"By reopening the investigation, it could give DOJ grounds to stop the public release of its Epstein case files since they may now relate to an ongoing investigation." www.cnn.com/2025/11/15/p...

JUST IN: Newly-released Justice Department OLC opinion backs Trump admin's temporary transfer of 100s of military JAG attorneys to DOJ to be immigration judges. No posse comitaus violation if they're under full DOJ control, Gaiser says. Doc: www.justice.gov/olc/media/14...

New: Federal officials formally requested that former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters be transferred to federal custody, the latest in a monthslong effort by the Trump administration to free the election conspiracy theorist from a state prison cell.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced three federal district court judge nominees, including a former law clerk to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a lawyer pursuing litigation over the participation of transgender athletes in women's college sports reut.rs/4p5nsL8

One of the nominees, Megan Benton, is the daughter of Eighth Circuit Judge Duane Benton, who announced a little over a week ago that he was retiring and giving Trump another powerful court of appeals seat to fill. Interesting timing.

Notably, Trump publicly announced these nominees before the Senate Judiciary Committee received filled out questionnaires from the three judicial picks, a change from a recent White House practice that had come under criticism.

New: President Trump has named three new district court judge nominees, including a former law clerk to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a lawyer pursuing litigation over the participation of transgender athletes in women's college sports. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

JUST IN: DC Circuit appears to have split 8-3 in denying en banc review of circuit decision that blocked Judge Boasberg's planned contempt inquiry into whether Trump officials defied his orders in Alien Enemies Act deportation case. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Judge allows lawsuit over Trump's anti-DEI grant policy despite Supreme Court ruling @nateraymond.bsky.social reut.rs/4pd2fiE

Executive branch lawyers signed off on Mr. Trump’s desired course of action, including appearing to have accepted at face value the White House’s version of reality. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...

New: Eight Democratic-led states can still pursue a lawsuit challenging a Department of Education policy that led to the cancellation of teacher-training grants even after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Trump's administration to terminate the funding, a judge ruled. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Trump pardons British billionaire Joe Lewis reut.rs/3XpEOGL

New: A California federal judge in a first has dismissed a criminal case after finding that the defendant's constitutional right to counsel was violated by a funding shortfall that left private attorneys who serve as court-appointed defense lawyers unpaid since July. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

New: A Texas woman who made violent threats in a voicemail left with the chambers of Judge Tanya Chutkan after she began overseeing the since-dismissed criminal election subversion case against President Donald Trump was sentenced today to 27 months in prison. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

BREAKING: #SCOTUS will decide an issue near and dear to President Trump: whether federal law allows states to tally ballots in federal elections after Election Day. 5th Circuit ruled it does.

Justice Gorsuch argues that the Supreme Court should overturn precedent that gives Congress near-absolute power over the internal affairs of tribes. Only Justice Thomas—who typically disagrees with Gorsuch on these issues—joins him. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

Overnight news: The 1st Circuit allowed a judge's order to stand that directs Trump's administration to fully fund this month's SNAP food aid benefits for 42 million low-income Americans. The ruling is stayed for 48 hours due to Justice Jackson's Friday order. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Senate reaches deal to reopen government after moderate Democrats cave

BREAKING: Mark Wolf, appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, writes that he is resigning as a judge to have the freedom to speak out against the president's assault on the rule of law. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Under the radar: The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California drafted a memo as the district court's request advising it could compel any member of its bar to represent indigent defendants without pay during the shutdown and CJA funding crisis. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp defended the firm’s pro bono work in the wake of its deal with President Donald Trump, as he was heckled and protested at a bar association event.

Reprimand recommended for Massachusetts judge accused of helping man evade ICE @nateraymond.bsky.social reut.rs/4p1v5lP

Federal judges can compel lawyers to represent defendants without pay, California federal prosecutors advise - www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Farmers' Almanac says it will cease publication after 208 years, citing financial challenges

Inbox: Senior U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf in Boston is retiring after more than 40 years on the bench.

Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state. That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators To fine it for running scam ads. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

New: About 40% of the private attorneys who serve as court-appointed counsel for indigent federal defendants in New Mexico announced they will stop taking new cases, citing a funding crisis that has left them and other Criminal Justice Act lawyers unpaid since July. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

More than 50 private attorneys and contractors in New Mexico announced that they will stop taking new cases where they would represent federal defendants who cannot afford their own lawyers, citing a funding crisis that has left them unpaid since early July @nateraymond.bsky.social reut.rs/4qZnGW6

The U.S. Senate confirmed a former clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and the late Antonin Scalia to serve as a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals @nateraymond.bsky.social reut.rs/3WHV9q5

New: About 40% of the private attorneys who serve as court-appointed counsel for indigent federal defendants in New Mexico announced they will stop taking new cases, citing a funding crisis that has left them and other Criminal Justice Act lawyers unpaid since July. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

A package of conservative-backed election reforms is crashing to defeat 41-59 with Maine voters, with half the vote counted. It would have curtailed absentee voting and dropboxes and instituted voter photo ID. The vote had been expected to be a lot closer.

New: Senate confirms Trump's pick to join liberal-majority US appeals court - www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Conservative Judge James Ho is urging the 5th Circuit to revisit its own precedent in order to address the "serious constitutional problems" with the False Claims Act's whistleblower provision. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Attorney General Pam Bondi says she has retroactively appointed former Trump attorney Lindsey Halligan as a "special attorney" for DOJ and has "ratified" all of her actions to date, including her presentations to the grand juries that indicted Trump's foes.

Oh, great. DOJ kicks off trial of sandwich man with a structural error: holding jury selection in private. via @Kunzelman75 www.yahoo.com/news/article... We've been through this before, people! www.politico.com/story/2019/0...

Inbox: New Hampshire's newest chief federal judge is Judge Samatha Elliott, a Biden appointee. www.nhd.uscourts.gov/pdf/Press%20...

JUST IN: Amid questions about legality of Lindsey Halligan's appointment as US Attorney for EDVA, AG Bondi seeks to shore up Comey & James prosecutions by formally adopting/endorsing them. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Trump, in chat w/reporters & Truth Social post, says he won't attend critical #SCOTUS arguments this week on his broadest 'Liberation Day' tariff drive truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

Introducing a 2025 kid to Back to the Future II's 2015 is a trip.

Kash Patel was angry about his publicly-available jet logs indicating he’d flown to see his musician girlfriend perform so he forced out a senior FBI official overseeing aviation, Bloomberg reports news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on Friday permanently blocked part of Republican President Donald Trump's March executive order on federal elections, ruling that the president can not require voters to show passports or similar documents as proof of citizenship before voting.

Given today's dual rulings by judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island on SNAP benefits, it seems appropriate to re-up my examination this month of how New England's federal courts have become key litigation venues for opponents of Trump's policies. bsky.app/profile/nate...

A Wyoming bank that provides custody services for cryptocurrency companies isn’t entitled to access the Federal Reserve’s payment system, a federal appeals court ruled.

Given today's dual rulings by judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island on SNAP benefits, it seems appropriate to re-up my examination this month of how New England's federal courts have become key litigation venues for opponents of Trump's policies. bsky.app/profile/nate...

NEW: More than 100 federal judges have now rejected the Trump administration’s new policy to lock up nearly everyone facing deportation — including 12 judges appointed by Trump, according to a POLITICO analysis. Only 2 judges have sided with ICE. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

A federal judge has granted class action status to a lawsuit seeking to prevent Trump's administration from subjecting thousands of migrants detained by immigration authorities in New England to mandatory detention without the possibility of being released on bond. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

As Marcy notes, @seamushughes.bsky.social is doing such critically important work. Here, folks should read Judge Rodriguez's opinion (to which Marcy links) for themselves. It's a chilling account of what's become standard practice in ICE arrests these days—from a district judge who is no firebrand.