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Report: Supreme Court Gives Trump Green-light To Axe Some Probationary Workers

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Madeleine Jackson
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Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Just in…

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration by enabling officials to fire thousands of federal workers in their probationary period, saying the government employee unions that sued don’t have legal standing. 

The emergency ruling, for now, lifts one of two lower court orders reversing the mass terminations. The other injunction, which has not yet reached the high court, remains in effect and still protects many employees’ jobs. 

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“The District Court’s injunction was based solely on the allegations of the nine non-profit-organization plaintiffs in this case. But under established law, those allegations are presently insufficient to support the organizations’ standing,” the court wrote in its unsigned ruling. 

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, both members of the court’s liberal wing, publicly dissented. 

Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have sought to rapidly reshape the federal bureaucracy, sparking dozens of lawsuits across the country.

Democrat-led states, government unions and individual employees have filed several lawsuits alleging the administration did not follow the proper procedures for firing probationary employees

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Sununu Declines To Run For New Hampshire Senate Seat

By
Madeleine Jackson
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Photo of Chris Sununu via Gage Skidmore Flckr

It’s official…

On Tuesday, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said he will not run for Senate in 2026.

Sununu, who served as governor for four two-year terms before not seeking reelection in November, announced his decision in an interview with local news outlet the Pulse of New Hampshire.

“I’m not going to run,” Sununu said, according to NH Journal. “I really thought about it. I actually talked to the White House this morning. I talked to Tim Scott. Thanked him for all their support and confidence and all that. But I don’t have to be the candidate, and I’m not going to be the candidate.”

Speculation that Sununu may run was further stoked on Sunday after President Trump said that he met with Sununu in the Oval Office and declared his support for his potential candidacy. Trump said he hoped that Sununu would run and expected that he would win. 

On the Democrat side, Rep. Chris Pappas announced his candidacy for the seat on Thursday after a listening tour in which he traveled to all 10 of the state’s counties as he considered running. 

Former Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican who represented Massachusetts in the Senate from 2010 to 2013, recently announced his candidacy for Senate.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

IRS, DHS Reach Game-Changing Agreement For Trump Immigration Agenda

By
Madeleine Jackson
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Illegal Immigration in the United State via Wikimedia Commons

History in the making…

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have reportedly come to an agreement to allow ICE to access taxpayer information to locate illegal immigrants subject to deportation.

According to Fox News, the Trump administration filed a memorandum of understanding late Monday with a court to create guardrails and a process for ICE requests to the IRS to further investigations of criminal illegal immigrants who have failed or refuse to leave the United States 90 days after a judge has issued a final order of removal. 

“The Internal Revenue Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement have entered into a memorandum of understanding to establish a clear and secure process to support law enforcement’s efforts to combat illegal immigration,” a Treasury Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

“The bases for this MOU are founded in longstanding authorities granted by Congress, which serve to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans while streamlining the ability to pursue criminals,” the statement said. “After four years of Joe Biden flooding the nation with illegal aliens, President Trump’s highest priority is to ensure the safety of the American people.”

A senior Treasury Department official said the illegal immigrants have been given due process but have overstayed 90 days post a judge’s removal order. 

The MOU outlines a process to ensure that sensitive taxpayer data information is protected while allowing law enforcement to pursue criminal violations, the official said. 

A draft agreement reported last month by the Washington Post said it would limit ICE to confirm the addresses of illegal immigrants who have final removal orders.

The deal would allow ICE to submit the names and addresses of illegal immigrants to the IRS, who could then cross-check those immigrants’ tax records and provide the immigration agency with current address information.

The significant step forward comes amid the Trump Administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

On Monday, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily paused a lower court’s order requiring the Trump administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. This pause delays the midnight deadline previously set for Abrego Garcia’s return.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had earlier mandated the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return by midnight, emphasizing that his deportation was an “administrative error.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) acknowledged the mistake but argued that the court’s injunction was “patently unlawful,” asserting that the government lacks the authority to retrieve him from El Salvador.

Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Order For Trump Admin To Return Wrongfully Deported Immigrant

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admin
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Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily paused a lower court’s order requiring the Trump administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. This pause delays the midnight deadline previously set for Abrego Garcia’s return.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had earlier mandated the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return by midnight, emphasizing that his deportation was an “administrative error.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) acknowledged the mistake but argued that the court’s injunction was “patently unlawful,” asserting that the government lacks the authority to retrieve him from El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia, 29, had been residing legally in the U.S. with authorization from the Department of Homeland Security and has no criminal record. An immigration judge had previously ruled in 2019 that he should not be deported due to the likelihood of facing persecution by gangs in El Salvador. Despite this, he was detained and deported last month.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/us_icegov/54295293536/in/photostream/, Creative Commons Attribution-Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal (CC BY-NC-SA 1.0)

The Hill reports:

Roberts agreed to hold the deadline until the high court can resolve the Trump administration’s emergency request to wipe it completely.  The chief justice set a fast briefing schedule for the request, ordering the plaintiffs to respond by Tuesday afternoon.

Monday’s “administrative stay” does not address the underlying merits of the dispute and is not necessarily an indication of how the court will rule.

The Trump administration has acknowledged an “administrative error” that mistakenly removed Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who resides in Maryland, despite an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling protecting him from being deported to El Salvador over fears of violence. 

Abrego Garcia was one of hundreds of migrants deported to a notorious Salvadoran prison last month. The administration has accused him of being connected to MS-13 based on a report from a confidential informant, but Abrego Garcia’s family rejects that he has any gang ties.

Casa Presidencial El Salvador, Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotospresidencia_sv/, Creative Commons Attribution-Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal (CC BY-NC-SA 1.0)

DOJ asserts that it cannot return Abrego Garcia to Maryland now that he is under the supervision of Salvadoran authorities.

The administration has linked Abrego Garcia to the MS-13 gang, a claim that has been contested due to a lack of supporting evidence. The case has drawn significant attention, highlighting tensions between judicial authority and executive actions in immigration enforcement.

Appeals Court Blocks Trump Firings, Setting Stage For Supreme Court Showdown Over Executive Power

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admin
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Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

In a major reversal, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 7–4 to block the Trump administration from removing two Democratic appointees from federal labor boards. The ruling puts Gwynne Wilcox back on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Cathy Harris back on the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

Both Biden appointees were previously ousted by President Trump, who argued that restructuring federal agencies gave him the authority to fire appointees at will. A three-judge panel with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals initially backed that move. But the full court disagreed.

In its Monday ruling, the court said the firings broke the law—specifically, legal protections that say members of independent agencies like the NLRB and MSPB can only be removed for cause, such as “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” The majority leaned on long-standing Supreme Court precedent to support their stance.

The dissenting judges argued that courts shouldn’t have the power to reinstate executive officers.

AgnosticPreachersKid, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

With Wilcox and Harris back in place, both boards now have quorum and can resume their functions in overseeing employee grievances and labor disputes.

The highly unusual ruling takes direct aim at one of the Trump administration’s core legal claims: that the president can fire appointees at will, even in independent agencies.

Politico‘s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney have additional details on the fallout and what to expect next:

It’s a whiplash-inducing turn for the two officials, fired by Trump in the first days of his term. Judges on the federal district court bench in Washington reinstated both of them, harshly scolding Trump for ignoring the laws meant to protect the officials from removal without misconduct or other improper behavior.

But last month, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit blocked those orders from taking effect, ruling 2-1 that the laws improperly restricted the president’s ability to manage the executive branch. Monday’s ruling, in turn, withdraws that order and allows the officials to return to their posts.

In the unsigned order Monday, the appeals court’s majority pointed to Supreme Court decisions from the 1930s and 1950s in which the justices “unanimously upheld removal restrictions for government officials on multimember adjudicatory boards.” While more recent rulings from the high court have undermined the rationale of those decisions, the justices have never flatly reversed them.

Legal analysts expect the case to head to the Supreme Court. If it does, it could become a defining case on the limits of presidential power and the independence of federal agencies.

Report: Threat To Assassinate Trump Appears In Official Iran Paper

By
Madeleine Jackson
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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

National security officials are on high alert…

Threats to kill President Donald Trump have emerged in Iran’s propaganda newspaper after he threatened to bomb the regime “like never before” as Iran has also reportedly placed its military on “high alert.”

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is said to have put Iran’s military on standby to prepare for any future strikes from the US.

Tehran was slapped with a chilling deadline to either hold direct talks and sign a new nuclear agreement or potentially face military action. However, Khamenei has reportedly strongly refused to agree to Trump’s demands, saying that Iran will not engage in any direct negotiations with the US.

The snub saw a furious Trump rip into the regime and threaten to strike Iran.

The president vowed to bomb Iran “like never before” if the regime does not fall in line and strike up a new nuclear deal with the US.

The Sun reports:

Amid the potential strike threat, Kayhan – a hardline Iranian newspaper managed by Khamenei’s representative – issued a column calling to assassinate Trump.

The chilling threat was written in retaliation to the 2020 killing of IRGC’s Qassim Soleimani by US airstrikes.

President Trump has given his team strict instructions to “obliterate” Iran if the country ever assassinates him.

It was revealed in November that an Iranian agent had been charged with plotting to kill Trump in an assassination.

US prosecutors say the rogue state told ex-con Farhad Shakeri — said to be hiding in Tehran — to devise a seven-day plan to spy on and murder him.

In February, Trump responded to a question over what protocols would instantly be triggered should he be killed by an Iranian plot by saying there is already a plan set.

He said: “I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”

Federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other US administration officials for years.

Meanwhile, Khamenei is said to be amassing troops to brace for a potential conflict.

Professor Placed On Leave After Flipping Out On College Republicans: Watch

By
Madeleine Jackson
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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

A jaw-dropping display…

The chair of the English Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has been placed on administrative leave after allegedly flipping the College Republicans’ table on campus Tuesday morning.

UW-Eau Claire Interim Provost Michael Carney confirmed the incident with Fox News.

“I am deeply concerned that our students’ peaceful effort to share information on campus on election day was disrupted,” Carney said in a statement. “UW-Eau Claire strongly supports every person’s right to free speech and free expression, and the university remains committed to ensuring that campus is a place where a wide variety of opinions and beliefs can be shared and celebrated.”

He added that “civil dialogue is a critical part of the university experience, and peaceful engagement is fundamental to learning itself.”

“We are working with the Universities of Wisconsin and the Office of General Counsel, which is conducting a comprehensive investigation of this matter. The faculty member involved has been placed on administrative leave pending that investigation,” Carney said.

The UW-Eau Claire College Republicans identified the faculty member on Instagram as English Department Chair José Felipe Alvergue.

Tatiana Bobrowicz, UW-Eau Claire College Republicans chair, said in a video posted to the chapter’s Instagram page that she had just finished setting up a table on Election Day.

“A professor came up and flipped our table in a violent attack towards us. This is unacceptable,” Bobrowicz said in a statement posted to the UW-Eau Claire College Republicans Instagram account on Tuesday. “The university has since confirmed that this attacker was the chair of the university’s English Department. Once again, this type of violent attack will not be tolerated.”

UW director of media relations Mark Pitsch told Fox News in a statement that university staff “appreciate that UW-Eau Claire has taken swift action, and we will be working with them to conduct the investigation.”

Report: Judge Orders Trump Administration To Return Man Deported To El Salvador Prison

By
Madeleine Jackson
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2

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to immediately make arrangements for the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison. 

Fox News reports that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been illegally deported to El Salvador and said he must be returned by Monday before midnight.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Facebook To End Fact Check Feature

By
Madeleine Jackson
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© European Union, 2024, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced Friday that its fact-checking program in the United States would be “officially over” on Monday.

The news comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in January that the company would end fact-checking and move to restore free speech on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Starting Monday, fact-checkers will no longer be able to rate new content, and old fact-checks placed on content will no longer appear.

Instead of fact-checks, Meta will adopt an X-style community notes system where users can add context to posts, which are then rated by other users. Anyone will be able to sign up to be a contributor to community notes if they are over 18 and have had a verified account for over six months.

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, announced the changes on Friday.

“By Monday afternoon, our fact-checking program in the US will be officially over. That means no new fact checks and no fact checkers. We announced in January we’d be winding down the program & we haven’t applied penalties to fact-checked posts in the US since then. In place of fact checks, the first Community Notes will start appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads & Instagram, with no penalties attached,” Kaplan posted on social media.

The changes come after Meta was placed under congressional scrutiny for targeting conservative views on topics like the 2020 election, the COVID vaccine, and the Hunter Biden laptop story. Zuckerberg has pinned much of the blame for the censorship on former President Joe Biden, saying Meta was pressured to target conservative content.

Meta started testing out its community notes feature last month, allowing some 200,000 potential contributors to sign up.

In January, Zuckerberg said that the move was part of Meta’s goal of restoring free speech on its platforms.

“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the United States.”

Zuckerberg said restrictions on discussions on topics like immigration and gender were “out of touch with mainstream discourse.”

“What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas,” he said.

In that same announcement, Zuckerberg said that Meta would work with the incoming Trump administration to fight censorship abroad.

Dem Senator Leaves Door Open For Potential Presidential Run

By
Madeleine Jackson
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0

Could this no-nonsense Democrat be angling for a presidential bid?

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) did not rule out a 2028 presidential run during a Wednesday podcast with political analyst Chuck Todd.

When Todd pressed Fetterman on “The Chuck ToddCast” about whether he would run for the White House, the senator indicated he was unsure about whether he was paving the way for another independent-minded Democrat or considering his own bid.

“I know we’re wrapping up, so I’m going to make you answer the ’28 question,” Todd said. “What would it take to get you to run for president?”

“I am focusing right now on just the burgeoning kinds of chaos and trying to find a balance and find a way forward,” Fetterman replied. “And, you know, doing things that I know that will anger parts of my base. I hope that there is room in my party for someone who wants that kind of truth.”

Todd pressed further, asking if Fetterman was attempting to “plow a path forward for somebody like that” or if he wanted to “take the path” himself.

“I don’t know,” Fetterman responded before Todd cut him off, noting the senator was “not saying no” to a potential run.

“I’m not afraid of being honest. And now if there is going to be blowback or I’m punished, I get that. But for me, I think it’s more important to be honest and to describe the danger of where we possibly are at,” Fetterman responded. “And we have to stop and think before we make another significant mistake that’s even more and more difficult to come back from.”

Todd told the senator he would mark Fetterman “as not a no for ’28.”

“What I’m saying is that there will be a 2028,” the senator responded.

Watch:

A Washington Post analysis from January this year listed Fetterman as one of “12 Democrats who make the most sense for 2028,” citing his independence within the Democratic Party.

Others considered to be potential Democratic 2028 contenders include failed 2024 candidates Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and a handful of Democratic governors — Gavin Newsom of California, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Wes Moore of Maryland. Polling generally suggests that Democrats are by far most interested in seeing Harris become the party’s nominee again, followed distantly by Buttigieg and Newsom, according to Newsweek.

Todd on Sunday recommended Harris not pursue political office for the next several years.

“If I were advising her, I’d tell her: go throw yourself into the rebuild of LA and get involved with the LA Olympic Committee,” he said. “Be above politics for a couple of years and come back maybe in 2030 or 2032.”

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