May 21, 2026

Administrative State

News Source
EXCERPT:

“The First Amendment does not protect vandalism, criminal trespass, or obstruction of law enforcement,” wrote Judge Kenneth Lee in the court’s decision.

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against a group of anti-ICE protesters, blocking a lower court judge’s order that barred federal officers from using less-lethal munitions to disperse unruly crowds at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon. The facility has been the site of ongoing violent demonstrations since June 2025.

The 2-1 panel decision, issued on Monday by judges Kenneth Lee, Eric Tung, and Ana de Alba, the last of whom dissented, states that protesters failed to show that federal officers deployed crowd-control munitions as a means of retaliation, rejecting the plaintiffs’ arguments that their First Amendment rights were violated. The decision is a permanent administrative stay granted to the Department of Justice (DOJ) pending further appeal proceedings, in which the panel ruled that the Trump administration is “likely to succeed on the merits” of the case.

A Federal Appeals Court has upheld President Trump’s XO requiring biological sex determines which prison an inmate is assigned to. The argument hinged on the claim biological males faced “cruel and unusual punishment” by being forced to be imprisoned with men.

Federal court lifts block on housing inmates by biological sex www.washingtonexaminer.com
News Source
EXCERPT:

A federal appeals court on Friday allowed for the biologically accurate placement of transgender prisoners in accordance with President Donald Trump’s directive on housing inmates by biological sex, a ruling that incarcerated women hope will help their lawsuits aimed at moving biological males out of women’s prisons across the country.

Trump, upon taking office, issued an executive order directing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to undo a Biden-era transgender accommodation policy that placed biological males who identified as female in women-only facilities.

Seventeen transgender inmates, all biological males, then anonymously sued the Trump administration to prevent their transfer from women’s prisons. They won preliminary injunctions in district courts, which have blocked their transfers since February 2025.

Last week, a three-judge appellate panel vacated the injunctive relief, finding that the transgender litigants in Jane Doe v. Todd Blanche failed to prove that reassigning them to male-designated units would constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of their Eighth Amendment rights.

News Source
EXCERPT:

The leftist Supreme Court justices are facing accusations that they literally put their conservative colleagues’ lives at risk because they were so beholden to Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand.

Liberal Supreme Court justices slow-walked completion of their dissents in the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, according to a new book.

They delayed its official release for 53 days even as the five conservative justices in the majority faced death threats and assassination attempts following the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

That’s according to a new report on Mollie Hemingway’s forthcoming book.

The May 2, 2022, leak of the 98-page draft to Politico triggered protests outside the homes of conservative justices, vandalism and arson at hundreds of pregnancy centers, churches and pro-life organizations, and an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh and potentially the other conservative justices.

“Abortion supporters had an incentive to kill one or more of the justices in the majority to change the outcome,” Hemingway wrote in Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution. “Everyone knew that the leak posed a serious security risk for justices. Since decisions do not take effect until issued officially from the bench, the death of a justice before then could alter the result. The threat of assassination increased dramatically.”

News Source
EXCERPT:

The Department of Justice awarded more than $1 million to a pro-life advocate wrongfully arrested in his home, his defense announced last week, marking a legal win for free speech and a de facto acknowledgment of federal lawfare deployed against pro-life Christians under the Biden administration. The announcement came just days before Tuesday’s release of a detailed report that further exposes the Biden DOJ’s egregious abuse of the FACE Act.

In 2022, Catholic pro-life father Mark Houck was arrested at his home in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania. Houck had been charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act after pushing away a Planned Parenthood volunteer who was harassing his 12-year-old son. Although local police and the district attorney rejected the volunteer’s attempt to bring Houck to court, and a municipal court dismissed a lawsuit against him, the Department of Justice picked up the case, threatening Houck with a maximum 11-year prison sentence. Houck agreed to turn himself in peacefully, but federal agents ignored his compliance, staging an aggressive arrest in front of his wife and seven children. In custody, Houck was chained to a table for six hours.

Sotomayor Issues Public Apology For ‘Hurtful Comments’ She Made About Kavanaugh wltreport.com
News Source
EXCERPT:

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh successfully emerged from a contentious confirmation process during President Trump’s first term, but he has continued to face criticism from the left for his generally conservative approach to interpreting law.

At least one of those critics has been sitting on the Supreme Court bench alongside him, as Breitbart reported:

Sotomayor’s criticism of Kavanaugh came while speaking at the University of Kansas School of Law on April 7. In her comments, Sotomayor did not specifically mention Kavanaugh.

“At a recent appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law, I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate,” Sotomayor said. “I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”

During the event at the university, Sotomayor spoke about how one of her colleagues wrote that “these are only temporary stops,” Bloomberg Law reported.

“This is from a man whose parents were professionals,” Sotomayor added. “And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”

 

Progressive Judge James Boasberg received an excoriating review from 2 of the 3 D.C. District Court panelists who ruled to end contempt proceedings against Trump administration officials.

The ruling declared, “The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy. These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion, as the district court’s order said nothing about transferring custody of the plaintiffs and therefore lacks the clarity to support criminal contempt based on the transfer of custody.”

Court Torches Boasberg For Targeting Trump Immigration Officials – The Federalist

News Source
EXCERPT:

D.C. District Chief Judge James Boasberg suffered a humiliating legal defeat on Tuesday in his efforts to stymie President Trump’s deportation of illegal aliens from the United States.

In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals shot down the Obama appointee’s attempted criminal contempt proceedings against Trump administration officials involved in last year’s deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador. More specifically, the panel granted the government’s request for a writ of mandamus, “a rare and extraordinary order from a higher court directing a lower court or government official to stop exceeding their authority,” as described by the Washington Examiner.

The D.C. Circuit panel had temporarily halted Boasberg’s criminal contempt proceedings against the administration back in December. As noted by Judge Neomi Rao in her Tuesday opinion, however, Boasberg nonetheless plowed ahead by “expand[ing]” his inquiry “to extract more information from government counsel about exactly what happened” throughout the aforementioned deportations.

Those actions, Rao summarized, amount to a “clear abuse of discretion” by Boasberg.

News Source
EXCERPT:

A federal appeals court has halted a controversial attempt by a Democrat-aligned district judge to pursue criminal contempt proceedings against several Trump administration officials, delivering a sharp rebuke to the lower court’s actions.

In a brief, unsigned order issued April 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.

The appeals court ordered the activist judge to terminate the contempt investigation he launched.

The dispute stems from the Trump administration’s deportation of illegal immigrants, identified as suspected gang members, to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).

Blurb:

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Wednesday postponed the termination of temporary protected status for Ethiopians living in the U.S., finding the Trump administration unlawfully attempted to end it. 

In the order, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy said the Trump administration terminated the designation “without regard for the process delineated by Congress.”

Under the Biden administration, thousands of Ethiopian immigrants in the country were granted the status beginning in 2022. The designation allows immigrants to temporarily live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation because of armed conflict, environmental disasters or other humanitarian emergencies in their home country. The status was extended in 2024.

The Department of Homeland Security announced in December that Ethiopia “no longer met the conditions” for the TPS designation and the protections would terminate on Feb. 13.

News Source
EXCERPT:
James Boasberg is the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in D.C. He’s also the nakedly activist judge who tried to get planes with gang members to turn around as the administration was deporting them to El Salvador.

In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered District Judge James Boasberg to drop his probe into whether Trump administration officials, including then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, defied his order by completing deportation flights to El Salvador. The flights in March 2025 carried over 200 Venezuelan nationals suspected of ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, authorized under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Majority judges Neomi Rao and Justin Walker called the probe an abuse of discretion, citing unclear orders and separation-of-powers issues, while dissenting Judge J. Michelle Childs argued it was needed to uphold court authority. The decision bolsters executive flexibility in immigration enforcement amid ongoing partisan tensions.The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is tiring of Boasberg.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has had to rebuke him for a third time over the chief judge’s obstinacy in pursuing contempt charges against the Trump administration. And Judge Naomi Rao’s frustration has begun to seep through the legal lingo of her ruling. For at least the third time, the circuit court has called an end to Boasberg’s attempts to run the ICE and Border Patrol. Rao flat-out ruled that Boasberg has committed an ongoing “abuse of discretion” with his threats of criminal contempt citations (Hot Air).

Washington Times: Circuit Judge Neomi Rao said Judge Boasberg has crossed too many lines, risking damage to the separation of powers between the president and the courts, and must end his pursuit of the president and his team. “As these shifting and expanding proceedings demonstrate, the district court has assumed an improper jurisdiction antagonistic to the Executive Branch,” Judge Rao, a Trump appointee, wrote in the majority opinion for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington Times).

Two immigration judge that refused to deport illegal aliens have themselves been fired by the Department of Justice. They were fired along with four other immigration justices, all of whom were probationary justices whose terms were near completion.

Judges fired after blocking deportation of pro-Palestinian students | US immigration www.theguardian.com
News Source
EXCERPT:

Two immigration judges who ruled against the Trump administration in the deportation cases of pro-Palestinian university students have been fired by the Department of Justice.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that the justice department had terminated six judges, including Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, who oversaw deportation proceedings against Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, two students who were arrested last year as part of Trump’s campaign against the Gaza protest movement.

In an interview with the Guardian, Patel said she did not view her dismissal as “directly retaliatory” for any one case. She said it fit within a broader pattern of the administration dismissing judges near the end of their probationary term, particularly those who have experience representing immigrants in court.

Biden-appointed Judge Brian Murphy canceled Trump’s XO that ended Temporary Protection Status for Ethiopian immigrants.

Blurb:

Biden Judge BLOCKS Trump Admin from Ending TPS for Thousands of Third-World Migrants – WLT Report

Once again, a rogue federal judge is trying to interfere with the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

This time, Biden-appointed Judge Brian Murphy has blocked the DHS from ending temporary protected status (TPS) for Ethiopians.

Here are the details:

BREAKING: A Biden-appointed federal judge has BLOCKED the Trump administration from allowing Temporary Protected Status for THOUSANDS of Ethiopians to expire

Trump didn’t even end it — he was just letting the TPS granted by Biden to EXPIRE

SCOTUS MUST INTERVENE ASAP! This is BEYOND insane.

They have NO BUSINESS being in our country.

Blurb:

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has referred New York’s anti-Trump Democrat Attorney General Letitia James to federal prosecutors over two cases involving possible homeowner’s insurance fraud, according to a report.

Pulte sent referral letters on Wednesday to federal prosecutors in Florida and Illinois.

The referral alleges that James made false statements on insurance-related applications tied to properties in those states.

Blurb:

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters)—The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for the Justice Department to move forward with dismissing a criminal case in which Steve Bannon, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was convicted after defying a congressional subpoena.

Bannon was convicted by a jury in Washington in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to provide documents or testimony to a Democratic-led House of Representatives panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court’s decision to uphold Bannon’s conviction.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump on Thursday slammed the Supreme Court and federal court judges after they ruled against his effort to freeze $10 billion in funding to blue states.

The president in December announced that his administration was freezing funding to Minnesota after widespread welfare fraud was exposed in the state. In early January, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent letters to five blue states announcing a temporary freeze on funding for child care and social service funding.

During a cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump told reporters about how people discovered the rampant waste and fraud occurring in Minnesota.  “I just saw something that the nursing home business and the daycare centers in particular, they went out and inspected them in Minnesota, and they didn’t exist,” he said. “They’re knocking on door, happens to be a young man, Nick [Shirley], nice young man. He’s done a very good job. They’re knocking on doors. It’s like homes. And they’re getting hundreds of thousands…they didn’t exist.”

And in California, it’s worse. It’s even worse. And I spoke with Russell Vought. I said, ‘Russell, don’t send him any money.’ He said, ‘but we have a court order that we have.’ Can you believe it? A judge. The judges are really hurting this country. Our judges. Justice Roberts doesn’t like when I say it, but the judges are really hurting this country. And frankly, the justices, the Supreme Court has really hurt our country, too.

 

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin has issued a ruling that prevents President Trump from ordering the Pentagon to sever ties with the AI company, Anthropic. The Trump administration has determined Anthropic’s governance standards are not aligned with America’s standards.

The Federal judge has essentially ruled she knows better than Trump if Anthropic is aligned or not aligned with American standards. She said in her ruling, “Defendants’ designation of Anthropic as a ‘supply chain risk’ is likely both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

Blurb:

Judge Lin Blocks Pentagon AI Decision and Extends Lawfare Pattern – PJ Media

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin has stepped in again, blocking President Donald Trump from forcing the Pentagon and federal agencies to cut ties with Anthropic.

The ruling halts a supply chain designation tied to national security concerns over AI in military use. The designation also said mean things about Anthropic, hurting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s feelings, so he took the Trump administration to court.

Federal agencies must now continue working with a company the executive branch flagged as a potential risk.

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from designating Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security and cutting off all work with the AI company.

Anthropic sued the Defense Department and other federal agencies this month after the Pentagon labeled it a “supply-chain risk to national security.” President Donald Trump said he would also ban the use of Anthropic’s products across other federal agencies.

“Defendants’ designation of Anthropic as a ‘supply chain risk’ is likely both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious,” Judge Rita Lin, a U.S. district judge in California, wrote in her order Thursday night. “The Department of War provides no legitimate basis to infer from Anthropic’s forthright insistence on usage restrictions that it might become a saboteur.”

Lin paused her own order for a week to allow the administration time to appeal.

Blurb:

Key Takeaways

  • San Jose State University is suing the federal government over a Title IX ruling that found it violated regulations by allowing a trans-identifying male player to participate on its women’s volleyball team, prompting claims of unfairness and safety concerns from female players.
  • The U.S. Department of Education ordered SJSU to apologize to affected female athletes, restore awards, and implement changes to comply with Title IX, but SJSU is contesting these demands, arguing that the findings are unfounded.
  • SJSU’s leadership asserts it has acted lawfully and is dedicated to fostering an ‘inclusive’ environment, though critics accuse it of neglecting the well-being of female athletes in their policies.