On November 20, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit granted an emergency administrative stay blocking the release of up to 615 immigrants detained in the Chicago area, just one day before they were scheduled to be freed under a federal district court order. The appellate …
7th Circuit Court of AppealsJudge Jeffrey CummingsTrump AdministrationDepartment of Homeland SecurityImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)+2 morejudicial-oversightappeals-courtimmigration-enforcementconsent-decreeoperation-midway-blitz+4 more
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska orders the unsealing of documents from Virginia Giuffre’s 2015 defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell, including depositions and court filings that had been sealed for years. The order affects approximately 180 individuals mentioned in the documents, …
On December 16, 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon overturned the controversial bankruptcy settlement that would have granted the Sackler family immunity from opioid-related lawsuits in exchange for $4.5 billion. Judge McMahon ruled that bankruptcy courts do not have the authority to …
Colleen McMahonSackler FamilyPurdue PharmaU.S. Department of Justiceopioid-crisisbankruptcy-lawjudicial-oversightaccountabilitylegal-precedent
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra rules that federal prosecutors violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by failing to inform victims about the 2008 non-prosecution agreement with Jeffrey Epstein. The ruling found that prosecutors deliberately concealed the agreement from victims and their …
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously ruled in ACLU v. Clapper that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone metadata was not authorized by Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, effectively declaring the surveillance program …
Second Circuit Court of AppealsGerard LynchNSAACLUnsa-surveillancejudicial-oversightpatriot-actsection-215privacy-rights+1 more
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled in Klayman v. Obama that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of American telephone metadata likely violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In a strongly-worded 68-page opinion, Judge Leon …
Richard LeonNSALarry Klaymannsa-surveillancefourth-amendmentjudicial-oversightconstitutional-lawprivacy-rights
Hans von Spakovsky, serving as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, led the department’s approval of Georgia’s controversial photo ID law in August 2005 despite unanimous objections from career Justice Department attorneys and …
Hans von SpakovskyDepartment of Justice Civil Rights DivisionGeorgia LegislatureHarold MurphyCareer DOJ Attorneysvoter-suppressionvoting-rights-actdoj-politicizationcivil-rights-rollbackjudicial-oversight+2 more
On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous 8-0 decision in United States v. Nixon, ordering President Richard Nixon to deliver sixty-four tape recordings and other subpoenaed materials related to the Watergate scandal to the federal district court. Chief Justice Warren Burger—a Nixon …
U.S. District Judge John Joseph Sirica, known as “Maximum John” for giving defendants the stiffest sentences guidelines allowed, presided over the trial of the Watergate burglars with deep skepticism about their claims of acting alone. Sirica employed an innovative strategy of …
John SiricaJames W. McCord Jr.G. Gordon LiddyJohn DeanJohn N. Mitchellwatergateobstruction-of-justicejudicial-oversightinstitutional-corruptionabuse-of-power