All right, here’s the bar-tab version of the consequential stuff: federal courts spent Thursday telling executive-branch workarounds to put the keys down and back away from the machinery.
Boston’s First Circuit keeps the postal ballot scheme on ice
The Boston-based First Circuit refused to suspend Judge Indira Talwani’s injunction against a new U.S. Postal Service rule pushed by the Trump administration before the November midterms. The rule would require states to provide USPS with mail-ballot recipient information and would impose federal requirements around ballot-mail processing. The court left the injunction in place while the appeal proceeds, because apparently rewriting the practical rules of mail voting right as ballots are going out is not the sort of calm, confidence-building public service we were promised. AP reporting Judge Talwani’s preliminary-injunction order
Missouri’s map circus gets a court-ordered detour
The U.S. Supreme Court again declined to rescue a Trump-backed Missouri congressional map, leaving the state poised to use its 2022 districts for the November election. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins ultimately directed local election officials to use the old map after the state supreme court found him in contempt for defying its earlier order, then imposed no penalty after he corrected course. More than a million potential voters could face different congressional choices than they had in the August primary. That’s not election administration; that’s trying to change a tire on the Pike while the car is doing 70. AP reporting
Fourth Circuit says ICE cannot make “no bond, ever” the house special
In a 2-1 ruling, the Fourth Circuit rejected the Trump administration’s policy of holding many immigrants arrested inside the United States without an opportunity for release on bond. The majority said the government’s reading of the detention law would implicate the due-process rights of millions of noncitizens; AP reports the decision makes the Fourth Circuit the ninth federal appeals court to reject the administration’s position, while two circuits have gone the other way. DHS said it remains confident in its legal position and has asked the Supreme Court to take up the dispute. So, yes: a major liberty question now has the circuit split it needs for the big marble building. AP reporting
The takeaway: Courts did not settle every underlying fight tonight, but they did block three varieties of late-game power play: federal postal meddling with state ballot systems, a map swap that had voters playing district roulette, and immigration detention without an individualized shot at bond. Democracy remains open, somehow, though it looks like Dick’s CB radio after a Nor’easter.
Sources
- https://apnews.com/article/5c7127fe5be5d7b07d310b7c2c3d51d9
- https://www.mass.gov/doc/elections-uspspreliminary-injunction/download
- https://apnews.com/article/missouri-redistricting-congressional-map-trump-c505162fe7880f60eb4dd587bc51d313
- https://apnews.com/article/trump-detention-immigrants-court-c2c4fc63122279c4ae4797ae598c810f
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Featured image: John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse September 2024.jpg by 4300streetcar, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
