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Labeling the Republican leaders who're responsible for these barbarous deportation efforts as Nazis is generous, a new term is needed to reflect their racist, AI-aided, diabolical mindset.

"To issue this memo the same week they cut the Legal Orientation Program that provides minimal assistance to detained #immigrants who've to file asylum applications unrepresented shows how depraved those making these decisions are."
-L Toczylowski

#Deportations #Asylum #DueProcess #Courts #Fascism #USPol

It seems to me the real issue here is the growing need for #courts to be able to direct CRAs to put these things right properly.

There would have to be broad new powers, sufficient powers for judges to make ammendments to people's #credit records directly.

Of course this won't happen because there are too many other priorities right now.

But there was a time, when things were running smoothly when it could have been done and it should have been done.

bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8qqe

Ashley Dale: 'My murdered daughter's friends wouldn't help police' - BBC NewsBBC News

First Nations man died in prison after waiting years for disability support, inquest told
By Anna McGuinness, Emile Pavlich, and Shannon Schubert

A coroner is told Indigenous man Clinton Austin waited more than two years for NDIS support prior to being found unresponsive in his jail cell.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-12/cli

#BlackDeathsInCustody #Courts #Prisons #AnnaMcGuinness #EmilePavlich # #ShannonSchubert

Inquest told Indigenous prisoner did not receive disability support before deathABC News

Menendez brothers face second chance as re-sentencing hearing goes ahead
By Yiying Li

Hearings that could result in the Menendez brothers being re-sentenced or released will be allowed to go ahead this week, after a judge knocked back prosecutors' attempts to scuttle them.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-12/jud

#Courts #YiyingLi

Menendez brothers' re-sentencing hearing will go ahead, LA judge rulesABC News

Menendez brothers face second chance as re-sentencing hearing goes ahead
By Yiying Li

Hearings that could result in the Menendez brothers being re-sentenced or released will be allowed to go ahead this week, after a judge knocked back prosecutors' attempts to scuttle them.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-12/jud

#Courts #YiyingLi

Menendez brothers' re-sentencing hearing will go ahead, LA judge rulesABC News

Hundreds waiting for disability support in prison system, inquest told
By Anna McGuinness, Emile Pavlich, and Shannon Schubert

A coroner is told Indigenous man Clinton Austin waited more than two years for NDIS support prior to being found unresponsive in his jail cell.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-12/cli

#BlackDeathsInCustody #Courts #Prisons #AnnaMcGuinness #EmilePavlich # #ShannonSchubert

Inquest told Indigenous prisoner did not receive disability support before deathABC News

A positive development: “A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from freezing funds used by Maine to pay for school lunches and food for kids/adults in day care settings.

The judge noted that although Secretary Rollins attributed the freeze to Maine's alleged Title IX violation in athletics, her decision targeted "food assistance programs" for "children and vulnerable adults."
-K Cheney

#Courts #TransRights #Rights #Maine #USPol

storage.courtlistener.com/reca

White House ordered to reveal plans to return man wrongly deported to El Salvador prison

A US federal judge has rebuked a government lawyer who has been unable explain what the Trump administration had done to arrange for the return of a father who has been mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-12/us-

#WorldPolitics #Courts #Prisons

US judge demands White House reveal plans to return man wrongly deported to El Salvador prisonABC News

Landlord found guilty of manslaughter after tenant died from multiple injuries
By Lucy Loram and James Taylor

A Queensland jury has found a Hervey Bay landlord guilty of manslaughter over the death of his 62-year-old tenant Craig Dunn at an industrial building complex.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-12/lan

#Courts #LucyLoram #JamesTaylor

Queensland landlord Brett Gordon Williams guilty of tenant's manslaughter in Hervey BayABC News

Five more high profile #BigLaw legal firms have capitulated to Downmarket Mussolini's fascist threats in order to keep raking in federal contracts; even as 500 of their contemporaries in US law are actively proving that fighting the Trump regime is an option:

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/a

Trump says five more law firms agree to pro bono work to avoid punitive executive orders

"Donald Trump said on Friday that five major law firms reached agreements to together provide his administration $600m in pro bono legal work, among other terms, to avoid executive orders punishing them, a significant capitulation to the president as he attacks the legal profession.

The five firms – Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft – are among the most prestigious and recognized firms in the US.

Trump’s announcement on Friday on Truth Social means he has secured a total of $940m in pro bono work from some of the most powerful law firms in the US.

The orders come as Trump’s attack on the legal profession has divided the most prestigious firms in the US. More than 500 firms signed an amicus brief last week in support of a legal challenge to executive orders punishing the firm Perkins Coie. But many of the country’s biggest firms – including those that reached agreements announced on Friday – were conspicuously absent."

Frankly, I'm tired of repeating myself so I'll keep this brief. These firms are all kissing the fascist toad in the White House's ring because standing up to him, even when the law is on their side, risks too much of their ability to make money and that's more important to them than the law, or any sort of moral obligation to oppose fascism from those in a position to do so. Like every other Big Law firm before them, these folks have traded away their independence and integrity without any guarantee whatsoever that this represents the end of Downmarket Mussolini's demands; which means, even if they don't realize it, all of these law firms work for Trump now. Maybe these bigshot lawyers honestly believe, as former Skadden lawyer Rachel Cohen reported in the interview I shared above, that they can outsmart the regime, but that presupposes the Trump administration is playing by a set of rules - which is an idea that is wholly discredited by the blatantly unconstitutional executive orders and threats from the White House that brought us to this moment in the first place.

Finally I would encourage folks not to dismiss the almost 1 billion dollars in promises for pro bono services to the regime and causes Trump himself supports, that Der Leader has extracted here. Downmarket Mussolini is forcibly recruiting massive law firms to help him conduct an assault on our civil rights and the American legal system itself, and when he says the firms have agreed they “will not deny representation to clients, such as members of politically disenfranchised groups and Government Officials, employees, and advisors” he's making that explicitly clear. I mean let's cut the bullshit here, this is a regime that has argued that white people, and fundamentalist Christians are "politically disenfranchised groups" in fucking writing, so I don't think it's hard to imagine what kind of cases Trump is going to deploy his new minions to argue on behalf of his fascist, white nationalist regime. Trump just bought himself an army of lawyers to do fascism with, and it didn't cost him anything more than the paper his unconstitutional executive orders were printed on.

#Fascism #Trump #Courts #VichyEstablishment #CivilRights #KirklandEllis #LathamWatkins #AOShearman #Cadwalader #SimpsonThacherBartlett #Collaboration #Cowardice

Trump says five more law firms agree to pro bono work to avoid punitive executive ordersThe Guardian

A fascinating (and scary) read about what happens when the US courts can no longer trust that government officials act lawfully and in good faith, a core tenant of how they've operated up until now.

What if judges no longer believe that "the government’s stated reasons for its actions are its true reasons and that its factual representations to the court are accurate"?

lawfaremedia.org/article/what-

#uspol #legal #courts #justice

What Happens When Courts Can’t Trust the Executive Branch?Default

Look, at some point Very Serious PeopleTM in the media and the political class are going to have to accept reality; the fascist GOP is actively and knowingly working to make Trump a literal dictator and they're prepared to deploy any nonsensical lie, rhetorical argument, and instrument of state power to do so. On Wednesday, the House passed a bill that would make it functionally impossible for a single lawsuit to stop even the Trump regime's most blatantly unconstitutional activities, by drastically curtailing the judiciary's power to issue nationwide restraining orders; under the nonsensical argument that ruling against Trump's orders is part of some vast left wing conspiracy to stymie the President's lawful right to um, make America conform to his unhinged authoritarian nonsense, apparently.

truthout.org/articles/house-pa

House Passes Bill Limiting Judges’ Ability to Place Injunctions on Trump Orders

"Trump has had the most nationwide injunctions placed against him due to his presidential decrees oftentimes flatly violating the law or U.S. Constitution — for example, three federal judges this year alone have placed injunctions on his ability to enforce an executive order to redefine the birthright citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.

While blatantly improper orders like those have been blocked, Trump loyalists have errantly claimed that so-called “activist judges” on the left have chosen to stymie the president’s agenda for political reasons — ignoring the fact that right-wing judges (including some Trump himself picked) have also issued injunctions against the president.

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (California) authored a bill entitled the “No Rogue Rulings Act,” which would restrict judges’ rulings to only apply to the litigants directly included in the lawsuit — under the bill’s terms, only a plaintiff could receive relief from a judgment against a presidential administration, even if the underlying reason for that judgment is that the law or order at issue is unconstitutional and shouldn’t be enforced on anyone."

Okay, let's start with the good news; although the bill passed on a party lines vote in the House, it still has to make its way through the Senate and unless Chuck Schumer has another brain tumor for breakfast, that seems highly unlikely to happen. Given the level of collaboration Democrat Senators have already engaged in while (not really) opposing the Trump regime, I can't guarantee anything, but here's to hoping the opposition party realizes what a monumentally bad idea it would be to upend "hundreds of years of judicial case law and precedent" and allow Trump to essentially force everyone victimized by even his most unconstitutional orders, to seek remedy separately in the courts. If you want to understand just how bad this would be for our civil rights, consider the three current injunctions preventing Downmarket Mussolini from ending birthright citizenship and how folks whose only "crime" is being born in the US to parents who aren't citizens, would have to seek legal remedy under these new rules; not only are all of them unlikely to be able to bring a suit in federal court, but just processing all of those cases would take decades, and in the meantime Trump would be free to treat those victimized by his executive order as if his word was law.

Even if the bill doesn't pass the Senate however, I think it's pretty instructional to look at the overarching theme of the fascist GOP's arguments for running it through the House. To justify the bill, House Republicans have constructed a vast conspiracy theory, whereby even conservative judges who disagree with Trump are working with an undefined "radical left" to undermine the country; this is "if you're not with us, you're against" us logic and as author Jason Stanley noted in his excellent book, How Fascism Works, fascism functions by transforming everything into the politics of "us versus them." And what pray tell is their evidence for this conspiracy theory? The fact that Trump, who is actively trying to transform the United States into an autocratic fascist dictatorship, has seen his orders subject to a record number of injunctions and court orders preventing him from, um, breaking the law and violating the constitution? As at least one House Dem noted, it probably makes sense that Trump's agenda has been targeted by the most nationwide court orders because Trump has tried to violate the constitution more than probably any other president in American history.

“If it seems like an incredible number of cases to lose in less than 100 days, recall that Trump is engaged in a record number of illegal actions at a breathtaking velocity never seen before in U.S. history,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) said."

My friends, it's fascism, and the fascist GOP party is willingly installing a fascist dictator; there's nothing accidental or "misguided" about it.

#Fascism #Trump #GOP #Courts #HouseGOP #Authoritarianism #FascistLaws #Judges

House Passes Bill Limiting Judges’ Ability to Place Injunctions on Trump Executive OrdersTruthout

I've been waiting for just over a week for the folks at TMR to clip this interview with former Skadden lawyer Rachel Cohen so I could share it here. Not only is Cohen's inside baseball perspective on the cowardice of Big Law firms groveling before Trump an interesting watch, but she's also one of the few people with knowledge of the situation willing to state what *I* feel is pretty obvious - that the Trump regime's war on Big Law is about trying to restrict the number of lawyers and firms that will bring totally legitimate cases against their fascist policies and activities, through a sheer question of numbers and resources.

The clip is only about 15 minutes long, but I guarantee you that Cohen here is spitting more truth than you'll find in all the articles about Big Law's capitalist cowardice and craven surrender in media sources like the Washington Post, the New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal. It's worth the watch:

The Majority Report: Trump's Revenge

"Sam and Emma are joined by Rachel Cohen, lawyer formerly of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, to discuss the country’s largest law firms bending the knee to Donald Trump."

youtube.com/watch?v=y0bVdiTDzQ

#VichyEstablishment #BigLaw #Law #Courts #Skadden #RachelCohen #TMR #SamSeder #EmmaVigeland #Fascism #Trump #Collaboration

Victorian business ordered to pay $3m fine in work manslaughter case
By Kristian Silva

A Victorian business has been ordered to pay a $3 million fine over a workplace manslaughter, after the state's highest court increased the penalty on appeal.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-11/wor

#Courts #WorkplaceAccidentsandIncidents #KristianSilva

Victorian business ordered to pay $3 million fine in state’s first workplace manslaughter caseABC News

Katy Perry v Katie Perry trademark saga to be heard by High Court
By Elizabeth Byrne

Sydney fashion designer Katie Perry has secured a hearing in the court after earlier losing an appeal over the use of the homophonous name as a trademark by the US singer.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-11/hig

#Courts #Copyright #Entertainment #ElizabethByrne

High Court agrees to hear Sydney designer Katie Perry's trademark claim against pop singer Katy PerryABC News

'Acting like gangsters': 21yo jailed for murder in fake drug deal
By Briana Shepherd and Grace Burmas

A 21-year-old Perth man who fatally stabbed a teenager during a botched, phoney drug deal is sentenced to life in prison.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-11/jad

#Courts #Homicide #BrianaShepherd #GraceBurmas

Jaden Martinovich jailed for life after fatally stabbing teen in botched fake drug deal in North PerthABC News