A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
The Damage Will Be Done
It wasn’t just what the Supreme Court did Tuesday with President Trump’s ban on trans service members in the military. It’s how it did it.
The challenge to the ban on trans in the military was wending its way through the courts, with a federal judge in Washington state hearing evidence and issuing a nationwide injunction blocking the ban and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declining to lift the injunction while it heard the appeal. The Trump administration then asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on an emergency basis, which is what the high court did yesterday.
With the three liberal justices dissenting, the Roberts Court once again intervened at a early stage of the proceedings, before the lower courts finished dispensing with the case and before it could hear full arguments. A second case in DC – also won by trans service members – was recently paused by a Trump-appointee-heavy three-judge panel of DC Circuit Court of Appeals
In clearing the way for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to continue the purge of trans service members, the Supreme Court is letting the damage be done before the courts have had a full bite at the apple. In doing do, it is disrupting the status quo. Transgender Americans already serve in the military and have done so openly for years. Some trans service members are in the process of transitioning. Others rely on military health care for their ongoing treatment.
By refusing to let the legal case proceed before the trans purge is fully implemented, the Supreme Court is enabling the Trump administration to inflict the damage that the plaintiffs are trying to avoid. Plaintiffs had won so far, but it’s a hollow victory if the Pentagon is allowed to proceed anyway. The Supreme Court is letting the Trump administration create facts on the ground that will be hard to undo later: discharging trans service members and refusing to accept trans people into the military. Careers ended, lives upended, and financial costs incurred.
All of this points, of course, to the Supreme Court ultimately ruling in the administration’s favor on the merits of the case. But as Chris Geidner points out, making projections can be fraught and another important trans case is pending before the Supreme Court that could be a complicating factor in this case. As is the custom in emergency rulings, the court gave no reasons for its decision.
Trump Suffers Two New Alien Enemies Act Losses
Two more federal judges have rendered substantive decisions that President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua was fatally flawed as a matter of law. The latest decisions go beyond the initial round of court rulings, including by the Supreme Court, that focused on due process.
- New York: In a new ruling, U.S. District Alvin Hellerstein granted a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of President Trump’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation in the Southern District of New York. Hellerstein rejected the administration’s argument that Tren de Aragua’s presence in the United States constitutes an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” under the AEA.
- Colorado: In a new ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney converted her prior temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the Alien Enemies Act in Colorado.
The latest decisions on the substance of the AEA follow a similar ruling last week by a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas.
Judge Doesn’t Buy Trump DOJ Flimflam In Detainee Case
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher continues to insist that the Trump administration facilitate the return of a Venezuelan man deported to the CECOT prison in El Salvador in violation of a 2024 settlement agreement with asylum seekers. Gallagher rejected a Trump DOJ argument that even if it returned him to the U.S. it would not give him asylum. “Whether he ultimately receives asylum is not the issue,” Gallagher said in a hearing. “The issue is, and has always been, one of process.”
The Dirty Deal With El Salvador
Brian Finucane at Just Security pulls together from scattered news reports some of the terms of the Trump administration’s deal with El Salvador to house U.S. detainees in its prisons. But the public record remains incomplete, he argues, and likely will require sworn testimony from Trump administration officials to nail down the complete terms of the arrangement.
Not Just El Salvador
The Trump administration continues to try to find countries willing to take third-country nationals detained by the U.S.:
- Libya: A U.S. military plane is set to transport to Libya as soon as today a group of migrants whose nationalities are not publicly know, the NYT reports.
- Rwanda: The country’s foreign minister confirmed it is in “early talks” with the United States about accepting third-country nationals.
- Ukraine: In late January, the Trump administration urged war-torn Ukraine to accept third-country nationals, according to documents reviewed by the Wapo.
Slow Progress For Pro-Palestinian Student Detainees
A quick catch-up on the some of the cases involving pro-Palestinian international students detained after Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s unilaterally revoked their legal statuses for what is clearly their political viewpoints:
- Georgetown University: Researcher Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national detained in Texas, will get to have his case heard in Virginia, where he lived and was originally detained, a federal judge ruled.
- Tufts University: The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on whether Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk’s case will be heard in Vermont, as a lower court ordered in her favor, or in Louisiana, where the Trump administration has detained her.
- Columbia University: The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals also heard the Trump administration’s appeal of a lower court order that freed Mohsen Mahdawi while his case proceeds.
We May Not Be Rid Of Ed Martin Just Yet
While it’s increasingly clear that acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin’s nomination for the permanent position in DC lacks sufficient Republican support to get through the Senate Judiciary Committee, his primary GOP antagonist left the door open to confirm Martin as U.S. attorney someplace other than DC.
“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened, the protest happened, I’d probably support him,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told reporters Tuesday. “But not in this district.”
Martin spent most of working life in Missouri before being tapped for the DC position.
Law Firms That Cut Deals With Trump Pay The Price
Law.com: “Some in-house lawyers are quietly pulling work away from some law firms that have made deals with President Trump, citing their objections to such deals, according to interviews with legal department chiefs.”
Hmmm …
The Trump administration abruptly and with no explanation removed the vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Alvin Brown was the only Black member on the five-person board of the independent agency.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
WaPo: “The U.S. DOGE Service is racing to build a single centralized database with vast troves of personal information about millions of U.S. citizens and residents, a campaign that often violates or disregards core privacy and security protections meant to keep such information safe, government workers say.”
Just Do The Math
The Trump administration is junking the EPA’s highly successful Energy Star program for home appliances, which saved Americans more than $500 billion in energy costs while avoiding the emission of four billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. The program cost $32 million a year while saving $40 billion annually in energy costs, one advocacy group noted.
Surreal Headline Of The Day
WSJ: U.S. Orders Intelligence Agencies to Step Up Spying on Greenland
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