RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week June 8 to June 14 Featured Investigation: Legal challenges against the Trump administration suggest a pattern of strategic "forum shopping," with plaintiffs concentrating lawsuits in courts most likely to rule favorably. Ben Weingarten's analysis of 350 cases for RealClearInvestigations shows how litigants may be gaming the judicial system to maximize their chances of success. RCI found that 80% of cases against the Trump administration were filed in just 11 of the nation's 91 district courts, each with disproportionately high percentages of Democrat-appointed judges. Three courts – D.C., Massachusetts, and Maryland – handled 60% of all anti-Trump cases. The D.C. District Court alone processed 41% of cases that RCI identified (143 total), where Democrat presidents appointed 73% of active judges. Nearly 40 universal injunctions against Trump policies came overwhelmingly from Democrat-appointed judges – more than four in five cases. These nationwide injunctions halt administration policies everywhere, not just for the plaintiff bringing the case. The practice isn't limited to one party. Republicans engaged in similar forum shopping during the Biden administration, notably filing the mifepristone case in Amarillo, Texas, where a single anti-abortion judge was virtually guaranteed to hear it. Some Texas courts assign cases to divisions where individual judges handle over 50% of cases, effectively allowing litigants to hand-pick their preferred judge. The issue has prompted bipartisan concern. Former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that if courts continue allowing litigants to "hand-pick their preferred judges," Congress would consider more restrictive requirements. The Judicial Conference issued non-binding guidance encouraging random case assignment, but federal lawmakers' attempts to pass legislation curtailing forum shopping have failed. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the legitimacy of universal injunctions, which could significantly reduce forum shopping incentives by limiting judges' ability to halt policies nationwide. Featured Investigation: In RealClearInvestigations, James Varney visits an immigration court in New Orleans, where he finds that while the near closing of the southern border could allow the justice system to reduce the backlog of some 3.6 million cases many migrants display an ability to invoke the law to lengthen their stay in America. The New Orleans immigration court processes scores of cases daily, primarily involving migrants making initial appearances after years of living in the U.S. These hearings often mark the beginning of legal proceedings that can extend six years or longer. Many migrants employ legal strategies to extend their stay, including requesting continuances and seeking time to secure representation, despite having no constitutional right to an attorney. Judges routinely grant these delays, scheduling subsequent hearings months or years in the future. Critics contend that some migrants deliberately exploit system weaknesses, understanding they can avoid deportation under current laws. The Trump administration has responded by increasing arrests and streamlining cases, including dismissing court proceedings to directly detain migrants. Paradoxically, the Trump administration’s recent vow to push arrests of illegal immigrants to 3,000 a day, along with some changes it has made to how it handles court cases, could serve to make attendance less regular, according to those critical of Trump’s push. During one May observation day, four New Orleans courtrooms handled nearly 140 cases, mostly initial appearances. Despite arrest concerns, the vast majority of respondents appeared in court, continuing a historical trend noted by immigration attorneys. Judges like Joseph LaRocca and Alberto De Puy manage diverse caseloads, including detainees appearing via Zoom from facilities such as Jena, Louisiana. Hearings frequently require interpreters for languages ranging from Arabic to Wolof, reflecting migrants' global origins. A notable shift away from "prosecutorial discretion"— used during the Biden era to deprioritize certain deportations—is evident. Under Trump, DHS attorneys now drop cases while still considering migrants "removable," creating fears of post-hearing arrests. Asylum hearings, which can take years to schedule, represent migrants' primary hope for remaining in the U.S. However, even compelling accounts of home-country dangers from Honduran or Salvadoran applicants often fail to meet legal asylum standards, though appeals remain possible. Despite reported improvements, the system remains severely overwhelmed. The complex interplay of delays, legal maneuvering, and administrative pushback continues to characterize America's immigration courts, leaving millions in legal limbo while cases slowly wind through an overburdened judicial process. Waste of the Day by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books Magically Disappearing Leaves, RCI Ignoring Improper Payment Requirements, RCI Controversy at Professional Societies, RCI Video Game Conservation, RCI Austin FD Breaks Overtime Pay Record, RCI Trump 2.0 and the Beltway New York Times Before he was shot dead trying to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally last summer, Thomas Crooks’s only record of trouble was a lunch detention in middle school for chewing gum. In high school, this article reports, he earned a top score on the SAT — 1530 out of a possible 1600 — and received perfect marks on three Advanced Placement exams, according to his academic records. He did not socialize much, but came out of his shell in a technology program in which he built computers. What happened? A New York Times examination of the last years of the young man’s life found that he went through a gradual and largely hidden transformation, from a meek engineering student critical of political polarization to a focused killer who tried to build bombs. For months he operated in secret, using aliases and encrypted networks, all while showing hints of a mental illness that may have caused his mind to unravel to an extent not previously reported. Mr. Crooks followed his dark path with seemingly little notice from those closest to him. He stockpiled explosive materials in the small house he shared with his parents in Bethel Park, Pa. When his face was plastered across the news, his classmates couldn’t believe it. Investigators later found a crude homemade bomb inside his bedroom, not far from where his parents slept. … “I should have known better,” Mr. Crooks said, one of the agents later told congressional investigators. In a separate article, the Daily Wire reports that the “chilling” diaries kept by Luigi Mangione, who murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, indicate that he had considered even more sweeping violence. “The self-proclaimed anti-capitalist wrote that he chose to ‘wack the CEO’ rather than bomb the UnitedHealthcare headquarters because he believed it would generate better headlines and be less likely to be deemed ‘terrorism.’ ” Other Trump 2.0 and the Beltway Trump Defangs DOJ's Political Corruption Watchdogs, Reuters Trump Family Project Spurs Charges in Serbia, New York Times Trump to Send Thousands of Migrants to Gitmo, Politico Treasury Targets Higher Ed's Tax-Exemption, Bloomberg Nevermind Musk, DOGE Is on a Recruiting Spree, Wired Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Tablet The biggest news story this week was centered in Los Angeles, where some protests in opposition to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) turned violent. In response, President Trump took the very rare step of ordering troops to quell the violence. One of the key questions is whether the protests and attacks on law enforcement officials were spontaneous or planned. This article reports that at least one expert – Kyle Shideler, a senior analyst at the Center for Security Policy and an expert on radical left-wing protest – believes that they reflect a deliberate strategy. For a while, the hard radical left – the campus communists, the Palestinians, the pro-Hamas people – has been focused 100% on the Palestinian issue. And that was largely aimed at the Democrat establishment. Now we’re seeing the onus of street action shifting from the Palestinian angle to the ICE/immigration/Trump angle, which is where the establishment left would much rather have the conversation. So this seems to me like an attempt for the traditional American establishment left to reclaim control of the street radicals. … The key indicator that this was intended to become a major incident to capture national attention was the presence of the SEIU, the SEIU president getting arrested, and the degree to which this rapidly escalated. So clearly this was not a handful of antifa guys just tracking ICE and causing mischief; this was intended to provoke a larger event, an event that would nationalize, and we’re now seeing today that they’re trying to spur things up in Chicago, New York, Houston. In a separate article, the Daily Mail finds support for claims that the riots are being driven by “a web of connections between the immigrant rights and leftist activists on the streets of LA with such billionaires as George Soros, Neville Singham and even the Chinese Communist Party.” In a separate article, the Wall Street Journal offers a series of thumb nail sketches of some of the people protesting in Los Angeles, who include “a veteran, a construction worker, [and] a Communist.” In a separate article, the Guardian provides an impressive visual guide to how events unfolded on the streets of Los Angeles. Marshall Project Robocops may still be in the future, but police departments around the country are embracing artificial intelligence. That effort is also raising concerns about civil liberties, this article reports, as some departments find workarounds to legal restrictions that seek to ensure that technology is only used to investigate crimes, not monitor residents. Pulling together coverage on the issue from various news outlets, this article reports: Police in San Francisco and Austin, Texas, have both circumvented restrictions by asking nearby or partnering law enforcement agencies to run facial recognition searches on their behalf, according to reporting by the Post last year. Meanwhile, at least one city is considering a new way to gain the use of facial recognition technology: by sharing millions of jail booking photos with private software companies in exchange for free access. Last week, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the Milwaukee police department was considering such a swap, leveraging 2.5 million photos in return for $24,000 in search licenses. City officials say they would use the technology only in ongoing investigations, not to establish probable cause. Another way departments can skirt facial recognition rules is to use AI analysis that doesn’t technically rely on faces. Washington Post Like most big city school district leaders, officials in Washington, D.C. have long recognized the link between school attendance and youth crime, saying tackling one will curb the other. During the 2024 school year, however, nearly 16,000 D.C. public school students – one-third of its K-12 enrollment – were considered truant, meaning they missed at least two weeks of classes without an excuse. A Washington Post investigation found that the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) have failed to follow through on key initiatives that promised to keep students in class and out of trouble. The District’s child welfare agency has largely abandoned the early-warning system that city leaders set up more than a decade ago to find absent students and help return them to the classroom. More than 18,000 reports of truancy went uninvestigated in the last three full school years, The Post found. … a Post analysis found that D.C.’s truancy problem has been growing the fastest among middle school students, an age group that helped drive the city’s spike in carjacking and other serious crimes in 2023. Last school year, 30 percent of middle-schoolers – or five times more students than a decade ago – were truant. This article reports that truancy rates increased most drastically “in the historically underserved, Black neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. Last school year, more than 20 percent of Sousa Middle School’s 268 students missed at least a month’s worth of class.” ProPublica/Street Roots As Portland, Oregon, was rebounding from the pandemic, a new crisis began to metastasize on its streets: homelessness. In the spring of 2021, this article reports, the city and larger Multnomah County committed to a new strategy that would not so much reduce the homeless population but work to increase their health and safety. It hasn’t worked. Although the city spent roughly $200,000 per homeless resident throughout that time, deaths of homeless people recorded in the county quadrupled, climbing from 113 in 2019 to more than 450 in 2023 … The rise in deaths far outpaces the growth in the homeless population, which was recorded at 6,300 by a 2023 county census, a number most agree is an undercount. … Homeless residents in Multnomah County die, on average, more than 30 years earlier than the average U.S. life expectancy of 78 … Some 1,200 homeless people died in Multnomah County from 2019 through 2023 … Of those, 659 died of drug- and alcohol-related causes, 323 died of natural causes, and 142 died of homicide or suicide – a rate about 18 times higher than among the general population in Portland. |
