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Category: Law/Crime

Trump is using his vast pardon powers to redefine crime in accordance with his needs

Trump is using his vast pardon powers to redefine crime in accordance with his needs

The New York Times reports: President Trump is employing the vast power of his office to redefine criminality to suit his needs — using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like, downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, and seeking to stigmatize political opponents by labeling them criminals. In the past few days, Mr. Trump has offered pardons or clemency to more than two dozen people embraced by his obstreperous right-wing base, or favored by people in his orbit. Most…

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50+ Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador came to the U.S. legally and never violated immigration law

50+ Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador came to the U.S. legally and never violated immigration law

Cato Institute reports: Shortly after the US government illegally and unconstitutionally transported about 240 Venezuelans to be imprisoned in El Salvador’s horrific “terrorism” prison on March 15, CBS News published their names. A subsequent CBS News investigation found that 75 percent of the men on that list had no criminal record in the United States or abroad. Less attention has been paid to the fact that dozens of these men never violated immigration laws either. Why This Review Was Needed The US government not…

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First wrongful death case targeting fossil fuel companies over their role in global warming

First wrongful death case targeting fossil fuel companies over their role in global warming

The New York Times reports: As an unusual heat dome sent temperatures in the Pacific Northwest soaring to 108 degrees Fahrenheit on June 28, 2021, Juliana Leon pulled her car over and rolled down the windows, overwhelmed by the heat. Hours later, when emergency medical workers reached Ms. Leon, she had died of hyperthermia, or overheating. Her internal body temperature was 110 degrees Fahrenheit, according to court documents. On Wednesday, Ms. Leon’s daughter, Misti, sued seven oil and gas companies,…

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Trump taps his own former criminal defense attorney, Emil Bove, for federal appeals judge

Trump taps his own former criminal defense attorney, Emil Bove, for federal appeals judge

HuffPost reports: In a pathetic act of cowardice last year, a handful of Democrats tanked one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, Adeel Mangi. Mangi, who was a veteran civil litigator in New Jersey, was an objectively impressive and qualified pick. He also happened to be Muslim, so Republicans subjected him to a disgusting monthslong smear campaign aimed at baselessly casting him as an antisemitic terrorist sympathizer. Despite his horrific treatment, Mangi hung in there, racking up endorsements from major…

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Immigration courts are dismissing cases of those sent to El Salvador, potentially cutting off their return

Immigration courts are dismissing cases of those sent to El Salvador, potentially cutting off their return

NBC News reports: Before he was sent to an infamous supermax prison in El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, Andry Hernandez Romero was waiting for an immigration judge to decide whether he would be granted asylum in the United States. And even after his deportation, Hernandez’s lawyers fought to keep his asylum claim open as a way of ensuring he didn’t disappear from the American legal system. But an immigration judge in San Diego dismissed Hernandez’s asylum claim on…

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Dramatic rise in threats against federal judges since Trump took office

Dramatic rise in threats against federal judges since Trump took office

The New York Times reports: Threats against federal judges have risen drastically since President Trump took office, according to internal data compiled by the U.S. Marshals Service. In the five-month period leading up to March 1 of this year, 80 individual judges had received threats, the data shows. Then, over the next six weeks, an additional 162 judges received threats, a dramatic increase. That spike in threats coincided with a flood of harsh rhetoric — often from Mr. Trump himself…

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As Trump’s tariffs incentivize fraud, trade crime is soaring, U.S. firms say

As Trump’s tariffs incentivize fraud, trade crime is soaring, U.S. firms say

The New York Times reports: As President Trump’s tariffs have ratcheted up in recent months, so have the mysterious solicitations some U.S. companies have received, offering them ways to avoid the taxes. Shipping companies, many of them based in China, have reached out to U.S. firms that import apparel, auto parts and jewelry, offering solutions that they say can make the tariffs go away. “We can avoid high duties from China, which we have already done many in the past,”…

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Israeli former prime minister: ‘What we are doing in Gaza is a war of extermination’

Israeli former prime minister: ‘What we are doing in Gaza is a war of extermination’

HuffPost reports: Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he now believes his country’s relentless assault on the Palestinian people amounts to “war crimes” and must be stopped. Addressing the people of Israel in an article written in Hebrew and published by Haaretz on Thursday, Olmert, who served from 2006 to 2009, condemned current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for “waging a pointless war, without a clear goal or plan, and with no chance of success,” according to…

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Legalistic noncompliance: How the Trump regime uses the language of the law to defy the law

Legalistic noncompliance: How the Trump regime uses the language of the law to defy the law

Leah Litman and Daniel Deacon write: America seems to be waiting for a clear indication that the country is in a constitutional crisis. Perhaps President Donald Trump will say, “I am defying a court order, and good luck trying to do anything about it.” But short of that, America’s constitutional crisis was always going to be a bit subtler—and that subtler crisis is already here. The administration is already flouting court orders. It’s just that, rather than admitting so, executive-branch…

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How the Trump regime’s clash with the courts is brewing into an ‘all-out war’

How the Trump regime’s clash with the courts is brewing into an ‘all-out war’

USA Today reports: Arresting judges. Threatening their impeachment. Routinely slamming them on social media and trying to go around them completely. President Donald Trump and his allies have led an intense pressure campaign on the judiciary four months into his administration. Both sides of the political spectrum are using the term constitutional crisis. “It’s an all-out war on the lower courts,” said former federal Judge John Jones III, who was appointed by President George W. Bush. As the clash becomes…

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The judiciary considers taking measures to protect itself from the Trump regime

The judiciary considers taking measures to protect itself from the Trump regime

The Wall Street Journal reports: Amid rising tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary, some federal judges are beginning to discuss the idea of managing their own armed security force. The notion came up in a series of closed-door meetings in early March, when a group of roughly 50 judges met in Washington for a semiannual meeting of the Judicial Conference, a policymaking body for the federal judiciary. There, members of a security committee spoke about threats emerging as…

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J. D. Vance warns the federal courts to get in line

J. D. Vance warns the federal courts to get in line

Ruth Marcus writes: Vice-President J. D. Vance offered some unsolicited advice to Chief Justice John Roberts the other day: the federal courts need to be more deferential to Presidential authority, and the Supreme Court must do a better job of keeping lower-court judges in line. Vance was speaking to the New York Times’ Ross Douthat about the Trump Administration’s nearly unbroken string of court losses in immigration-related cases. These setbacks, in Vance’s telling, represent an undemocratic project by some federal…

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Trump executive order targeting Jenner law firm ruled as unconstitutional

Trump executive order targeting Jenner law firm ruled as unconstitutional

NBC reports: President Donald Trump’s executive order against the Jenner & Block law firm is unlawful because it violates the First Amendment, a judge ruled late Friday. U.S. District Judge John Bates said going after law firms the way Trump has “is doubly violative of the Constitution” because it targets Jenner & Block due to the causes the firm champions, the clients they represent, and a lawyer they once employed. “This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation…

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Fear on campus: Harvard’s international students in ‘mass panic’ over Trump move

Fear on campus: Harvard’s international students in ‘mass panic’ over Trump move

The Guardian reports: Harvard’s foreign students described an atmosphere of “fear on campus” following an attempt by the Trump administration to ban international scholars at the oldest university in the US. On lush, grassy quads filled with tents and chairs ready for end of year graduation celebrations, international students said there was “mass panic” after Thursday’s shock announcement by the Department of Homeland Security. The move triggered cancelled flights home for the summer, scrambles for housing to stay in the…

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Federal judge blocks Trump regime from revoking international students’ legal status

Federal judge blocks Trump regime from revoking international students’ legal status

NBC News reports: A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal statuses of international students at universities across the U.S. In the injunction, District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland also prohibited the administration from arresting or detaining any foreign-born students on the basis of their immigration status while a case challenging previous terminations moves through the courts. In his decision, White said that the Trump administration has “wreaked havoc” on the lives of…

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Judge dismisses charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka while reprimanding federal prosecutors

Judge dismisses charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka while reprimanding federal prosecutors

New Jersey Globe reports: A federal judge on Wednesday scolded federal prosecutors and announced he will dismiss trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka related to a standoff at a migrant detention center. Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba announced earlier this week she would drop charges against Baraka (but at the same time announced new charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver stemming from a scuffle during Baraka’s arrest). Federal magistrate judge Andre Espinosa reprimanded the federal prosecutors for…

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