A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday rejected a request from The Associated Press to restore the news organization’s access to certain presidential events following claims it was being unconstitutionally punished for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, declined to grant a temporary restraining order that would have prevented the administration from keeping the AP out of certain presidential events, particularly those taking place in the Oval Office, on Air Force One, or at Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, according to a report from CNN.

McFadden reportedly denied the request for the “extraordinary relief” of a TRO because the AP failed to show it would suffer “irreparable harm” without it, as the organization could still “get access to the same information” through pool notes that are provided to all members of the White House Correspondents Association. The lack of harm was further evinced by the AP waiting more than a week to file its lawsuit, McFadden reportedly said.

While denying the TRO request, McFadden also indicated that he believed the administration would have a difficult time defending its decision when it came time to argue on the merits. He reportedly warned that case law in Washington, D.C. was “uniformly unhelpful” for cases involving journalistic bans and said the ban was a clear example of unconstitutional content-based discrimination.

“It might be appropriate for the White House… to consider if what they’re doing is really appropriate, given the case law,” he warned, according to journalist Jordan Fischer.

In the filed complaint, the AP alleged that the administration unlawfully ordered it to “use certain words” in its coverage “or else face an indefinite denial of access.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been operating “in the shadows,” wielding unconstitutional authority across multiple agencies while providing the public with “no meaningful transparency” and failing to keep proper records, according to a new lawsuit from a nonprofit government watchdog group.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) accused DOGE of unlawfully refusing to comply with its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for records associated with the government group’s actions and ignored repeated demands for DOGE to preserve its records under the Federal Records Act.

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CREW has requested records and documents related to communications between Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staffers and individuals who were affiliated with DOGE prior to Trump’s inauguration, changes to the operations of the U.S. Digital Service, organizational charts and financial disclosures, and DOGE’s communications with federal agencies, which DOGE and the other plaintiffs have so far failed to turn over.

The filing requests that a federal judge order OMB and DOGE — as well as their leaders — to promptly disclose the requested records, to preserve all records until the court decides the case, and to initiate enforcement action to recover any lost records.

The suit asserts that while President Donald Trump vowed DOGE would operate with “maximum transparency,” in actuality, “it has done the opposite.”

“The entity has worked in the shadows — a cadre of largely unidentified actors, whose status as government employees is unclear, controlling major government functions with no oversight. [DOGE] has provided no meaningful transparency into its operations or assurances that it is maintaining proper records of its unprecedented and legally dubious work,” the suit states.

The Supreme Court justices have declined to weigh in on an appellate court ruling that rejected damages for woman whose home in a Dallas suburb was destroyed by a Texas SWAT team chasing man holding a 15-year-old girl hostage. However, two justices who fall on opposite ends of the political spectrum — Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch — disagreed with that decision.

The search for a runaway hostage

On July 25, 2020, a fugitive named Wesley Little kidnapped 15-year-old girl. Little led police in a high-speed car chase, and drove to the home of Vicki Baker while the girl was in Little’s custody. Little had been familiar with the home because he had previously worked there as a handyman. Deanna Cook, Baker’s adult daughter, answered the door. She Little and the girl with him from a posting about Little being on the run with a teen girl earlier that day.

Cook had been on the premises to help her mother ready the home for sale and there was a “For Sale” sign in the yard.

Ultimately, Cook called her mother, who in turn, contacted authorities. When the McKinney police arrived, officers set up a perimeter around the home. Little eventually released the girl, who reported to police that Little was armed, high on methamphetamine, and hiding in the attic. Later, Little told police that he knew he was going to die and planned to have a shoot-out with police.

Police unsuccessfully tried several tactics to get Little out of the home, including launching dozens of tear gas grenades into the house. Eventually, officers detonated explosives, which broke down the front and garage doors, and used a tank-like vehicle to bulldoze the home’s backyard fence. When police entered the house, they found that Little had taken his own life.

Damages and lawsuits

The tactics of police are not part of any dispute in the case, as they have been deemed necessary to prevent harm to themselves and the public. What is at issue, though, is whether Baker is entitled to compensation for the significant damages to her property resulting from the incident. The explosion left Baker’s dog permanently blind and deaf, and a remediation team was necessary clean the toxic gas from the home. Furthermore, ceiling fans, plumbing, floors, and bricks needed to be replaced.

The damage was not covered by Baker’s homeowner’s insurance due to the cause of the damage being deemed an “act of government.” Baker filed a claim for property damage with the city, but the city denied the claim in its entirety.

A federal judge late Thursday declined to dismiss former President Donald Trump’s charges in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

The terse, two-page order by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon rejects arguments by the 45th president’s attorneys that the first 32 counts in the superseding indictment are “constitutionally vague.”

“Although the Motion raises various arguments warranting serious consideration, the Court ultimately determines, following lengthy oral argument, that resolution of the overall question presented depends too greatly on contested instructional questions about still-fluctuating definitions of statutory terms/phrases as charged, along with at least some disputed factual issues as raised in the Motion,” Cannon wrote.

One of Arizona’s top prosecutors has broken with typical legal protocol this week by refusing to extradite a 26-year-old man who is accused of beating a 38-year-old mother to death inside a New York City hotel room earlier this month.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a staunch Republican who rose to office after winning a 2022 special election, on Wednesday publicly refused to send Raad Almansori back to New York to face murder charges in the brutal slaying of 38-year-old Denisse Oleas-Arancibia.

Mitchell was previously brought on by Republicans in the U.S. Senate to assist in the confirmation of Donald Trump-nominated Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and was a leader in the questioning of Christine Blasey Ford, who had credibly accused the soon-to-be justice of sexual assault decades before his confirmation.

Mitchell is claiming that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg — a prominent Democrat — and the prosecutors in his office were too lenient on accused murderers to be trusted with detaining Almansori.

“Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan D.A. there, Alvin Bragg,” Mitchell said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference. “I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out doing this to individuals either in our state, county or anywhere in the United States.”

Bragg has been a target for Republicans who consistently claim that he has gone after Trump over alleged unlawful hush payments to adult actress Stormy Daniels for political gain.