Dear listeners,
Just as we were sitting down to tape, the Supreme Court dropped its ruling in Learning Resources v. Trump, throwing out the massive country-specific tariffs the president purported to impose under the Nixon-era International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The opinion was messy: 6-3, but with the six-justice majority not agreeing on exactly why the tariffs were illegal. Justice Gorsuch, in particular, issued a concurrence describing his bones to pick with almost everyone: the court’s liberals, who said this decision could be reached without recourse to the “major questions” doctrine; the dissenting conservatives, who he saw as concocting an ad-hoc exception to the doctrine; and Justice Barrett, with whom he has a somewhat inscrutable disagreement over how to think about the doctrine, despite both of them voting the same way. He does think Roberts is cool, at least.
Also this week, we look at a contempt order from Judge Laura Provenzino, putting a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (a J.A.G. attorney on loan from the Department of Defense) in contempt over the government’s failure to return identification documents to a non-citizen released from immigration custody on her orders. He was fined $500 per day — a fine the government will reimburse — and as such, the order is more symbolic than effectively coercive. We discuss how an order like this matters, and how judges could further escalate in the face of widespread noncompliance by the federal government in these immigration cases.
Plus, we discuss a mistrial over a defense attorney’s t-shirt, Judge Paula Xinis’s rejection of yet another effort to detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Sen. Mark Kelly’s exclamation-mark-laden preliminary win against efforts to reduce his military rank and pension, and a Minnesota judge’s order directing the government to let ICE detainees talk with their lawyers. And we look at an all-timer performance from billionaire Les Wexner’s attorney, who whispered in his ear during a congressional deposition, threatening to kill him if he says any more answers longer than five words.
We hope you enjoy the episode,
Josh
