Federal Courts
How Unstated Legal Ideas Have Deformed the Constitution
For several decades, we have been witnessing a Congress in long decline and a corresponding ascent of the President and the courts. I see this as a fundamental deformation of the Constitution—a deviation from its original and…
How Three Implicit Legal Ideas Have Sidelined Congress and Empowered the President and the Courts
Prof. Merrill is giving the Hallows Lecture at Marquette tonight on this subject, and I'm delighted to report that he'll also be guest-blogging on it here this week. Here's the abstract of the lecture: Why has…
Trump says justices catered to ‘radical left’ by ruling against his tariffs
During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Donald Trump described the Supreme Court's rejection of his "emergency" tariffs as a "very unfortunate ruling." That was mild compared to…
More than 18,000 habeas corpus petitions filed amid Trump’s immigration crackdown
The ancient writ of habeas corpus, which allows one to petition unlawful imprisonment to a judge, has had a banner year because of the Trump administration's mass deportation program. The Supreme Court ruled last April…
Federal court orders Trump administration to respond to tariff refund motion
Tariff turmoil. Last week, the Supreme Court said President Donald Trump's tariffs were illegal. But it didn't say anything about the roughly $175 billion in tariffs that have already been collected—illegally—from…
The ACLU joins the NRA in urging SCOTUS to uphold pot users’ gun rights
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), despite its name, historically has not been keen on defending the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. After the Supreme Court affirmed that right in the landmark 2008 case…
Iowa officials arrested this guy for criticizing them—twice. A federal judge says they are liable.
As Noah Petersen saw it, he was exercising his freedom of speech when he criticized the Newton, Iowa, police department during the public comment period at a city council meeting. But according to Mayor Michael Hansen and…
Federal lawyer in Minnesota admits office overwhelmed by ICE legal challenges
"This job sucks": Those were the words of federal attorney Julie Le, who told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell in a Tuesday hearing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) was overwhelmed with the…
Drug dogs should not be unleashed to authorize apartment searches, a SCOTUS brief argues
In the 2013 case Florida v. Jardines, the Supreme Court held that police violated the Fourth Amendment when they deployed a drug-detecting dog on the front porch of a house without a warrant. But last year in United States v.…
Federal courts block Trump administration’s ICE rules
Some good news on immigration enforcement for the first time in what feels like a very long time comes in the form of two court orders restricting Trump administration policies and a body cam announcement from Department of…
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