Ep 200 — JGG + CASA = CHAOS

Docket Alerts:

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard led a raid on the Fulton County Election Hub and Operating Center in Atlanta. ProPublica got the warrant. Mo Ivory, a Democratic commissioner for Fulton County, breaks it down on Instagram.

In Chicago, Marimar Martinez has moved to unseal evidence from DOJ’s failed effort to prosecute her for getting shot by ICE.

Reuters reports that Marcos Charles, the top official in ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division, issued new guidance instructing ICE to target only immigrants who have been arrested or convicted of crimes. This would be a huge improvement, but DHS won’t comment.

Main Show:

Once again, this is all the Supreme Court’s fault. Specifically, its rulings in J.G.G. v. Trump and Trump v. CASA led directly to the mayhem in Minnesota. First the Court forced immigrants challenging their detention to file thousands of individual habeas cases. And then they drastically limited the power of federal judges to issue relief when it “discovered” that nationwide injunctions are illegal.

The Trump administration took this as an invitation to break the law, irrespective of how many courts tell them not to, on the theory that CASA means precedent doesn’t count any more. DHS dummied up a memo saying that actually everyone without a green card must be held indefinitely. This is a gross misstatement of the law, as literally hundreds of courts have already ruled. But the Trump administration says because of CASA, they can continue to lock up people who’ve lived here for decades, checking in with DHS, working, paying taxes, and taking care of their families.

Judges are deluged with habeas petitions, which differ from each other only in the particulars of the cruelty being visited upon the individual immigrant. After ICE failed to obey a court order to release a habeas petitioner, Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz in the District Court of Minnesota ordered Todd Lyons, the Acting Director of ICE, to either release the guy or show up and explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt of court.

ICE released the petitioner, but Judge Schiltz was still furious. He published a list of 96 violations of court orders in January alone — and that’s only in Minnesota! Thanks, Chief Justice Roberts!

On the plus side, Judge Schiltz’s colleague Judge John Tunheim issued a TRO ordering ICE to release every refugee detained under the erroneous memo and quit kidnapping them and spiriting them away to Texas.

And for subscribers, we’ll discuss the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that bars Kristi Noem from unilaterally canceling temporary protected status for a million Venezuelans and Haitians.

Hundreds of judges reject Trump’s mandatory detention policy, with no end in sight

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-administration-immigrants-mandatory-detention-00709494

Fulton County Election Hub Warrant

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26513986-1-28-26-fulton-warrant/

Marimar Martinez Motion to Unseal

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487595/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487595.100.0.pdf

Exclusive: ICE officers in Minnesota directed not to interact with 'agitators' in new orders

https://www.reuters.com/world/ice-officers-minnesota-directed-not-interact-with-agitators-new-orders-2026-01-29/

J.G.G. v. Trump

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a931_2c83.pdf

Trump v. CASA

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf