When the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated a temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting President Donald Trump from deporting Venezuelan migrants under an 18th century wartime authority, the ruling indicated the case would be adjudicated in Texas, where appeals are overseen by the most conservative federal circuit in the nation. However, a federal judge in New York on Wednesday issued a separate TRO one day after attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class-action lawsuit in challenging the administration’s fast-tracked deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) on behalf of two Venezuelan nationals currently being detained in the state.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted the petitioners’ request to halt deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the AEA, according to a courtroom report from MSNBC legal contributor Adam Klasfeld. The TRO is not nationwide, reportedly only covering individuals currently detained in the Southern District of New York.

The two unnamed migrants, ages 21 and 32, filed the 21-page lawsuit seeking the emergency ordering preventing the federal government from moving the plaintiffs out of the jurisdiction and from deporting any similarly situated migrants under the AEA.

According to the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s vacating the TRO, the administration “is resuming its summary removals of Venezuelans who are in ongoing immigration proceedings, including Petitioners here, without any judicial review — including by this Court.”

“Respondents seek to move Petitioners in secret, without due process, to a prison in El Salvador known for dire conditions, torture, and other forms of physical abuse — possibly for life,” the complaint states.

The judge scheduled a hearing in the matter for Wednesday.

Trump on March 15, 2025, became the first president since World War II to invoke the AEA, which authorizes him to summarily remove “natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects” of a “hostile nation or government” when there is “declared war” against it or when it has “perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States” an “invasion or predatory incursion.” In a controversial and novel use of the power, Trump declared the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) had committed or attempted an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” such that any member of the group was summarily removable under the Act.

The administration asserted that the gang constituted a “hybrid criminal state” for purposes of invoking the AEA.

A federal judge has hit pause on an effort by the Trump administration to ban federal support for transgender medical care.

On Friday afternoon, Joe Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Lauren King, sitting in Seattle, issued a temporary restraining order in favor of three states and three doctors who sued the government on Feb. 7.

The court barred a litany of named federal defendants from “enforcing or implementing” two major sections of a recent anti-transgender executive order signed by President Donald Trump.

Under the terms of Executive Order 14187, which is fashioned as an effort to protect “Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” the 45th and 47th president intends to cut off all federal funding for institutions that offer pediatric gender transition services or provide any kind of gender-affirming care for people under the age of 19.

A Jan. 6 rioter from Texas who got hit with an arrest warrant for online solicitation of a minor after being pardoned by President Donald Trump is back behind bars after being busted Thursday following a surveillance operation, cops say.

Andrew Taake, 36, was taken into custody by the Harris County District Attorney’s Fugitive Apprehension squad with help from multiple law enforcement agencies after a warrant was issued for his arrest late last month, according to prosecutors. Taake was caught in Leon County, Texas, and must now face justice in Houston for a 2016 charge of online solicitation of a minor. He was on pretrial release when the 2021 Capitol attack unfolded, which landed him a six-year prison sentence for attacking police officers with a metal whip and dousing them in bear spray.

Taake pleaded guilty in December 2023 to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon. Last month, Trump scrubbed away the charge with a “full, complete and unconditional” pardon of Taake and his roughly 1,500 fellow rioters. Prosecutors in Harris County took up the solicitation charge — now that his federal case is no longer active — as a result.

“Re-arresting individuals, like Taake, who were released with pending State warrants, will require significant resources,” District Attorney Sean Teare said in a statement before Taake’s arrest. “Know that we are already in the process of tracking Taake down, as he must answer for 2016 charge of soliciting a minor online.”

According to prosecutors, Taake was apprehended Thursday after a surveillance operation on Tuesday confirmed he was staying at a residence in Leon County.

“We would like to thank the coordinated efforts of our office’s Fugitive Apprehension Section, Leon County Sheriff’s Office, and Texas Department of Public Safety for their diligence in getting this suspected child predator back into custody,” Teare said in a statement.

Taake made headlines at the time of his Jan. 6 arrest after he was turned in by a woman he met on the dating app Bumble. He was sentenced to 74 months in prison last year — followed by 36 months of supervised release — in addition to paying $2,000 in restitution.

More from Law&Crime: ‘Galvanized and ready’: Family members of Jan. 6 rioters and their victims say they’re ‘terrified’ of what’s to come now that Trump pardons actually happened

According to the Houston Chronicle, Taake was allegedly soliciting a person in 2016 who he “believed to be younger than 17 years of age.” He was 27 at the time.

Authorities say Taake talked on social media with an undercover cop posing as a 15-year-old girl. He allegedly sent “multiple explicit messages” and asked to meet up with her — even admitting that he “could go to jail” if anyone found out what he was doing. Taake allegedly went to an address that the undercover provided and cops arrested him. If convicted, he faces a decade in prison.

David Harris contributed to this report.

A YouTube star from Texas who fled to Qatar while facing aggravated kidnapping charges for abducting two women and taking them on a wild, high-speed car ride is back in the states and behind bars, according to prosecutors.

Corey Pritchett Jr., 26, of Houston, is accused of threatening the two victims with a gun — allegedly praying with them at one point — before dumping the pair off on the shoulder of the highway and telling them, “This is your only opportunity.”

The popular YouTuber fled to Qatar after the Nov. 24 kidnapping incident, according to his criminal complaint, which was obtained by Law&Crime earlier this month. The victims were found by deputies with the Waller County Sheriff’s Office near a weigh station off Interstate 10 in the Brookshire area after a local resident saw the women walking on the side of the road and called 911.

A Florida woman was recently arrested for being a member of a lucrative retail theft ring that targeted a series of businesses, including Ulta, CVS, Walgreens, and liquor stores in the Sunshine State, authorities claim.

Lourdes Rodriguez, 20, stands accused of two counts each of organized retail theft and grand theft, according to a press release issued by the Florida Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

The defendant was arrested this week and is said to be the third member of a stealing operation that caused losses in excess of $100,000 to over four dozen different Florida businesses.