A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET
In a dramatic series of court rulings and reactions Friday and into the weekend, the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia leapfrogged the Alien Enemies Act deportations as the case most likely to lead to President Trump defying the judicial branch.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has set a deadline of 11:59 p.m. ET today for the Trump administration to arrange the return of Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was deported to his home country despite an order by an immigration judge barring his removal. Garcia was on one of the three March 15 flights that hauled deportees to a notorious El Salvadoran prison; his was the only flight not carried out under the Alien Enemies Act.
The White House reacted with sass and fury at the court order. “We suggest the Judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The Justice Department immediately appealed the order to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had not yet intervened as of this morning.
In an opinion Saturday explaining her Friday ruling, Judge Xinis wrote:
“Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of the INA. Once there, U.S. officials secured his detention in a facility that, by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter, fosters routine violence; and places him with his persecutors, Barrio 18. In short, the public interest and companion equities favor the requested injunctive relief.
Georgetown University law professor Steve Vladeck takes a closer look at the power the judicial branch has in this situation: “Federal courts may not have the power to compel the release of an individual from a foreign prison, but they unquestionably have the power to order the U.S. government to take whatever steps it can to effectuate the same result.”
DOJ Attorneys Punished For Keeping Their Integrity
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche quickly moved to suspend the DOJ lawyer who argued the Garcia case Friday. Erez Reuveni, the acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigatio, and his supervisor, August Flentje, were both put on administrative leave.
Reuveni was quite candid with Judge Xinis during Friday’s hearing, the way lawyers sometimes have to be when they have a recalcitrant or problematic client who is either being uncooperative, lacks candor, or is otherwise hiding the ball from the their own counsel.
At one point Reuveni told the judge he couldn’t figure out either why the Trump administration had not sought Garcia’s return: “When this case landed on my desk, I asked my clients that very question. I have not received to date an answer that I find satisfactory.”
“At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told the NYT. “Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”
Judge Spares Tufts Student From Louisiana Trial
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper of Massachusetts ruled Friday that the high-profile case of Rumeysa Ozturk, whose detention by plainclothes federal agents was caught on video, should be heard in Vermont, not Louisiana, where Ozturk is now detained.
Scope Of Students Visa Revocations Comes Into Focus
Since Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly stated that he has unilaterally revoked more than 300 visas, including those of foreign students, news reports from campuses across the country have started to provide a sense of the scale of the impacts:
- California: UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine and Stanford
- Ivies: Harvard, Cornell, and Penn
- State universities: Tennessee, Kentucky, and Michigan, among others
Message Sent
Columbia University’s ex-interim president Katrina Armstrong was dragged into a three-hour deposition last week in Washington, D.C., by the Department of Health and Human Services, about incidents of anti-semitism on campus, the WSJ reports: “The government called Armstrong in for questioning to send a message to higher-education officials broadly beyond Columbia that they will have to answer for their words and actions under oath, people familiar with the matter said. “
Quote Of The Day
“As the first Jewish president of a formerly Methodist university, I find no comfort in the Trump administration’s embrace of my people, on college campuses or elsewhere. Jew hatred is real, but today’s anti-antisemitism isn’t a legitimate effort to fight it. It’s a cover for a wide range of agendas that have nothing to do with the welfare of Jewish people.”–Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University
Good Read
The NYT’s Michael Schmidt: In Trump’s Second Term, Retribution Comes in Many Forms
Ed Martin Expands Investigation Of Investigators
In an internal office email that was widely leaked, acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin announced he was broadening his probe of the Jan. 6 prosecutions and compared the use of an obstruction statute against the rioters to the internment of Japanese Americans.
Martin’s email came the day after he was savaged by Jack Goldsmith, who headed the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel under Bush II: “Martin even in his temporary role has proven to be the most openly politicizing and weaponizing figure in the most politicized and weaponizing department in our history.”
Hands Off!
BREAKING: DC Circuit Reinstates NLRB And MSPB Members
The full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this morning reinstated fired NLRB member Gwynne A. Wilcox and MSPB member Cathy A. Harris. The court also declined to stay the case while the Trump administration seeks Supreme Court intervention.
In related courtroom developments:
- A 5-4 Supreme Court – Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in voting against the decision – cleared the way for the Trump administration to cancel Department of Education grants for teacher training programs as part of its anti-DEI jihad, ruling that the plaintiffs had filed their claims in the wrong court.
- U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley of Massachusetts permanently barred the Trump administration from unilaterally limiting NIH funding, restoring billions of dollars in grant money to universities and academic medical centers.
- U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island slammed the Trump administration for “covertly” withholding FEMA funds from blue states in violation of his preliminary injunction halting the federal funding freeze.
DOGE Watch
- Wired: DOGE Is Planning a Hackathon at the IRS. It Wants Easier Access to Taxpayer Data
- WaPo: Social Security website keeps crashing, as DOGE demands cuts to IT staff
- The Verge: DOGE has arrived at the FTC
- CNN: DOGE expected to take aim at DHS with staffing cuts, including at US Secret Service
The Destruction: Cancer And STI Edition
- NYT: A Federal Lab That Tracked Rising S.T.I.s Has Been Shuttered
- WaPo: NIH scientists have a cancer breakthrough. Layoffs are delaying it.
- NYT: Trump Administration Fires U.S. Aid Workers in Quake Zone in Myanmar
The Destruction: Down The Memory Hole Edition
- The NYT has the full list of 381 books removed from the Naval Academy library, including Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
- WaPo: Amid anti-DEI push, National Park Service rewrites history of Underground Railroad
- NYT: The White House Frames the Past by Erasing Parts of It
The Destruction: Self-Inflicted Recession Edition
The financial markets showed few signs of calming over the weekend and into this morning. But the larger issue than declining the equity values themselves is that the market is starting to price in the growing risk of a Trump-tariff-driven recession – a truly unprecedented self-inflicted economic catastrophe.
A Ominous Sign Out Of North Carolina
In a startling decision, a North Carolina state appeals court has sided with Republican Jefferson Griffin in his legal battle to overturn state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’ narrow victory in the 2024 election.
Accountability Is Slow
- Federal prosecutors are seeking a 87-month prison sentence for disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
- Four former aides to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who were fired after reporting him to federal investigators and accusing him of corruption won a $6.6 million civil judgment against the state for violating a whistleblower law.
See You In Chicago!
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