Keep refreshing, I will be adding to this.
Everyone is trying to make this happen quickly. . . . Judge Tipton doesn’t seem to understand the immigration implications. He thinks of it all as simple civil monetary litigation. It is death sentences — for many of the deported. This judge just completely ignores the ongoing harm to real people under ICE detainers, some clearly in violation of US treaties and applicable federal laws.
. . .▲ Very limited fact gathering, set for this weekend.
▲ For now, limits set: of five requests to admit, and 5 to 7 interrogatories. . . .
▲ FEIL Houston & RAICES counsel (for undocumented persons) is up, patiently explaining how Judge Tipton doesn’t understand that the people under the 100 days pause are not criminals who’ve served their sentences under and on regular 18 USC domestic crimes. . . and the FEIL counsel continues. . . there are Constitutional obligations to verify that applicable law was followed, before summary removal occurs. . . .
▲ Judge Tipton is willfully ignoring the notion that Texas has no standing to even be before the court’s bar, this morning. He keeps asking Texas to explain why it is a politically popular thing to do — to swiftly deport supposed “criminals”. . . there is zero evidence that these are the same people. . . . [His lack of basic understanding of the dimensions of his job, here is. . . jaw slacking.]
▲ He doesn’t just put the cart before the horse, he puts the entire army in front of a tiny rabbit, to pull the entire supply train. . . .
▲ The FEIL Houston (undocumented persons’) counsel makes clear that as a practical matter, people who have final removal orders are often detained for years — including in circumstances where there are treaty-level issues with their removal (diplomatic issues, for example) and the Texas claim to the contrary is just 100% dead wrong, factually.
▲ Texas had earlier this morning claimed — entirely falsely, that up to 14,000 criminals could be released immediately under the 100 day pause memo. . . .
▲ Counsel for the Biden Administration (Kirschner) has filed a nine-page affidavit today, that proves the 14,000 people to be released claim false. In fact, about 50 people (almost exclusively for COVID-19 high risk factors) were released — in all of Texas. . . and about 160, nation-wide, before Tipton’s TRO.
▲ Judge Tipton just blithely ignored this glaring factual variance — one upon which his TRO rests. He is now scurrying onward, like a squirrel on a double espresso. . . .
▲ It seems reasonably clear Judge Tipton doesn’t want to make any real serious decisions (preferring to joke about type fonts and word counts), beyond his earlier limited TRO — hoping it will go up on appeal shortly. Based on today’s chaotic, non-lawyerly, scramble all over the place non-“status” hearing — I expect it will be out of his hands in about a week. One way or another.
▲ Tipton is going to extend the TRO — lawlessly.
▲ Specifically, Texas brief due February 5; US brief Feb. 12, Reply Feb. 16 — Hearing Feb. 19. With TRO expiring on February 23. . . . [it will be into the Fifth Circuit before any of that happens, is my guess.]
▲ He now orders a voluminous administrative record — in a matter that plainly does not give him any jurisdiction.
▲ Confidential nota bene — to Mr. Biden: Time to seek immediate appeal. . . .
Onward. Judge Tipton keeps talking the politics of the prior administration. . . it is. . . alarming. He is plainly taking political support arguments, from Texas, on the record — rather than addressing the law. He accepts declarations that law enforcement “likes” what Texas has attempted.
It may be time to seek a transfer of judge, of right here — for incompetence, if not outright. . . pro-Trump bias.
नमस्ते
New Merck, Reviewed 