Sharing my latest article, Agency Fact-Making, forthcoming in the @yalelawjournal.bsky.social! The paper describes the fact-making, or epistemic, function of the administrative state and identifies how political control over fact-making undermines democratic norms.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Alex Pretti "used to tell people off when they made sexist comments to female physicians. He bought me coffee when I had a really bad day as an intern...I laughed alongside him daily. He made a point to teach medical residents without judgement, but with a smile on his face and a joke."
SIX HOURS.
"Federal immigration officers may deport immigrants with as little as six hours’ notice to countries other than their own even if officials have not provided any assurances that the new arrivals will be safe from persecution or torture." www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
New, from me:
They are trying to shove through the massive reconciliation bill as quickly as possible.
Stepping back, the bill is:
*an assault on the poor to benefit the richest
*an assault on freedom
*an assault on the future
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-re...
How do the lawyers prosecuting family regulation matters think about the nature and goals of their job? Turns out - it depends - and it doesn’t necessarily align with judgments about what’s best for the kids the system is purporting to protect. @annaarons.bsky.social new paper out in Penn Law Review
1/2 On left:
Trump administration might have just moved detainees from SD Texas to ND Texas to deport them under Alien Enemies Act Proclamation
On right:
Standing SD Texas judicial order prohibiting detainees removal from SD Texas under the Alien Enemies Act Proclamation
In a forthcoming article, I explain how this program - ISAP - works as a form of “conscripted surveillance,” forcing immigrants into oppressive conditions of carceral control that turn them into beacons of community surveillance, giving ICE info that can be used for mass arrests and deportations.
Today, the @nytimes.com published an article on how the GEO Group - one of the world’s largest for-profit prison companies - provides ICE with mass immigration surveillance services.
BREAKING: Trump admin says it mistakenly deported a Maryland father who had *withholding of removal* back to El Salvador on March 15. Govt told court Monday it won't bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back. "What.The.Fuck..." one govt attorney told me. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... @theatlantic.com
Breaking News: The law firm Jenner & Block sued the Trump administration, making it the second firm recently targeted by President Trump to fight back in court.
Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem making content in front of the imprisoned men of El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center mega-prison www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
"A terrified young student, snatched off the street by a masked police force taken thousands of miles across the country without anyone knowing. It is as flatly authoritarian as anything we have ever seen in this country," says @chrislhayes.bsky.social on Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk's detention.
This guy is in one of the worst prisons in the world with no way out and may spend the rest of his life there because, it appears, he has an autism awareness tattoo in honor of his little brother.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The President does not have the constitutional or statutory authority to dictate the content of voter registration forms. This EO is an incredibly dangerous power grab. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
And here we go -- Fox News is now saying we should get rid of "due process" because it's too cumbersome.
Brian Kilmeade: "But I also think it's not practical to think that we can do due process on 8 million people."
www.mediamatters.org/brian-kilmea...
1. INTRODUCTION 2 This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary 3 Injunction on Supplemental Pleading. Dkt. No. 57. After carefully reviewing the 4 Parties' briefing, the record, and the law, the Court grants Plaintiffs additional 5 preliminary relief as stated below. 6 Through this lawsuit, Plaintiffs challenge Executive Order 14163, 7 "Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program," and various agency 8 actions that have effectively dismantled USRAP's infrastructure. Hours after this 9 Court enjoined implementation of the USRAP Executive Order, Secretary of State 10 Marco Rubio began terminating every resettlement agency cooperative agreement 11 for domestic reception and placement services and all but one agreement for 12 USRAP processing support abroad. The Termination Notices offered a single 13 rationale: the agreements "no longer effectuate agency priorities."
Administrative law rests on the foundational principle that agencies must act within the bounds of their statutory authority and provide reasoned explanations for their actions. Plaintiffs have made a strong showing that the Government's termination of these agreements violates these basic requirements and contravenes Congress's express mandate to establish a "permanent and systematic procedure" for refugee admission and resettlement. While the Government enjoys significant discretion in administering USRAP, that discretion does not extend to abandoning statutory obligations or rendering the program effectively inoperative. The Government's sudden termination of decades-old agreements without reasoned explanation likely constitutes arbitrary and capricious action that must be set aside. Without immediate relief, refugees remain stranded abroad, families separated, and resettlement agencies shuttered.
"While the Government enjoys significant discretion in administering [the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program], that discretion does not extend to abandoning statutory obligations or rendering the program effectively inoperative."
Opinion and order: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
(c) Defendants are ordered to reinstate all cooperative agreements terminated pursuant to the Termination Notices to their status as they existed immediately before February 26, 2025, including but not limited to agreements to provide reception and placement services and to provide USRAP processing support abroad. (d) Defendants are prohibited from terminating any USRAP cooperative agreements without complying with applicable statutory requirements and administrative procedures mandated by the Administrative Procedure Act, as described herein.
Defendants' attorneys shall submit a status report detailing their efforts to comply with this Court's preliminary injunction on the supplemental pleadings by March 31, 2025, and the Parties shall submit a joint status report on the steps taken to comply with the Court's preliminary injunction on the supplemental pleadings by April 7, 2025. (g) No security bond is required under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c). (h) This preliminary injunction remains in effect pending further orders from this Court. It is so ORDERED. Dated this 24th day of March, 2025. Cal it amal N. Whitehead United States District Judge
BREAKING: After a federal judge issued an injunction ending the refugee resettlement funding freeze, Rubio just started terminating all of the contracts. Judge Jamal Whitehead issues a follow-on injunction tonight ordering the terminated agreements reinstated unless Rubio actually follows the law.
NOTICE INVOKING STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE The Executive Branch hereby notifies the Court that no further information will be provided in response to the Court's March 18, 2025 Minute Order based on the state secrets privilege and the concurrently filed declarations of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security. This is a case about the President's plenary authority, derived from Article II and the mandate of the electorate, and reinforced by longstanding statute, to remove from the homeland designated terrorists participating in a state-sponsored invasion of, and predatory incursion into, the United States. The Court has all of the facts it needs to address the compliance issues before it. Further intrusions on the Executive Branch would present dangerous and wholly unwarranted separation-of-powers harms with respect to diplomatic and national security concerns that the Court lacks competence to address. Accordingly, the states secrets privilege forecloses further demands for details that have no place in this matter, and the government will address the Court's order to show cause tomorrow by demonstrating that there is no basis for the suggestion of non- compliance with any binding order.
NEW: The Trump administration invokes the state-secrets privilege, saying it will give Judge Boasberg no more information about deportation flights to inform his decision about whether the gov't defied his orders storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Here is Trump's full memo to Bondi and Noem lashing out at the legal system, which includes significant attention on immigration litigation: www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
Federal judges are increasingly at their wits' end with the disingenuous, bad faith representations of the Trump administration in court. Today, one judge told DOJ lawyers, “The court is not going to be gaslit."
WHOA. On March 15, a Cornell PhD student with UK and Gambian citizenship, here on a student visa, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump's EO aimed at foreign students accused of "antisemitism.
Last night, the DOJ emailed asking him to come to ICE to be detained and put into removal proceedings.
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com, me on “The Tom and Daisy Presidency,” and how there’s only so much courts can do, especially under current law, when at least part of the administration’s goal is to break things—and “let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/o...
Rubio’s position seems to be:
- We get to say who is a terrorist. Our decision is final. It can’t be challenged. Just trust us.
- Once we decide you are a terrorist, we can immediately deport you. No judges.
- After we deport you, we can make you rot in a foreign prison. No criminal charges needed.
“Linked to pro-Palestinian views” is apparently now grounds for arrest and due-process-free deportation.
CAN’T DO THAT
If you're critical of the US government and you are planning to cross the US border any time soon, today is a good day to review EFF's border search pocket guide: www.eff.org/document/eff...
BREAKING 🚨 🚨 🚨
French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found
France’s research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searched
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
NEW: The FDA largely protected food inspectors from staff cuts.
But the credit card freeze in food science labs, the axing of a key food safety committee and funding cuts to state inspectors all limit efforts to keep food safe:
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/h...
New, from me:
Trump is whitewashing American history, removing not just people, but also the stories, images, and values to anyone who does not conform to his impoverished vision of America.
Here is a partial inventory. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/whitewashi...
I am a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. Earlier today, the president attempted to illegally fire me. This is corruption, plain and simple. I will see the president in court. My full statement:
