We respond…
Bill Otis is right. This is despicable.
Not a sign of what the Democrats believe, though.
So he ought to stuff a sock in it. Right now.
Hinderaker and Johnson ought to restrict their remarks to lamenting evil in all forms — and not ignore the evil of throwing the wrong Maryland man into a Salvadoran hell-hole without process… and then pretend that is all in service of some “noble” cause.
There is none.
It is all evil.
Out.
File this under abuse of the Supremes’ own shadow docket — by Alito/Thomas. Damn. [My earlier backgrounder here.]
I won’t spend a lot of time on the idea that this feels like Alito / Thomas and three others handing Trump “a gimme” — one untethered from precedent (and/or reality).
But it sure looks like that, for these five to avoid being targeted themselves, by Tangerine 2.0’s crazier forces — here’s a bit of the fine dissent:
…The current President believes that Humphrey’s should be either overruled or confined. See Application 14; Letter from S. Harris, Acting Solicitor General, to Rep. J. Raskin, Re: Restrictions on the Removal of Certain Principal Officers of the United States (Feb. 12, 2025). And he has chosen to act on that belief — really, to take the law into his own hands. Not since the 1950s (or even before) has a President, without a legitimate reason, tried to remove an officer from a classic independent agency — a multi-member, bipartisan commission exercising regulatory power whose governing statute contains a for-cause provision. Yet now the President has discharged, concededly without cause, several such officers, including a member of the NLRB (Gwynne Wilcox) and a member of the MSPB (Cathy Harris). Today, this Court effectively blesses those deeds. I would not. Our Humphrey’s decision remains good law, and it forecloses both the President’s firings and the Court’s decision to award emergency relief….
Our emergency docket, while fit for some things, should not be used to overrule or revise existing law…. It is one thing to grant relief in that way when doing so vindicates established legal rights, which somehow the courts below have disregarded. It is a wholly different thing to skip the usual appellate process when issuing an order that itself changes the law. See, e.g., Netchoice, LLC v. Paxton, 596 U. S. ___, ___ (2022) (ALITO, J., dissenting from grant of application to vacate stay) (slip op., at 2) (demanding that an applicant for relief have a good claim “under existing law”)….
And nowhere is short-circuiting our deliberative process less appropriate than when the ruling requested would disrespect — by either overturning or narrowing — one of this Court’s longstanding precedents, like our nearly century-old Humphrey’s decision. Under that decision, this case is easy, as the courts below found: The President has no legal right to relief. Congress, by statute, has protected members of the NLRB and MSPB (like Wilcox and Harris) from Presidential removal except for good cause. See 29 U. S. C. §153(a)….
Damnation. Onward, resolutely just the same. I guess we should call this win number 5 — out of 121, now. Still a terrible Tangerine batting average — and this was with a corked bat — to be certain.
नमस्ते
Busy days, indeed.
Tangerine 2.0 / DOGE was enjoined last month by Judge Alsup — and the Ninth Circuit will now decide whether Trump has any reason to overturn the injunction (hint: he does not). So we await the likely turgid filing from his lawyers, here tonight:
…Ninth Cir. [Appeal 25-2637; Original Case 25-cv-1780]:
Preliminary Injunction Opening Brief Due (Appellant) 5/22/2025….
Should (as ever!) be a truly… stultifying exercise in… befuddlement, and misdirection — by the Tangerine 2.0 lawyers. Heh!
नमस्ते
Not surprising, as the vast bulk of these are the “Never-Trumpers” inside the GOP — but one, Ty Cobb, is notable: he actually served in Tangerine 1.0’s maladministration — as the goof’s personal lawyer for more than three years. He opposes this nonsense, too. [He’s also the great-grandson, I think, of the vicious baseball hall of famer.]
Here’s a bit — but it sings a familiar (and truly meritorious) tune: the preznit cannot act with a mere Sharpie, alone — he needs the full Congress. And he simply hasn’t gotten it:
…The constitutional genius of America is the establishment of three branches of government that must cooperate with each other, and check and balance each other’s actions, to govern the country. In discussing “the necessary partition of power among the several departments,” the Framers contemplated an “interior structure of the government” that would provide “the means of keeping each other in their proper places.” THE FEDERALIST NO. 51 (James Madison). They understood that the branches’ functions were not designed to be “wholly unconnected” and “should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” THE FEDERALIST NO. 48 (James Madison)….
The Constitution requires that the President “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” U.S. CONST. art. II, § 3. If the President disagrees with the legislative choices made by Congress — if he believes, for example, that the government is bloated, spending is out of control, or that programs and policies are poorly conceived — under our Constitutional scheme, he may recommend to Congress corrective measures that he deems “necessary and expedient.” Id. But the President cannot take unilateral action to implement his desired measures without Congressional action….
As I said, Trump is now almost 120-4, striking out — losing/against. That’s a terrible batting average, indeed. Busy-busy bees, here — truly! Heh!
नमस्ते
It is a near certainty that the three: KBJ, the Wise Latina and Justice Kagan voted it violated Amendment 1. That’s three. But the vote was a four-four tie, so we would best guess it was Chief Justice Roberts that sank the Oklahoma attempt.
Here’s a bit of it; I agree with the Okalhoma Supreme Court: church and state should remain separate:
…The one-page decision did not say how each justice voted. During oral arguments last month, most of the court’s conservatives indicated support for the school while liberals expressed concern. At least one conservative is likely to have sided with the liberals, most likely Chief Justice John Roberts.
The court will likely be asked to weigh in on the issue in future cases….
[It is likely that Justice Barrett recused due to her close affiliation with Notre Dame Law School — its clinic was counsel to the church here.] Onward — good news, for now — at least.
नमस्ते
Here is the Bill Otis version.
Here is the very similar Hinderaker flatulence, of the evening.
Confidential note to these jamokes: no one should care (from a legalities perspective) that Mr. Biden is or was ill, as being nearly as important as the current preznit formally accepting a $500 million “pre-bribe” from Qatar today.
But these boys are transparently silly: they think that their endless whining about Mr. Biden will prevent America from learning that Donald Trump is corrupt to the core.
It won’t. Clearly, most of the thinking people in America already know that Donald Trump is completely for sale to the highest bidder. The budget package tonight proves this.
Remember that Donald Trump just just five years ago said that Qatar was a sponsor of terrorism. And here he is accepting a $500 million jet from them.
It is often said that people turn to crime because they are not smart enough to do anything else.
Every move Trump makes is proof of that adage.
And these boys efforts are defending his felonies, or deflecting from them more precisely… are unbecoming — of people who once called themselves lawyers.
Out.
He’s given the Noem / Rubio lawyers only until about two hours from now, to oppose.
But then I am all but certain he will rule that she may see her husband in private — and he may hold his baby for the first time.
…[Updated Order; Family Contact Visitation Tomorrow, Granted.] On May 22, 2025, Khalil shall be permitted to meet with (1) his lawyer or lawyers and (2) his wife, Dr. [REDACTED] — at a single, joint meeting.
The meeting shall start before 10:30am, local time. The meeting shall take place in-person, and under conditions (including as to length of time and confidentiality) that are appropriate for a substantial attorney-client meeting. The facility and its officials may take reasonably necessary security measures. This Order is made under Title 28, United States Code, Section 1651.
IT IS on this 21st day of May, 2025, so ORDERED.
[Immediately prior] TEXT ORDER: The Respondents indicated to the Court’s deputy late this afternoon that they were working to meet the Court’s filing deadline but would likely not make it. But enough time was provided. This issue is a highly narrow one.
And it has, per the Petitioner’s letter at ECF 258, been brewing for long enough — the lawyers have been well aware of it, and so have officials at the relevant detention facility. In addition, the Respondents have indicated they need time to explain certain “security concerns” to the Court.
But the Court’s Order at ECF 262 allows for reasonable security measures to be taken. So Ordered by Judge Michael E. Farbiarz on 5/21/2025….
TEXT ORDER: Construing the Respondents’ letter at ECF 263 as a motion for reconsideration of the Court’s Order at ECF 262, the motion is denied. So Ordered by Judge Michael E. Farbiarz on 5/21/2025….
[Earliest] TEXT ORDER: The Petitioner filed a letter this afternoon and the Court received it a few moments ago.
The letter represents that the Petitioner’s wife, currently in Louisiana, is aware of certain facts that would be of assistance to counsel in their current habeas representation of the Petitioner before this Court. The Court credits this representation.
In this circumstance, the Court is inclined to issue an order today in aid of its jurisdiction, under the All Writs Act, at Title 8, United States Code, Section 1651, to permit the Petitioner, his wife, and the Petitioner’s lawyers to meet together tomorrow morning at the facility where the Petitioner is held.
It is apparent from the attachments to this letter that this issue was not teed up for the first time today.
And it is apparent from the letter that in response to the Petitioner’s request, the Respondents have been actively thinking through various issues, including with respect to facility security.
Should the Respondents wish to be heard in general, or as to how an order might be appropriately tailored, they should make a filing before 4:30 pm today.
So Ordered by Judge Michael E. Farbiarz on 5/21/2025….
Onward — grinning. Sometimes the right thing… happens.
नमस्ते
This cannot be allowed to persist. There is no showing of dangerousness — let alone any felony indictment. To the extent he is suspected of anything, it was a peaceful protest at Columbia U, months ago now. Even if Noem thinks he wasn’t completely candid on his entry application (now over a decade ago)… not a jot of it suggests any real security concern.
But I am reprinting his counsel’s entire letter, to the able USDC Judge in Newark — as it makes clear that for Rubio / Noem / Trump… lawless cruelty is the sole end goal here. There is no policy being advanced — just fascist terror and abduction — at will. [I will not link the PDF, as it contains the doctor’s full name — and there are lots of MAGA nuts that might come after her, as they did Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife. Damn.] So here it is, in full, with only the redactions I indicated:
…Dear Judge Farbiarz:
Petitioner respectfully writes with an urgent request for this Court’s intervention regarding his ongoing detention. Specifically, and for the reasons set forth below and to aid in his habeas and proceedings, Petitioner requests that this Court issue an order: (1) requiring the LaSalle Detention Facility to permit Mr. Khalil to have a private contact visit with his wife, Dr. [Redacted], and newborn child today, May 21, 2025, for two hours1 and/or (2) at a minimum, permit Dr. [Redacted] to join a contact visit currently scheduled with immigration counsel at LaSalle so the legal team can discuss legal strategy and facts known collectively between Dr. [Redacted] and Mr. Khalil and which is relevant to his pending habeas case and for pending motions in his immigration proceedings. One of the first orders issued in this case was to direct the U.S. Attorney’s office to ensure that DHS would provide regular access to counsel, Khalil v. Joyce, 1:25-cv-01935, ECF 29 (S.D.N.Y.), which is an equitable power this Court retains and authorizes the relief requested — modest as it is as compared to the painful costs of denial.
As the Court is aware, the Khalil family welcomed their first child one month ago, on April 21, 2025. In order to provide the most indispensable human connection and to help Mr. Khalil prepare for his ongoing habeas proceeding and for the upcoming immigration hearing, Petitioner’s wife and his newborn baby have traveled over 6 hours and 1500 miles to visit Mr. Khalil in detention, which will be the first time he will be able to see or hold his family since his arrest and transfer to Louisiana, over 10 weeks ago. As this Court well knows, Mr. Khalil is purportedly in civil immigration detention, where he cannot be subject to punishment or retaliation; yet currently, routine legal or family visits only occur in a confined space permitting muffled communication through a full plexiglass window that permits no human touch.
Petitioner’s counsel have made repeated requests for a contact visit to occur between Mr. Khalil and his wife and baby to the relevant ICE and GeoGroup administrators at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena. Such a visit is necessary for the most elementary human reasons and given the ongoing strain of his pending habeas petition, this visit is critical to ensure Mr. Khalil, who is an active participant his legal case, can continue to meaningfully contribute to the proceedings before this Court.
The relevant administrators have responded that they are unable to accommodate this request, including a confirmation of this refusal this morning. (Email correspondence attached as Exhibit A). ICE policy authorizes contact visits between detained individuals and family members, subject to the reasonable discretion of DHS officials. The refusal to permit a contact visit is not reasonable and is further evidence of the retaliatory motive behind Mr. Khalil’s arrest and faraway detention as well as the ongoing punitive nature of his detention. Petitioner, his wife and infant son are, as all the evidence in this case demonstrates, the farthest thing from a security risk. It is the government who chose to detain Mr. Khalil and send him 1500 miles from his family rather than detain him, as they could have (and as we have requested in seeking a transfer there), in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where counsel confirmed with an EDC official that family contact visits are ordinarily provided on a daily basis and where a parent is permitted to hold their child.
In addition, a legal contact visit has been authorized for today between Mr. Khalil and his counsel, from 11-3pm CT. It thus appears the facility can accommodate contact visits absent a plexiglass barrier. Thus, the facility should make accommodations during or after this time for a private in-person visit where the family can be alone together for the first time. In addition, and at a minimum, counsel needs to meet with Petitioner and his wife together to discuss the factual circumstances surrounding his arrest on March 8, 2025. This discussion is relevant both to his habeas proceedings and his immigration proceedings. For the former, this conversation is relevant to his claims of retaliatory arrest and detention and the unusual circumstances surrounding both events that reflect the government’s retaliatory motive. For the latter, Petitioner has an outstanding motion to terminate his removal proceedings on the grounds of his warrantless arrest and to rebut DHS’s misrepresentation to the immigration court that Mr. Khalil attempted to evade his arrest.
Undersigned counsel emailed the government to seek assistance with this request and their position on this motion, and agreed to give the government until 12:30 PM ET to communicate a response. The government finally responded that they would not facilitate a contact visit as “doing so would pose security concerns, such as requiring the visit to occur in an unsecure part of the facility or requiring Mr. Khalil’s wife and newborn inside a secured part of the facility.” Petitioner has responded asking for clarification regarding these responses in the hope of reaching an accommodation, but is filing this motion nevertheless in the interest of expediency….
/s/
And, contrary to Ms. Noem’s idiotic answers (yesterday at a hearing on the Hill), the great writ of habeas corpus is the opposite of what she said. It is not the preznit’s right to deport. It secures the PEOPLE’S right to be released from lawless detentions, like these. Damnation. Out.
नमस्ते
It is a vast privilege to be alive during an era when the inter-planetary sciences are advancing by leaps and bounds, month by month — due to NASA and JPL and ESA and JAXA and the Indian, Chinese and Russian science efforts all leap-frogging forward, and often in concert.
This spirit of close cooperation would be a wonder to be seen, should it start to “spill over” — into our international politics, more broadly. [But anything like that… will have to await the end of 47’s term, at a minimum — to be certain.] Still, here is the midday’s fascinating and great update — from my favorites — John Carter / Barsoomian / Jezero Crater:
…NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is exploring a new region of interest the team is calling “Krokodillen” that may contain some of the oldest rocks on Mars. The area has been on the Perseverance science team’s wish list because it marks an important boundary between the oldest rocks of Jezero Crater’s rim and those of the plains beyond the crater.
“The last five months have been a geologic whirlwind,” said Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance from Caltech in Pasadena. “As successful as our exploration of “Witch Hazel Hill” has been, our investigation of Krokodillen promises to be just as compelling.”
Named by Perseverance mission scientists after a mountain ridge on the island of Prins Karls Forland, Norway, Krokodillen (which means “the crocodile” in Norwegian) is a 73-acre (about 30-hectare) plateau of rocky outcrops located downslope to the west and south of Witch Hazel Hill.
A quick earlier investigation into the region revealed the presence of clays in this ancient bedrock. Because clays require liquid water to form, they provide important clues about the environment and habitability of early Mars. The detection of clays elsewhere within the Krokodillen region would reinforce the idea that abundant liquid water was present sometime in the distant past, likely before Jezero Crater was formed by the impact of an asteroid. Clay minerals are also known on Earth for preserving organic compounds, the building blocks of life….
Now you know — still gray here, but the rains are at an end… and it is warming up — maybe even enough for a lakeside bike ride, followed by some hot soup! Grin!
नमस्ते
Scott Johnson is… rather flatulent, this morning. He and Judge Ho… both are vexed by what they (preposterously) perceive as “the unfairness” the Supremes, and the District Courts, as a rule… have engaged in, in looking at Tangerine 2.0.
Both argue that he is not getting the “presumption of regularity” he is due.
H I L A R I O U S.
First, we have never (in 240 years of history!) had a felon at 1600 Penn. — now twice. No president has EVER accepted a $500 million bribe from a power he previously called a sponsor of global terror.
No previous president ever was found liable in a forcible sexual assault trial on the merits. No president ever was barred from running charities in New York, for life — due to tax scams created to benefit that president on his 1040.
No president ever exhorted his rabid followers to storm the Capitol and prevent a peaceful transfer of power (in an impotent bid to holdover in office!) — resulting in the injury of dozens of law enforcement officers, and at least two deaths.
That is why he is now on the losing end of about 110 rulings — in perhaps as many cases, to three, that ended in his favor.
I could go on — but the point (by now) is blindingly obvious: this man is entitled to only a “presumption” of… criminality — and mob-actions. These are his stock in trade, Scottie.
Wake up. Smell the coffee, man. Damn.
Out.
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