Latest news with #U.S.CircuitCourtofAppeals
Epoch Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Appeals Court Pauses Order Granting Due Process to Venezuelan Deportees
A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a lower court order that allowed Venezuelan illegal immigrants deported to El Salvador in March to challenge their detention. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued an administrative stay on June 10, putting District Judge James Boasberg's June 4 order on hold while it reviews the government's appeal.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DOJ asks Supreme Court to intervene in deportation flights case
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to carry out swift deportations. The emergency application marks the first time the high court has been asked to get involved in the high-profile case after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking deportation flights under the rarely invoked, 18th-century statute. 'This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country—the President, through Article II, or the Judiciary, through TROs,' acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the application. 'The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President. The republic cannot afford a different choice,' she continued. The 1798 Alien Enemies Act enables migrants to be summarily deported amid a declared war or an 'invasion' by a foreign nation. The law has been leveraged just three previous times, all during wars, but Trump contends he can use it because the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is effectively invading the United States. After the president issued a proclamation invoking the law, the administration quickly deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a notorious Salvadoran prison. Some of the migrants have contested being connected to a gang. Boasberg, an appointee of former President Obama, has been at the center of Trump's ire ever since he blocked the president's plan at a rare weekend court hearing right after Trump signed the order. Trump has called for the judge's impeachment and repeatedly publicly criticized him in the days since. The administration's Supreme Court application comes after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a 2-1 decision Wednesday declining to lift Boasberg's rulings. 'Here, the district court's orders have rebuffed the President's judgments as to how to protect the Nation against foreign terrorist organizations and risk debilitating effects for delicate foreign negotiations,' the application reads. 'More broadly, rule-by-TRO has become so commonplace among district courts that the Executive Branch's basic functions are in peril,' she continued. By default, the emergency application goes to Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency appeals arising from the nation's capital. He can act on the request alone or refer it to the full court for a vote. It is one of four pending series of lawsuits the Trump administration has brought to the Supreme Court's emergency docket. The court is also actively mulling whether to grant requests to narrow rulings blocking Trump's birthright citizenship restrictions nationwide, fire more than 16,000 federal probationary employees and freeze $65 million worth of teacher development grants. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
28-03-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
DOJ asks Supreme Court to intervene in deportation flights case
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to carry out swift deportations. The emergency application marks the first time that the high court has been asked to get involved in the high-profile case after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking deportation flights under the rarely invoked statute. 'This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country—the President, through Article II, or the Judiciary, through TROs,' acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the application. 'The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President. The republic cannot afford a different choice,' she continued. The 1798 Alien Enemies Act enables migrants to be summarily deported amid a declared war or an 'invasion' by a foreign nation. The law has been leveraged just three previous times, all during wars, but Trump contends he can use it because the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is effectively invading the United States. After the president issued a proclamation invoking the law, the administration quickly deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison. Some of the deportees have contested being connected to a gang. Boasberg, an appointee of former President Obama, has been at the center of Trump's ire ever since he blocked the president's plan at a rare weekend court hearing right after Trump signed the order. Trump has called for the judge's impeachment and repeatedly publicly criticized him in the days since. The administration's Supreme Court application comes after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a 2-1 decision Wednesday declined to lift Boasberg's rulings. 'Here, the district court's orders have rebuffed the President's judgments as to how to protect the Nation against foreign terrorist organizations and risk debilitating effects for delicate foreign negotiations,' the application reads. 'More broadly, rule-by-TRO has become so commonplace among district courts that the Executive Branch's basic functions are in peril,' she continued. By default, the emergency application goes to Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency appeals arising from the nation's capital. He can act on the request alone or refer it to the full court for a vote. It is one of four pending series of lawsuits the Trump administration has brought to the Supreme Court's emergency docket. The court is also actively mulling whether to grant requests to narrow rulings blocking Trump's birthright citizenship restrictions nationwide, fire more than 16,000 federal probationary employees and freeze $65 million worth of teacher development grants.
Chicago Tribune
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Another federal judge blocks President Trump's policy banning transgender troops in the military
TACOMA, Wash. — A U.S. judge in Washington state has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump's order banning transgender people from serving in the military, the second nationwide injunction against the policy in as many weeks. The order Thursday from U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma came in a case brought by several long-serving transgender military members who say the ban is insulting and discriminatory, and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations. In his 65-page ruling, Settle — an appointee of former President George W. Bush and a former captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps — said the administration offered no explanation as to why transgender troops, who have been able to serve openly over the past four years with no evidence of problems, should suddenly be banned. 'The government's arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record,' Settle wrote. 'The government's unrelenting reliance on deference to military judgment is unjustified in the absence of any evidence supporting 'the military's' new judgment reflected in the Military Ban.' U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., similarly issued an order blocking the policy last week but then put her own ruling temporarily on hold pending the government's appeal. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia late Thursday told the parties that it would consider putting the ruling into effect if 'any action occurs that negatively impacts' transgender service members. In a more limited ruling on Monday, a judge in New Jersey barred the Air Force from removing two transgender men, saying they showed their separation would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations that no monetary settlement could repair. Trump signed an executive order Jan. 27 that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members 'conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life' and is harmful to military readiness. In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that presumptively disqualifies transgender people from military service. 'They can do the right number of pullups. They can do the right amount of pushups. They can shoot straight,' Sasha Buchert, an attorney with the civil rights law firm Lambda Legal, said after arguments Monday in Tacoma. 'Yet, they're being told they have to leave the military simply because of who they are.' Those challenging the policy and Trump's executive order in Tacoma include Gender Justice League, which counts transgender troops among its members, and several transgender members of the military. Among them is U.S. Navy Cmdr. Emily 'Hawking' Shilling, a 42-year-old woman who has served for more than 19 years, including 60 missions as a combat aviator in Iraq and Afghanistan. In his ruling, Settle highlighted her case. 'There is no claim and no evidence that she is now, or ever was, a detriment to her unit's cohesion, or to the military's lethality or readiness, or that she is mentally or physically unable to continue her service,' he wrote. 'There is no claim and no evidence that Shilling herself is dishonest or selfish, or that she lacks humility or integrity. Yet absent an injunction, she will be promptly discharged solely because she is transgender.' During arguments Monday, Justice Department lawyer Jason Lynch insisted that the president was entitled to deference in military affairs and suggested the service ban was not as broad as the plaintiffs had suggested. The judge peppered Lynch with questions, noting that the government had offered no evidence that allowing transgender troops to serve openly had caused any problems for military readiness. Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members. In 2016, a Defense Department policy permitted transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trump's first term in the White House, the Republican issued a directive to ban transgender service members, with an exception for some of those who had already started transitioning under more lenient rules that were in effect during the Obama administration. The Supreme Court allowed that ban to take effect. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, scrapped it when he took office. The rules imposed by Hegseth include no such exceptions.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Appeals court won't lift Boasberg's order blocking Alien Enemies Act
A federal appeals court in a 2-1 decision Wednesday refused to lift U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's order blocking the Trump administration from swiftly deporting migrants under the Alien Enemies Act. The Justice Department had urged the three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to immediately block Boasberg's order, casting it as an intrusion on the president's executive authority over national case has attracted significant attention after the administration leveraged the rarely used law to quickly deport hundreds of migrants officials claim are Venezuelan gang members to a notorious El Salvador prison. The Alien Enemies Act can only be invoked amid a declared war or an 'invasion' by a foreign nation. The law has been leveraged just three previous times, all during wars, but Trump contends he can use it because the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is effectively invading the United States. 'The theme that rings true is that an invasion is a military affair, not one of migration,' U.S. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, pushed back in her solo opinion. Henderson joined U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett, an appointee of former President Obama, to form a majority against the administration, but Millett did so believing the court had no jurisdiction over the case given the temporary nature of Boasberg's order. Both stressed the preliminary nature of the case and noted that Boasberg is set to soon rule on whether to grant a longer injunction. 'The government will have ample opportunity to prove its case and its evidence should be afforded the requisite deference due the President's national security judgments,' Henderson wrote. U.S. Circuit Judge Justin Walker, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, dissented, saying the migrants needed to challenge their detention in Texas, where they were detained before being flown out of the country, through what is known as a habeas petition. 'And whatever public interest exists for the Plaintiffs to have their day in court, they can have that day in court where the rules of habeas require them to bring their suit — in Texas,' Walker wrote. The Trump administration could now seek emergency review from the Supreme Court, but the case is meanwhile progressing in Boasberg's court. Boasberg, an Obama-appointed judge, has vowed to 'get to the bottom' of whether several deportation flights that left the country on Saturday, March 15 violated his order that day blocking the swift deportations and demanding any airborne flights turn around. The administration has insisted it did not violate the judge's written order but has refused to hand over additional details about the flights by invoking the state secrets privilege. The plaintiffs are due to respond by Monday to the privilege assertion. 'The decision means that hundreds of individuals remain protected from being sent to a notorious black-hole prison in a foreign country, without any due process whatsoever — perhaps for the rest of their lives,' Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) Immigrants' Rights Project who argued the case, said in a statement. Skye Perryman, the president of Democracy Forward, a left-leaning organization representing the plaintiffs alongside the ACLU, called Wednesday's ruling an 'important step.' 'President Trump is bound by the laws of this nation, and those laws do not permit him to use wartime powers when the United States is not at war and has not been invaded to remove individuals from the country with no process at all. Despite the President and administration's continued attacks on the rule of law, and the judges and lawyers sworn to protect it, and their careless disregard for court orders, it is undeniable that the legal system in this country is doing its job to protect peoples' rights,' Perryman said in a statement. Updated 5:54 p.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
