A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw |
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Good morning. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on whether to advance four judicial nominees today. Plus, a federal judge will consider whether the Trump administration is complying with a ruling blocking it from canceling legal status for Venezuelans and Haitians, and three former FBI leaders say they were fired for insufficient loyalty. Let’s get going.
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Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on four judicial nominees |
This morning, let’s catch up with the judiciary. This week, the Senate confirmed two new federal judges as President Trump seeks to add additional conservatives to the federal bench. There will be more action on the judicial front today when the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on whether to advance four more of his picks. Here’s what to know:
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- On today’s Judiciary Committee docket are 9th Circuit nominee Eric Tung, 1st Circuit nominee Joshua Dunlap, District of Montana pick William Mercer and Eastern District of Kentucky nominee Stephen Chad Meredith.
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Tung, a partner at the law firm Jones Day, made headlines during his hearing when he was grilled by Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee over past comments criticizing "radical feminists” for trying to “blur gender roles" and "undermine institutions like marriage." Read more about that here.
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Dunlap is a Maine-based lawyer at the law firm Pierce Atwood with a track record of pursuing Republican-backed court cases. He would fill the lone vacancy on the Boston-based 1st Circuit, which currently is the only one of the 13 appeals courts with no active judges appointed by Republican presidents. Read more about him here.
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Meredith, a former Kentucky solicitor general, was almost nominated to the court by President Biden in 2022, despite his opposition to abortion. Biden ultimately did not move ahead with the nomination, which you can read about here.
- Mercer is a long-time Montana state legislator. During his hearing, he was pressed on allegations that he encouraged the Montana Republican Party to claim January 6 defendants were held in “indefinite detention,” which he denied. Read more about that here.
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Earlier this week, two more of President Trump’s judicial nominees won Senate confirmation to their judgeships. Maria Lanahan, the principal deputy solicitor general in the Missouri attorney general's office, was confirmed to a seat on the Eastern District of Missouri, transforming the court into a conservative stronghold. Meanwhile, Florida judge Ed Artau has officially joined the bench in the Southern District of Florida (read more about him here).
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The 4th Circuit will hear arguments over whether the district court erred when it preliminarily enjoined certain provisions of two Trump administration anti-DEI executive orders. The 4th Circuit lifted the preliminary injunction in March while litigation continued. Read the complaint and read the 4th Circuit order.
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U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco will consider whether the Trump administration is complying with his ruling last week holding it unlawfully moved to cancel temporary protections from deportation for more than 1 million Venezuelans and Haitians living in the United States. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed in the days since to update a government website to accurately describe the status of TPS for Venezuela. Read the motion.
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U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston will hold a hearing in a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from continuing to operate a group that environmental advocates say was secretly convened, is composed of climate skeptics, and that prepared a report serving as the basis for a reversal of U.S. rules on greenhouse gas emissions. Read the complaint.
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The Society of General Internal Medicine and the North American Primary Care Research Group will urge U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson in Baltimore to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from terminating millions of dollars in grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that were allocated by Congress. Read the complaint.
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The trial of Ryan Routh, the man charged with attempted assassination for allegedly seeking to kill President Trump at his golf course last year, is expected to begin pending the seating of the jury. Routh opted to fire his legal team and defend himself in court.
- Nadine Menendez, the wife of convicted former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, is due to be sentenced over her bribery conviction.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. |
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