Latest in Civil Liberties and Constitutional Rights
Note: The Defense Department has issued a directive implementing the department's policy, effective April 12, 2019.
In the latest salvo in a long debate over the use of video teleconferencing (VTC) technology in immigration courts, several legal aid organizations filed a class-action lawsuit on Feb. 12 in New York challenging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) practice of denying in-person hearings to immigrants.
In the past few days, two young women who left their home countries to join the Islamic State in Syria announced their desire to return home with their children. Hoda Muthana, from the United States, and Shamima Begum, from the United Kingdom, both married Islamic State fighters and had children in Syria. But neither the U.S. nor the U.K. will allow their return.
On Feb. 22, a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas ruled that it is unconstitutional for the government to require only men to register for the draft.
This morning, the Supreme Court granted stays of two district court preliminary injunctions in Trump v. Karnoski and Trump v. Stockman, which had blocked implementation of the Trump administration’s ban on military service by transgender people. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would have denied the stay.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in Davidson v. Randall that a Virginia county official who blocked a constituent's access to the official’s Facebook page had violated the First Amendment. The court held that the official’s Facebook account amounted to a “public forum” and that blocking constituent access based on political viewpoints is unconstitutional. The full ruling is below.
On Nov. 23, the Trump administration filed petitions with the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari before judgment in three lawsuits challenging its ban on military service by transgender people, seeking extraordinary expedited review and preempting rulings by the courts of appeals.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia declined on Nov. 30 to grant the government's motion for a stay of the court's preliminary injunction halting implementation of the ban on military service by transgender individuals. The court's order is available here and below.
On Nov. 23, the Trump administration filed petitions for a writ of certiorari before judgment in three lawsuits challenging its ban on military service by transgender people, preempting rulings by the courts of appeals. The filings are available here, here, here and below.
Last Wednesday, the government filed notices with the Ninth Circuit in Karnoski v. Trump and in the D.C. Circuit in Doe 2 v. Trump, informing the courts of the government’s intent to seek expedited review by the Supreme Court, bypassing the regular appeals process if necessary. In each case, the government is appealing preliminary injunctions which currently block implementation of a policy barring transgender individuals, with few exceptions, from serving in the military.