SmartNews

‘Looney’: Ex-federal judge blasts Trump plan to suspend migrants' legal protections

Retired U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin didn’t hold back Friday as she tore into White House adviser Stephen Miller’s suggestion that the Trump administration could unilaterally suspend migrants’ rights to challenge their detention in court.

Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper hours after Miller made the eyebrow-raising comments, Scheindlin said flatly the suggestion is “ridiculous.”

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Trump is using immigration law to 'criminalize political opposition': legal expert

President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown is about more than just immigrants, legal analyst Leah Litman told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Friday evening — it's about laying the groundwork to create a police state that can be mobilized against Trump's political opponents.

This follows the incident in New Jersey in which ICE arrested the mayor of Newark during a protest of a private detention facility.

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'Come to regret': GOP lawyer warns MAGA Trump's anti-woke crusade will turn on them

President Donald Trump repeated threats to revoke tax-exempt status from ideological enemies – including Harvard University and Wikipedia – could come back to haunt conservatives, Republican lawyer and historian Joshua Claybourn warned Friday.

In a sharply worded New York Times op-ed, Claybourn took aim at Trump’s escalated threats against his perceived political enemies, writing that while many on the right have cheered the moves as overdue pushback against liberals, the administration is playing with fire.

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Multiple Trump flip-flops leave House GOP facing 'political blowback': report

House Republicans figuring out how to pay for Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" spending bill are in a bind over whether the president will flip-flop on cutting entitlements, according to The New York Times.

So far, Trump has repeatedly claimed, “We’re not cutting Medicaid, we’re not cutting Medicare, and we’re not cutting Social Security."

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Supreme Court is days from hearing what could be most important Trump case this year

The Supreme Court is on the brink of hearing a case with huge ramifications for the legal battles going on at all levels against President Donald Trump's administration and beyond, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The case in question is Trump v. CASA, which involves the dispute over Trump's executive order summarily reinterpreting the Fourteenth Amendment to eliminate birthright citizenship in the United States. Lower courts have already ripped Trump's order to shreds, but he wants the Supreme Court to do more than just let him go ahead with the order — he also wants them to limit courts' ability to even issue nationwide injunctions against his orders going forward.

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'Sleazy': Columnist slams Trump family for 'no holds barred' grift over new presidency

President Donald Trump and his family have long been dogged by allegations they are abusing the presidency for personal enrichment — and this time around, their schemes are bigger and more brazen than ever, Heather Digby Parton wrote in a scathing analysis for Salon published on Friday.

None of this is anything new, she noted — a series of legal cases under Trump's first term challenged him with violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, as a lot of foreign government activity around Trump properties appeared to be naked schemes to enrich him and his family for favor.

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'Thoroughly debunked': Oklahoma schools chief reamed on MSNBC for pushing election lies

Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters, a far-right MAGA figure who has ordered schools to buy Trump Bibles and called teachers unions "terrorists," faced a dressing down by MSNBC's Antonia Hylton on Friday over new plans to teach Oklahoma students that the 2020 presidential election was rigged — a plan that is already facing legal challenges.

"Let's start with that curriculum," said Hylton. "Why would you want Oklahoma students exposed to thoroughly debunked election conspiracy theories in the classroom?"

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‘Shameful’: MAGA 'outraged' as NY moves to cover Trump prosecutor's legal bills

A new provision in New York’s state budget has drawn MAGA backlash for what supporters of President Donald Trump are calling a “slush fund” to aid New York Attorney General Letitia James by covering her legal expenses.

The budget line sets aside funds for state employees facing prosecution for doing their jobs – a move that appears connected to Trump’s escalating legal retribution against those involved in his past criminal prosecutions, according to the Gothamist. The new reporting came a day after the Trump Justice Department launched a criminal probe against James, who famously won a $454 fraud judgment against the president and his real estate company.

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'Very concerned': Ex-judge sounds alarm over reprimands from Supreme Court justices

In the past week, two U.S. Supreme Court Justices have spoken out to defend the legal profession. On Friday, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace asked a former judge and Duke Law School professor just what that signals.

"How far outside of normal are we?" Wallace asked retired U.S. District Court Judge Paul Grimm of Maryland.

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'Outrage': Officials slam arrest of Dem governor hopeful — and suggest trumped-up charges

Federal officials arrested Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey and a candidate for governor, during a protest over the Trump administration's housing of migrants at the private Delaney Hall detention facility that also drew multiple members of Congress — asserting that Baraka unlawfully trespassed on federal property and defied orders to leave.

The arrest, which follows other Trump administration arrests of local officials including a judge in Wisconsin, was met with immediate outrage by New Jersey officials, with several demanding his immediate release — and others saying that the stated reason for Baraka's arrest doesn't make sense.

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‘Unusual’: White House blocks Pete Hegseth’s ‘widely disliked’ pick for top Pentagon role

The White House will override Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s choice for chief of staff and install its own candidate – a move aimed at insulating the Pentagon chief from further missteps amid mounting internal chaos, according to a new report in the Guardian.

Hegseth had floated Marine Col. Ricky Buria for the role following the abrupt exit of Joe Krasper, the office’s first chief of staff, who left last month after a contentious leak investigation triggered the ouster of three senior aides, the report said. Now, Buria – who was viewed by the White House as “a liability on account of his limited experience as a junior military assistant and his recurring role in internal office drama” has been sidelined.

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'Dark insult': 'Hypocritical' new scheme earns Trump blistering putdown from columnist

President Donald Trump's new scheme to pay $1,000 to unauthorized immigrants who "self-deport" is a "dark insult" that runs contrary to the whole concept of America, Theodore R. Johnson wrote in an analysis for The Washington Post Friday.

Already, some observers are warning immigrants not to take the offer because it simply can't be trusted, with one legal expert saying the administration's promise that such people will be eligible for residency in the United States at some later point is a trap.

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Aide reveals Trump considering scrapping cornerstone of US Constitution: ‘It’s an option’

Donald Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller said Friday that the White House is “actively looking at” suspending the ability of migrants to challenge their detention in court, according to Bloomberg.

“The Constitution is clear,” Miller said, citing the clause allowing for suspension of habeas corpus during times of invasion. “So it’s an option we’re actually looking at, but a lot of it depends on whether the court will do the right thing or not.”

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