April 8, 2025 at 5:38 AM EDT
What DC lawfirms should be doing instead of capitulating to Trump

Let me first congratulate the 504 law firms that have thrown their support behind Perkins Coie in a friend-of-the-court brief. Perkins Coie was the first firm to receive a vindictive executive order from Trump that jeopardized its ability to represent government contractors and limited its access to federal buildings, all because one of its attorneys had helped investigate Russia's support for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

April 7, 2025 at 9:48 PM EDT
'Very bad thing for the future': Elon Musk and Trump break on this key issue

Billionaire U.S. contractor Elon Musk and President Donald Trump appear to be in a disagreement over tariffs, signaling what may be the most significant break in the relationship between the two men since the 2024 presidential campaign. The Washington Post reports Musk made personal appeals to Trump to back off upsetting world markets. He also spent the weekend futilely lobbing attacks at White House advisers gunning for punishment to international trade partners.

April 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM EDT
'Devastating': Sotomayor slams Trump as 'lawless' for using 1798 law to deport immigrants

President Donald Trump's administration was just given a green light by the 6-3 conservative-dominated Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to continue deporting immigrants without due process under a controversial centuries-old law. But justices' views varied widely on the issue. The decision -- which was handed down on party lines (and with Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett partially dissenting) -- allows for Trump to continue deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) while litigation plays out in the lower courts. The Supreme Court's ruling overturns rulings handed down by lower court judges that blocked the administration from deporting immigrants without first giving them a hearing in court as the AEA allows. The AEA has only been invoked three times in history, and hadn't been used since World War II.

April 7, 2025 at 8:36 PM EDT
'Getting buried': 4th largest US city won't have representation in Congress until 2026

Texas Governor Greg Abbott finally set a special election to replace Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-TX) after House Democrats threatened to sue the governor for allegedly dragging his feet to prevent an additional Democrat in the US House. The date, however, still has critics furious.

April 7, 2025 at 8:06 PM EDT
'Violates the law as written': Trump-loving billionaires sue to stop tariffs

President Donald Trump's tariff announcement last week has not only rattled financial markets, but even a group of far-right billionaires who have a history of supporting Republican causes. The Guardian reported that both a far-right group funded by both multibillionaire Charles Koch and the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo is now suing to stop Trump's new trade duties on China from taking effect. The New Civil Liberties Alliance argued that Trump's invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify his unilateral imposition of new tariffs is illegal, and that the courts should intervene based on precedent that requires Congress weigh in on certain policy-related matters.

April 7, 2025 at 7:30 PM EDT
'I will not be bullied': Whistleblower accuses DOJ of sending 'armed deputies' to her home

A former U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney delivered sworn testimony before Congress on Monday, accusing her former agency""now under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi""of "corruption and abuse of power." She claimed that armed U.S. Marshals were sent to her home to deliver what she described as a "warning" from the DOJ, cautioning her about the risks of testifying. Liz Oyer "told U.S. media outlets that her firing came shortly after she declined to recommend restoring gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, a supporter of President Donald Trump," Reuters reports. She reportedly was fired by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on March 7.

April 7, 2025 at 6:08 PM EDT
'Battleground for the soul of this nation': GOP infighting threatens longtime Republican

Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), who is gearing up to run in the upcoming GOP Texas primary and has privately argued to White House political advisors that he is the sole candidate capable of winning both the primary and the general election, says Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is "scrambling to rewrite history." Hunt argued Cornyn was ready to "move on" from Trump after the 2020 election, CNN reported Sunday.

April 7, 2025 at 6:03 PM EDT
Country star reveals how he stopped 'problem' Trump supporters at rallies

Country singer John Rich has said he recommended President Donald Trump to refrain from discussing COVID-19 vaccines ahead of the presidential campaign last year after the president asked him why he was receiving boos at his rallies. Rich made these remarks in an interview on the Try That In a Small Town Podcast aired Monday.

April 7, 2025 at 5:56 PM EDT
'Is that really where we should be?' Fox host fact-checks Trump official to his face

As financial markets continued sliding on Monday as a result of President Donald Trump's new trade duties, one of the president's top economic advisors got a live lecture from a Fox Business host on one very basic tenet of trade policy. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke with Fox Business' Larry Kudlow (who previously served as the director of the National Economic Council during Trump's first term) around the time markets closed several percentage points down from their previous close on Friday. Kudlow particularly took issue with the Trump administration's calculations in how it decided to impose broad double-digit tariffs on virtually every other country and territory around the world. Kudlow asked Bessent point-blank why the administration was so concerned with trade deficits, given that a trade deficit naturally occurs when one country buys more products from another country than it sells and that the administration hopes to grow its economy faster than its trade partners.

April 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM EDT
'Grossly corrupt': Roberts sparks outrage after siding with Trump over federal judges

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked a district court order demanding Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia be returned to the US by midnight tonight. The Trump administration removed Garcia despite his legal status, claiming without evidence that Garcia was involved with gangs that Garcia's wife says he was trying to escape in Venezuela. The Trump administration admitted in court that the deportation was an "administrative error."

April 7, 2025 at 4:27 PM EDT
Government lawyers 'trapped' between 'skeptical judges' and Trump 'policies they cannot explain'

Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers representing the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to implement his agenda are reportedly struggling to defend its actions before "skeptical judges." The lawyers' attempts to try and explain the administration's action have led to a "series of courtroom clashes between increasingly skeptical judges and the beleaguered lawyers responsible for defending the government's positions, which some have come to see as indefensible," said a report published by the New York Times Monday.

April 7, 2025 at 11:50 AM EDT
'No way to sugarcoat that': Statewide Republicans 'struggle to find a path' without Trump on ballot

Republicans were disappointed when, on Tuesday, April 1, liberal Judge Susan Crawford defeated conservative Brad Schimel by 10 percent in a Wisconsin Supreme Court election. Although the race was technically nonpartisan, Schimel was supported by President Donald Trump and his close ally, billionaire Tesla/SpaceX/X.com leader Elon Musk -- who poured over $20 million into Schimel's campaign. But all that money from Musk didn't prevent Crawford from enjoying a double-digit victory in a key swing state that Trump won in 2016 and 2024 yet lost in 2020.