A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw |
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Yoan Valat/Pool via REUTERS |
Since President Trump’s return to office, federal courts in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine have become key players in the legal wars over the administration’s policies. Here’s what to know: |
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- A Reuters analysis found that at least 72 lawsuits challenging Trump's policies have been filed in federal courts in those four states by plaintiffs, as litigants seek a friendly venue to challenge the president.
- Trial court judges have made at least an initial decision in 51 of those cases, ruling against Trump in 46 of them, the analysis showed.
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These have included challenges to Trump's policies to restrict birthright citizenship, gut the U.S. Department of Education, revoke the legal status of thousands of migrants and fast-track deportations of migrants to countries other than their own - so-called "third countries" - including politically unstable South Sudan.
- While nationwide the U.S. judiciary is closely divided among judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents, in these four states 17 of the 20 active federal trial judges are Democratic appointees. These states fall under the umbrella of the Boston-based 1st Circuit whose five active judges all were appointed by Democratic presidents while a Trump nominee awaits Senate confirmation.
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The regional federal appellate court that has jurisdiction over the most challenges this year to Trump's policies is the one that covers D.C., but the courts under the 1st Circuit have attracted the second-most such lawsuits, according to data from Just Security, an online publication based at New York University School of Law.
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While the U.S. Supreme Court has backed the administration in some important cases this year arising from the 1st Circuit, the DOJ has not yet asked the justices to review some other adverse rulings from judges in the region including changes in federal elections and a cap on federal research funding to universities.
- Nate Raymond has more analysis on the influence of New England courts here.
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- The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue orders in pending appeals at 9:30 a.m. ET and will hear oral arguments in two cases.
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A group of immigrant rights nonprofits will urge the D.C. Circuit to restore funding for legal access programs for immigrants facing deportation. In July, the district court denied the groups’ request for a preliminary injunction. Read the district court order.
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The D.C. Circuit will hear arguments in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s termination of funding for community violence intervention, victim services, and youth and criminal justice reform. In July, the district court denied the plaintiffs emergency motion for an injunction but granted a narrower one. Read the order here.
- The ACLU will urge U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston to grant class action status in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s policy of denying bond hearings to migrants. Read the complaint.
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The New York Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, will hear arguments over whether provisions of the state’s Voting Rights Act meant to remedy “vote dilution” violate federal or state equal protection requirements. A trial court found that the provisions did, but an appeals court reversed that decision.
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Two brothers who studied at MIT are slated to face trial on charges that they carried out a scheme to exploit the Ethereum blockchain's integrity and steal $25 million worth of cryptocurrency. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have said the scheme allegedly perpetrated by Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, marked the first time that such a fraud had ever been the subject of U.S. criminal charges.
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A Massachusetts college student is slated to be sentenced after pleading guilty to hacking cloud-based education software provider PowerSchool and stealing data pertaining to millions of students and teachers used to extort the company and school districts into paying ransoms. Matthew Lane, 19, faces at least two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges related to the hacking of two companies.
- Hester Peirce, the Republican member of the SEC heading up the agency's new crypto task force, appears in conversation at the annual membership meeting of the Institute of International Finance in D.C.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. |
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That’s how much Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay to settle a nearly decade-old class action that accused them of forcing merchants to swallow some of the costs of fraudulent transactions involving counterfeit, lost, or stolen cards. Read more here. |
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