US Federal Courts
News & analysis of decisions from America’s lower courts.
The best thing about Bondi was her incompetence.
A court just gave awful news to victims of ICE’s occupation of Minneapolis.
No lawyer has done more in the last decade to advance a distinctly MAGA approach to the Constitution than Ken Paxton.
America’s Trumpiest court just gave Trump a dangerous new weapon.
A federal judge just threatened to hold the agency’s leader in contempt.
The answer could hinge on a Supreme Court ruling from 1890 — and another from 2025.
One of Trump’s most high-profile DOJ appointments faces a rare disciplinary threat from the bench.
The court finally lifted a two-year ban on drag performances.
The fight over Trump’s most unqualified prosecutor is escalating quickly.
If the president loses this case, he will go to the Supreme Court to bail him out again.
Senate Republicans are taking an enormous risk with the federal bench right now.
David French on Donald Trump’s breakup with the Federalist Society.
Trump shut down the agency that protects civil servants from illegal firings. An appeals court has a plan to fix that.
Maybe it’s unwise to pick a fight with the folks who control the Supreme Court?
If this decision stands on appeal, it’s a big loss for Trump that will make it difficult for his trade war to continue.
America’s most powerful legal organization confronts Trump’s incompetence.
We’re about to get our first window into whether the judiciary will allow Trump’s trade war to continue.
His administration is great at breaking things — but it’s failing in its bigger goal.
The courts are acting as a check on executive power. Will it last?
Not much, at least not within the legal system.
You don’t have to agree with Mahmoud Khalil to care about what happens to him.
Trump’s retribution campaign is now targeting prominent Democratic lawyers — with broad implications for every American.
Here’s what’s next for federal workers.
The lawsuit asks a very simple question: Who appointed Musk, and what, exactly, does he do?
Restraining orders? Injunctions? What do all the court orders against Trump mean?
Courts are inherently reactive institutions. Trump always gets the first move.
The courts are the biggest remaining impediment to Trump’s power grab.
Allison Riggs won the seat by 734 votes, but her opponent is trying to invalidate 60,000.
The Court has a chance to resolve a years-long fight over “nationwide injunctions,” just days before Trump takes office.
The change would be a major blow to the system of checks and balances.
It’s probably not going to work, though.
If Harris wins, the Republican Party will almost certainly be able to veto anything she does, thanks to our broken Constitution.
There’s a real risk Trump would fill the courts with MAGA nihilists.
Will the biggest program to legalize undocumented immigrants in a decade survive a court challenge?
A new era for search — and regulation of Big Tech — could be imminent.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s threat to challenge Vice President Harris’s nomination in court should be frivolous. But who knows with this Supreme Court?
Biden is trying to reinvigorate his candidacy by pushing progressive priorities.
The classified documents case against Trump hits another major setback before the 2024 election.
The Wikileaks founder will plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act for publishing leaks about the Iraq War.
Americans are confronting a whole new reality of patchwork abortion access after the Dobbs decision.