effectively support Hamas’ deadly attacks in Israel, @jacqthomsen.bsky.social reports

Today is my first day at Bloomberg Law! I’m very excited to join this team, covering the federal judiciary plus the 5th Circuit. My email is [email protected], please send all tips and pitches that way!