Author: nick
Today the Supreme Court decided Hencely v. Fluor Corp. The vote was 6-3, though not the split you might be expecting. Justice Thomas wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Barrett, and Jackson. Justice Alito dissented, joined by the Chief Justice and Justice Kavanaugh. This unusual divide is due to the subject matter: preemption. You might think that the conservative view favors broad federal preemption, but this is not so. Justice Thomas has long been skeptical of federal preemption, as it intrudes on principles of federalism. Wyeth v. Levine (2009) is a prominent case where Justice Thomas voted…
As the United States grappled with Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a choke point for one-fifth of the world’s crude oil — CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright whether the U.S. should rely less on oil and more on renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power. “We have gone through two months when the entire global energy system is in chaos just because of one shipping lane,” Tapper said April 19 on “State of the Union.” “Doesn’t that make an argument for alternative kinds of energy, so that the U.S. is less…
Was the Clean Power Plan the first executive branch action halted by Supreme Court order on the “shadow docket”? Was it even the first Obama Administration action stopped in this way? Over at SCOTUSBlog, Stephanie Barclay explains why the answer is “no.” Her piece begins: Last Saturday, the New York Times published a trove of internal Supreme Court memoranda from February 2016 and declared that the five-day deliberation over President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan marked the birth of the court’s modern “shadow docket.” Stephen Vladeck, writing before the leak and again after it, made the same claim: the Feb. 9, 2016 rulings were, he…
Crypto exchange Kraken disclosed two insider-related support access incidents involving limited client data and said it is facing an extortion attempt after attackers claimed to possess internal system videos. Crypto exchange Kraken disclosed two insider-related security incidents involving support staff access to limited client data, followed by an extortion attempt by a criminal group, according to a company statement and comments from its chief security officer. The firm said no systems were breached and no client funds were placed at risk in either case. Both incidents involved inappropriate access to internal support tools rather than core trading infrastructure, and access was revoked…
Hunger strikes, photos of bruised detainees, congressional investigations—allegations of neglect, abuse, and wretched conditions are piling up inside federal immigration detention centers as the Trump administration continues its mass deportation campaign. Yesterday, detainees at the North Lake Processing Center, a privately run detention center in Baldwin, Michigan, announced they were launching a hunger strike to protest poor living conditions and lack of due process. “We demand competent doctors, better medical care—the food here is absolute garbage—and, above all, an end to the procedural delays we are suffering through inside these walls,” a North Lake detainee said in a translated statement…
Opioid addiction has shattered countless American lives. A near-perfect cure could be miraculous and podcaster Joe Rogan recently said it’s within reach. “With one dose of Ibogaine, more than 80% of people are free of that addiction,” he said April 18 at the White House, where President Donald Trump signed an executive order concerning the drug. “With two doses, it’s more than 90%.” Ibogaine is a psychedelic medication derived from the Iboga shrub found in Central and West Africa. When taken in large amounts, it causes hallucinations that can last more than 24 hours and cause cardiac problems. The Trump…
From today’s decision by Judge James S. Moody, Jr. (M.D. Fla.) in Loomer v. Maher: Plaintiff Laura Loomer is a well-known conservative investigative journalist. Loomer is also a “conservative, Republican, Jewish female activist.” She has twice mounted unsuccessful bids for a congressional seat…. Specifically, Loomer avers that on a September 13, 2024, episode of Maher’s “Real Time” show …, Maher made and published the following false, malicious, and defamatory statement of and concerning Loomer: I think maybe Laura Loomer’s in an arranged relationship to affect the election because she’s very close to Trump. She’s 31, looks like his type. We…
From Fourth Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, joined by Chief Judge Albert Diaz, in today’s Doe v. Mast: To protect Plaintiffs and their family members living in Afghanistan, the district court issued a protective order that prohibited Defendants and their lawyers from “disclosing any information that directly or indirectly identifies Plaintiffs or their family members to any person … unless that person first executes a non-disclosure agreement.” … Although the order constitutes a content-based prior restraint, it fits into one of the narrow exceptions in which prior restraints can be permissible, subject to strict scrutiny. And the order satisfies strict scrutiny:…
Do Freedom of Information Act door logs reveal that former President Joe Biden didn’t enter the Oval Office after the 2024 election? No, evidence shows that’s a dubious claim. An April 21 X post showing an image of Biden looking down reads, “Newly released FOIA door logs show that former President Joe Biden didn’t enter the Oval Office once after the 2024 election. He was president for another 75 days.” The post with over 249,000 views as of April 22 said that during that time former President Barack Obama, billionaire philanthropist George Soros, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Adam Schiff,…
Today’s decision by Fourth Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, joined by Chief Judge Albert Diaz, in Doe v. Mast involved a gag order on defendants: The order barred the defendants from “disclosing any information that directly or indirectly identifies Plaintiffs or their family members to any person … unless that person first executes a non-disclosure agreement.” The court ultimately upheld the order, because of national security concerns that are only very rarely present in such pseudonymous claims (see this post for more, including more on the factual background). But in the process, the court held three things that will be significant…