US
Apple Blocked from Defending Google in Antitrust Case
Court rules Apple joined case too late—missed remedy phase deadline by 33 days. $20B/year Google deal for Safari search default now at risk. Apple can submit briefs, but won’t question witnesses or present evidence. DOJ targets default settings that give Google monopoly-like control.
Welcome to America where any criminal can now run for office to avoid incarceration and accountability.
According to Trump's DOJ, judges must be "free from any suggestion of impartiality"
How did whoever wrote this ever pass the bar? I won't ask how they got a job in Trump's DOJ. If you read the motion, it's pretty obvious that their lack of skill as a lawyer is overshadowed by their skill as a suck up.
Sorry, I don't have the link for the primary source. I got it from Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:sq4srjwg5noukbywa5stn6ar/post/3llai3eeacs2f
"The Justice Department Just Debuted a New Defense of Trump. It’s Terrifying."
Does the “mandate of the electorate” give the president absolute power to defy the courts?
On Monday, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice made two arguments in two different courts that, taken together, amount to a legal claim of near-dictatorial power by Trump.
Trump Official Directed Shredding Notes of NY Mayor Meeting, Ex-Prosecutor Says
A senior official in President Donald Trump's Justice Department directed a prosecutor to shred notes they took of a meeting about the possibility of dismissing corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, a former senior prosecutor said in court filings made public on Tuesday.
If actual charges aren't filed with the #DoJ, this is all #politicaltheatre
@RollingStone @all-news-RollingStone
If actual charges aren't filed with the #DoJ, this is all #politicaltheatre
Bondi Continues Using DOJ As Musk Retribution Weapon In Warning To Dem Who Protested Tesla
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/bondi-continues-using-doj-as-musk-retribution-weapon-in-warning-to-dem-who-protested-tesla
"Crockett participated in a non-violent conference call discussing protesting #ElonMusk...
Bondi’s warning... for Crockett to “tread very carefully” amid her criticism of #Musk, is yet another example of Donald Trump’s Dept of #Justice functioning as an extension of the White House — protecting Musk’s #business interests"
After securing the craven surrender of high profile liberal law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP without even entering a courtroom, an emboldened Downmarket Mussolini has ordered his comically corrupt Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to seek disciplinary actions against lawyers who are "filing frivolous claims designed to cause delays." What's a "frivolous claim?" Only Trump and Bondi know, but the note about delays makes it clear that Der Führer is angry that his fascist agenda is being blocked by numerous judicial restraining orders and hopes to do an end around the courts by threatening lawyers and law firms into not even filing suits to halt the regime in the first place.
Trump ramps up retribution campaign against legal community
"The memo, as a result, created a formal mechanism for Trump to unilaterally decide whether to impose politically charged sanctions through executive orders that strip lawyers of the security clearances they need to perform their jobs or prevent them from working on federal contracts.
Multiple legal experts suggested the memo would theoretically allow Bondi to decide a particular lawsuit that triggered a temporary injunction was causing an unnecessary delay, and refer the firm that filed the suit to face the effects of a punitive executive order.
That could cause a chilling effect and lead to the volume of litigation against the Trump administration to decline, the experts said. Even if the lawsuits are in fact for a legitimate purpose, there’s fear that their representation could put them in the president’s cross hairs and endanger their legal practices.
Trump also directed Bondi to open a review into the “conduct” of lawyers and their respective law firms in litigation against the federal government reaching back to the start of his first term in 2017 – and recommend whether it warranted additional punitive actions.
The memo comes as Trump in recent weeks has used executive orders targeting law firms to great effect."
Frankly, I don't have much to add here that we didn't already look at when I wrote up the Paul Weiss surrender situation we discussed a few days ago. The fact is that Trump has no legal authority to harass and punish lawyers for bringing cases before a judge to stop the Trump regime's often illegal, and frequently unconstitutional activities. Providing a check to the executive branch's power when it violates our civil rights, exceeds the President's authority, or is just straight up criming, is literally the prescribed role of the judiciary branch in the American system of government; the lawyers filing suits to stop Trump's fascist agenda aren't doing anything wrong, they're in fact doing their job as defined in the US Constitution. Trump just doesn't give a shit, and if he can't break the judges ruling against him, he'll happily try to further his authoritarian agenda by using his Department of Justice to harass the lawyers filing against his actions, and starving the law firms of federal access and contracts.
The good news here is that unlike some of their cowardly brethren in white shoe DC law firms, numerous legal advocacy organizations more closely associated with civil rights litigation, are openly stating that they have no intention of backing down. Groups like the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Democracy Forward, have all issued statements pushing back on Trump's claims and promising to not only continue the fight, but also to keep bringing more cases against an overreaching Trump regime now acting unlawfully pretty much every day.
I'm not sure how much faith I have in the lawyers and the courts to stop fascism; after all, none of these folks have an army or a police force at their disposal to enforce court orders against a fascist regime and a president already granted virtual legal immunity by a 6-3 fascist high SCOTUS. But as I mentioned elsewhere, you can't win if you don't fight, and it is impossible to install a fascist dictatorship without a whole lot of collaboration, cowardice, and capitulation by the society the fascists are trying to dominate. Win or lose, fighting back is the first step towards stopping fascism, and as a society our best hope of resisting remains acting in infinite ways, across every sector, to make it cost more in time, effort, money, and if necessary in blood, to impose fascism, than the folks doing so stand to benefit from that fascism. Saying "no" is at least a start.
“Your honor, we don’t agree to the notice point,”the #DOJ atty replied. “We agree that if you bring habeas you can raise such challenges,” a reference to habeas corpus, the constitutional right to protection against illegal detention.
[these #habeas petitions would need to be filed from a #ElSalvador prison where they are subject to frightening #HumanRights violations]
The hearing concluded after just over an hour. The 3-judge panel did not say when it would rule, but could at any time.
#Trump admin doesn't need to give notice to people it wants to deport, #DOJ argues
A federal appeals court has finished hearing arguments over whether to lift a judge’s #TRO against Trump’s use of a wartime authority to quickly deport alleged members of a #Venezuelan gang.
As the hearing came to a close, a DOJ atty told the court that he didn’t think the govt needed to give notice to individuals it wants to summarily remove under the #AlienEnemiesAct.
#law #immigration
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-news-03-24-25/index.html
when i read about Trump's war team (Hegseth, Rubio, Miller, etc.) accidentally adding a reporter to their private group chat & sending him top secret national security info interspersed with 
emojis i think of a sentence from this 1933 cable to FDR from berlin about the recently empowered Nazi regime:
> "The majority are woefully ignorant and unprepared for the tasks which they have to carry through every day."
The #Trump #DOJ atty just told the judge she is incorrectly reading #Ludecke. 
Ryan Goodman noted that Judge #Boasberg in his ruling this morning correct interprets Ludecke.
“Chief Judge Boasberg read landmark Supreme Court case of Ludecke the right way!
“Ludecke Court assessed the factual question of whether WWII terminated.
“So too can courts assess Trump ‘invasion’ etc claims.”
#Trump #DOJ atty starts by arguing #Boasberg’s order infringes on the powers of the Executive Branch.
Judge immediately interrupts by saying it is totally under the judicial powers to review whether individuals qualified under the #AlienEnemiesAct & were denied #DueProcess to prove they were not members of the gang #TdA.
The #Trump admin is citing the #AlienEnemiesAct in new #extraditions.
The Trump admin said on Monday that it planned to #extradite a handful of #Venezuelan men to #Chile after declaring them subject to the AEA.
In a statement, #DOJ ofcls said 3 men had been declared “alien enemies” & would be sent to Chile to face #criminal charges there. The men are Venezuelan citizens, though one is also a citizen of Ecuador & another a citizen of Colombia.
#law #immigration #USpol
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/us/politics/alien-enemies-act-extraditions.html?smid=url-share
#TheGremlinZoo #USPol #DOJ #VotingRights
From NPR.org: Justice Department under Trump drops voting rights cases
#UnitedStates govt affidavit saying: "While it is true that many of the TdA members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States"
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.26.1_7.pdf
DOJ brief signed by #Trump’s AG #PamBondi & the senior leadership at the #DOJ saying, "Plaintiffs have not established irreparable harm."
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.26.0_3.pdf
Judge #Boasberg terrifyingly describes the #ElSalvador prison #CECOT knowing that:
- The #Trump admin admitted "many of the TdA members ... do not have criminal records”
- Several cases of misidentification have emerged
- The most senior #DOJ ofcls signed a brief saying these detainees would not suffer "irreparable harm"
!['highly Likely to face immediate & intentional life-threatening harm [El Salvador] govt has boasted that inmates in CECOT "never leave"; indeed, one expert declarant alleges that she does not know of any CECOT inmate who has been released. In a sample of 131 cases, [it was] found that 115 family members of detainees have not received any info about the whereabouts or wellbeing …rarely allowed to leave their cells, have no regular access to drinking water or adequate food, sleep standing up because of overcrowding & are held in cells where they do not see sunlight for days. "tuberculosis, fungal infections, scabies, severe malnutrition & chronic digestive issues are common." disciplined through beatings & humiliation. One inmate clamed that police beat prison newcomers with batons. When he denied being a gang member, they sent him to a dark basement cell with 320 detainees, where prison guards & other detainees beat him every day. On one occasion, one guard beat him so severely that [he] broke a rib." Three prior deportees from the United States reported being kicked in the face, neck, abdomen, & testicles, with one requiring "an operation for a ruptured pancreas & spleen." Needless to say, the risk of torture, beatings, & even death clearly & unequivocally supports a finding of irreparable harm](https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/114/218/062/180/713/879/original/9c38e9095241315a.png "'highly Likely to face immediate & intentional life-threatening harm [El Salvador] govt has boasted that inmates in CECOT \"never leave\"; indeed, one expert declarant alleges that she does not know of any CECOT inmate who has been released. In a sample of 131 cases, [it was] found that 115 family members of detainees have not received any info about the whereabouts or wellbeing …rarely allowed to leave their cells, have no regular access to drinking water or adequate food, sleep standing up because of overcrowding & are held in cells where they do not see sunlight for days. \"tuberculosis, fungal infections, scabies, severe malnutrition & chronic digestive issues are common.\" disciplined through beatings & humiliation. One inmate clamed that police beat prison newcomers with batons. When he denied being a gang member, they sent him to a dark basement cell with 320 detainees, where prison guards & other detainees beat him every day. On one occasion, one guard beat him so severely that [he] broke a rib.\" Three prior deportees from the United States reported being kicked in the face, neck, abdomen, & testicles, with one requiring \"an operation for a ruptured pancreas & spleen.\" Needless to say, the risk of torture, beatings, & even death clearly & unequivocally supports a finding of irreparable harm")
