Don't look now but there's a real dispute emerging among judges in DC about one of the staple charges against nearly every Jan. 6 defendant: Entering and remaining in a restricted building.
Tonight, Judge Cooper acquitted a Jan. 6 defendant of two counts, saying DOJ fell short.
The heart of the dispute: Does DOJ need to show that rioters *knew* Mike Pence (or another USSS protectee) was/would be present to prove someone violated he law. Until recently, judges had all agreed that wasn't necessary.
Cooper (Obama) joins Judges Nichols (Trump) and Lamberth (Reagan) in taking this narrower view of the 18 USC 1752 charges, a misdemeanor that has been leveled against 1,186 of the 1,260-ish Jan. 6 defendants.
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NEWS: The Trump administration has activated a secretive and never-before-used legal process to quickly deport foreign nationals deemed to be “alien terrorists” or their immediate family members.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court has existed but lain dormant since 1996 until Wednesday, when acting AG Blanche certified a classified submission to the court.
The judge asked for a "more thoughtful" submission by July 22.
Like the FISA court, the ATRC's 5 judges are selected by Chief Justice Roberts.
Judge Boasberg noted the court's existence last year when DHS sought to summarily deport 130 Venezuelan nationals Trump labeled "terrorists" under the Alien Enemies Act. politico.com/news/2026/07/1…
NEW: We've published a massively upgraded table of more than 15,000 rulings in ICE detention cases issued by judges amid President Trump's enforcement surge
Now you can sort by district, by judge, by substance, etc. — and click through to read the rulings politico.com/news/2026/05/1…
The bottom line: The federal judges have ruled more than 13,300 times — the overwhelming majority of the 15,100 rulings — that ICE had detained people in violation of the law or their due process rights.
ALSO NEW: Our latest anaylsis shows that despite the 5th Circuit's Feb. 6 ruling in favor of ICE's mandatory detention policy, judges there have overwhelmingly continued to reject detentions as a violation of detainees' due process rights.
At issue are hundreds of cases in which people have been ordered deported — sometimes after serious criminal offenses ranging form murder to rape to drug trafficking, but whose home countries won't accept them, or who have won protections from torture/persecution. politico.com/news/2026/04/1…
These people have served their criminal sentences but were released — sometimes years, and even decades ago — after ICE was unable to deport them.
The Trump administation has been re-detaining them and claiming to have restarted or reinvigorated deportation efforts, but courts have routinely found this to be predicated on "hope" rather than concrete progress. politico.com/news/2026/04/1…
Judge Kea Riggs, a Trump-appointed judge from Arizona, has ordered ICE provide a bond hearing a man in the United States for 25 years with no criminal record, who is the father of two US citizen kids, one of whom needs a heart transplant. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
We also have what appears to be the first and only ruling so far on the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy in the Northern District of West Virginia. John Bailey, a George W. Bush appointed judge, ordered the release of a man from Georgia. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
'UNIMAGINABLE CRUELTY': Judge Gary Brown, a Trump appointeee from NY, absolutely thrashes DHS' treatment of a man who came to the US. at age 9 and deemed an abuse/neglect victim, has no criminal record and became a college grad.
NEW: Four federal judges have formed a firewall against ICE in West Virginia — and say they’ll punish state and federal officials if they continue detaining people in ways the court has ruled illegal and unconstitutional.
For weeks, Judges Joseph Goodwin (Clinton), Robert Chambers (Clinton), Thomas Johnston (GWB) and Irene Berger (Obama) have been ordering the release of dozens of detainees ICE and its WV partners have picked up since Jan 1. But they’re not stopping there
They are calling out violations of court orders, sloppy paperwork in detention cases, the destruction of families, the erosion of civil liberties and a climate of fear wrought by masked agents operating on WV’s roadways. Contempt is next, they say. politico.com/news/2026/03/0…
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has struck down President Trump's tariff authority, saying his claim of emergency authority to issue sweeping tariffs to America's trading partners was unlawful. supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf…
Roberts, writing for the majority, says Trump's claim of an emergency to issue unbounded tariffs on whoever he feels like flies in the face of decades of law and practice. supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf…
Gorsuch, in his concurrence, worries that granting a president sweeping new powers based on vague delegations from Congress would risk "permanent accretion of power in the hands of one man." supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf…