Law and Chaos

DOCKET ALERTS:   Trump says he's going to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its birthright citizenship ruling "IMMEDIATELY." (He's not.)   He also says he's going to get SCOTUS to reconsider its denial of certiorari in the E. Jean Carroll case, and thus he shouldn't have to pay the $5 million he owes her. (Again, he's not.) Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the escrowed funds to be disbursed to Kaplan,...

DOCKET ALERTS:   As Trump tries to get out of paying E. Jean Carroll what he owes her, his supporters have filed a scandalously irresponsible bar complaint against her lawyer Roberta Kaplan.   US Attorney Andrew Boutros is in hot water with yet another court. The Chicago prosecutor appears to have violated a court order and publicly discussed a sealed case and has to come in and explain himself to...

DOCKET ALERTS:   House Speaker Mike Johnson sent everyone home for vacation rather than deal with a dissident faction in his own caucus that keeps demanding a vote on the vote-suppressing SAVE America Act Trump keeps braying for.   A federal judge in New Hampshire became the tenth to dismiss a DOJ lawsuit seeking full, unredacted state voter rolls — or eleventh if you include the Sixth Circuit.  ...

DOCKET ALERTS: From the SCOTUS orders list , petitions for certiorari denied in E. Jean Carroll's defamation suit against Trump and Alan Dershowitz's defamation suit against CNN. Pay up, a-hole! And of course, a big Nelson Muntz HA HA for Dersh.   The DC man who followed National Guard troops around while playing the Imperial March from Star Wars has settled his lawsuit against DC cops, but not ag...

DOCKET ALERTS: The administration says it's going to prosecute anyone who touches the algae-ridden Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial. So far, that seems to be more bluster than reality.   Sadly, what isn't bluster is that Judges Reed O'Connor and Mark Pittman in Texas are handing down extraordinarily long punitive sentences for Antifa protestors to "send a message" not to criticize the gover...

DOCKET ALERTS: Maryland became the ninth state to beat back a lawsuit from the DOJ's Civil Division seeking to seize its full, unredacted voter rolls.   In Massachusetts, a judge allowed states to proceed with a lawsuit to block an executive order requiring DHS to maintain a master list of voters and barring USPS from delivering mail-in ballots from anyone on the list.    DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Sixth...

DOCKET ALERTS:   Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is facing a residency challenge to his gubernatorial campaign.   The Justice Department dismissed a case seeking to enforce a moratorium on offshore and onshore windfarm permits. Instead they're buying back leases for windfarms, so that energy companies can develop natural gas plants in the midwest. Murica!   The DOJ is trying to take advantage of...

DOCKET ALERTS:   The Supreme Court issued orders today, opinions coming Thursday.   The Wall Street Journal reports that Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for DC, is investigating banks for "debanking" conservatives.    Judge James Boasberg benchslapped Pirro's effort to magic away his order quashing her abusive subpoena on the Federal Reserve.   DOOFUS OF THE DAY: A judge in Mississippi disqualified...

DOCKET ALERTS:   Will Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center in time for the court-ordered deadline?   New York congressional candidate Brad Lander was acquitted of charges related to a peaceful protest inside the federal building where ICE is warehousing immigrants.   The House failed to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We'll explain what this has to do with...

DOCKET ALERTS:   Doofus of the Day: George Santos, who is clearly trying to get himself back into jail. NPR reported that the former congressman bet against his own appearance at the State of the Union in February. After NPR reported that Kalshi had frozen his accounts and referred him to the CFTC and DOJ, Santos called up journalist Bobby Allyn and threatened him with "a gun in your face."   Also...

DOCKET ALERTS: A federal judge in Colorado enjoined the National Science Foundation from shutting down the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. APA, FTW!   The DC Circuit ruled that Pete Hegseth's policy kicking out all trans service members and barring enlistment by anyone who ever had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is rooted in animus and cannot stand. But the remedy was narrowl...

DOCKET ALERTS:   Joe Dye begins a series on the second phase of the redistricting wars at his Substack.    Multiple states are threatening to tax payouts from Trump's slush fund at 100 percent.    The Trump Administration is suing Massachusetts for failing to give "confidential," hard to trace license plates to ICE and CBP.   A panel of federal judges in Alabama once again rejected the state's con...

DOCKET ALERTS: Judges in Maine and Wisconsin hand DOJ two more losses as they sue to get access to state voter rolls to check for non-existent election fraud.   Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward is back with another batsh*t ballroom filing .   DOOFUS OF THE DAY:   Attorney D. Hayden Fisher, who filed a bumptious SLAPP suit against locals in Norfolk who dared to disparage a MAGA-coded brewer...

DOCKET ALERTS:   Congressional Republicans abstain courteously from blessing Trump's ICE/CBP allocation after Trump torpedoes several sitting GOP politicians and demands cash for the ballroom and the $1.8 billion J6 slush fund. They're heading home until June, TYVM.   DOJ indicts former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, age 94, for shooting down two flights of dissident exiles dropping leaflets back in 19...

DOCKET ALERTS: The Supreme Court stayed a lower court decision out of Texas banning doctors from dispensing the abortion drug mifepristone. The Colorado Supreme Court barred Children's Hospital from cutting gender-affirming care, calling it a denial of treatment on the basis of sex and gender identity.   The DOJ is suing the DC Bar to stop it disciplining upstanding government lawyers like Ed Mart...

DOCKET ALERTS:   As Trump rants at "Neil and Amy" for betraying him in the IEEPA tariffs case, the next tariff battle is already taking shape .   Reuters legal reporters analyzed court stats in Minnesota and proved that federal prosecutions cratered during the immigration surge. So much for "cleaning up" crime.   Doofus of the Day: Pete Hegseth, who is vowing to put Senator Mark Kelly in jail … ag...

DESCRIPTION:   Kash Patel is not as think as you drunk he is … again . And if you tell someone about it, he'll strap you to a polygraph.   The DC Circuit seems likely to side with Senator Mark Kelly in his lawsuit against Pete Hegseth for trying to steal his pension.   The DOJ subpoenaed a hospital in Rhode Island for medical records of kids receiving gender affirming care. While the parties were...

DOCKET ALERTS:    Sadly, recurring L&C segment "Justin Baldoni Teaches CivPro" is canceled. He and Blake Lively settled their civil suit today. Now we'll just have to rely on Trump and his minions to show us how law does not work.   The DOJ subpoenaed a Rhode Island hospital for patient records on gender affirming care. When the hospital failed to respond (oh no!), the DOJ moved to enforce the sub...

DESCRIPTION:   Elon Musk discovers that filing a lawsuit against Sam Altman and sh*tposting about it on social media is a lot more fun than testifying   Alex Jones is back on his BS. He managed to delay a proposed deal to license InfoWars assets to the satirical news outlet The Onion. Again.   The judge presiding over Trump's shakedown case against the IRS for the wrongful disclosure of his tax re...

DOCKET ALERTS:   Never one to let a good crisis go to waste, Republicans are insisting that the lone gunman at the White House Correspondents Dinner means that Trump can — in fact, must! — build his illegal ballroom. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tweeted out a demand for the National Historic Trust to drop its lawsuit. The Trust told him to get bent.     Trump's shakedown of the IRS hit a s...

DESCRIPTION:   Capitol police officer Shauni Kerkhoff has sued Glenn Beck's outfit The Blaze for defamation after they said she "kinda walked like a criminal" – and she's brought out the big guns. The Trump administration funneled another $1.25 million in taxpayer dollars to campaign stooge Carter Page. The Fifth Circuit hit us with another terrible decision , this one permitting states to force p...

DESCRIPTION:   The Onion's plan to take over Infowars looks to have succeeded at last.   A judge in Rhode Island became the fifth to reject the DOJ's voter roll grab. But Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, is undeterred. Now she's trying to snatch ballots from Wayne County, Michigan.    Trump's Justice Department is negotiating with Trump's lawyers to decide how much taxpaye...

DOCKET ALERTS:   The lady who wore a penis costume to a No Kings protest in Fairhope, Alabama was acquitted of disturbing the peace.   DNI Tulsi Gabbard referred the Ukraine Whistleblower and former Intelligence Community Inspector General to the DOJ for criminal prosecution. Crime: TBD.   US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro continues to harass the Federal Reserve. This time she sent prosecutors to b...

The Fifth Circuit is crossing out laws just for sport. This time it's a 140-year-old ban on making homebrew hooch, because YOLO.   Trump's lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over an article describing his creepy birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein was dismissed . But … that dismissal was without prejudice, so he can take another swing at it. The trollsuit against the BBC is st...

DOCKET ALERTS:   Judge Brian Murphy blocked termination of TPS for 5,000 Ethiopians.   DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin will continue Noem's tradition of announcing his intention to violate the law in advance, so as to give litigants a heads up.   Michael Avenatti moves to a halfway house, remains a full-way non-lawyer.   And Democrats overperformed in Tuesday's special elections.    MAIN SHOW:   Cr...