Judge blocks Trump's birthright citizenship restrictions in third ruling since high court decision
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, joining another district court as well as an appellate panel of judges, found that a nationwide injunction granted to more than a dozen states remains in force under an exception to the Supreme Court ruling. That decision restricted the power of lower-court judges to issue nationwide injunctions.
The states have argued Trump's birthright citizenship order is blatantly unconstitutional and threatens millions of dollars for health insurance services that are contingent on citizenship status. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation's highest court.
Lawyers for the government had argued Sorokin should narrow the reach of his earlier ruling granting a preliminary injunction, arguing it should be 'tailored to the States' purported financial injuries.'
'The record does not support a finding that any narrower option would feasibly and adequately protect the plaintiffs from the injuries they have shown they are likely to suffer,' Sorokin wrote.
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CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Trump EPA proposes revoking pollution limits based in part on document authored by 5 climate contrarians
Climate change Pollution Federal agencies Air quality FacebookTweetLink In one of its most significant reversals on climate policy to-date, the Trump administration on Tuesday proposed to repeal a 2009 scientific finding that human-caused climate change endangers human health and safety, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced. If successful, the repeal could strip away the federal government's most powerful way to control the country's planet-warming pollution and fight climate change. The repeal was based in part on a hastily produced report — authored by five researchers who have spent years sowing doubt in the scientific consensus around climate change — that questions the severity of the impacts of climate change. The 2009 scientific finding at the heart of this repeal has served as the basis of many of the Environmental Protection Agency's most significant regulations to protect human health and environment, and decrease climate pollution from cars, power plants and the oil and gas industry. Zeldin on Tuesday spoke proudly of his agency's move to repeal the endangerment finding as the 'largest deregulatory action in the history of America,' speaking on 'Ruthless,' a conservative podcast, and referred to climate change as dogma rather than science. 'This has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion,' Zeldin said. In addition to reversing the endangerment finding, the EPA's proposal also seeks to repeal rules that regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, since they stem from the finding. The Biden EPA sought to tighten those standards to prod the auto industry to make more fuel-efficient hybrids and electric vehicles. The text of the proposal said that while greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise in the atmosphere, it has been 'driven primarily by increased emissions from foreign sources,' and has happened 'without producing the degree of adverse impacts to public health and welfare in the United States that the EPA anticipated in the 2009 Endangerment Finding.' The US is the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and historically has emitted more planet-warming pollution than any other country. Many rigorous scientific findings since 2009 have showed both climate pollution and its warming effects are not just harming public health but killing people outright. In the nearly 16 years since the EPA first issued the Supreme Court-ordered endangerment finding, the world has warmed an additional 0.45 degrees Celsius (or 0.81 degrees Fahrenheit) to 1.4 degrees Celsius, according to climate scientist Zeke Hausfather. Numerous international and US scientific findings have found 'increasingly incontrovertible evidence' that humans are causing this warming by burning oil, gas and coal. Even that fraction of a degree, when spread across the planet, has had an enormous impact on our weather, water and food systems. The world is at a dangerous threshold with individual years, including 2024, already exceeding the 1.5-degree guardrail laid out in the Paris Agreement — the point at which scientists believe the effects of climate change will likely be near impossible to reverse. Many climate scientists no longer believe the long-term target of 1.5-degrees is achievable, as fossil fuel pollution continues and the world heads closer to 3 degrees Celsius of warming during this century. Zeldin said during the podcast he believes the scientific finding that climate change threatens human health was a guise used to attack polluting industries, and that the human health finding was 'an oversimplified, I would say inaccurate, way to describe it.' The Trump administration commissioned the new report on climate change and climate science in conjunction with its proposed regulatory repeals, Energy Sec. Chris Wright announced during a Tuesday afternoon press conference. The document calls into question the seriousness of climate impacts and informed EPA's repeal of the endangerment finding, according to the proposal. Wright's Energy Department recently hired three prominent researchers who have questioned and even rejected the overwhelming scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, CNN previously reported — John Christy and Roy Spencer, both research scientists at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and Steven E. Koonin of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Christy, Spencer and Koonin are on the byline of the DOE report, along with Canadian economist Ross McKitrick and Georgia Tech professor emeritus Judith Curry — also considered to have opinions on climate change that contradict the scientific consensus. The group took around two months to complete the report. Wright said climate change 'is a real, physical phenomenon' that is 'worthy of study' and 'even some action.' 'But what we have done instead is nothing related to the actual science of climate change or pragmatic ways to make progress,' Wright said. 'The politics of climate change have shrunk your life possibilities, have put your business here at threat.' Hausfather told CNN he was 'surprised' this would be released as an official publication, and said it was notable the Trump administration had selected 'five authors who are well known to have fringe views of climate science' to author it. 'It reads like a blog post — a somewhat scattershot collection of oft-debunked skeptic claims, studies taken out of context, or cherry-picked examples that are not representative of broader climate science research findings,' he said. 'The fact that this has been released at the same time that the government has hidden the actual congressionally mandated national climate assessments that accurately reflect the science only further shows how much of a farce this is.' And Hausfather strongly pushed back the idea that the scientific record shows anything other than climate change presenting danger to humans. The findings of international climate scientists have been reaffirmed in the fourth and fifth US climate assessments, the former of which was released during the first Trump administration. 'Both the scientific certainty around climate change and evidence of the dangers it is causing have grown stronger since 2009,' he said in an email. 'There is no evidence that has emerged or been published in the scientific literature in the past 16 years that would in any way challenge the scientific basis of the 2009 endangerment finding.' Global warming is supercharging extreme weather events such as heavy precipitation, heat waves and wildfires. It is making these extremes more likely, intense and in some cases, longer-lasting. 'These changes in climate have moved out of the domain of pure science into the domain of everyday life,' said Phil Duffy, a climate scientist and former Biden official in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Duffy, who lives in California, said he can now only buy wildfire insurance through the state insurer of last resort — a reality for many Californians as wildfires are increasing in size amid hotter temperatures. 'The evidence (in 2009) was overwhelming, but it's even stronger now,' he said. This story has been updated with additional information. Rene Marsh contributed reporting.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Senate, Rejecting Whistle-Blower Alarms, Confirms Bove to Appeals Court
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Emil Bove III, a Trump loyalist whose short tenure in the top ranks of the Justice Department prompted whistle-blower complaints and a storm of criticism from agency veterans, to a powerful federal appeals court judgeship. Mr. Bove had sparked outcries at the department by directing or overseeing the firing of dozens of employees and ordering the dismissal of bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York. According to one whistle-blower who went public, Mr. Bove also told government lawyers that they might ignore court orders in pursuit of President Trump's immigration policy goals. Mr. Bove has denied being anyone's enforcer or henchman, but his nomination to a lifetime appointment one rung below the Supreme Court provoked an intense battle in the Senate. His approval to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which encompasses Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, came by a tiny margin, 50 to 49, with all Democrats and two Republicans, Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, opposing him. Still, the confirmation of Mr. Bove provided at least a tacit Senate endorsement of the president's efforts to bend the justice system to his will. Most Republicans shrugged off concerns that Mr. Bove, 44 and a defense lawyer for Mr. Trump in his Manhattan criminal trial last year, had undermined the traditional independence of the Justice Department or aided in Mr. Trump's standoffs with the courts. The day before Mr. Bove's confirmation hearing, Erez Reuveni, a former immigration lawyer at the department, came forward to assert that Mr. Bove had told subordinates he was willing to ignore court orders to fulfill the president's aggressive deportation promises. In recent days, two more would-be whistle-blowers signaled they had additional derogatory information about Mr. Bove, according to lawmakers and advocates. One of those individuals suggested that Mr. Bove was untruthful in at least one of his answers about his efforts to dismiss the Adams case, while another has offered information to the Justice Department inspector general that would seem to support some of Mr. Reuveni's claims. Though his time as a senior Justice Department official was relatively brief, Mr. Bove played an outsize role in the Trump administration's aggressive effort to take control of the agency it argues has been 'weaponized' against Mr. Trump and other conservatives. Because his position did not require Senate confirmation, Mr. Bove was among the first Trump appointees to arrive at the department, overseeing a succession of major policy and personnel moves, starting with a memo threatening to prosecute state and city officials who refused to carry out immigration enforcement. But the most defining episode of his tenure was the battle he waged against the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, where he once worked, over the administration's insistence on dropping bribery charges against Mr. Adams — who had personally appealed to the White House for a legal reprieve. Mr. Bove pressured top prosecutors in the office to drop the case. He claimed that the charges had been brought by an overzealous U.S. attorney appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and he argued that the case would hinder Mr. Adams's capacity to cooperate with the White House on immigration enforcement. The Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Danielle R. Sassoon, resigned rather than sign off on Mr. Bove's command. Other career prosecutors in the public integrity section resigned rather than accede to his demands. Mr. Bove's current boss, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, who also served with him on Mr. Trump's legal team, accused Mr. Bove's critics of spreading slander and misinformation. 'Emil is the most capable and principled lawyer I have ever known,' Mr. Blanche wrote in an opinion article for Fox News. 'His legal acumen is extraordinary, and his moral clarity is above reproach.'
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Violent crime drops in Washington as drug offenses skyrocket, latest statistics show
(Photo by) Violent crime in Washington dropped significantly last year but remains well above pre-pandemic levels. And Washington remains dead last in police staffing per capita compared to other states. These findings come from a report released this week by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs that shows some encouraging signs after years of rising crime. Murders statewide dropped nearly 19% from 2023, for a total of 312 people killed, but that figure is still more than 50% higher than 2019. This mirrors national data showing the trend of declining murders continuing in the first quarter of this year in the country's biggest cities. Robberies are down 16%, creeping closer to 2019 levels. Meanwhile, a yearslong rise in assaults since the pandemic slowed but didn't abate. Theft and property damage reports also decreased. Overall, the state's crime rate dropped around 9%, the report found. 'We have seen significant decreases in crime this past year, which is something to celebrate because that means fewer victims,' said Steve Strachan, the association's executive director. 'Now, our challenge is to keep this momentum going.' State Sen. Manka Dhingra, the chair of the Law and Justice Committee and a former prosecutor, attributed the reductions partially to state investments in behavioral health treatment and housing construction. So she's worried federal cuts to social service programs could reverse Washington's progress on crime. 'It takes an entire community to address violence,' said Dhingra, a Democrat from Redmond. 'When people can't get access to housing or treatment, that's when you see crime escalating.' Two types of crime saw significant jumps in 2024. Drug arrests leaped from 5,022 reported in 2023 to 10,907 last year, driven by a major increase in methamphetamine offenses, according to the association's report. As one of the explanations for the sudden rise in drug-related arrests, Strachan points to legislators' drug policy overhaul in 2023 to toughen penalties for possession or public drug use. That law was passed in response to the state Supreme Court declaring Washington's previous drug possession statute unconstitutional. The legislation also guided increased drug treatment options. The 2023 law 'was designed around the idea that treatment will always be in the foreground, and that criminal sanctions will always be the last resort, and I think that's what we're seeing in agencies all across our state,' Strachan said. 'However, the tool of criminal sanctions are there and are being used when absolutely necessary.' Meanwhile, courts have chipped away at case backlogs tied to the pandemic shutdown and local jails have eased restrictions on what level of offenders should be taken into custody. This upswing in drug crimes could also be a cause of the drop in more serious offenses, Strachan said, with criminal punishment potentially serving as an incentive to get treatment. Domestic violence incidents ticked up about 10%, as well, making up half of all crimes against people. Strachan couldn't see a clear explanation for why domestic violence has increased. The association's nearly 600-page report covers data reported by state, county, municipal and tribal law enforcement agencies across Washington. Washington continued to sit last in the nation in police officers per capita, at 1.38 officers per 1,000 people at the end of October. The state has ranked last for 15 straight years, according to the association. The national average is 2.31. Washington had 11,070 full-time commissioned officers in 2024, up a few hundred from the past couple years. Last year, the state had its highest rate of law enforcement employees per capita since 2020, according to FBI data. Dhingra pointed to new regional police training academies in helping address Washington's struggle in hiring and retaining officers. In recent years, the state has opened academies in Arlington, Pasco and Vancouver. Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson has made this issue a focal point of his first year in office. He refused to sign a state budget that didn't include $100 million in grants to hire new police officers. State lawmakers delivered on that demand, despite some misgivings, but allowed the money to go toward more than just new cops, including peer counselors, behavioral health co-responders, training and other broader public safety efforts. 'It's going to be a big step forward. I have no doubt about that,' Ferguson said as he signed the legislation in May. 'Jurisdictions will make their choices, but there's going to be significant investments in new law enforcement officers.' To access the grants, cities and counties need to either implement a new 0.1% sales tax for public safety or have already imposed a similar tax. They also need to follow state model policies as well as collect and report use-of-force data. Strachan isn't sure the money will make a significant difference in the state's progress to increase police staffing. The average annual cost for one officer is $154,704, according to state data. To tie for 50th in the nation in staffing per capita, Washington would need to hire 1,513 new cops, costing $234 million per year, according to the association. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
