click some
⬇︎
Nov 24, 2025
Reminder
Equal rights for others
doesn't mean fewer rights for you.
It's not a fuckin' candy bar, dumbass.
On Comey And James
ie: "I'm dismissing these cases because they're filled with bullshit charges brought by a dumbass president who's nothing but a vindictive little prick. Oh, BTW - I'm referring the government's lawyers to their respective Bar Associations, and strongly recommending sanctions and disbarment. The court stands adjourned."
Judge tosses cases against Comey and James, rules prosecutor appointment unlawful
The decision disqualifying Lindsey Halligan as interim U.S. attorney sets back Trump’s efforts to use the Justice Department to target perceived rivals.
A federal judge dismissed charges against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, delivering a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to engineer prosecutions of two of his prominent foes.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor overseeing both cases, had been unlawfully appointed to her position and, therefore, indictments she secured against Comey and James must be thrown out.
Currie, however, denied a request to bar the Justice Department from seeking to indict them again under a lawfully appointed prosecutor.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately return calls for comment. However, department officials are all but certain to appeal.
Currie, an appointee of President Bill Clinton normally based in South Carolina, was specially assigned to rule on the validity of Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Her decision delivered rebukes to the Justice Department on two fronts.
By declaring Halligan’s appointment invalid, Currie joined several other judges in rejecting legal arguments the Trump administration has used to install loyalists in top prosecutorial positions across the country.
The judge’s decision to go further and dismiss the cases against Comey and James complicates Trump’s efforts to deploy the Justice Department in furtherance of his desire for retribution.
Trump has called for Comey’s prosecution for years, following his decision to fire the then-FBI director in 2017. He has accused James — a Democrat who ran for office, in part, with vows to hold Trump accountable — of wrongdoing after she secured a multimillion-dollar civil fraud judgment against Trump and his real estate empire last year.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly called on the Justice Department to move swiftly to charge James and Comey with crimes, paying little mind to whether evidence existed to support charges.
When Erik S. Siebert, the Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney overseeing both investigations, concluded that the evidence did not suffice, Trump forced him out of his job and installed Halligan, an ex-White House aide and one of the president’s former personal lawyers, in his place.
Within days, Halligan, who had no previous prosecutorial experience, took both cases before grand juries and secured indictments.
In addition to the effort to challenge the validity of Halligan’s appointment, Comey and James both have urged judges to end their prosecutions on grounds that they are improperly driven by Trump’s vindictive animosity toward them. Separately, Comey has sought dismissal of his case over what his lawyers have described as irregularities in the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment
In defending Halligan, the Justice Department advanced an expansive view of its authority to temporarily fill U.S. attorney vacancies with the president’s candidate of choice despite efforts by Congress to rein in the circumstances in which appointees can fill those roles while bypassing Senate approval.
Typically, the Senate must confirm a president’s U.S. attorney picks. But the law empowers the attorney general to temporarily fill vacancies by making an interim appointment for a period of 120 days.
If the Senate has still not confirmed the president’s nominee by the end of that time, the law permits the federal judges in a given judicial district to name a temporary replacement.
Justice Department lawyers maintain that the attorney general has the authority to make successive interim picks as she did with Halligan’s appointment after Siebert was forced out.
Attorneys for Comey and James disputed that interpretation of the law. They argued that if an administration were allowed to name new interim U.S. attorneys every 120 days, there would be no reason for a president to ever put nominees before the Senate for confirmation.
Phantoms In The Shadows
It's a fair probability that upwards of 70% of the loudest MAGA crap that pops up on social media is posted from accounts of "people" from outside the US, &/or exist only in the fevered minds of propaganda peddlers.
Social media’s reckoning may have arrived — thanks to Elon Musk
Foreign bots have long plagued X. Musk has introduced a potential fix
In 2014, Buzzfeed News reported on the Internet Research Agency, a “troll farm” based in Russia that waged an organized propaganda campaign across social media. According to internal emails, operatives were instructed to run multiple Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts, bombard comment sections and build fake audiences to shape American political discourse. It’s a method employed by Russia that dates back to at least the 2008 presidential campaign. Yet nearly two decades later, the U.S. is still debating the scope and geographical breadth of our foreign troll problem. All the while, fraudulent accounts have continued to flourish.
In 2022, when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the news-heavy platform he’s since rebranded as X, the multi-billionaire immediately reinstated accounts banned for hate speech and violent disinformation, including Donald Trump’s. A 2024 CNN analysis of 56 pro-Trump accounts on X revealed “a systematic pattern of inauthentic behavior.” Fifteen even displayed blue check marks, indicating they had been officially verified by the company. Eight used stolen photos of well-known European influencers to lend credibility.
Musk himself has personally boosted extremist propaganda and repeatedly retaliated against journalists who criticized him. Under his leadership, X has dismantled many of the mechanisms and teams designed to safeguard against the distribution of falsehoods and conspiracy theories on the platform.
Musk himself has personally boosted extremist propaganda and repeatedly retaliated against journalists who criticized him. Under his leadership, X has dismantled many of the mechanisms and teams designed to safeguard against the distribution of falsehoods and conspiracy theories on the platform. Monetization on X is largely driven by engagement, and nothing gets people engaged like riling them over culture wars. In practice, this generates misplaced outrage to manufacture consent for policy. It’s been a near-perfect feedback loop in the second Trump administration — until MAGA started turning against Trump.
In October, as the internecine squabbling among Trump’s base showed signs of toppling the coalition in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing, X’s head of product Nikita Bier floated a new location-exposing feature. But it wasn’t until Fox News’ Katie Pavlich made a public appeal to Musk in a Nov. 15 post — “Foreign bots are tearing America apart,” she said — that the company took action. “Give me 72 hours,” Bier replied to Pavlich the following day.
Friday’s rollout of the new feature was a chaotic, error-laden mess that nonetheless garnered praise from conservatives, including Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and podcaster Dave Rubin, a right-wing influencer who was confirmed by the Justice Department to be a subcontractor of Russian intelligence. Several top MAGA accounts were exposed as operating in Nigeria. (A warning note appears if a VPN is detected, and X gives users a choice to display a broader region, especially in places where free speech could be risky. The platform is banned in Russia, for example, and people are forced to use a VPN.) The users know what they are doing — many pose as MAGA to get more engagement. Pretending to be a right-wing agitator is one of the most efficient ways to game the system.
Bier said on Saturday that X’s data “was not 100 percent” and briefly pulled access to the feature. Several users warned of a potentially dangerous unveiling of private information performed without clear guardrails, consent or accountability. Journalists who report on authoritarian regimes, for example, are shown as “based” in incorrect locations that could result in them being targeted by the very governments they cover.
There are many reasons X’s new initiative matters. But how it affects journalists is among the most important. A decade ago, political reporters and commentators were among Twitter’s heaviest users; people often went to the platform for breaking news and hot takes. While that has declined due to Musk’s dropping of safeguards, journalists remain among those potentially most impacted by inauthentic accounts.
X isn’t the only social media platform dealing with safety issues. According to testimony by Instagram’s former head of safety and well-being Vaishnavi Jayakumar that was revealed on Friday in an unsealed court filing, the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that engaged in human sex trafficking. In practice, this meant that an account could violate the platform’s prostitution and solicitation policies 16 times before Meta, its parent company, suspended the account.
Worse yet, Meta studied the solutions to child safety problems, calculated the growth impact — and then allegedly shelved the fixes for years. According to the court filings, the company conducted internal studies that found causal links between social media use and mental health issues, such as increased social comparison, anxiety and depression. One highlighted study, referred to internally as “Project Mercury,” allegedly showed that users who deactivated Facebook or Instagram for a week reported lower feelings of depression, loneliness and anxiety.
It’s difficult to overstate how damning this research is. Meta had its own evidence that its product presented a public health risk, and the company chose the path that protected revenue, not people.
The lifeblood of social media platforms is engagement, and rage is a reliable driver. Whether the rage-drivers are foreign is mostly uncontrollable. Algorithms are easier to control, yet there’s little incentive to implement any guardrails. We cannot rely on platforms to self-regulate when their core business model favors growth and engagement over transparency and safety.
They built these systems deliberately. They profit from them massively. And they will not relinquish that power voluntarily. Simply calling for “better content moderation” or “more transparency” is insufficient. What’s needed is systemic regulatory reform.
Foreign bots have long plagued X. Musk has introduced a potential fix
In 2014, Buzzfeed News reported on the Internet Research Agency, a “troll farm” based in Russia that waged an organized propaganda campaign across social media. According to internal emails, operatives were instructed to run multiple Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts, bombard comment sections and build fake audiences to shape American political discourse. It’s a method employed by Russia that dates back to at least the 2008 presidential campaign. Yet nearly two decades later, the U.S. is still debating the scope and geographical breadth of our foreign troll problem. All the while, fraudulent accounts have continued to flourish.
In 2022, when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the news-heavy platform he’s since rebranded as X, the multi-billionaire immediately reinstated accounts banned for hate speech and violent disinformation, including Donald Trump’s. A 2024 CNN analysis of 56 pro-Trump accounts on X revealed “a systematic pattern of inauthentic behavior.” Fifteen even displayed blue check marks, indicating they had been officially verified by the company. Eight used stolen photos of well-known European influencers to lend credibility.
Musk himself has personally boosted extremist propaganda and repeatedly retaliated against journalists who criticized him. Under his leadership, X has dismantled many of the mechanisms and teams designed to safeguard against the distribution of falsehoods and conspiracy theories on the platform.
Musk himself has personally boosted extremist propaganda and repeatedly retaliated against journalists who criticized him. Under his leadership, X has dismantled many of the mechanisms and teams designed to safeguard against the distribution of falsehoods and conspiracy theories on the platform. Monetization on X is largely driven by engagement, and nothing gets people engaged like riling them over culture wars. In practice, this generates misplaced outrage to manufacture consent for policy. It’s been a near-perfect feedback loop in the second Trump administration — until MAGA started turning against Trump.
In October, as the internecine squabbling among Trump’s base showed signs of toppling the coalition in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing, X’s head of product Nikita Bier floated a new location-exposing feature. But it wasn’t until Fox News’ Katie Pavlich made a public appeal to Musk in a Nov. 15 post — “Foreign bots are tearing America apart,” she said — that the company took action. “Give me 72 hours,” Bier replied to Pavlich the following day.
Friday’s rollout of the new feature was a chaotic, error-laden mess that nonetheless garnered praise from conservatives, including Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and podcaster Dave Rubin, a right-wing influencer who was confirmed by the Justice Department to be a subcontractor of Russian intelligence. Several top MAGA accounts were exposed as operating in Nigeria. (A warning note appears if a VPN is detected, and X gives users a choice to display a broader region, especially in places where free speech could be risky. The platform is banned in Russia, for example, and people are forced to use a VPN.) The users know what they are doing — many pose as MAGA to get more engagement. Pretending to be a right-wing agitator is one of the most efficient ways to game the system.
Bier said on Saturday that X’s data “was not 100 percent” and briefly pulled access to the feature. Several users warned of a potentially dangerous unveiling of private information performed without clear guardrails, consent or accountability. Journalists who report on authoritarian regimes, for example, are shown as “based” in incorrect locations that could result in them being targeted by the very governments they cover.
There are many reasons X’s new initiative matters. But how it affects journalists is among the most important. A decade ago, political reporters and commentators were among Twitter’s heaviest users; people often went to the platform for breaking news and hot takes. While that has declined due to Musk’s dropping of safeguards, journalists remain among those potentially most impacted by inauthentic accounts.
X isn’t the only social media platform dealing with safety issues. According to testimony by Instagram’s former head of safety and well-being Vaishnavi Jayakumar that was revealed on Friday in an unsealed court filing, the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that engaged in human sex trafficking. In practice, this meant that an account could violate the platform’s prostitution and solicitation policies 16 times before Meta, its parent company, suspended the account.
Worse yet, Meta studied the solutions to child safety problems, calculated the growth impact — and then allegedly shelved the fixes for years. According to the court filings, the company conducted internal studies that found causal links between social media use and mental health issues, such as increased social comparison, anxiety and depression. One highlighted study, referred to internally as “Project Mercury,” allegedly showed that users who deactivated Facebook or Instagram for a week reported lower feelings of depression, loneliness and anxiety.
It’s difficult to overstate how damning this research is. Meta had its own evidence that its product presented a public health risk, and the company chose the path that protected revenue, not people.
The lifeblood of social media platforms is engagement, and rage is a reliable driver. Whether the rage-drivers are foreign is mostly uncontrollable. Algorithms are easier to control, yet there’s little incentive to implement any guardrails. We cannot rely on platforms to self-regulate when their core business model favors growth and engagement over transparency and safety.
They built these systems deliberately. They profit from them massively. And they will not relinquish that power voluntarily. Simply calling for “better content moderation” or “more transparency” is insufficient. What’s needed is systemic regulatory reform.
the world we live in
Nov 23, 2025
Overheard
Flight Attendant:
Is there a doctor on board?
My Dad (nudging me):
That should've been you.
Me:
Not now, Dad.
My Dad:
Notice how they're not asking for a Graphic Designer.
Me:
Dad, there's a medical emergency happening right now.
My Dad:
Why don't you run up there and save him as a PDF file and see what happens.
More Bye Bye
DOGE is dead.
Exclusive: DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter
"That doesn't exist," Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about DOGE's status.
It is no longer a "centralized entity," Kupor added, in the first public comments from the Trump administration on the end of DOGE.
The agency, set up in January, made dramatic forays across Washington in the early months of Trump's second term to rapidly shrink federal agencies, cut their budgets or redirect their work to Trump priorities. The OPM, the federal government's human resources office, has since taken over many of DOGE's functions, according to Kupor and documents reviewed by Reuters.
At least two prominent DOGE employees are now involved with the National Design Studio, a new body created through an executive order signed by Trump in August. That body is headed by Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, and Trump's order directed him to beautify government websites.
Gebbia was part of billionaire Elon Musk's DOGE team while DOGE employee Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” encouraged followers on his X account to apply to join.
The fading away of DOGE is in sharp contrast to the government-wide effort over months to draw attention to it, with Trump, his advisers and cabinet secretaries posting about it on social media. Musk, who led DOGE initially, regularly touted its work on his X platform and at one point brandished a chainsaw to advertise his efforts to cut government jobs.
"This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy," Musk said, holding the tool above his head at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, in February.
DOGE claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures, but it was impossible for outside financial experts to verify that because the unit did not provide detailed public accounting of its work.
"President Trump was given a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government, and he continues to actively deliver on that commitment," said White House spokeswoman Liz Huston in an email to Reuters.
TRUMP OFFICIALS HAVE BEEN SIGNALING DOGE'S DEMISE
Trump administration officials have not openly said that DOGE no longer exists, even after Musk's public feud with Trump in May. Musk has since left Washington.
Trump and his team have nevertheless signaled its demise in public since this summer, even though the U.S. president signed an executive order earlier in his term decreeing that DOGE would last through July 2026.
In statements to reporters, Trump often talks about DOGE, in the past tense. Acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, whose background is in healthcare tech, formally became an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy in March, according to a court filing, in addition to her role with DOGE. Her public statements have largely focused on her HHS role.
Republican-led states, including Idaho and Florida, meanwhile are creating local entities similar to DOGE.
A government-wide hiring freeze - another hallmark of DOGE - is also over, Kupor said.
Trump on his first day in office barred federal agencies from bringing on new employees, with exceptions for positions his team deemed necessary to enforce immigration laws and protect public safety. He later said DOGE representatives must approve any other exceptions, adding that agencies should hire "no more than one employee for every four" that depart.
"There is no target around reductions" anymore, Kupor said.
FORMER DOGE EMPLOYEES MOVE ON TO NEW ROLES
Zachary Terrell, part of the DOGE team given access to government health systems in the early days of Trump's second term, is now chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services. Rachel Riley, who had the same access according to court filings, is now chief of the Office of Naval Research, according to the office’s website.
Jeremy Lewin, who helped Musk and the Trump administration dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, now oversees foreign assistance at the State Department, according to the agency's website.
Musk shortly after Trump’s election said he had a mandate to “delete the mountain” of government regulations. He made undoing government regulations and remaking the government with AI two key tenets of DOGE, in addition to eliminating federal government jobs.
The administration is still working toward slashing regulations. The White House budget office has tasked Scott Langmack, who was DOGE’s representative at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with creating custom AI applications to pore through U.S. regulations and determine which ones to eliminate, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Musk, meanwhile, has reappeared in Washington. This week, he attended a White House dinner for Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
It was never about governing, or making government work better, or making it more cost-effective, or any of that shit. It was about dismantling government. It was about making it worse, so people would be even more dissatisfied, and thus more inclined to go along with the Plutocrats when they propose shit-canning the whole thing and starting over.
1793 can't get here fast enough
- DOGE disbanded eight months ahead of scheduled end in July 2026
- Former DOGE employees take new roles in administration
- Elon Musk initially led DOGE, promoting its work on social media
"That doesn't exist," Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about DOGE's status.
It is no longer a "centralized entity," Kupor added, in the first public comments from the Trump administration on the end of DOGE.
The agency, set up in January, made dramatic forays across Washington in the early months of Trump's second term to rapidly shrink federal agencies, cut their budgets or redirect their work to Trump priorities. The OPM, the federal government's human resources office, has since taken over many of DOGE's functions, according to Kupor and documents reviewed by Reuters.
At least two prominent DOGE employees are now involved with the National Design Studio, a new body created through an executive order signed by Trump in August. That body is headed by Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, and Trump's order directed him to beautify government websites.
Gebbia was part of billionaire Elon Musk's DOGE team while DOGE employee Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” encouraged followers on his X account to apply to join.
The fading away of DOGE is in sharp contrast to the government-wide effort over months to draw attention to it, with Trump, his advisers and cabinet secretaries posting about it on social media. Musk, who led DOGE initially, regularly touted its work on his X platform and at one point brandished a chainsaw to advertise his efforts to cut government jobs.
"This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy," Musk said, holding the tool above his head at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, in February.
DOGE claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures, but it was impossible for outside financial experts to verify that because the unit did not provide detailed public accounting of its work.
"President Trump was given a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government, and he continues to actively deliver on that commitment," said White House spokeswoman Liz Huston in an email to Reuters.
TRUMP OFFICIALS HAVE BEEN SIGNALING DOGE'S DEMISE
Trump administration officials have not openly said that DOGE no longer exists, even after Musk's public feud with Trump in May. Musk has since left Washington.
Trump and his team have nevertheless signaled its demise in public since this summer, even though the U.S. president signed an executive order earlier in his term decreeing that DOGE would last through July 2026.
In statements to reporters, Trump often talks about DOGE, in the past tense. Acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, whose background is in healthcare tech, formally became an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy in March, according to a court filing, in addition to her role with DOGE. Her public statements have largely focused on her HHS role.
Republican-led states, including Idaho and Florida, meanwhile are creating local entities similar to DOGE.
A government-wide hiring freeze - another hallmark of DOGE - is also over, Kupor said.
Trump on his first day in office barred federal agencies from bringing on new employees, with exceptions for positions his team deemed necessary to enforce immigration laws and protect public safety. He later said DOGE representatives must approve any other exceptions, adding that agencies should hire "no more than one employee for every four" that depart.
"There is no target around reductions" anymore, Kupor said.
FORMER DOGE EMPLOYEES MOVE ON TO NEW ROLES
DOGE staff have also taken on other roles in the administration. Most prominent is Gebbia, whom Trump tasked with improving the “visual presentation” of government websites.
So far, his design studio has launched websites to recruit law enforcement officers to patrol Washington, D.C., and advertise the president's drug pricing program. Gebbia declined an interview with Reuters via a spokesperson.
So far, his design studio has launched websites to recruit law enforcement officers to patrol Washington, D.C., and advertise the president's drug pricing program. Gebbia declined an interview with Reuters via a spokesperson.
Zachary Terrell, part of the DOGE team given access to government health systems in the early days of Trump's second term, is now chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services. Rachel Riley, who had the same access according to court filings, is now chief of the Office of Naval Research, according to the office’s website.
Jeremy Lewin, who helped Musk and the Trump administration dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, now oversees foreign assistance at the State Department, according to the agency's website.
Musk shortly after Trump’s election said he had a mandate to “delete the mountain” of government regulations. He made undoing government regulations and remaking the government with AI two key tenets of DOGE, in addition to eliminating federal government jobs.
The administration is still working toward slashing regulations. The White House budget office has tasked Scott Langmack, who was DOGE’s representative at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with creating custom AI applications to pore through U.S. regulations and determine which ones to eliminate, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Musk, meanwhile, has reappeared in Washington. This week, he attended a White House dinner for Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Bye Bye
Several media outlets, quoting anonymous federal officials, reported that hundreds of Texas troops could be coming home soon from the Chicago area after their activation was halted by a federal court.
Texas National Guard troops are expected to soon return from Illinois amid legal challenges that halt their deployment to the Chicago area, several media outlets reported this weekend.
In early October, Gov. Greg Abbott authorized the federal government’s mobilization of 400 troops from Texas to other states to “safeguard” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. According to the U.S. Northern Command, around 200 Texas Guard members were in the Chicago area as of Oct. 8.
State and local governments in Illinois objected to the out-of-state soldiers’ presence, and a federal court quickly ruled that they couldn’t be activated, but didn’t have to withdraw from the state.
The legal fight between Illinois and the federal government over the issue reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where the case remains pending — the court asked for more legal briefings by Monday. It’s unclear when a ruling could come.
Media outlets including CNN and The New York Times reported that Texas National Guard troops are preparing to return home, citing anonymous U.S. officials.
The Department of Defense on Sunday pointed The Texas Tribune to a Friday post on X by the Northern Command that says it will be adjusting National Guard troops’ presence in Chicago, Portland and Los Angeles “in the coming days” to “ensure a constant, enduring, and long-term presence in each city.”
“Our troops in each city (and others) are trained and ready, and will be employed whenever needed to support law enforcement and keep our citizens safe,” the post said.
Abbott’s office on Sunday referred the Tribune to the Pentagon.
Matt Hill, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s deputy chief of staff for communications, said in a Saturday post on X that the Trump administration doesn’t update the governor’s office on military movements within the state. He also raised concerns about the federal government’s discussion about maintaining a long-term National Guard presence in these cities.
“This confirms what we have always known: this is about normalizing military forces in American cities,” Hill said. “Illinois will continue fighting for our state sovereignty, protecting people’s rights, and keeping our communities peaceful.”
Due Process, Bitch
...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Trump administration cannot expand rapid deportations, US appeals court rules
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
Nov 22 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to clear the way for U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to expand a fast-track deportation process to allow for the expedited removal of migrants who are living far away from the border.
A 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to put on hold the central part of a ruling by a lower-court judge who had found that the administration's policies violated the due process rights of migrants who could be apprehended anywhere in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in an Aug. 29 ruling sided with an immigrant rights group and blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from enforcing policies that exposed migrants to the risk of rapid expulsion if the administration believed they had been in the country for less than two years.
The administration asked the D.C. Circuit to stay that ruling while it appealed.
But U.S. Circuit Judges Patricia Millett and J. Michelle Childs said the administration was unlikely to succeed in showing its systems and procedures adequately protected migrants' due process rights under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment.
The judges, both appointees of Democratic presidents, cited "serious risks of erroneous summary removal" posed by the administration's effort to expand the fast-track deportation process away from the borders to cover the entire U.S.
While the court largely left Cobb's order in place, it stayed part of it to the extent it required changes to how immigration authorities determine if someone has a credible fear of being sent back to his or her country of origin.
U.S. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented and called Cobb's ruling "impermissible judicial interference."
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The administration's appeal on the merits is scheduled to be heard on December 9.
For nearly three decades, the expedited removal process has been used to quickly return migrants apprehended at the border. In January, the administration expanded its scope to cover non-citizens apprehended anywhere in the U.S. who could not show they had been in the country for two years.
The policy mirrored one the Trump administration adopted in 2019 that Democratic President Joe Biden's administration later rescinded. The Trump policy also was challenged by the immigrant rights advocacy group Make the Road New York.
Trump administration cannot expand rapid deportations, US appeals court rules
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
Nov 22 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to clear the way for U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to expand a fast-track deportation process to allow for the expedited removal of migrants who are living far away from the border.
A 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to put on hold the central part of a ruling by a lower-court judge who had found that the administration's policies violated the due process rights of migrants who could be apprehended anywhere in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in an Aug. 29 ruling sided with an immigrant rights group and blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from enforcing policies that exposed migrants to the risk of rapid expulsion if the administration believed they had been in the country for less than two years.
The administration asked the D.C. Circuit to stay that ruling while it appealed.
But U.S. Circuit Judges Patricia Millett and J. Michelle Childs said the administration was unlikely to succeed in showing its systems and procedures adequately protected migrants' due process rights under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment.
The judges, both appointees of Democratic presidents, cited "serious risks of erroneous summary removal" posed by the administration's effort to expand the fast-track deportation process away from the borders to cover the entire U.S.
While the court largely left Cobb's order in place, it stayed part of it to the extent it required changes to how immigration authorities determine if someone has a credible fear of being sent back to his or her country of origin.
U.S. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented and called Cobb's ruling "impermissible judicial interference."
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The administration's appeal on the merits is scheduled to be heard on December 9.
For nearly three decades, the expedited removal process has been used to quickly return migrants apprehended at the border. In January, the administration expanded its scope to cover non-citizens apprehended anywhere in the U.S. who could not show they had been in the country for two years.
The policy mirrored one the Trump administration adopted in 2019 that Democratic President Joe Biden's administration later rescinded. The Trump policy also was challenged by the immigrant rights advocacy group Make the Road New York.
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