The Trump administration's attempt to quietly—but massively—expand who can be detained pending their removal has been met with overwhelming pushback from a remarkably large number of district courts.
Thanks so much for this! I've been wondering the details of their legal justification so I can understand better who is at the greatest risk. (Not that immigrant of color isn't at risk in this lawless and cruel environment).
"Of course, it’s hard to imagine any Congress, let alone the current one, making it easier for servicemembers to sue the federal government." True, but that fact only highlights the ease with which Congress allowed for huge damage claims (for senators and only for senators), retroactively, when the government lawfully subpoenas phone records. Prigs!
Shira Perlmutter situation is that Slaughter's and Cook's outcomes would be implicated by the outcome of the emergency motion. Roberts won't want to startle Wall Street before he has to, and it's not clear to me whether Wall Street has "priced in" the Federal Reserve remaining independent.
Johnny Roberts may be a Royalist, but he's also the most dedicated servant to the Chamber of Commerce on the Court since pre-FDR. My guess is that he won't "overturn" the Humphrey's Executor line but will carve out a SCOTUS review based on a BS litany of factors that will turn on the unlisted factor of "political party of the President". He'll probably do the same thing on tariffs: create a complicate "is it truly an emergency test?" and send it back to District Courts to re-examine.
Both of which will inject a ton of uncertainty into the stock markets, so CJ J.R. won't show his hand early. That's why he wants to wait to dispose of Perlmutter until later, simply to not tip his hand at all.
> They had rather petered out over the ensuing decade, so it will be interesting to see if the two rulings last Monday end up as outliers, or as a sign that more of these rulings are incoming.
I'd say they more fell off a cliff, around the time when Barrett joined the court. I think it was mentioned in a NYT article some years ago that she didn't like providing the 6th vote for summary judgments. (She's been rather stingy with cert grants too.)
> Frankly, I don’t get it. The underlying question in Perlmutter is a very specific, statutory question...
If Slaughter is very expansive ruling (e.g. the "one drop" version of UET, basically everything is an executive agency), that would resolve this case. See the government's brief
I know a number of green card holders from countries such as Canada and the UK, of diverse ethnicities, both with and without US-born US citizen spouses, who are now concerned about what may happen to them during their applications for naturalization. Could they too be detained and sent who knows where with no warning when they turn up for their interviews? Am I being unreasonable in trying to calm their fears, when they refer to all the previously "unthinkable" things that have become frequent news items since January 20, 2025? I went through this process in July 1976, bicentennial year, and the only thing that struck me as odd at that time was the test of my ability to speak and understand English, my mother tongue. Like POTUS today in all his cognitive and physical tests, my score was perfect.
Very good information
Thanks so much for this! I've been wondering the details of their legal justification so I can understand better who is at the greatest risk. (Not that immigrant of color isn't at risk in this lawless and cruel environment).
"Of course, it’s hard to imagine any Congress, let alone the current one, making it easier for servicemembers to sue the federal government." True, but that fact only highlights the ease with which Congress allowed for huge damage claims (for senators and only for senators), retroactively, when the government lawfully subpoenas phone records. Prigs!
Shira Perlmutter situation is that Slaughter's and Cook's outcomes would be implicated by the outcome of the emergency motion. Roberts won't want to startle Wall Street before he has to, and it's not clear to me whether Wall Street has "priced in" the Federal Reserve remaining independent.
difficult to know for sure but the conventional wisdom seems to be that wall street expects the fed to remain independent
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/29/business/wall-street-fed-supreme-court
Johnny Roberts may be a Royalist, but he's also the most dedicated servant to the Chamber of Commerce on the Court since pre-FDR. My guess is that he won't "overturn" the Humphrey's Executor line but will carve out a SCOTUS review based on a BS litany of factors that will turn on the unlisted factor of "political party of the President". He'll probably do the same thing on tariffs: create a complicate "is it truly an emergency test?" and send it back to District Courts to re-examine.
Both of which will inject a ton of uncertainty into the stock markets, so CJ J.R. won't show his hand early. That's why he wants to wait to dispose of Perlmutter until later, simply to not tip his hand at all.
> They had rather petered out over the ensuing decade, so it will be interesting to see if the two rulings last Monday end up as outliers, or as a sign that more of these rulings are incoming.
I'd say they more fell off a cliff, around the time when Barrett joined the court. I think it was mentioned in a NYT article some years ago that she didn't like providing the 6th vote for summary judgments. (She's been rather stingy with cert grants too.)
> Frankly, I don’t get it. The underlying question in Perlmutter is a very specific, statutory question...
If Slaughter is very expansive ruling (e.g. the "one drop" version of UET, basically everything is an executive agency), that would resolve this case. See the government's brief
I know a number of green card holders from countries such as Canada and the UK, of diverse ethnicities, both with and without US-born US citizen spouses, who are now concerned about what may happen to them during their applications for naturalization. Could they too be detained and sent who knows where with no warning when they turn up for their interviews? Am I being unreasonable in trying to calm their fears, when they refer to all the previously "unthinkable" things that have become frequent news items since January 20, 2025? I went through this process in July 1976, bicentennial year, and the only thing that struck me as odd at that time was the test of my ability to speak and understand English, my mother tongue. Like POTUS today in all his cognitive and physical tests, my score was perfect.