Law and Chaos

DOCKET ALERTS:

The Trump administration is tapping out on the lawsuits defending executive orders attacking law firms. Too bad, so sad for the Vichy law firms that pledged a billion dollars in “conservative pro bono” work.
Justice Gorsuch says we can’t take guns away from drug users because the Founders were drunk all the time.

The Federal Circuit declines a request by the Trump administration to delay tariff refunds.

Kansas’s revocation of trans citizens’ drivers licenses draws its first court challenge.

And Virginia’s redistricting referendum can go ahead.

MAIN SHOW:

We discuss the history of the president’s power to commence hostilities and explain why Trump and his goons are so deeply invested in claiming that the war in Iran — which isn’t a war at all! — was defensive, not offensive. Plus Andrew’s got a deep dive into the War Powers Resolution and how it might bring about an end to this nightmare.

We’ve got clips from 60 Minutes’s very good story on the danger federal judges face when they go against the Trump administration.

Judges in the Western District of West Virginia join the list of jurisdictions telling DHS/DOJ that contempt charges are coming if they keep relying on crackpot legal theories to kidnap residents.

Judge John Tunheim issues class relief to refugees in Minnesota, barring DHS from interning them for recertification.

And for subscribers: a discussion of the constitutionality of the War Powers Resolution.

Trump Administration to Drop Defense of Law Firm Sanctions
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/trump-administration-to-drop-defense-of-law-firm-sanctions-cb839c39

US v. Hemani Oral Argument
https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2025/24-1234

V.O.S. Selections [Tariff mandate]
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105.173.0_2.pdf

Doe v. Kansas [Trans drivers’ licenses]
https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/02/Complaint-1.pdf

Virginia redistricting election can move forward, court rules
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/virginia-redistricting-election-can-move-forward-court-rules

Federal judges who've ruled against Trump administration denounce threats against themselves, their families
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-judges-whove-ruled-against-trump-administration-denounce-threats-60-minutes-transcript/

Judges in a Trump stronghold condemn ICE tactics
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/01/west-virginia-immigration-rulings-00804575

Dominguez Izaguirre v. Mason [West Virginia Habeas]
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wvsd.243036/gov.uscourts.wvsd.243036.18.0.pdf

War Powers Resolution, 50 U.S.C. 1541 et seq.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/chapter-33

“Trump Can’t Declare War On Iran (or Anyone)” [lawandchaospod.com]
https://www.lawandchaospod.com/p/trump-cant-declare-war-on-iran-or

Liz’s YouTube video for Legal Eagle, “The Largest Bribe in American History”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE2pm3omzMI&t=3s

Nat’l Treasury Employees’ Union v. Nixon, 492 F.2d 587 (D.C. Cir. 1974)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4156385560315482496

INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2221871582286121199

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DOCKET ALERTS:

The Justice Department is suing New Jersey for not letting ICE use state buildings and parks for immigration enforcement. Because the Tenth Amendment is basically a suggestion?

CBP agents dumped a blind, sick, refugee who spoke no English outside a doughnut shop in Buffalo because they couldn’t deport him. Local police are investigating his death.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is trying to manhandle Anthropic into letting it use Claude for domestic surveillance and autonomous targeting.

MAIN SHOW:

ICE’s total refusal to follow the law has flooded federal courts with habeas corpus petitions, and judges are PISSED. On Thursday, two judges in Minnesota and one in New Jersey threatened to hold prosecutors in contempt of court over DOJ/DHS refusing to follow court orders in immigration cases.

The fascinating “Quince sues UGG” antitrust lawsuit is Last Brand, Inc. v. Deckers Outdoor Corporation. The (possibly even true) story of ugh, ugly, and finally ugg boots is told here by the Everything Australian company.

On Wednesday, Judge Brian Murphy ruled that the Trump administration’s policy of third-country removals was illegal.

And for subscribers, we’ll discuss Pete Hegseth’s battle with Anthropic and DHS’s theft of more than 42,000 tax returns from IRS’s database.

Links

US v. New Jersey
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72316303/united-states-v-new-jersey/

Nearly blind refugee found dead in New York days after immigration agents dropped him at a coffee shop alone, officials say
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/26/us/shah-alam-blind-refugee-border-patrol-hnk

‘Incoherent’: Hegseth’s Anthropic ultimatum confounds AI policymakers
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/26/incoherent-hegseths-anthropic-ultimatum-confounds-ai-policymakers-00800135

Cartagena Hueso v. Soto
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72279969/cartagena-hueso-v-soto/
D.V.D. v. Dep’t of Homeland Security (D. Mass. 2025) [docket via CourtListener]
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282404/gov.uscourts.mad.282404.241.0.pdf

The Surprising History of the Aussie Ugg Boot
https://everythingaustralian.com.au/blog/post/the-surprising-history-of-the-aussie-ugg-boot

Last Brand, Inc. v. Deckers Outdoor Corporation (N.D. Cal. 2026) [docket via CourtListener]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72311102/last-brand-inc-v-deckers-outdoor-corporation/

Center for Taxpayer Rights v. IRS
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69646607/center-for-taxpayer-rights-v-internal-revenue-service

Show Links:
https://www.lawandchaospod.com/
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DOCKET ALERTS:

Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on the stolen documents case must remain sealed forever in perpetuity.

Kouri Richins goes on trial for murdering her husband in Utah. She’s not being charged for writing a terrible children’s book about dealing with grief over the loss of a parent … but maybe she should be?

The Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, allowed Louisiana to require the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom statewide. The law had been blocked, but the Court decided that no one had been injured yet, so the case is unripe.

Elon Musk is being sued for securities fraud in California. But they can’t seat a jury because everyone hates him.

MAIN SHOW:

It’s all about tariffs. We break down the Supreme Court’s Learning Resources v. Trump, and explain why dragging this case out for a year ensures chaos as importers try to recoup money they’ve already paid. And we’ll talk about Trump’s plan to impose new illegal tariffs based on a gross misinterpretation of yet another internal statute.

The opinion is particularly contentious, revealing the justices’ angry, internal feuding over the future of the court. And subscribers will get a deep dive into the origins of this conflict, reaching back to Justice Kagan’s famous 2015 “Antonin Scalia Lecture Series” lecture at Harvard Law School and extending through Justice Jackson’s concurrence in Learning Resources.

US v. Trump [stolen documents case]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67490070/united-states-v-trump

Kouri Richins Warrant
https://www.scribd.com/document/654496602/Kouri-Richins-Warrant

Contempt for Musk clouds jury selection in Twitter takeover trial
https://www.courthousenews.com/contempt-for-musk-clouds-jury-selection-in-twitter-takeover-trial/

Roake v. Brumley [Fifth Circuit Ten Commandments]
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca5.221848/gov.uscourts.ca5.221848.389.1.pdf

Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump [tariffs case]
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1287_4gcj.pdf

Congressional Research Service, “Congressional and Presidential Authority to Impose Import Tariffs”
https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R48435/R48435.1.pdf

Elena Kagan “Antonin Scalia Lecture Series,” Harvard Law School (2015) [via YouTube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpEtszFT0Tg

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DOCKET ALERTS:

Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier is getting paid $50,000 a semester to teach a single class at University of Florida’s law school.

The Trump Administration finally obeyed the court order and put the exhibit on enslaved people back at President’s House in Philadelphia.

The Supreme Court has decided to eliminate corruption by asking litigants to add their stock ticker symbols to filing disclosures. Oh, you thought maybe the justices would agree to stop trading individual stocks? LOL.

And a JAG lawyer sent to help out the US Attorneys Office in Minnesota got cited for contempt after ICE responded to a habeas order by dumping a Minnesota man on the street in El Paso without his identity documents. Judge Laura Provinzino ordered the lawyer to pay $500 per day until the petitioner got his ID back.

MAIN SHOW:

In California, Judge Sunshine Sykes issued a major benchslap to the Trump administration’s claim that it can — or must! — detain immigrants who haven’t been granted permanent residence. In December, she granted class certification and ordered the government to give everyone not detained at the border a bond hearing. The government ignored her ruling, based on a decision by the immigration courts housed inside the Justice Department. Separation of powers, how does it go?

And Andrew and Liz talk about two “surveillance” issues: commercially-aggregated data tracking our every movement and “dynamic” pricing.

The Supreme Court first started considering surveillance in US v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2012) and endorsed the “mosaic theory” of the Fourth Amendment in Carpenter v. US, 585 US 296 (2018).

Sens. Lujan and Merkley have co-sponsored the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act of 2026. Gizmodo recently ran a story about it, referencing prior research into dynamic pricing.

Florida’s attorney general gets $100K part-time teaching job at UF
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2026/02/17/uthmeier-uf-adjunct-teaching-contract-pay-attorney-general/

Soto Jimenez v. Bondi
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72221590/soto-jimenez-v-bondi/

Matter of Yajure Hurtado
https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1413311/dl?inline

Maldonado Bautista v. Noem
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70895584/lazaro-maldonado-bautista-v-ernesto-santacruz-jr/

US v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2012)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3066032366235422373

Carpenter v. US, 585 US 296 (2018)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=853695326923033538

Text of the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act of 2026
https://www.lujan.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/MUR26086-1.pdf

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DOCKET ALERTS:

Trump celebrated President’s Day by filing a trademark for Donald J. Trump International Airport — just in time for Florida’s move to rename Palm Beach International Airport in his honor. KA-CHING!

In Colorado, a state judge ruled that throwing prisoners in solitary confinement as a penalty for refusing to work violates the state constitution’s ban on involuntary servitude. It’s a start!

And in Philadelphia, Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the Trump administration to restore an exhibit on the enslaved people who lived at President’s House under George Washington: “Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history.”

MAIN SHOW:

In Minnesota, Judge Nancy Brasel ordered DHS to grant detainees in “holding rooms” at the Whipple Building in Minneapolis meaningful access to counsel. The ruling bars ICE from removing immigrants from the state for 72 hours after they are originally picked up. We’ll discuss the cracks appearing between DHS, which ignores court orders, and DOJ, which has to show up in court and take the blame for it.

In New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan issued a similar order in September with respect to temporary “holding rooms” on the 9th floor at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, with additional requirements that DHS provide for detainees' hygiene, nutrition, and medical needs. The plaintiffs say ICE has not complied and moved for contempt. The City reports that DHS opened up new temporary detention facilities on the 10th floor, but claims the injunction doesn’t apply there for, uh, REASONS.

And we break down all the ways Republicans are trying to suppress the vote with the SAVE America Act, which solves the nonexistent problem of noncitizens voting illegally by imposing a series of restrictions on citizens registering and voting.

In the subscriber bonus, we discuss a district court’s decision in Massachusetts enjoining the Trump administration from deploying ICE in and around churches.

Trump’s Private Company Files Trademark for ‘President Donald J. Trump International Airport’
https://www.gerbenlaw.com/blog/trumps-private-company-files-trademark-for-president-donald-j-trump-international-airport/

Buried in the budget: Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump and Newsmax
https://jasongarcia.substack.com/p/buried-in-the-budget-mike-huckabee

Mortis v. Polis [Colorado Prison Labor]
https://towardsjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Findings-of-Fact-and-Conclusions-of-Law.pdf

Philadelphia v. Burgum
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72178941/city-of-philadelphia-v-burgum/

Advocates for Human Rights v. DHS [Whipple Building]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72196538/the-advocates-for-human-rights-v-us-department-of-homeland-securit

Barco Mercado v. Noem [26 Federal Plaza]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71065570/barco-mercado-v-noem

ICE Moved Detainees to Previously Undisclosed Floor of 26 Federal Plaza
https://www.thecity.nyc/2026/02/09/26-federal-plaza-jail-conditions-ice-judge-kaplan-ruling/

Text of S.1383, the “SAVE America” Act
https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20260209/RCP_S1383_xml.pdf

New England Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America v. DHS
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70939776/new-england-synod-evangelical-lutheran-church-in-america-v-department-of/

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