The Republican attempt to discourage Trump lawsuits has hit a big obstacle
The proposal was included in the Senate version of Trump's massive tax and immigration bill but ran into trouble with the Senate parliamentarian, who said it violates the chamber's rules. It is now unlikely to be in the final package. Federal judges can already require plaintiffs to post security bonds, but such funds are commonly waived in public interest cases. The GOP proposal would make the payment of the financial bond a requirement before a judge could make a ruling, which critics said would have a chilling effect on potential litigants who wouldn't have the resources to comply.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer hailed the parliamentarian's ruling in a press statement and called the GOP effort 'nothing short of an assault on the system of checks and balances that has anchored the nation since its founding.' 'But Senate Democrats stopped them cold,' Schumer said. Lawmakers are running scores of provisions by the Senate parliamentarian's office to ensure they fit with the chamber's rules for inclusion in a reconciliation bill. The recommendations from Elizabeth MacDonough will have a major impact on the final version of the legislation.
On Friday, she determined that a proposal to shift some food stamp costs from the federal government to states would violate the chamber's rules. But some of the most difficult questions are still to come as Republicans hope to get a bill passed and on Trump's desk to be signed into law before July 4th. Republicans could still seek to include the judiciary provision in the bill, but it would likely be challenged and subject to a separate vote in which the provision would need 60 votes to remain. The parliamentarian's advice, while not binding, is generally followed by the Senate.
Republicans and the White House have been highly critical of some of the court rulings blocking various Trump orders on immigration, education, and voting. The courts have agreed to block the president in a number of cases, and the administration is seeking appeals as well. In April, the House voted to limit the scope of injunctive relief ordered by a district judge to those parties before the court rather than applying the relief nationally. But that bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate since it would need 60 votes to advance. That's left Republicans looking for other avenues to blunt the court orders.
'We are experiencing a constitutional crisis – a judicial coup d'état,' Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., said during the House debate.
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Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump vows to evict homeless from Washington, official says National Guard may be deployed
President Donald Trump pledged on Sunday to evict homeless people from the nation's capital and jail criminals, despite Washington's mayor arguing there is no current spike in crime. While details of the plan were unclear, the administration is preparing to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, a US official told Reuters, a controversial tactic Trump used recently in Los Angeles to tackle immigration protests over the objections of local officials. Trump has not made a final decision, the official said, adding that the number of troops and their role are still being determined. Unlike in California and every other state, where the governor typically decides when to activate Guard troops, the president directly controls the National Guard in Washington, D.C. Past instances of the Guard's deployment in the city include in response to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. 'The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,' Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. 'We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong.' The White House declined to explain what legal authority Trump would use to evict people from Washington. The Republican president controls only federal land and buildings in the city. Trump plans to hold a press conference on Monday to 'stop violent crime in Washington, D.C.' It was not clear whether he would announce more details of his eviction plan then. There are 3,782 single persons experiencing homelessness on any given night in the city of about 700,000, says the Community Partnership, an organization working to reduce homelessness in D.C. Most such individuals are in emergency shelters or transitional housing, rather than on the street, it says. A White House official said on Friday more federal law enforcement officers were being deployed in the city following a violent attack on a young administration staffer that angered the president. Alleged crimes investigated by federal agents on Friday night included 'multiple persons carrying a pistol without license,' motorists driving on suspended licenses and dirt bike riding, a White House official said on Sunday. The official said 450 federal law enforcement officers were deployed across the city on Saturday. The city's police department says violent crime was down 26 percent in D.C. in the first seven months of 2025, compared with last year, while overall crime was down about 7 percent. The Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, said on Sunday the capital was 'not experiencing a crime spike.' 'It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023,' Bowser said on MSNBC's the Weekend. 'We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low.' Bowser said Trump was 'very aware' of the city's work with federal law enforcement after meeting him several weeks ago in the Oval Office. The US Congress has control of D.C.'s budget after the district was established in 1790 with land from neighboring Virginia and Maryland, but resident voters elect a mayor and city council. For Trump to take over the city, it is likely that Congress would have to pass a law revoking the law that established local elected leadership.
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
On the front lines in eastern Ukraine, peace feels far away
DONETSK REGION: In a dugout where each nearby blast sends dirt raining from the ceiling and the black plastic lining the walls slipping down, Ukrainian soldiers say peace talks feel distant and unlikely to end the war. Explosions from Russian weapons — from glide bombs to artillery shells — thunder regularly overhead, keeping them underground except when they fire the M777 howitzer buried near their trench. Nothing on the Eastern Front suggests the war could end soon. Diplomatic peace efforts feel so far removed from the battlefield that many soldiers doubt they can bring results. Their skepticism is rooted in months of what they see as broken US promises to end the war quickly. Recent suggestions by US President Donald Trump that there will be some ' swapping of territories' — as well as media reports that it would involve Ukrainian troops leaving the Donetsk region where they have fought for years defending every inch of land — have stirred confusion and rejection among the soldiers. Few believe the current talks can end the war. More likely, they say, is a brief pause in hostilities before Russia resumes the assault with greater force. 'At minimum, the result would be to stop active fighting — that would be the first sign of some kind of settlement,' said soldier Dmytro Loviniukov of the 148th Brigade. 'Right now, that's not happening. And while these talks are taking place, they (the Russians) are only strengthening their positions on the front line.' Long war, no relief On one artillery position, talk often turns to home. Many Ukrainian soldiers joined the army in the first days of the full-scale invasion, leaving behind civilian jobs. Some thought they would serve only briefly. Others didn't think about the future at all — because at that moment, it didn't exist. In the years since, many have been killed. Those who survived are in their fourth year of a grueling war, far removed from the civilian lives they once knew. With mobilization faltering and the war dragging on far longer than expected, there is no one to replace them as the Ukrainian army struggles with recruiting new people. The army cannot also demobilize those who serve without risking the collapse of the front. That is why soldiers wait for even the possibility of a pause in hostilities. When direct talks between Russia and Ukraine were held in Istanbul in May, the soldiers from 148th brigade read the news with cautious hope, said a soldier with the call sign Bronson, who once worked as a tattoo artist. Months later, hope has been replaced with dark humor. On the eve of a deadline that US President Donald Trump reportedly gave Russia's Vladimir Putin — one that has since vanished from the agenda amid talk of a meeting in Alaska — the Russian fire roared every minute for hours. Soldiers joked that the shelling was because the deadline was 'running out.' 'We are on our land. We have no way back,' said the commander of the artillery group, Dmytro Loviniukov. 'We stand here because there is no choice. No one else will come here to defend us.' Training for what's ahead Dozens of kilometers from Zaporizhzhia region, north to the Donetsk area, heavy fighting grinds on toward Pokrovsk — now the epicenter of fighting. Once home to about 60,000 people, the city has been under sustained Russian assault for months. The Russians have formed a pocket around Pokrovsk, though Ukrainian troops still hold the city and street fighting has yet to begin. Reports of Russian saboteurs entering the city started to appear almost daily, but the military says those groups have been neutralized. Ukrainian soldiers of the Spartan brigade push through drills with full intensity, honing their skills for the battlefield in the Pokrovsk area. Everything at the training range, only 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the front, is designed to mirror real combat conditions — even the terrain. A thin strip of forest breaks up the vast fields of blooming sunflowers stretching into the distance until the next tree line appears. One of the soldiers training there is a 35-year-old with the call sign Komrad, who joined the military only recently. He says he has no illusions that the war will end soon. 'My motivation is that there is simply no way back,' he said. 'If you are in the military, you have to fight. If we're here, we need to cover our brothers in arms.' Truce doesn't mean peace For Serhii Filimonov, commander of the 'Da Vinci Wolves' battalion of the 59th brigade, the war's end is nowhere in sight, and current news doesn't influence the ongoing struggle to find enough resources to equip the unit that is fighting around Pokrovsk. 'We are preparing for a long war. We have no illusions that Russia will stop,' he said, speaking at his field command post. 'There may be a ceasefire, but there will be no peace.' Filimonov dismisses recent talk of exchanging territory or signing agreements as temporary fixes at best. 'Russia will not abandon its goal of capturing all of Ukraine,' he said. 'They will attack again. The big question is what security guarantees we get — and how we hit pause.' A soldier with the call sign Mirche from the 68th brigade said that whenever there is a new round of talks, the hostilities intensify around Pokrovsk — Russia's key priority during this summer's campaign. Whenever peace talks begin, 'things on the front get terrifying,' he said.
Saudi Gazette
4 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
Trump demands homeless people 'immediately' move out of Washington
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has said homeless people must "move out" of Washington DC as he vowed to tackle crime in the city, but the mayor pushed back against the White House likening the capital to Baghdad. "We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital," he posted on Sunday. The Republican president also trailed a news conference for Monday about his plan to make the city "safer and more beautiful than it ever was before". Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said: "We are not experiencing a crime spike." Trump signed an order last month making it easier to arrest homeless people, and he last week ordered federal law enforcement into the streets of Washington DC. "The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social on Sunday. "We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong." Alongside photos of tents and rubbish, he added: "There will be no 'MR. NICE GUY.' We want our Capital BACK. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" The specifics of the president's plan are not yet clear, but in a 2022 speech he proposed moving homeless people to "high quality" tents on inexpensive land outside cities, while providing access to bathrooms and medical professionals. On Friday, Trump ordered federal agents — including from US Park Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the US Marshals Service — into Washington DC to curb what he called "totally out of control" levels of crime. A White House official told National Public Radio that up to 450 federal officers were deployed on Saturday night. The move comes after a 19-year-old former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) was assaulted in an alleged attempted carjacking in Washington DC. Trump vented about that incident on social media, posting a photo of the bloodied victim. Mayor Bowser told MSNBC on Sunday: "It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023. "We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low." She criticised White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller for dubbing the US capital "more violent than Baghdad". "Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false," Bowser said. Washington DC's homicide rate remains relatively high per capita compared to other US cities, with a total of 98 such killings recorded so far this year. Homicides have been trending higher in the US capital from a decade ago. But federal data from January suggests that Washington DC last year recorded its lowest overall violent crime figures — once carjacking, assault and robberies are incorporated — in 30 years. Trump has said there will be a news conference at the White House on Monday to outline their plans to stop violent crime in the US capital. In another post on Sunday he said the event at 10:00 EDT (14:00 GMT) would address ending "crime, murder and death" in the city, as well as its "physical renovation". He described Bowser as "a good person who has tried", adding that despite her efforts crime continues to get "worse" and the city becomes "dirtier and less attractive". Community Partnership, an organisation that works to reduce homelessness in Washington DC, told Reuters news agency that the city of 700,000 residents had about 3,782 people homeless on any given night. Most were in public housing or emergency shelters, but about 800 were considered "on the street". As a district, rather than a state, Washington DC is overseen by the federal government, which has the power to override some local laws. The president controls federal land and buildings in the city, although he would need Congress to assume federal control of the district. In recent days, he has threatened to take over the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department, which Bowser argued was not possible. "There are very specific things in our law that would allow the president to have more control over our police department," Bowser said. "None of those conditions exist in our city right now." — BBC
