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The First Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal of a district court order imposing a nationwide injunction on the enforcement of President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. Chief Judge David Barron (1st Cir.) determined that the government had failed to make a “strong showing” that the plaintiff states that brought the lawsuit lack standing—the government’s main argument. (Order.)
Judge Richard Leon (D.D.C.) on Tuesday rejected a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by Ward Brehm, the president of the U.S. African Development Foundation, seeking to prevent the Trump administration from firing him and appointing Pete Marocco, of the State Department, as the head of the foundation. Judge Leon determined that Brehm did not identify “any cognizable irreparable harm to himself as opposed to potential harm to the agency and its partners.” Judge Leon noted, though, that Brehm “raise[d] a colorable Appointments Clause claim” with respect to Trump’s authority to hire Marocco as the acting chairman of the foundation board. See the March 7 Roundup for background on the case. (Order.) (Politico.)
Judge Trevor McFadden (D.D.C.) on Tuesday denied a motion from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for an order enjoining the government from pausing or canceling its contracts that require the government to fund the conference’s refugee resettlement services. Judge McFadden determined that a request for an order directing the government to “perform” on its contracts must be resolved by the Court of Claims, not the district court. (Order.)
Judge Jesse Furman (S.D.N.Y.) will hold a conference on Wednesday morning in the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident and prominent pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested last weekend and taken to a detention center in Louisiana. Judge Furman on Monday ordered the Trump administration not to remove Khalil from the country. (NYT.) (Order.) (Commentary from Steve Vladeck, One First.)
Perkins Coie, the law firm targeted in a March 6 executive order (see the news of the executive order in the March 7 Roundup), filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday. The firm alleged that the order violates, among other things, the separation of powers, procedural and substantive due process, and equal protection. The firm also filed a motion seeking to enjoin the Trump administration from implementing parts of the executive order. (Complaint.) (Motion for TRO.)
Politico analyzed what the testimony of Adam Martinez, the chief of operations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), reveals about the evolution of CFPB over the last two months and its current state. (Politico.)
Chris Mirasola examined the legal authority for the Trump administration’s stated plans to use military bases to detain tens of thousands of migrants. He concluded that of the three legal arguments the administration appears to be contemplating to justify the detentions, only one “has a solid foundation in the law”—justifying the detentions as interagency support to the Department of Homeland Security under the Economy Act. (Lawfare.)
Josh Blackman criticized the Supreme Court’s order in the foreign assistance case. He argued that once the Supreme Court vacated the district court’s stay, it had no jurisdiction to direct the district court to act in a certain way. See yesterday’s Roundup for the latest in the case. (The Volokh Conspiracy.)