Trump loses appeal to curtail birthright citizenship, 'reverse' discrimination case faces SCOTUS test, and Trump FBI pick Patel faces Senate vote ?
Reuters Legal
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?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal news:
?? US appeals court rejects Trump's emergency bid to curtail birthright citizenship
A U.S. appeals court on Feb. 19 let stand an order blocking President Donald Trump from curtailing automatic birthright citizenship nationwide as part of the Republican's hardline crackdown on immigration and illegal border crossings.
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit rejected the Trump administration's request for an emergency order putting on hold a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Seattle blocking the president's executive order.
Trump's Justice Department had asked the 9th Circuit to by Feb. 20 largely stay a ruling by Seattle-based U.S. District Judge John Coughenour declaring the executive order on birthright citizenship unconstitutional, saying he went too far by issuing a nationwide injunction at the behest of four Democratic-led states. But a three-judge panel declined to do so and instead set the case down for arguments in June.
U.S. Circuit Judge Danielle Forrest, who Trump appointed during his first term, in a concurring opinion said a rapid ruling would risk eroding public confidence in judges who must "reach their decisions apart from ideology or political preference."
It was the first time an appellate court had weighed in on Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship, whose fate may ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and New Hampshire have likewise blocked it, and appeals are underway already in two of those cases.
???? US Supreme Court tackles straight woman's 'reverse' discrimination case
Marlean Ames received numerous promotions and good evaluations over the years working in Ohio's youth corrections system, so when she was denied a promotion and demoted in 2019 with a $40,000 pay cut she said she felt "shocked and hurt and humiliated."
But, according to Ames, that was not all. She had a gay supervisor at the time, she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a gay woman and she was demoted in favor of a gay man - both of whom, Ames asserted, were less qualified than her.
"That's how I came to feel that I was being discriminated on because I was straight and pushed aside for them," Ames, 60, said in an interview.
The U.S. Supreme Court is due on Feb. 26 to hear arguments in her bid to revive her civil rights lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Youth Services after lower courts threw it out. She is seeking monetary damages from the state.
A ruling in her favor by the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, could make it easier for non-minorities, including white people and heterosexuals, to pursue claims of illegal bias - often called "reverse" discrimination - under a landmark federal anti-discrimination law.
Ames is challenging a requirement used by some U.S. courts that plaintiffs from majority groups, such as white and straight people, must provide more evidence than minority plaintiffs to make an initial - or "prima facie" - claim of discrimination under a seminal 1973 Supreme Court ruling that governs the multi-step process employed to resolve such cases.
??? Trump FBI pick Patel faces Senate vote amid Justice Department tumult
The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is set to confirm Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director on Feb. 20, which would put a Trump loyalist atop the nation's most prominent law enforcement agency at a time of growing upheaval.
Patel would take charge as Trump-backed officials seek to put their stamp on the FBI and its parent agency, the Justice Department, challenging decades-old traditions of independence and reorienting its mission toward Trump’s core priorities.
At least 75 career Justice Department lawyers and FBI officials, who normally keep their roles from administration to administration, have either resigned, been fired or stripped of their posts in the first month of the Trump administration.
Trump-appointed officials have said many early moves are aimed at pursuing the administration’s policy goals and ending what they have described as abuses against Trump and his supporters.
??Non-profits ask judge to hold US officials in contempt for defying foreign aid order
Two non-profit groups suing the Trump administration over its freeze of nearly all foreign aid on Feb. 19 asked a federal judge to hold administration officials in contempt of court for defying the judge's order last week that the freeze be lifted.
The motion in Washington, D.C., federal court by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Journalism Development Network came after the administration said in a court filing on Feb. 18 that it had authority to suspend or cancel thousands of contracts and grants despite U.S. District Judge Amir Ali's temporary restraining order.
"This Court should not brook such brazen defiance of the express terms of its order," they wrote, asking Ali to hold in civil contempt Secretary of State Marco Rubio, USAID deputy administrator Pete Marocco and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought.
President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on his first day in office. The order was followed by aggressive moves to gut USAID, the main U.S. foreign aid agency, including by placing much of its staff on leave and exploring bringing the formerly independent agency under the State Department.
Ali ruled in his temporary order that USAID and the State Department, which also funds foreign aid, may not enforce Trump's order through blanket suspensions or cancellations of contracts or grants, though he said they could enforce the terms of particular agreements.
?? That's all for today, thank you for reading The Legal File, and have a great day!
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