Tag: Judge

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Choose orders Biden administration to cease approving new DACA purposes

Judge orders Biden administration to stop approving new DACA applications

A federal judge in southern Texas on Friday ordered the Biden administration to stop granting new applications to the Obama-era immigration program that shielded hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

The order declared that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, was “created in violation of the law and whose existence violates the law.”

But current recipients of DACA won’t immediately have their status pulled as a result of the order, the judge noted.

The ruling, which puts in jeopardy the program that President Joe Biden had sought to preserve, came as news outlets reported arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border hitting their highest levels in more than a decade.

Former President Donald Trump had sought to end DACA, but his effort was blocked in 2020 by the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 that his order to wind the program down was unlawfully “arbitrary and capricious.”

In a five-page order Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen declared, “From this date forward, the United States of America, its departments, agencies, officers, agents, and employees are hereby enjoined from administering the DACA program.”

Those entities are also barred from reimplementing the program without compliance with another law that governs federal regulatory procedure, Hanen’s order said.

The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The judge’s order said that the DACA program, created in 2012 through a policy memorandum from then-President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, was “illegally implemented.”

But since hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients now rely on DACA, Hanen’s order reasoned that “it is not equitable for a government program that has engendered such significant reliance to terminate suddenly.”

“Nothing in this injunction should be read as ordering DHS or any other governmental entity to cancel or otherwise terminate DACA status for any individual who currently is, as of this date, a DACA recipient in good standing,” Hanen wrote.

“Further, nothing in this injunction requires DHS or the Department of Justice to take any immigration, deportation, or criminal action against any DACA recipient, applicant, or any other individual that either would not otherwise take,” he wrote.

Omar Jadwat, head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement that Hanen’s ruling “is wrong and is subject to appeal.”

Jadwat called on the Democrat-majority Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamers” and other undocumented people in the U.S.

“Dreamers’ futures shouldn’t be in the hands of the courts,” he said.

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Politics

Choose Narrows Fits Over Clearing of Protesters Earlier than Trump Photograph Op

Judge Narrows Suits Over Clearing of Protesters Before Trump Photo Op

WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Monday partially dismissed claims by Black Lives Matter, the American Civil Liberties Union and others who accused the Trump administration of abusing power to forcibly disperse a protest outside the White House last year.

The lawsuits alleged that the government violated the civil rights of protesters and pledged to vacate Lafayette Square so President Donald J. Trump could go to a church near the White House where he had a Bible outside for a photo op held.

But in the 51-page verdict, Trump-appointed US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich said federal conspiracy claims were “just too speculative” to continue those parts of the lawsuit. She also ruled that the then federal officials named as defendants, such as Attorney General William P. Barr and Gregory T. Monahan, the acting chief of the U.S. Park Police, were entitled to qualified immunity and could not be sued for damage over the episode.

Judge Friedrich, however, allowed lawsuits against continued restrictions on protesters’ access to Lafayette Square and against local police departments in Washington and Arlington Counties, Virginia, to continue.

Scott Michelman, the legal director of the District of Columbia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that the decision to dismiss was an “astounding rejection of our constitutional values ​​and the rights of the First Amendment protesters.” He added that the decision put federal officials above the law.

“Today’s ruling essentially gives the federal government the green light to use force, including deadly force, against protesters while federal officials claim to protect national security,” Michelman said.

Protesters had gathered in Lafayette Square last June to protest the police murder of George Floyd when police officers and the National Guard flocked to the park to disperse the crowd.

The violence that followed became one of the defining moments of the Trump presidency. Mounted police and riot officers used stun grenades, tear gas, batons and clubs to forcibly remove the crowd from the park and historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, which had been damaged in a fire the night before.

Minutes later, Mr. Trump appeared at the church – flanked by aides and intelligence agents. The president posed with a Bible, made no formal remarks, and then went to the White House.

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Health

Choose Dismisses Houston Hospital Employees’ Lawsuit Over Vaccines

Judge Dismisses Houston Hospital Workers' Lawsuit Over Vaccines

A Texas federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Houston Methodist Hospital staff who challenged the hospital’s Covid vaccination requirement.

South Texas District Judge Lynn N. Hughes passed a ruling on Saturday that upheld the hospital’s new policy announced in April. The judge said the hospital’s decision to require vaccinations for its employees was in line with public policy.

And he denied the allegation made by Jennifer Bridges, a nurse and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, that the vaccines available in the United States were experimental and dangerous.

“The hospital staff do not participate in a human trial,” wrote Judge Hughes. “Methodist is trying to save lives without giving them the Covid-19 virus. It’s a decision made to make employees, patients, and their families safer. “

The judge’s decision appeared to be one of the first to advocate employer-required vaccinations for workers. Several large hospital systems now require Covid vaccinations, including in Washington, DC and Maryland.

But many private employers and the federal government have not made vaccination compulsory as they are moving operations back to office environments. Earlier this year, the U.S. Equal Opportunities Commission issued a policy that allows employers to require vaccines for local workers.

In Houston, Ms. Bridges was among those who led a strike on Monday, the hospital’s deadline for receiving the vaccine. And on Tuesday the hospital suspended 178 employees who refused to get a coronavirus shot.

Ms. Bridges cited the lack of full Food and Drug Administration approval for vaccination as a justification for refusing vaccination. But the FDA, which has emergency clearances for three vaccines, says clinical trials and post-market studies show they are safe, as do the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The judge also found that Texas labor law only protects workers from dismissal if they refuse to commit a criminal offense.

“Bridges are free to choose whether to accept or reject a Covid-19 vaccine, but if she refuses, she just has to work elsewhere,” he said, also rejecting the argument that employees would be forced.

And the judge called the claim of the lawsuit that compulsory vaccination was comparable to medical experiments during the Holocaust “reprehensible”.

In a statement late Saturday, Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist: “Our staff and doctors have made decisions for our patients that are always at the center of our actions.”

The Houston Methodist said it would initiate a process to fire employees who have been suspended if they are not vaccinated by June 21.

Jared Woodfill, the worker plaintiff’s attorney, also made a statement on Saturday, according to news reports, indicating that workers would appeal the verdict.

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Politics

Decide appoints particular grasp for Trump lawyer’s prison case

Judge appoints special master for Trump lawyer's criminal case

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrive to speak to police gathered at Fraternal Order of Police lodge during a campaign event in Statesville, North Carolina, U.S., August 18, 2016.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

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Jones, who is a partner in the Bracewell firm, also will review electronic files recently seized from another Trump allied lawyer, Victoria Toensing, as part of the criminal probe of Giuliani.

The files of both lawyers were seized through search warrants.

Prosecutors had asked Manhattan federal Judge J. Paul Oetken on Thursday to appoint Jones as special master, and in a court filing told the judge that attorneys for Giuliani and Toensing supported that request.

“Judge Jones’s reputation for integrity and fairness made her the unanimous choice for all parties,” Giuliani’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told CNBC. “We look forward to working with her.”

Cohen, in a text message to CNBC, said, “Judge Jones was professional in the review and determination of attorney/client privilege of the more than 10 million documents in my case.”

“The choice of Judge Jones and the expeditious manner to which she conducts her court will not inure to the benefit of Rudy,” Cohen wrote.

In their request for Jones’ appointment, prosecutors noted that Giuliani previously had been a shareholder in the Bracewell firm, “which was then known as Bracewell & Giuliani.”

“In January 2016, Mr. Giuliani left the firm, and Judge Jones did not join the firm until July 2016,” prosecutors wrote. “None of the parties believe that Mr. Giuliani’s prior affiliation with Bracewell & Giuliani presents a conflict that would disqualify Judge Jones from being appointed as a special master or her firm assisting in her review.”

Prosecutors also told Oetken that another partner at Bracewell who had helped Jones in reviewing Cohen’s files for privileged material, and “who has a personal relationship with Mr. Giuliani,” will recuse himself from this matter in order to avoid the appearance of any conflict.”

Giuliani is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

That office, which Giuliani once headed, in particular is eyeing whether he violated a law requiring people to register as agents representing the interests of foreign powers in certain cases. Giuliani during Trump’s presidency had pursued information about President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, among other things.

Giuliani had said he did nothing illegal.

Trump himself is under criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

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Health

Decide Clears Purdue Pharma’s Restructuring Plan for Vote by Hundreds of Claimants

Judge Clears Purdue Pharma’s Restructuring Plan for Vote by Thousands of Claimants

“It’s not unprecedented, but it’s highly controversial” for a bankrupt company’s owners to be released from future litigation as part of a settlement, said Adam J. Levitin, a law professor specializing in bankruptcy at Georgetown University Law Center. “It’s not even clear that the bankruptcy court has the jurisdiction to do this,” as the Sacklers are not parties to the bankruptcy themselves.

Judge Drain has long urged the negotiators to work quickly, because no money can flow to the claimants until the bankruptcy case is concluded.

According to the plan, the reconstituted, as-yet unnamed company would fund about a half-dozen trusts, including separate ones for tribes, adults and children. Proceeds from the sales of the nonprofit’s overdose-reversing medications as well as from moderate quantities of OxyContin would continue to be pumped into these trusts.

But more than 100,000 individual claimants, including relatives of people who died from prescription overdoses, would receive relatively paltry compensation, ranging roughly from $3,000 to $48,000 apiece — before lawyers’ fees and costs are deducted.

Indeed, more than a half-billion dollars overall will go toward fees and costs accrued by plaintiffs’ public and private lawyers.

The oversight of the new trusts will also be expensive. The trust distribution is incredibly complex, said Lindsey Simon, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, who has closely followed the case. “From my perspective, the biggest question is how much money will get eaten up in the administration of all those trusts,” she said.

Scott Bickford, a lawyer who represents individuals, families and babies who showed symptoms of withdrawal from drugs they were exposed to in utero, noted that the current proposal did dedicate $60 million for programs to assist these children and a fund to compensate them, an improvement from earlier versions.

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Politics

Federal Decide Strikes Down Moratorium on Evicting Renters

Federal Judge Strikes Down Moratorium on Evicting Renters

Homeowners have long argued that the moratorium was based on legally shaky ground, questioning the constitutionality of tying a major intervention in the national housing market to federal law aimed at stopping disease transmission.

The ruling “further demonstrates the illegality of this policy and reaffirms the extent to which the CDC has exceeded its authority,” said Robert Pinnegar, president of the National Apartment Association, a trade association representing large landlords that has also pushed for an end to the moratorium.

“The government must end enforcement of the CDC regulation and begin notifying stakeholders, including judges, now to prepare them to end,” he said.

The moratorium covers tens of millions of Americans at various income levels.

The Executive Order signed by Mr. Trump applies to every single renter earning less than $ 99,000 per year and families earning twice as much. According to the Census Bureau, around 8.2 million renters said they had slumped in their rents during the pandemic.

Enforcing the moratorium has always been an uncertain, even chaotic matter, left to the discretion of the judges of the State Housing Court.

These judges make decisions based on a variety of criteria, not just the federal moratorium, including local eviction orders and subjective factors such as a renter’s payment history and a landlord’s records of repairs.

Federal decisions, like the one passed on Wednesday, are significant but serve as a guide rather than an order – although a clear decision from a prominent federal court is likely to sway some local judges, said Eric Dunn, litigation director for the National Housing Law Project, a tenants’ agency .

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Politics

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen asks decide to droop residence confinement

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen asks judge to suspend home confinement

Michael Cohen leaves the Manhattan Attorney’s Office in New York City on March 19, 2021.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for ex-President Donald Trump, on Monday called on a federal judge to suspend his criminal sentence as the judge parses his request to declare satisfied his punishment by job and education loans received in jail.

The request came because Cohen is expected to meet separately for the ninth time later this week with investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Cyrus Vance Jr., who are conducting an extensive criminal investigation into Trump and the Trump Organization, a source with the case said CNBC.

Cohen’s motion for a verdict has nothing to do with his collaboration with Vance’s investigation into the most serious criminal prosecution Trump currently faces.

Vance is known to be investigating how the Trump firm recorded hush money payments that Cohen made possible for two women in 2016 and is investigating Cohen’s allegations to Congress that the Trump organization artificially manipulated the valuation of real estate assets for financial gain .

In a letter to US District Judge John Koetl, Cohen wrote that his daily detention in Manhattan continues to be “a day Mr. Cohen is illegally detained”.

Cohen wrote that he wanted Koetl “to order his release pending a decision” as to whether his criminal conviction has already been fulfilled.

He also wrote: “The impetus for this request stems from the known fact that the Bureau of Prisons is walking through these petitions noticeably slowly in order to discuss resolve, particularly on matters such as the one before Your Honor, in which the petitioner is released from custody will be 7 months. “

If Koetl approves this motion, Cohen could freely leave his Upper East Side domicile, at least until the judge finally decides on his legal offer to declare his sentence complete.

Cohen, guilty of tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and making a false declaration to Congress, was released last spring after serving just over a year of his three-year prison sentence on coronavirus concerns would have.

In his pending petition to Koetl in Manhattan federal court, Cohen argued that his sentence was completed because of classes and assignments he completed in prison, which bought him time under the First Step Act signed by Trump. Cohen argues that its last possible release date is May 29th.

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Cohen told CNBC, “This letter to Judge Koetl and my underlying Habeas Corpus letter seeks judicial intervention to compel the Bureau of Prisons to give me what I am entitled to under the terms of the First Step Act . No more and no less. “”

And Cohen added, “This petition has nothing to do with my ongoing work with the prosecutor [New York state] Attorney General or any other investigation I am involved in. “

New York attorney general Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into the Trump Organization that, like Vance’s criminal investigation, examines whether the company has misrepresented the value of the same real estate assets at different times, benefiting from lower tax expenses and insurance costs if Ratings were lower than stated for loan purposes.

The federal prosecutor argued that Cohen was not entitled to any time credits he had identified for any work or course he had identified, “largely because Cohen did not have a need to reduce his risk of relapse in any of the areas in which he took courses or work.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York who opposed Cohen’s offer declined to comment on Monday.

In his letter on Monday, Cohen also drew Koetl’s attention to a filing in another case involving a federal inmate in which prosecutors apparently dropped two “misguided and flawed defenses” that they had used in Cohen’s case.

That defense is that Cohen’s claim for a judgment from Koetl is not legally ripe because the First Step Act has not been fully enforced and because he has failed to exhaust the administrative complaints to the US Bureau of Prisons.

Cohen began working with Vance’s probe before going to jail and continued speaking with investigators while he was incarcerated and after his release to detention center.

Cohen last met with top officials in Vance’s office in mid-March.

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World News

Trend Mogul Peter Nygard Denied Bail by Canadian Choose

Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Denied Bail by Canadian Judge

Mr Nygard appeared in court via video link from prison and looked like the shell of the man who was once plastered on billboards in New York’s Times Square and Winnipeg Airport. His gray hair, usually covered in a lion’s mane, was tied in a messy bun. He was wearing a face mask and gray-blue shirt while in jail and stared straight ahead without reacting to the judge’s decision.

Updated

Apr. 5, 2021 at 4:14 pm ET

Denied bail is relatively rare in Canada, especially for those with no criminal record like Mr Nygard, said Seth Weinstein, a Toronto criminal defense attorney who co-authored a book on extradition cases.

Mr Prober said he would wait for more information on the charges from the US prosecutor’s office before deciding on his client’s next steps. It is very unlikely that a challenge from Mr Nygard to his extradition would be successful, experts said.

“In Canada, it is almost impossible not to be extradited, especially to our good friends the US,” said Robert Currie, professor of international criminal law at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He added that wealthy people, using all legal means, could prevent extradition for a few years.

In Canada, the bail system is largely based on community trust and connections and does not involve large cash deposits and commercial bail-borrowers as is the case in many US states.

Instead, in most cases, the defendant needs to find one or more “guarantees” – usually a family member or lifelong friend who pledges collateral, often in the form of property. More importantly, they also agree to supervise the accused, make sure the accused keeps bail set by the court, and notify the police of any violations.

In Mr. Nygard’s case, none of his 10 children, ex-girlfriends, or longtime businesspeople who helped set up his business appeared in court as a proposed surety. Instead there were two employees: one a former site manager with a criminal record of cocaine trafficking and a previous association with the Hells Angels motorcycle club, and the other a former director who still works for Mr Nygard overseeing the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.

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Politics

Decide Postpones Guantanamo Arraignments Over Covid Considerations

Judge Postpones Guantanamo Arraignments Over Covid Concerns

WASHINGTON – A military judge Tuesday indefinitely postponed indictments against three Guantánamo Bay prisoners who were due to appear in court for the first time after 17 years in prison. The coronavirus pandemic made traveling to the naval base too risky.

Indonesian prisoner Hambali, who has been held as a former leader of a Southeast Asian extremist group since 2003, and two accused accomplices were due to appear before the court martial on February 22nd. But Colonel Charles L. Pritchard Jr., the military judge who was due to travel to Guantanamo this week, ruled that “the various lawyers’ beliefs that travel is a serious threat to their health” was baseline.

Colonel Pritchard is the youngest military judge to join the Bank of Guantánamo Military Commissions and the youngest to postpone a trial deemed too risky in almost a year of the coronavirus repeal. The capital punishment pre-trial hearings against five men charged with planning the September 11, 2001 attacks have been delayed by a year.

The judge, court staff and attorneys in charge of the hearing began quarantine in the Washington area the weekend before a charter flight to the base Thursday.

Once there, the passengers should be quarantined individually for 14 days according to a plan worked out by the public prosecutor’s office in order to protect the residents of 6,000 inhabitants and in prison from the risk of infection.

“The risk to the health and safety of those involved in the legal proceedings due to the global Covid-19 pandemic is high,” the judge wrote in a seven-page order on Tuesday. “The government’s proposed mitigation measures lower the risk, but the risk remains.” He suggested that traveling to the base may not be safe until the end of summer.

Updated

Apr. 2, 2021, 7:52 p.m. ET

The case had been inactive throughout the Trump administration, but on day two of the Biden administration, a senior Pentagon official appointed under the Trump administration in charge of military commissions cleared the prosecution.

The defendants include Mr. Hambali, charged as Encep Nurjaman and the former leader of the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, and his accused accomplices, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, who are Malaysians.

The three men were captured in Thailand in 2003 on charges of conspiracy in the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, and in the 2003 Jakarta Marriott Hotel bombing in which at least 11 people were killed and at least 80 injured were indicted for their first three years on the CIA’s secret network of prisoners before being brought to Guantánamo for trial in 2006.

Military commission rules require an inmate to be tried within 30 days of the charges being approved, but the judge’s decision appeared to suspend this watch.

Colonel Pritchard, the head of the Army’s southeastern judicial district, was forced to travel to Washington last week to be quarantined before traveling to Guantánamo. In his decision, he noted that most of the people traveling to the court hearings have not yet been vaccinated against the virus, and neither have the prisoners.

He also noted Saturday’s decision by the Biden government to suspend a plan to offer vaccines to the 40 inmates in the prison this week. Under the original plan, the three defendants could have voluntarily received their February 1 shots and boosters in time for the February 22 trial.

By Tuesday, all soldiers and other service members working on the prison operation had been offered the Moderna vaccine, said Maj. Gregory J. McElwain, an Army spokesman, and declined to say how many of the estimated 1,500 troops are refused to receive this one shot. The Navy’s medical staff has been gradually vaccinating volunteers among residents of the base since Jan. 9.

This week, as part of the tiered program, the vaccines were offered to school teachers and foreign workers of the base commissioner and bars, as well as the naval forces guarding the perimeter of the base.

Prosecutors suggested that the hearing be postponed to April 3. The judge wrote that he would issue a new court order “in due course”.

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Politics

Decide Blocks 100-Day Pause on Deportation, a Blow to Biden’s Immigration Agenda

Judge Blocks 100-Day Pause on Deportation, a Blow to Biden's Immigration Agenda

In the first legal challenge to the Biden government’s immigration agenda, a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked a 100-day deportation break.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday issued a 14-day statewide injunction requested by the Attorney General to prevent the implementation of the policy enacted by the Department of Homeland Security within hours of President Biden’s inauguration . The order remains in effect until the judge has considered a more comprehensive application for an injunction.

Judge Drew B. Tipton, appointed by former President Donald J. Trump, said in his ruling that the suspension of deportations would violate a provision of the immigration law as well as another law requiring authorities to make a rational statement their political decisions.

Immigration law provides that individuals with final deportation orders must be deported from the United States within 90 days. The court ruled that the 100-day break violated this requirement and that the mandatory language of the immigration law should not be “neutered by the broad discretion of the federal government.”

The court also ruled that the agency’s memorandum violated a separate law that required agencies to provide a logical and rational reason for their policy changes. The judge found that the Department of Homeland Security had violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide adequate justification for the temporary suspension of deportations.

Immediately after taking office, Mr. Biden began dismantling some of his predecessor’s initiatives to curb both legal and illegal immigration to the United States. The President has issued a number of implementing regulations, including one to lift travel bans for Muslim-majority countries.

The new Washington

Updated

Jan. 26, 2021, 5:10 p.m. ET

Immigration advocates challenged many of Mr Trump’s policies in federal court, and Judge Tipton’s ruling on Tuesday signaled that immigrant hawks may also sue to obstruct Mr Biden’s initiatives.

“The court order shows President Biden’s tough battle trying to lift the previous administration’s immigration restrictions,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration attorney and professor at Cornell Law School. “A single judge can stop a federal agency’s efforts to review and re-prioritize its immigration policy.”

Following the decision on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Twitter it was a win over the left.

“Texas is the FIRST state in the nation to file a lawsuit against the Biden Admin. AND WE WON, ”wrote Republican Paxton, who is under investigation for bribery and abuse of power charges by former aides at the federal level.

“Within 6 days of Biden’s inauguration, Texas prevented its illegal deportation freeze,” Paxton wrote. “This was a seditious left-wing uprising. And my team and I stopped doing that. “

In a letter to Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, David Pekoske, last week, Mr. Paxton called the plan a “complete waiver of the Department of Homeland Security’s obligation to enforce federal immigration law,” which would make the state of Texas serious and irreparable would harm “and its citizens. “

Thousands of immigrants in detention centers have deportation orders that can be carried out once they have exhausted their remedies. Thousands more inland could be arrested for having pending deportation orders.

The Biden administration said the break should allow time for an internal review. The moratorium would cover most immigrants facing deportation unless they arrived in the United States after November 1, 2020, were suspected of having committed acts of terrorism or espionage, or posed a threat to the national Security.

“We are confident that as the process progresses, it will be clear that this was a reasonable move to order a temporary pause so the agency can carefully review its policies, procedures and enforcement priorities – while focusing more on public threats Security and national security, “a White House spokesman said Tuesday. “President Biden remains determined to take immediate action to reform our immigration system to ensure that American values ​​are preserved while protecting our communities.”