Category: Federal judge vs trump
Federal judge limits warrantless detentions by ICE in Colorado — White House fires off defiant response
A federal judge partially sided with a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union against warrantless detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the administration vowed to appeal it.
Federal Judge R. Brooke Jackson said in his ruling that the warrantless detentions violated the restriction that said individuals must be deemed a flight risk to be justifiable.
‘Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in “racial profiling” are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE. What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the US — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity.’
“Immigration officials are entrusted with enforcing immigration laws and are authorized to pursue an aggressive deportation agenda,” Jackson wrote in the ruling. “They may arrest and initiate removal proceedings against individuals they believe are present without lawful status. But in carrying out these responsibilities, they must follow the law.”
One of the four plaintiffs in the lawsuit is 19-year-old Caroline Dias Goncalves, a student at the University of Utah who was detained after a routine traffic stop in Mesa, Arizona, in June. The deputy released her with only a warning, but he passed on her information to ICE officials, who detained her a few miles down the road.
Jackson said ICE agents had improperly ignored the flight risk stipulation or improperly applied it.
“Plaintiffs are four individuals who had deep and longstanding ties to their communities, including parents, spouses, children, stable employment histories, and active participation in their local churches,” Jackson said. “No reasonable officer could have reasonably concluded that these plaintiffs were likely to flee before a warrant could be obtained.”
Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, released a statement vowing to challenge the ruling at the Supreme Court.
“This activist ruling is a brazen effort to hamstring the Trump administration from fulfilling the president’s mandate to deport the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” McLaughlin said.
“Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE. What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity,” she added. “There are no ‘indiscriminate’ stops being made. DHS conducts enforcement operations in line with the U.S. Constitution and all applicable federal laws without fear, favor, or prejudice.”
RELATED: Church worker pretended to be ICE agent to extort $500 from massage therapist, police say
Jackson further ordered the government to refund the costs incurred by the four defendants. The judge denied a request from the plaintiffs to obtain the training requirements at ICE, but added that if the government did not comply with the order, the plaintiffs could renew the request.
“The Supreme Court recently vindicated us on this question elsewhere, and we look forward to further vindication in this case as well,” McLaughlin concluded.
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Federal judge rules Trump’s troop surge to DC is illegal
A federal judge sided Thursday with the attorney general in Washington, D.C., who sued against the National Guard deployment ordered by President Donald Trump.
The president ordered a deployment of troops into D.C. to quell the violent crime rampant in the area, but many on the left have accused him of militarizing the streets in order to intimidate his political opponents.
‘This unprecedented federal overreach is not normal, or legal. It is long past time to let the National Guard go home — to their everyday lives, their regular jobs, their families, and their children.’
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the president had exceeded his presidential authority but gave the administration 21 days to appeal the ruling.
Cobb said that Trump could not deploy troops for “non-military, crime-deterrence missions in the absence of a request from the city’s civil authorities.”
“Normalizing the use of military troops for domestic law enforcement sets a dangerous precedent, where the President can disregard states’ independence and deploy troops wherever and whenever he wants — with no check on his military power,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said after the ruling.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller excoriated the ruling.
“Judicial despotism is one of the gravest hazards we face to the functioning and endurance of our Republic,” he wrote on social media. “No district judge can steal for himself the powers of the Commander-in-Chief.”
The president has sent National Guard members to other cities to combat crime and faced other challenges in court from his opponents and local government officials.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Schwalb’s lawsuit was “nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents — to undermine the president’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.”
RELATED: DC Dems are furious at Mayor Bowser for admitting Trump’s troops are lowering crime
“This unprecedented federal overreach is not normal, or legal. It is long past time to let the National Guard go home — to their everyday lives, their regular jobs, their families, and their children,” Schwalb added.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser admitted that the surge had helped decrease violent crime in the district, but she was widely criticized by other Democrats for saying it publicly.
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Federal judge orders Department of Education to stop blaming Democrats for shutdown in workers’ out-of-office emails
A federal judge sided on Friday with a union against the Trump administration in a lawsuit claiming partisan messages on out-of-office emails were unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said the messages blaming Democrats for the government shutdown on the outgoing messages from the Department of Education violated the workers’ free speech rights.
‘Political officials are free to blame whomever they wish for the shutdown, but they cannot use rank-and-file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople. The First Amendment stands in their way.’
The American Federation of Government Employees said in its lawsuit that the email messages forced employees to “involuntarily parrot the Trump administration’s talking points with emails sent out in their names.”
Cooper agreed in a 36-page opinion.
“Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians. But by commandeering its employees’ e-mail accounts to broadcast partisan messages, the Department chisels away at that foundation,” Cooper wrote in the ruling.
Attorneys for both sides admitted that the case was unprecedented for the federal courts.
“Political officials are free to blame whomever they wish for the shutdown, but they cannot use rank-and-file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople,” Cooper continued. “The First Amendment stands in their way. The Department’s conduct therefore must cease.”
Workers said that partisan text was added to their email response messages for the shutdown.
“Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations,” the text read.
RELATED: Federal judge shuts down Trump order for mass layoffs during government shutdown
Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman called the ruling a “major victory for the constitutional rights” of federal workers.
“No administration — of any party — can commandeer public servants’ identities and force them to push partisan propaganda,” Perryman added. “Today’s decision makes it clear that civil servants are not a political tool, and it reinforces a fundamental principle: Our federal workforce serves the public, not political agendas.”
Cooper was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
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