in the courts

In a blistering 23-page opinion Wednesday, District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan berated the federal government’s attorneys for failing to notify her about a related case in Florida. A federal judge in that litigation issued an order Tuesday demanding DHS allow Florida, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio to use SAVE again, saying the agency was bound by a November 2025 settlement agreement with the state.

Judge Britt Grant, an appointee of President Donald Trump, rejected Florida’s argument that professors’ classroom speech belongs to the state because they are paid by the government.

“If the First Amendment offers any boundary of protection at all for public university classrooms, this statute crosses it,” Grant wrote.

“We are proud of our efforts to push back against these improper demands that only serve to undermine confidence in our elections,” Fulton County Attorney Soo Jo said in a statement.

“Today’s ruling again affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename the Kennedy Center were unlawful,” Beatty said in a statement Wednesday. “His name no longer desecrates this sacred memorial, which belongs to the American people. Now it is time for the Trump administration to accept this, comply with the law, and take the tarps down.”

“The D.C. Circuit’s decision means Donald Trump’s name will remain off the Kennedy Center for the foreseeable future, exactly as the law requires, and as Congress intended when it established it,” Norm Eisen, co-founder and board member of Democracy Defenders Action, and Nathaniel Zelinsky, senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group, who are representing Beatty in the matter said in a joint statement. “This is a great win for the rule of law and the American people’s decision to honor John F. Kennedy’s memory. It is also a clear reminder that public institutions are not personal branding opportunities for any president.”

NEW YORK — On Friday, in a victory for voters, a federal judge dismissed the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit seeking New York state’s complete voter file, which contains voters’ driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers and other private information. The League of Women Voters of New York State, represented by Campaign Legal Center and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, had intervened in the suit to protect voters in the Empire State.

The ruling marks the 12th time a federal district court has rejected a DOJ lawsuit seeking to gain access to voters’ confidential information. A 13th case was dismissed in West Virginia this afternoon.

Four detainees at the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the U.S. filed a federal lawsuit on Saturday alleging human rights abuses, "horrific" conditions and "severe medical neglect" at the facility.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, details "inhumane" treatment inside Camp East Montana on the U.S. Army's Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. The suit describes a litany of abuse allegations, including a lack of medical care and physical violence at the hands of guards, and accuses the government of human rights and constitutional violations.

WASHINGTON – A federal judge today issued a Temporary Restraining Order, prohibiting the National Park Service (NPS) from taking any action against Accountability Now USA for displaying an “8647” flag as part of the group’s permitted public demonstration on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. The demonstrators are represented by the ACLU of the District of Columbia (ACLU-D.C.).

In his order, U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss wrote, “The government seeks to squelch core political speech without any articulable—much less evidentiary—basis for concluding that the speech actually threatens the life or safety of the President.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Trump administration policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday.

WATCH: Transgender military members fight to continue serving despite Trump's ban

The majority opinion by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit largely upholds a March 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C. Reyes concluded that President Donald Trump's executive order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights.

The attorney general of New Jersey on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the private company operating the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, demanding access for health officials amid allegations of “inhumane and unsanitary conditions”.

Immigrants locked up at the federal detention center in Newark began a hunger and labor strike more than 10 days ago to protest against conditions, while demonstrations built up outside that veered into violent scenes after dark.

Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed by Jennifer Davenport, the state’s attorney general, asks the state superior court in Newark to order the private operator, the Geo Group, to grant the New Jersey department of health full access to the facility to conduct inspections.

Seven states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its decision to cancel a major offshore wind lease off the coast of New York.

In March, federal officials announced they would pay nearly $1bn in taxpayer dollars to French energy firm TotalEnergies in exchange for the company killing plans to erect two offshore windfarms off New York and North Carolina. TotalEnergies agreed to terminate the projects and pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States, while investing hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas projects.

The deal was unlawful, says the lawsuit, led by Letitia James, New York’s attorney general.

“The Trump administration is once again trying to kill clean energy projects and destroy good-paying jobs for New Yorkers,” she said in a statement to the Guardian.

The administration’s agreement with TotalEnergies came after federal judges repeatedly struck down the president’s executive orders and stop-work directives which aimed to halt offshore wind development, ruling them unlawful and arbitrary.