Latest news with #executiveorders
Washington Post
6 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Live updates: White House to brief reporters as uproar over Epstein files upends Washington
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has scheduled a news briefing Wednesday amid the continued controversy over the Trump administration's decision not to release files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The House is expected to adjourn Wednesday, a day earlier than expected, for its five-week recess after Republicans irate over the administration's decision blocked most legislation from reaching the chamber floor for a vote this week. President Donald Trump, who has sought to change the subject, plans Wednesday to deliver a speech on artificial intelligence and unveil three executive orders intended to boost the U.S. tech sector. Silicon Valley's risky bet on President Donald Trump is starting to pay dividends. The White House on Wednesday plans to reveal how it will position the United States to lead a global race to develop artificial intelligence and unveil three executive orders intended to boost the American tech sector, according to two people familiar with the rollout who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public. Former president Barack Obama's office issued a rare admonishment Tuesday of the Trump administration's claims that Obama administration officials planned a 'treasonous conspiracy' aimed at the current commander in chief, calling the allegations 'a weak attempt at distraction.' President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has clinched a trade deal with Japan, reducing the tariffs he had planned to impose on goods from a major trading partner as his deadline for negotiations nears. Trump posted on his Truth Social social media site Tuesday evening that he would impose a 15 percent duty on Japanese imports, down from the 25 percent he threatened earlier this month. Federal judges in New Jersey declined Tuesday to appoint Alina Habba, President Donald Trump's pick for U.S. attorney in the state, to continue serving in that role, delivering a resounding rebuke to one of his administration's most polarizing Justice Department appointees and teeing up a showdown over who would lead the office. A panel of the state's U.S. district court judges made the announcement in a brief order that did not offer any explanation for its decision.
Washington Post
8 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Silicon Valley's bet on Trump starts to pay off
Silicon Valley's risky bet on President Donald Trump is starting to pay dividends. The White House on Wednesday plans to reveal how it will position the United States to lead a global race to develop artificial intelligence and unveil three executive orders intended to boost the American tech sector, according to two people familiar with the rollout who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Big Law Firms Bowed to Trump. A Corps of ‘Little Guys' Jumped in to Fight Him.
President Trump's executive orders seeking to punish big law firms have led some of them to acquiesce to him and left others reluctant to take on pro bono cases that could put them at odds with the administration. But as opponents of the White House's policies organized to fight Mr. Trump in court on a vast range of actions and policies, they quickly found that they did not need to rely on Big Law. Instead, an army of solo practitioners, former government litigators and small law firms stepped up to volunteer their time to challenge the administration's agenda. 'I don't know if the administration knew how many little guys are out there,' said Michael H. Ansell, a solo practitioner in Morristown, N.J., who earlier this year joined the Pro Bono Litigation Corps, newly launched by Lawyers for Good Government, a legal nonprofit. He answered the nonprofit's plea for lawyers willing to give at least 20 hours a week to an upcoming case. More than 80 volunteered. Earlier this year, Mr. Trump issued a flurry of executive orders and implicit threats targeting major law firms whose past work or clients he did not like. While some of the firms chose to fight the orders and have so far prevailed in court, others hastened to settle, agreeing in the process to steer about $1 billion in pro bono work toward the administration's favored causes. Even some of those who stood up to Mr. Trump have been leery of further provoking his ire by taking on cases opposing the administration. But lawyers like Mr. Ansell have been eager to jump in. He helped interview plaintiffs for a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia late last month against the Environmental Protection Agency. About 20 community, environmental and tribal groups, as well as the cities of Springfield, Mass., San Francisco and Sacramento are suing to restore money they were awarded but lost after the E.P.A. terminated its Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants program. Mr. Ansell typically handles small business disputes, 'so I don't have to worry about losing any big-time government contractor clients,' he said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Republican introduces measure to ban autopen use when presidents sign certain items
Rep. Addison McDowell, R-N.C., has introduced a bill which would declare that engrossed bills, executive orders, pardons, and commutations may only be legally signed by the president, and an autopen device may not be used. The measure is called the "Ban on Inkless Directives and Executive Notarizations Act of 2025," or the BIDEN Act. The bill would amend current law to add: "Notwithstanding this section or any other provision of law, no person other than the President may lawfully sign an engrossed bill, Executive Order, or pardon or commutation, nor may automatic signing device, including an autopen, be used for such purpose." "No engrossed bill, Executive Order, or pardon or commutation that was signed in violation of section 301 of title 3, United States Code, including any such an engrossed bill, Executive Order, or pardon or commutation signed prior to the effective date of this Act, may be considered to have any force or effect," the bill also declares. In a statement included in a press release about the bill, McDowell said, "The American people elect a President to run the country, not a cabal of woke staffers. Sadly, that is exactly what the American people received under Joe Biden." "While Joe Biden worried more about breaking glass ceilings as commander in chief, his legacy will forever be tied to the lack of oversight he provided to the presidential autopen. The BIDEN Act will ensure that rogue bureaucrats can no longer take advantage of a mentally incompetent President to seize authority awarded to the Oval Office," the lawmaker said, according to the release. Former President Joe Biden has previously dismissed the notion that he did not make the decisions while serving as president. "Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false," Biden said in part of a statement last month.
New York Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Ketanji Brown Jackson Knows How to Get People's Attention
When Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote her ringing dissent in the case of Trump v. CASA, which severely curtailed the ability of lower courts to serve as a check on unlawful executive orders, she wanted to make abundantly clear the danger of what she regarded as a 'seismic shock' to American legal norms. 'Courts must have the power to order everyone (including the executive) to follow the law — full stop,' she wrote. She continued, in a voice dripping with sarcasm, 'The majority sees a power grab — but not by a presumably lawless executive choosing to act in a manner that flouts the plain text of the Constitution. Instead, to the majority, the power-hungry actors are … (wait for it) … the District Courts.' Social media platforms exploded with outrage. One user asked, in apparent disbelief, 'Did Ketanji Brown Jackson actually pop that stupid little 'wait for it' gag in a SCOTUS opinion?' Another said the dissent 'single-handedly degraded 235 years, four months, and 25 days of SCOTUS precedent.' The worst of them turned the justice's language back on her as a weapon. 'Ketanji Brown Jackson is … (wait for it) …' — well, I won't repeat the insult here, but for good measure, they added, 'full stop.' Her critics were right to note that Jackson was doing something unusual. And it wasn't just those examples. She peppered the whole dissent with expressions like 'Why all the fuss?' 'Do not take my word for it,' 'Here is what I mean,' and the assessment — again with unmistakable sarcasm — 'That is some solicitation.' You won't find anything like that in Marbury v. Madison. What's striking about Jackson's turns of phrase is that they employ what we typically regard as oral language — spontaneous, spoken words — in an extremely serious written text. That choice, and the blowback it encountered, are a chance to consider the arbitrariness and narrowness of the conventions dictating how legal opinions should be written. The expectation that their language be timeless, faceless and Latinate is a matter of custom, not necessity. 'Why all the fuss?' indeed. Jackson is, at 54, the youngest justice on the court. She was raised in the 1980s, a time when America's writing culture was getting markedly less hidebound. Waving aside the hats and girdles and stuffy dance steps of old, the counterculture had shown America how to let its language hang out, too. A new, looser style of writing allowed a play between the oral and the written, and the result enriched the culture rather than impoverishing it. I can't speak for Jackson, but that shift had a big impact on a great many people who grew up in that era's wake. It definitely had a big impact on me. I write in what I hope is a conversational style. Like Jackson, I have sometimes been scolded for it by people who would prefer that I write 'with a tie on,' as it were. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
