Showing posts with label due process. Show all posts
Showing posts with label due process. Show all posts

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Judge Orders Release of 5-Year-Old, Whose Detention Drew Outrage; The New York Times, January 31, 2026

Mattathias Schwartz and , The New York Times ; Judge Orders Release of 5-Year-Old, Whose Detention Drew Outrage

The image of Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a blue winter hat and Spider-Man backpack while in the custody of immigration agents, fueled outrage across the country.

"A federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of a 5-year-old boy and his father from immigration custody, condemning their removal from their suburban Minneapolis neighborhood as unconstitutional.

The image of Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a Spider-Man backpack and an oversize fluffy blue winter hat as he was detained by officers earlier this month, spurred outrage at a moment when many were already incensed by the Trump administration’s immigration tactics in Minnesota and elsewhere across the country. The flood of immigration enforcement officers into Minneapolis, known as Operation Metro Surge, has led to mass demonstrations as well as the shooting deaths of two protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal agents.

In a blistering opinion ordering Liam’s release, Judge Fred Biery of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas condemned “the perfidious lust for unbridled power” and “the imposition of cruelty.” The boy’s father, Adrian Conejo Arias, was also arrested and the pair were taken to an immigration detention center outside San Antonio. A lawyer for the family previously said in court filings that Mr. Conejo Arias, who is from Ecuador, had legally entered the country under American guidelines for asylum. The Department of Homeland Security had charged that Mr. Conejo Arias had entered the country illegally in December 2024.

In a statement, Jennifer Scarborough and four other attorneys who represent Liam and his father praised the ruling. They said they were now working to quickly reunite the family. “We are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal,” they wrote."

Thursday, January 29, 2026

She Fought a Book Ban. She May Never Teach Again.; The New York Times, January 29, 2026

, The New York Times ; She Fought a Book Ban. She May Never Teach Again.

Summer Boismier, a high school English teacher in Oklahoma, lost her teaching license after she protested a book ban. Now she is fighting to return to the classroom.

"When Oklahoma passed laws that pressured teachers to remove books on race, gender and sexuality from their classrooms, she refused. Other teachers resisted, too — but Ms. Boismier did so loudly. She plastered her 10th-grade English classroom with signs of protest, posted to social media and advised her students on how they could find books online. Eventually she resigned.

She knew that in her conservative state she would be criticized, but the reaction was much more severe than she expected. And in 2024, the state took away Ms. Boismier’s teaching license.

It was an extraordinary punishment. More than 20 states, including Oklahoma, have passed laws over the past five years restricting the curriculum around race, gender, sexuality and American history. Hundreds of teachers have faced discipline or lost their jobs as a result of these laws. But Ms. Boismier is perhaps the only one whose certification has been fully revoked."

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Judge Temporarily Blocks Deportation of 5-Year-Old Detained in Minneapolis Suburb; The New York Times, January 27, 2026

 , The New York Times; Judge Temporarily Blocks Deportation of 5-Year-Old Detained in Minneapolis Suburb

An image of the boy, wearing a Spider-Man backpack as he was detained by federal agents, became a symbol of the immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

"A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the deportation of a 5-year-old boy and his father who were arrested in a Minneapolis suburb in an operation that further stirred the outrage over the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.

The boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were arrested last week in Columbia Heights, Minn., shortly after the father had picked the boy up from school, according to school district officials. They were quickly taken to an immigration detention center outside San Antonio, where they remain.

In his order, Judge Fred Biery of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas told the federal government that it could not move the boy or his father out of his court’s jurisdiction while they challenged their detention.

The detention of the boy and his father by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents became a flashpoint in the Twin Cities, where anger has continued to grow over the surge of federal agents in the region. The image of Liam, wearing a Spider-Man backpack and a large winter hat as he was detained by federal agents, quickly became emblematic of the harsh effects of the government’s tactics in Minnesota."

Friday, January 23, 2026

What images of a detained five-year-old boy reveal about Trump’s draconian ICE crackdown; The Guardian, January 22, 2026

Robert Tait, The Guardian; What images of a detained five-year-old boy reveal about Trump’s draconian ICE crackdown

"One recent image shows the innocent figure of Liam Ramos, a five-year-old preschooler wearing a blue bobbled winter hat, standing next to a black vehicle with a dark-clad adult figure standing behind him, whose hand is proprietorially placed on his backpack.

A second picture depicts the same child at the door of a house, with what appears to be a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent standing behind him.

The exact circumstances of the photos – or their provenance – remains unclear. The homeland security department has insisted that Liam was being held for protective purposes after his father absconded when agents tried to detain him.

Yet officials from the Columbia Heights public school district, which circulated both pictures, say the latter conjures a dark and disturbing reality – of an unsuspecting Liam being exploited as bait to lure adults in his family home to open the door so ICE agents can arrest them."

ICE Detained a 5-Year-Old Minnesota Boy and Used Him As “Bait”; Mother Jones, January 22, 2026

 , Mother Jones; ICE Detained a 5-Year-Old Minnesota Boy and Used Him As “Bait”

"Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a 5-year-old on his way home from school on Tuesday and used him as “bait” to knock on his front door to see if anyone was home, according to school officials in Minnesota. 

Liam Conejo Ramos, a preschooler, is one of at least four children from the Columbia Heights Public Schools district in suburban Minneapolis who have been detained this month, Zena Stenvik, the superintendent for the district, said in a press conference Wednesday."

Sunday, December 28, 2025

The protesters showing up every week to shut down ‘Alligator Alcatraz’: ‘We will end this’; The Guardian, December 26, 2025

 , The Guardian; The protesters showing up every week to shut down ‘Alligator Alcatraz’: ‘We will end this’

"They come on buses, in cars and RVs. Some ride on motorcycles. Every Sunday afternoon, convoys of protesters from all over Florida, and others from out of state, descend on the notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail in the Everglades to stand vigil for those held inside.

It is a ritual that began in August, a month after the opening of the remote detention camp celebrated by Donald Trump for its harsh conditions, and hailed by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, as a model for the president’s aggressive detention and deportation agenda.

The open air vigils continued, and grew in size, through the brutal heat and torrential rains of the south Florida summer. They endured through a federal judge’s order in August that “Alligator Alcatraz” should close, and a subsequent reversal by an appeals court; the protesters’ voices grew louder at alleged human rights abuses and violence inflicted on detainees.

Over the holiday season, thousands more people are expected to join the protests. The Guardian spoke to several people at the heart of the vigils:..

The pastor

As pastor of the Allendale United Methodist church in St Petersburg, Andy Oliver has never been afraid of diving into political issues. The treatment of detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz”, he said, compelled him to organize a bus to attend the vigils, and he was encouraged that other locals joined his parishioners to make their voices heard.

“We filled up the bus and had to rent a couple more vehicles. We had so many people wanting to be there,” he said.

Oliver sees parallels at the immigration jail with the religious stories he preaches.

“In the Christmas story, the person who came to announce Jesus’s arrival was his cousin John the Baptist, and he was pretty quickly thrown in jail for calling for liberation,” he said.

“Jesus came to bring liberation to people. We have people that are physically being detained even beyond the scope of what the law allows, families are being separated, harms are being done. Jesus was born as a refugee. He spent most of his ministry with people on the margins. I think that’s where Jesus would be, he’d be calling for these prisons to be emptied.”

Oliver said the diversity of the vigil crowd was notable, and that it was “powerful” to share the experience with people of different faiths."

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Kilmar Abrego Garcia released after judge rules Trump admin lacked valid removal order; Fox News, December 11, 2025

Louis Casiano , Fox News; Kilmar Abrego Garcia released after judge rules Trump admin lacked valid removal order

"Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran illegal immigrant that became the face of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, has been released from detention.

Garcia's lawyer confirmed his release with Fox News. 

His release came after a federal judge on Thursday ordered he be freed."

Federal judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from ICE custody; Fox News, December 11, 2025

 Breanne Deppisch , Alex Nitzberg , Fox News; Federal judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from ICE custody

"A federal judge in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Thursday ordered Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from ICE custody, capping — for now – an extraordinary, 10-month legal fight that has spanned two continents, multiple federal courts, and prompted dozens of hearings in the aftermath of his removal.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia released from the ICE Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pa., ruling that the Trump administration had not obtained the final notice of removal order needed to remove him to a third country."

Thursday, December 4, 2025

Detainees at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ facing ‘harrowing human right violations’, new report alleges; The Guardian, December 4, 2025

, The Guardian; Detainees at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ facing ‘harrowing human right violations’, new report alleges

"Detainees at the notorious Florida immigration jail known as “Alligator Alcatraz” were shackled inside a 2ft high metal cage and left outside without water for up to a day at a time, a shocking report published on Thursday by Amnesty International alleges.

The human rights group said migrants held at the state-run Everglades facility, and at Miami’s Krome immigration processing center operated by a private company on behalf of the Trump administration, continue to be exposed to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” rising in some cases to torture.

The cage, known to detainees as “the box”, is used by guards for the arbitrary punishment of trivial or non-existent offenses, according to the report compiled from interviews with detainees and advocacy groups, and a site visit to Krome made by Amnesty workers in September."

Torture and Enforced Disappearances in the Sunshine State: Human Rights Violations at “Alligator Alcatraz” and Krome in Florida; Amnesty International, December 4, 2025

Amnesty International; Torture and Enforced Disappearances in the Sunshine State: Human Rights Violations at “Alligator Alcatraz” and Krome in Florida

"This report presents Amnesty International’s findings from a research trip to southern Florida in September 2025 to document:

  • Human rights impacts of federal and state migration and asylum policies on mass detention and deportation
  • Access to due process and
  • Detention conditions since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025.

In particular, it focuses on detention conditions at the Krome North Service Processing Center (Krome) and the Everglades Detention Facility, also known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Krome is an ICE detention facility located in Miami-Dade County on the edge of the Everglades. In 2025, the facility has faced heightened scrutiny after reports of severe overcrowding and several deaths. Amnesty International documented delays in intake procedures, overcrowding in temporary processing areas, inadequate and inaccessible medical care, alarming disciplinary practices including the use of prolonged solitary confinement, and challenges in access to legal representation and due process at Krome.

“Alligator Alcatraz” opened in July 2025 with the capacity to detain around 3,000 people. Amnesty International’s research concludes that people arbitrarily detained in “Alligator Alcatraz” are being held in inhuman and unsanitary conditions, including overflowing toilets with fecal matter seeping into where people are sleeping, limited access to showers, exposure to insects without protective measures, lights on 24 hours a day, poor quality food and water, and lack of privacy.

Amnesty International considers that detention conditions at both facilities amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The use of prolonged solitary confinement at Krome and the use of the ‘box’ at “Alligator Alcatraz” amount to torture or other ill-treatment.

Amnesty International calls on the Government of the United States to:

  • End its cruel mass immigration detention and deportation machine
  • Stop the criminalization of migration
  • Bar the use of state-owned facilities for immigration custody detention
  • Ensure thorough investigations into all deaths, abuses, and allegations of torture in custody, and
  • Comply with international human rights law and standards."

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Kristi Noem directed Venezuelans to be sent to El Salvador after federal judge ordered deportation planes turned around: DOJ; ABC News, November 25, 2025

Laura Romero and Luke Barr , ABC News; Kristi Noem directed Venezuelans to be sent to El Salvador after federal judge ordered deportation planes turned around: DOJ

"Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem directed that hundreds of Venezuelan men who were removed from the U.S. in March be transferred to El Salvador, despite a federal judge ordering deportation planes turned around, according to a new court filing from Trump administration lawyers. 

In the filing late Tuesday, the Department of Justice said that DOJ and DHS officials conveyed their legal advice to Noem after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg gave first an oral directive and then a written order that sought to block the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. 

"After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court's order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador," DOJ said on Tuesday."

Friday, November 7, 2025

Judge orders White House to use American Sign Language interpreters at briefings; NPR, November 5, 2025

 , NPR; Judge orders White House to use American Sign Language interpreters at briefings

"A federal judge is ordering the White House to immediately begin providing American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation at its press briefings when President Trump or press secretary Karoline Leavitt are speaking.

"White House press briefings engage the American people on important issues affecting their daily lives — in recent months, war, the economy, and healthcare, and in recent years, a global pandemic," U.S. District Judge Amir Ali wrote in issuing a preliminary injunction on Tuesday. "The exclusion of deaf Americans from that programming, in addition to likely violating the Rehabilitation Act, is clear and present harm that the court cannot meaningfully remedy after the fact."

The White House stopped using live ASL interpreters at briefings and other public events when President Trump began his second term in January.

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and two deaf men filed the lawsuit against Trump and Leavitt in May. The suit also names White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, along with the offices for president and vice president. It alleges the White House's failure to provide ASL violates Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The law prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in programs conducted by the federal government. The suit also claims the White House is in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments, which protect free speech and provide for due process, respectively."

Monday, November 3, 2025

Employee of Trump-Supporting Superstore Fired for Filming Brutal Immigration Raid; The Daily Beast, November 3, 2025

, The Daily Beast; Employee of Trump-Supporting Superstore Fired for Filming Brutal Immigration Raid


[Kip Currier: The excessive force and brutality of these raids cannot and should not be normalized. This is not normal or desirable conduct by law enforcement in a democracy.

Boycotts are one of the best ways to send messages to billionaires -- like John Menard, Jr. -- that this kind of brutal action against human beings who are deserving of dignity and due process will not be tolerated by a majority of the citizens of this country. Targeted boycotts of Teslas sent a message to Elon Musk and these types of peaceful citizen responses can be used to hold other oligarchs accountable for the undemocratic actions that they overtly and tacitly support.

Why are law enforcement persons who use excessive force to apprehend people, who are in most cases not resisting detention, not being held accountable for their unprofessional actions?

Why are they permitted to smash car windows with batons, throw people to the ground, tear gas children's parties, threaten news media and ordinary citizens for permissibly filming public arrests, and even "give the finger" to people who are observing and in some cases documenting their actions?

This is not acceptable in our democracy. These actions by often-masked law enforcement persons are more in keeping with the behaviors of militias and secret police forces who see themselves as not answerable to we the people.

I have hope and faith in the rule of law that the individuals and agencies who are engaging in this conduct can and will be held legally accountable at some point.

We must also continue to call out these lawless actions and not permit ourselves to become inured and voiceless to the brutality that we can see with our own eyes.]



[Excerpt]

"A security guard working at a superstore owned by an ally of Donald Trump was fired after filming a brutal Department of Homeland Security immigration raid in its parking lot.

Ricardo Mendez was positioned at the door of Menards—a Midwestern chain of home-improvement stores whose billionaire owner, John Menard Jr., is a GOP megadonor—in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, Illinois, when agents deployed by DHS arrived on Tuesday afternoon...

What came next was brutal, as the Puerto Rican security guard filmed two Border Patrol agents smashing the window of a white Ford pickup with their batons. 

“The poor guy was surrounded by agents, workers, and customers,” said Mendez, 27, who added that the incident was so dramatic and shocking that other store staff also came out to film."

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Judges Warn ICE Is Turning Courts Into Deportation Traps; Law360, September 5, 2025

Marco Poggio, Law360; Judges Warn ICE Is Turning Courts Into Deportation Traps

""I want to thank everybody for coming here today and taking these hearings seriously," Judge Loprest said. "Have a very good rest of the day. Have a good rest of the summer, a good rest of the year."

But moments later, the goodwill Judge Loprest carefully built collapsed into farce: As the immigrants stepped into the hallway, ICE agents grabbed them, placed them in handcuffs and led them away through a side stairway, letting go only the women with children.

Arrests of noncitizens attending immigration court hearings have wreaked havoc among immigrant communities and alarmed attorneys and judges about what they see as violations of due process.

The Trump administration has been internally pushing for a minimum of 3,000 arrests of noncitizens per day. In an effort to meet that goal, ICE agents have been apprehending people in all areas inside and outside immigration court buildings across the country: hallways, lobbies, parking lots and elevators.

Former and current immigration judges who spoke with Law360 are warning that the Trump administration is using courts as a dragnet, arresting people indiscriminately and expelling them with little to no due process in a bid to fulfill President Donald Trump's goal of mass deportations.

"In order to create the vast numbers of arrests that the White House is demanding, they are arresting people who, minutes before their arrest, have legal status, and they're breaking the law left and right to do it," said Judge Dana Leigh Marks, who retired in 2021."

Monday, July 14, 2025

Popular Rock Band Demands Trump's DHS Take Down ICE Video Over Copyright Violation: 'And Go F–k Yourselves': "It's obvious that you don't respect Copyright Law"; Latin Times, July 14, 2025

 , Latin Times; Popular Rock Band Demands Trump's DHS Take Down ICE Video Over Copyright Violation: 'And Go F–k Yourselves'

"It's obvious that you don't respect Copyright Law"


"The rock band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC) is demanding that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remove a recent video that used their recording of "God's Gonna Cut You Down" without permission.

The band made their disapproval of the DHS very clear, accusing the agency of violating not only copyright law, but fundamental constitutional values.

"It's obvious that you don't respect Copyright Law and Artist Rights any more than you respect Habeas Corpus and Due Process rights," the band wrote. "Not to mention the separation of Church and State per the US Constitution."

"For the record, we hereby order @dhsgov to cease and desist the use of our recording and demand that you immediately pull down your video," the statement continued.

"Oh, and go f–k yourselves," they concluded."

Sunday, June 29, 2025

ACM FAccT ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency; June 23-26, 2025, Athens, Greece

  

ACM FAccT

ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency

A computer science conference with a cross-disciplinary focus that brings together researchers and practitioners interested in fairness, accountability, and transparency in socio-technical systems.

"Algorithmic systems are being adopted in a growing number of contexts, fueled by big data. These systems filter, sort, score, recommend, personalize, and otherwise shape human experience, increasingly making or informing decisions with major impact on access to, e.g., credit, insurance, healthcare, parole, social security, and immigration. Although these systems may bring myriad benefits, they also contain inherent risks, such as codifying and entrenching biases; reducing accountability, and hindering due process; they also increase the information asymmetry between individuals whose data feed into these systems and big players capable of inferring potentially relevant information.

ACM FAccT is an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to bringing together a diverse community of scholars from computer science, law, social sciences, and humanities to investigate and tackle issues in this emerging area. Research challenges are not limited to technological solutions regarding potential bias, but include the question of whether decisions should be outsourced to data- and code-driven computing systems. We particularly seek to evaluate technical solutions with respect to existing problems, reflecting upon their benefits and risks; to address pivotal questions about economic incentive structures, perverse implications, distribution of power, and redistribution of welfare; and to ground research on fairness, accountability, and transparency in existing legal requirements."

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Trump Loses Another Battle in His War Against Elite Law Firms; The New York Times, May 27, 2025

 , The New York Times; Trump Loses Another Battle in His War Against Elite Law Firms

"“The cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar willing to tackle unpopular cases, however daunting. The founding fathers knew this!” Judge Leon wrote in a 73-page opinion laced with more than two dozen exclamation points.

“Accordingly, they took pains to enshrine in the Constitution certain rights that would serve as the foundation for that independence,” he wrote. “Little wonder that in the nearly 250 years since the Constitution was adopted no executive order has been issued challenging these fundamental rights.”

So far, federal judges have steadfastly rejected what they have described as an effort by the White House to subjugate the nation’s top law firms."

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the U.S.; The New York Times, May 14, 2025

Marci ShoreTimothy Snyder and 

Francesca Trianni and 

, The New York Times; We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the U.S.

"Legal residents of the United States sent to foreign prisons without due process. Students detained after voicing their opinions. Federal judges threatened with impeachment for ruling against the administration’s priorities.

In the Opinion video above, Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley, all professors at Yale and experts in authoritarianism, explain why America is especially vulnerable to a democratic backsliding — and why they are leaving the United States to take up positions at the University of Toronto."

Monday, May 5, 2025

Trump Says ‘I Don’t Know’ When Asked About Due Process and Upholding Constitution; The New York Times, May 4, 2025

 , The New York Times; Trump Says ‘I Don’t Know’ When Asked About Due Process and Upholding Constitution

"President Trump said in an interview that aired on Sunday that he did not know whether every person on American soil was entitled to due process, despite constitutional guarantees, and complained that adhering to that principle would result in an unmanageable slowdown of his mass deportation program.

The revealing exchange, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” was prompted by the interviewer Kristen Welker asking Mr. Trump if he agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that citizens and noncitizens in the United States were entitled to due process.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Trump replied. “I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”

Ms. Welker reminded the president that the Fifth Amendment says as much.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Trump said again. “It seems — it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials.” Left unmentioned was how anyone could be sure these people were undocumented immigrants, let alone criminals, without hearings."

Trump presidential orders target law firms. Here's how some lawyers say that threatens the rule of law.; CBS News, May 4, 2025

Scott Pelley, CBS News; Trump presidential orders target law firms. Here's how some lawyers say that threatens the rule of law.


[Kip Currier: The Trump Executive Orders against select law firms violate the spirit and substance of foundational democratic beliefs and rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. 

The right to legal counsel is a fundamental precept of America's justice system and democracy.  Trump's Executive Orders imperil the right to legal counsel.

It is a conservative principle that finds its roots in the rebellion of the Thirteen Original Colonies against the human rights-starved tyranny of colonial England under King George III (1760-1820).

It is a tenet that has set the U.S. apart from authoritarian regimes.

The right to legal counsel is in jeopardy under the current administration.

The courageous, democratically-principled lawyers, law firms, judges, and legal organizations that are standing up and speaking out against these baseless unconstitutional actions deserve our admiration, support, and gratitude.]


[Excerpt]

"It was nearly impossible to get anyone on camera for this story because of the fear now running through our system of justice. In recent weeks, President Trump has signed orders against several law firms — orders with the power to destroy them. That matters because lawsuits have been a check on the president's power. Many firms and attorneys have been targeted, among them Marc Elias, a long time opponent of Trump who is the only lawyer the president has named who was willing to appear on 60 Minutes. Elias, and others, are warning that Trump's assault on the legal profession threatens the rule of law itself. Elias says that for him, it began with the president's personal grudge...

In a shock to the legal community, nine major firms went to the White House to make a deal. Some say they were pressured, not by a written order, but by a message from the White House threatening an order...

Marc Elias: It is trying to intimidate them the way in which a mob boss intimidates people in the neighborhood that he is seeking to either exact protection money from or engage in other nefarious conduct. I mean, the fact is that these law firms are being told, "If you don't play ball with us, maybe somethin' really bad will happen to you." 

The nine firms did not admit wrongdoing but, altogether, they agreed to give nearly $1 billion in legal services to causes that the firms and Trump support. 

Donald Ayer: Our whole system of government is at stake.

Attorney Donald Ayer should know. He argued before the Supreme Court for the Reagan administration. He was deputy attorney general for George H. W. Bush. Today, he teaches at Georgetown Law...

Four firms are standing up and fighting in court. Judges protected them with temporary restraining orders. Law professor Donald Ayer says, in his view, Trump's orders violate the constitutional rights to free speech, due process and the right to counsel."