Harvard has a serious law school, but they got some big names in private practice to rep on this litigation. That’s probably a good move for them

It’s more like the Pope clung on to life just for the opportunity to insult JD Vance. Once that was accomplished, there was no additional reason to stick around.

As long as it’s a federal court holding them in contempt, Trump can just pardon them.

Criminal contempt has this problem, but civil contempt is not pardonable, because there is no crime to pardon.

Judge Boasberg is trying to proceed with criminal contempt on the “turn the planes around” order. Whatever happens there, it is unlikely to end in convictions that stick.

Judge Xinis is proceeding towards civil contempt. If she finds someone in willful contempt, she can imprison them until they choose to comply. And the evidence standard in civil contempt is “clear and convincing,” not “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The infamous immunity ruling gives the President a lot of immunity from criminal prosecution.

But besides that, there’s an older precedent in civil litigation that no judge can write an injunction directly against the President in the performance of his official duties. So all of these TROs and injunctions, including the Friday SC order, either do not apply to the President himself, or they are illegally broad*.

Under this theory of law, the President could theoretically arrest and deport all the people he wants with no judicial intervention – just as long he does all the arrests by himself, and flies the planes by himself, etc. In reality, the fat man is always going to have underlings doing the stuff for him, and they do not have this immunity from civil injunctions.

*This is one of the points raised in Alito’s dissent: the SC order applies to “the Government”, without saying whether the President is included or not.

And even if the kids did say this thing, it would in no way prejudice his absolute right to remain in the country. Even if he did cross the border illegally without presenting at a port of entry, he would still have the right to enter and remain.

The “margaritas” were staged props and also inexplicably garnished with cherries.

The bigger deal is that this immunity protection does not extend to the President’s minions and officials.

Trump is never going to round up the prisoners and fly the plane to El Salvador all by himself. He’s got people to do that, and those people can be served with court orders and criminal contempt process.

The thing where the judge orders summary jail time is reserved for contempt “a facie curiae”, meaning “in the face of the court”. That’s for blatant disrespect or disruption in the courtroom in front of the judge.

So far, Drew Ensign has managed to refrain from anything as directed as that. So he hasn’t been jailed.

He already has a habeas petition filed, and a judge (actually the same judge handling Ozturk*) has ordered him not to be removed from Vermont.

*Not much of a coincidence. Vermont has two federal district judges in the entire state.

Update: I was expecting the plaintiff to use this Bukele quote, because it’s pretty good for him.

But instead it’s the Government that filed it!

At this point I utterly fail to understand their litigation strategy.

Here’s the guy they claim has jurisdiction saying the only reason he won’t send him home is because he can’t make the US accept him.

I can promise you this quote is going to be in Abrego Garcia’s next court filing.

This ruling was made by a Trump-appointed district court judge, and two Trump-appointed appellate judges declined to grant a last minute administrative stay.

That goes to show just how much of a loser this AP case is for the Trump administration. Yet the administration ignored the order anyway, and they filed a paper this morning suggesting that the appellate judges merely “forgot” to issue the steady.

It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.

• Michael G. Kozak. US State Dept. April 12, 2025.

Edit: you can track the Maryland court docket here.

The government represented that he was alive in a court filing on Friday or Saturday (I forget which).

Which they failed to do yesterday.

The judge demanded daily status updates on 3 questions. The filing yesterday only responded to question #1*, and completely ignored #2 and 3.

*Additionally, the response to #1 only relayed publicly available information, when the judge specifically ordered an affidavit from someone with personal knowledge of the matter.

This all assumes you’re a US citizen.

Correct. US citizens have an absolute right to enter the country. So if they want to detain for more than several hours, they have to come up with criminal charges.

Permanent residents theoretically enjoy some constitutional rights at the border, but you all have seen what the current situation is

Non-citizen non-LPRs can simply be refused admission and summarily deported on much flimsier grounds than any of this stuff we’re talking about.

No, I don’t think there is anything very special or unique about Abrego Garcia.

My theory is that someone ran a slapdash database search for unexecuted removal orders to El Salvador, to fill out a quota for the stunt.

Abrego Garcia allegedly has two pieces of paper from immigration court. Paper #1 (allegedly) is a final removal order, and it says he can be deported. Paper #2 is a withholding of removal order, and it says he can’t be deported to El Salvador.

Why do I keep saying “allegedly”? Because in the current court case, the government was unable to produce paper #1 in court. So Judge Xinis made her decision on the basis that there was no legal authority to remove Abrego Garcia to anywhere. However, the record seems to indicate that paper #1 really does exist, even if the chucklefucks can’t find it.

Why am I saying this here? Given the amount of utter stupidity with which this operation has been carried out, I think it may be reasonable that there may have been a legit mix-up between the two papers somewhere along the line. I have no evidence one way or the other.

Use a pass code. Do not use fingerprint or face ID unlock.

The current law is that you can be compelled to unlock your phone with your face or finger. (Probably should require a search warrant).

You cannot be compelled to say what a pass code or password is. You have the right to remain silent.

In the 1830s they were doing that shit in the southeast: Georgia, Carolinas, Alabama, and so on. They didn’t really get going clearing the “west” until after the war and into the twentieth century. Geronimo surrendered for the last time in the 1880s, and he died in 1909 as a POW at Ft. Sill. Oklahoma had gained statehood only two years before, in 1907.