UPDATE: Some new entries on our running list of judges who have ruled for (43) and against (413) ICE's mass detention policy. -William Dimitrouleas switches sides to become 1st Clinton appointee to side with admin -Justin Olson (Trump) opposes admin www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

The 1st circuit court of appeals has moved into the Blanche era even though Bondi is still on the job for another month

NEW: Pam Bondi did almost everything Donald Trump asked. It wasn’t enough. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

Trump makes it official: Bondi is out, Blanche -- his personal lawyer in multiple criminal cases -- is the new acting AG.

Judges have routinely scolded DOJ for cookie-cutter legal arguments in habeas cases. Here, a judge says the lawyer for a detainee could be sanctioned and his client in criminal jeopardy for "cut-and-paste lawyering" that included false claims. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: A federal judge delivered a serious setback to President Donald Trump Tuesday in long-running civil lawsuits seeking to hold him liable for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

JUST IN: Judge Mehta advances theming-running civil lawsuit by lawmakers and cops against Trump over Jan. 6. He says Trump’s rally speech and call to Raffensperger (among other acts) are not plainly immune conduct and can advance toward trial. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

JUST IN: A federal appeals court panel -- Henderson (GHWB), Wilkins (Obama) Katsas (Trump) -- has stayed Judge Lamberth's order requiring VOA to rehire a huge portion of its staff.

JUST IN: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to provide access to Holy Week religious services to immigrants held at the Chicago-area Broadview detention facility. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: FBI agents who worked on Trump probes have filed a class action lawsuit, saying their abrupt firings violated due process and civil service laws. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

ICE detained and deported a man with severe mental disabilities, apparently gaining his "consent" for removal without notifying his caretakers. A judge has barred ICE from redetaining him when he returns from Mexico today. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Dozens of Jan. 6 defendants and others present on Capitol grounds have filed a class action in Florida against DC + Capitol police for their use of force during the riot. Many of those on the list were convicted of felonies (and pardoned by Trump). storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

A judge in Texas has ordered the Trump admin to return a man deported to Mexico — and immediately rerouted for Guatemala, where the man had legal protection from being deported due to threat of persecution/torture. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: The Trump admin has spent a year working to arrange deportation flights to Iran in coordination with Tehran. The war ended those efforts, leaving the fate of Iranians in ICE custody murky — and in some cases ordered released. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

BREAKING: Anthropic wins an injunction barring federal agencies from carrying out Trump’s directive. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: The Trump administration is celebrating its second straight appeals court win on ICE's mass detention policy. But its impact — like the 5th Circuit's — may be limited if district judges rule for detainees on due process grounds. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Judge Blackwell has ordered ICE to provide for clergy visits to detainees in the Whipple building in Minnesota. Earlier: www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

JUST IN: A federal judge has *denied* the Trump administration’s effort to stave off an evidentiary hearing on its seizure of election records from Fulton County. Judge Boulee says the hearing will go on next week. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: The Trump administraiton has lost more than 7,000 immigration detention cases in recent months. Increasingly, DOJ is telling judges they have no argument to present or couldn't get facts from ICE to present in court. A look at this emerging trend. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

NEW: The alleged J6 pipe bomber says he's covered by Donald Trump's blanket pardon. The admin has been all over the map about who is covered — there are 3-4 different positions out there. So ... who knows? Will be an interesting fight w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

BREAKING: SCOTUS has granted cert on two emergency petitions by the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants – an issue that has vexed lower courts following two previous, minimally explained stays by the justices. Args in April.

👀 A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reveal data that will show whether it has so dramatically tipped bond hearings against ICE detainees that they're now unconstitutional. Some notable fox-henhouse metaphors here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: A judge has barred the Trump administration from forcing changes to Colorado's SNAP program, saying the threats to yank funding seem to be "about punishment and nothing more." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Donald Trump is struggling to control the narrative — war in Iran threatens to engulf his presidency, the economy is buckling and his MAGA coalition is fraying . So he’s lashing out at the institutions he doesn’t control — most pointedly, the courts. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

JUST IN: Judge Boasberg has rejected DOJ’s subpoenas for Jerome Powell, finding they were issued for an improper purpose — Trump’s bid to pressure him to lower interest rates storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Judge Nichols has thrown out Jan. 6 rioter Victoria White's claim that police — including MPD's Jason Bagshaw — used excessive force on her in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel Even if her claims were true, Nichols says, they have qualifeid immunity. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

JUST IN: Judge Shah in Illinois has blocked the Trump admin from yanking $600m in public health funds from four blue states, saying it appeared to be a “contrived” and illegal effort to punish them for sanctuary immigration policies storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

UPDATE: Judge Nelson has ordered the release of a man "shockingly" described in a public post by DHS as "the worst of the worst" based on criminal charges that hadn't yet been filed and were later dropped. That post may complicate his deportation too. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Here's a new one: ICE detained a man in Utah who had been arrested for a suspected drug sale ... that turned out to be dried pinto beans. Utah case was dropped but the man, who arrived in US as a minor and has deferred action, was transfered to ICE. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: A federal judge has blocked ICE from constructing an immigration detention facility in Hagerstown, MD after the state sued over the lack of a mandated environmental impact review. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72362...

👀 ICE deported two U.S. citizen children with their mother to Guatemala, even though she had apparently elected to leave them with their grandmother in Florida. The govt is now arranging their return under court order: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Judges livid over Trump administration defiance are increasingly taking pains to say they still trust and respect rank and file lawyers who appear in their court rooms. It's the DOJ and ICE leaders who they say are driving the rupture. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

👀 A Jan. 6 defendant has spent a year arguing that his unrelated firearms conviction should be covered by Trump's Day One pardon. Today, DOJ asked for an extension to respond to his request because of ... a crushing backlog of immigration cases. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

UPDATE: New adds to our running list of judges who have ruled on ICE's mandatory detention policy. For the admin: -Judge Susan Brnovich (Trump) -Total: 38 Against the admin: -Bridget Brennan (Biden) -Joseph Saporito (Biden) -Total: 400 www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

BREAKING: Judge Brann has ejected the new leaders of the NJ U.S. attorney's office, once again finding the Trump administration is illegally attempting to circumvent Senate confirmation. He says this could result in dismissals of indictments. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

A judge ordered the release of a man with lawful permanent resident status — who twice won bond before an immigration court — but has remained detained for 200 days because of the Trump administration's use of a (previously) little used "automatic stay." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Federal judges have spent months ordering ICE to give detainees a chance for release in bond hearings. Now, they're worried that the bond hearings themselves — conducted by Executive Branch immigration judges — are a farce. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

JUST IN: A federal judge has barred Gov DeSantis from designating CAIR as a terrorist organization and punish those who associate with the group. “Once again, Florida chooses political posturing over the First Amendment,” Judge Walker writes. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

'UNIMAGINABLE CRUELTY': Judge Gary Brown, a Trump appointeee from NY, thrashes DHS' treatment of a man who came to the US at 9 as an abuse/neglect victim, has no criminal record and became a college grad. "The laws of decency condemn such villainy." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Judge Farbiarz becomes the latest judge to see enormous daylight between DOJ and ICE, who he says is uniquely responsible for the rampant violations of court orders. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: A judge has restored lawmakers' unfettered access to ICE detention facilities, her third ruling to block Secretary Noem's policy attempting to limit unannounced visits from members of Congress. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

NEW: Four federal judges have formed a firewall against ICE in West Virginia — and say they’ll punish state and federal officials of they continue detaining people in ways they have ruled illegal and unconstitutional. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

The judges in WV have seen enough. They say that if the ICE continues detaining people in ways they have unanimously deemed illegal they will start issuing civil fines and contempt findings — including against state officials who help them carry it out. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: A federal judge in Oregon has barred ICE from conducting warrantless arrests without probable cause in the state, saying the agency's "dragnets" have flouted "clear and undisputed" law. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: A federal judge says the Trump administration has been “terrorizing” refugees — violating the promise America made to them when they fled persecution at home — by locking them up illegally. He blocked the policy for those in MN storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Far from being deterred by the 5th circuit, federal judges in Texas appear to be ordering the release of more ICE detainees than before on due process/constitutional grounds. Here is Judge Jason Pulliam, a Trump appointee, joining their ranks. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Minnesota's top federal judge is threatening to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt if they continue defying court orders in immigration cases. "One way or another, ICE will comply." www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

NEW: When anti-ICE protesters disrupted a church service, the Trump administration vowed to stop at nothing to protect religious liberty. But congregations across the country who welcome immigrants say ICE has been violating their rights on a mass scale. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Judge Bryan in Minnesota has scheduled a combined contempt hearing in morethan two dozen immigration cases for what he says has been widespread defiance of his orders to ensure released detainees are given their confiscated property. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

'IT ENDS TODAY': A federal judge in NJ says the Trump admin has continued to violate court orders in immigration cases and says he's prepared to haul in DOJ and DHS officials under oath. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...