JUST IN: A Trump-appointed judge — confirmed just two weeks ago — has joined the chorus of federal judges who say the Trump administration is likely misusing mandatory detention for people it is attempting to deport. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: A new class action lawsuit challenges ICE's warrantless immigration arrests in Washington, D.C., which they say are occuring without probable cause and based largely on perceived ethnicity. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Ken CHESEBRO, an architect of Trump's bid to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election, has been suspended from practicing law in D.C. (he'd already been disbarred/suspended in several states) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered the University of South Dakota to reinstate a professor who posted criticism of Charlie Kirk on his Facebook page the day of the shooting, finding the action likely violated the First Amendment. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Judge Reyes has *denied* the legal effort by fired inspectors general to reclaim their jobs. Trump may have broken the law by firing them, she says, but she has no authority to reinstate them — and Trump could remove them again in 30 days anyway. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Federal prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler, who helped put Stewart Rhodes and other Oath Keepers in prison for Jan. 6, is leaving the department. Dropped off a handful of cases tonight, including this one against the man charged with murdering to Israeli embassy employees.

JUST IN: The Trump administration's bid to coerce states to comply with immigration enforcement in order to receive disaster aid is illegal and unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled today. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui explains in a new opinion why he ordered the provision of food and shelter for an indigent Jan. 6 defendant who was prepared to sleep on a bench during his Dec. 2024 trial. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Over the weekend, we wrote about how dozens of judges have found ICE's new detention policy — seeking to lock up millions of people facing deportation without a chance for bond — is illegal. Last night, four more judges added to the growing list: www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

NEW: Newly disclosed docs reveal more about the potentially classified information John Bolton may have had in his office. An FBI agent catalogued 5 categories — including WMDs and the UN. w/ @joshgerstein www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

NEW: A federal judge has tossed former FBI official Peter Strzok's long-running lawsuit claiming his firing — over anti-Trump text messages w Lisa Page — violated his rights. w/ @joshgerstein www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Here's the verdict sheet for Ryan Routh, Trump's would-be assassin, who was found guilty of all charges.

JUST IN: One of the five men the U.S. deported to a prison in Eswatini has been repatriated to Jamaica, his lawyers/advocates say. legalaidnyc.org/wp-content/u...

JUST IN: An Arizona appeals court has rejected AG Kris Mayes' bid to revive her criminal case against Donald Trump's allies over the effort to subvert the 2020 election. Her choice now: appeal to the AZ Supreme Court, convene a new grand jury, or give up altogether.

UPDATE: Lindsey Halligan has been sworn in as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, two days after Trump pressed Bondi to install her. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

UPDATE: Another judge, the Reagan-appointed Sarah Evans Barker, ruled today that the administration's use of the "automatic stay" — to keep locked up a man who had been ordered released by an immigration judge on $7,500 bond — was illegal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The Justice Department has charged a man for aiming a laser pointer Marine One while Trump was on board, risking a collision. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: In a break from decades of history, the Trump administration has started detaining virtually everyone facing deportation — even if they’ve lived in the U.S. for decades. Dozens of judges, with increasing alarm, have ruled the policy shift illegal. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Trump criticizes Pam Bondi for not charging his adversaries quickly enough, in a Truth Social post that looks a lot like a DM. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

NEW: In a break from decades of history, the Trump administration has started detaining virtually everyone facing deportation — even if they’ve lived in the U.S. for decades. Dozens of judges, with increasing alarm, have ruled the policy shift illegal. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

NEWS: Trump has tapped Mary “Maggie” Cleary as the new acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Va. to succeed Erik Siebert. Cleary, an AUSA, once said she was “framed” for Jan. 6 because of her conservative views. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

JUST IN: Judge Cobb allows a Jan. 6 defendant's excessive force lawsuit against a guard at the D.C. jail — who allegedly pepper sprayed him in the face twice – to proceed. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

NEW: The Trump administration is asking SCOTUS to allow the State Department to require passport applicants to select their birth sex, rather than letting them choose a gender or an X. Lower courts blocked the policy on equal protection grounds. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

NEW: Gov. Greg Abbott's office is needling Ken Paxton over free speech issues as he renews his push to oust state lawmakers who broke quorum last month. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

BREAKING: A federal judge just sumamrily struck Trump's complaint against the New York Times, essentially calling it, essentially, garbage. Must be rewritten within 28 days. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to let him fire Lisa Cook, the culmination of his effort to take control of executive branch entities once thought to be insulated. w/ @samjsutton.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Magistrate judge Faruqui, who has been on a tear over DOJ's flimsy prosecutions in recent weeks, was floored by the Trump administration's decision to level a federal marijuana possession charge against a recently arrested defendant. But that's not all... storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: Judge Kelly (Trump appointee) bars the Trump administration from deporting Guatemalan kids in HHS custody, finding the claim they were “reunifying” kids with their parents “crumbled like a house of cards” upon review. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Trump says he’s designating “antifa” a terrorist group and launching a probe into finding of antifa activities. The FBI has long said antifa doesn’t really have a centralized structure or leadership.

NEW: Kash Patel faced a two-day barrage on Capitol Hill over the FBI’s handling of the Epstein files. After a series of combative exchanges with Democrats, one thing was clear: the problem isn’t going away. w/ Hailey Fuchs www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

HAPPENING NOW: Rep. Raskin moves to subpoena four banks that helped move Jeffrey Epstein's money and have subsequently reported $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions. Vote will take place at the end of today's hearing with Director Patel.

NEW: FBI Director Kash Patel says recent court orders — related to a few dozen pages of grand jury material — are preventing him from releasing the FBI's massive trove of Epstein files. That's not what the courts actually said. www.politico.com/live-updates...

JUST IN: A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction over abysmal conditions at a New York City immigration detention facility. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Kash Patel says the FBI has NO information that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked minors to anyone other than himself. SEN. KENNEDY: "Who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these young women to?" PATEL: "There is no credible information, none ... that he trafficked to other individuals."

JUST IN: Georgia Supreme Court won't consider Fani Willis' petition to reclaim her prosecution of President Trump. She's officially disqualified and the case must now be assigned to a new prosecutorial office. www.gasupreme.us/wp-content/u...

Gov. Abbott's lawyers, fighting a legal battle over their redrawn congressional maps, are *deeply* committed to this metaphor about a "robot chef." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Chutkan called the Trump administration 'cavalier' about the fact that it may have sent five men to be persecuted and killed and said it may have been the Trump administration's goal. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

JUST IN: Trump launches a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times — naming reporters Peter Baker, Michael Schmidt, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner — because he doesn't like what they have written/reported about him. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: The DC Circuit has *rejected* Trump's bid to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed board, allowing her to participate in tomorrow's interest-rate setting meeting. Trump's last hope is a quick stay from SCOTUS. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

After a five-year saga in the courts, the Justice Department has reached a settlement agreement with a man who says the Mueller report falsely characterized him as a source of the purported 'pee tape.'

JUST IN: Maurene Comey sues DOJ over her abrupt firing as a top prosecutor in SDNY, seeks reinstatement. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Judge Alsup has some thoughts about the Supreme Court’s shadow docket as he grants summary judgment for probationary employees mass terminated by the Trump administration. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin has been charged with state offenses because — for now — there's no apparent federal nexus. One thing it means: proceedings in Tyler Robinson's case are likely to be televised. w/ @joshgerstein www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

JUST IN: A federal judge in Rhode Island — Trump appointee Mary McElroy — says the Trump admin violated "several laws" in a last-minute bid to force homelessness organizations to subcribe to its transgender policies in order to access a pool of $75 million in housing grants.

NEW: A judge warned Friday that the Trump admin is "with a wink and a nod" deporting people to Ghana, only for Ghana to quickly re-deport them to countries where they face torture and persecution. w/ @joshgerstein www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

JUST IN: A federal judge in New York has blocked a Trump administration policy advising immigration judges to dismiss deportation cases from the bench — which advocates say has been a precursor to courthouse arrests. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The DC Circuit sets an ultra-fast briefing schedule on the bid by Trump to fire Lisa Cook, signaling a likely ruling before next week’s Fed board meeting. The panel: Katsas (Trump) Childs (Biden) Garcia (Biden) Losing side could go to SCOTUS by Monday night.

NEW: A group of appeals court judges openly struggled with — and in some cases criticized — the Supreme Court's terse and vague shadow docket rulings. One said they've left lower courts "in limbo," forcing them to interpret "signals" w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

NEW: The Trump administration today backed off its claim that its effort to abruptly deport 100s of unaccompanied Guatemalan children on Labor Day weekend was meant to reunify them with parents who sought their return. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

HAPPENING NOW: The Trump administration withdraws its claim that parents of the Guatemalan children it tried to send back last month had requested their return. DOJ says it has no basis for that claim now in light of contradictory info provided by the Guatemalan government.