Judge blocks Trump order on transgender youth care: ACLU
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting gender-affirming care for transgender people under the age of 19, according to the civil liberties groups behind the legal challenge to the order.
Trump’s order aimed to withhold federal funding to medical institutions that provide such care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries — calling on the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” The executive order does not appear to restrict these procedures for non-transgender people under 19.
Transgender young adults and families with transgender youth filed a legal challenge in early February against the order.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The Department of Justice and lawyers representing a group of FBI agents involved in investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack were in active negotiations Thursday to reach an agreement that would prevent the DOJ from publicly releasing the identities of any bureau employees currently under review for potential disciplinary action or firings.
The anonymous group of FBI agents is seeking a temporary restraining order to keep the FBI from releasing the names on a list the bureau collected as part of what the plaintiffs’ lawsuit says is the agency’s plan to engage in “potential vigilante action” to retaliate against government employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases or Donald Trump’s classified documents case.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, in a hearing Thursday, said she was “sympathetic” to the argument that the public release of any names on the last would do serious damage — but the lawyers representing the agents struggled to provide evidence that the DOJ intends to publicly release the information, rather than use the material for an internal review as they have vowed in court filings.
“Our argument is that the threat to national security is so extreme that we cannot risk letting it happen first, and then trying to put it back together,” said attorney for the agents Margaret Donovan in arguing for the temporary restraining order.
“I appreciate that, and I’m sympathetic to that argument,” Judge Cobb said. “A fear of something happening is not sufficient, even if — you know — the fear is a serious one.”
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs warned that the Trump Administration and DOGE head Elon Musk have demonstrated a willingness to publicly name officials they’ve accused of wrongdoing, such as the 51 former intelligence officials who wrote a letter about the Hunter Biden laptop and were later stripped of their security clearances in a Day-1 executive order by President Donald Trump.
“We have seen Elon Musk, working for the so-called DOGE agency, release names of individuals in public service. We have seen Jan. 6 pardonees very active on social media around the time of the survey, anticipating that the names would be released,” Donovan said. “We have a good faith reason to believe that those names may get out.”
With the Department of Justice publicly vowing to keep the names of agents private, and the plaintiffs lacking clear evidence showing an intent to release the names, both sides reached an impasse after the morning hearing, with plans to negotiate in private before the hearing resumes.
“We’re in between somewhat of a rock and a hard place on all of that,” plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Zaid said.
In a court filing submitted Thursday morning, the Justice Department urged the judge hearing the case to reject the plaintiffs’ request to impose a restraining order blocking any public release of the list.
DOJ attorneys argued in the filing that the motion for the restraining order is based largely on speculation and that the FBI agents have failed to show they face any imminent threats in connection with the list.
Trump pleaded not guilty in 2023 to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House, and, separately, to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The classified documents case was dismissed last year by a federal judge, and both cases were subsequently dropped following Trump’s reelection in November due to a longstanding DOJ policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.
(PHILADELPHIA) — Investigators have located the engines and cockpit voice recorder from the small medical transport jet that crashed in Philadelphia Friday evening, killing seven people.
The jet, which was carrying a child and her mother along with four other people, was in the air for less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport before coming down in a fiery “high-impact” crash.
The Learjet 55, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, took off at 6:06 p.m. Friday, climbed to about 1,500 feet and then rapidly descended, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigator Bill Hicks.
“The entire flight lasted less than a minute,” Hicks said.
All six people aboard the jet died in the crash, including the child, who had just received care from Shriner’s Hospital in Philadelphia and was returning home to Mexico with her mother. There were also four crew members on board. All were Mexican citizens, according to a statement from the Mexican government.
NTSB investigators announced on Sunday that the aircraft’s engines and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) had been recovered from the crash.
The CVR was located at the site of initial impact, at a depth of eight feet, according to investigators.
The airplane’s enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), which could also contain flight data was recovered Sunday as well, officials said. Both components will be sent to the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for evaluation.
During a Sunday morning news conference, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said all those aboard the jet were Mexican citizens.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance identified those aboard the crashed jet as 11-year-old pediatric patient Valentina Guzman Murillo and her 31-year-old mother, Lizeth Murillo Ozuna; Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, paramedic Lopez Padilla, flight Capt. Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales and co-pilot Josue De Jesus Juarez Juarez.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said Montoya Perales, 46, had worked for the company since 2016, and that 43-year-old Juarez Juarez had been with the company since December 2023. Arredondo, 41, has been flying with the air ambulance company since 2020 and 41-year-old Padilla has been with the company since November 2023.
The mayor of Ensenada, Mexico, a city in the state of Baja California, confirmed two of the victims as Valentina Guzman Murillo and her mother.
Ensenada government officials said the plane was bound for Tijuana, Mexico. The plane was scheduled to make a stopover in Springfield, Missouri, before continuing to Tijuana, officials said.
In addition to those aboard the aircraft, at least one person in a vehicle died in the crash. The identity of the person has not been disclosed.
Parker said Sunday that the number of people injured on the ground had risen from 19 to 22. She said five people remained hospitalized as of Sunday, including three in critical condition.
There was no indication of a problem radioed from the flight deck of the jet back to air traffic control before the crash, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters. “In fact, in the recording that we have, there is an attempt by air traffic controllers to get a response from the flight crew that they didn’t receive,” she said.
The NTSB has classified the crash as an accident.
The “high-impact” crash left debris scattered across four to five city blocks, Homendy said.
At least five homes caught fire in the aftermath of the crash, Philadelphia officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration is assisting in the investigation.
The crash of the medical jet came just two days after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a regional American Airlines jet near Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.
Homendy said her agency is able to carry out both investigations simultaneously.
“We are a highly skilled agency,” she said, adding that it’s not unusual for the board to investigate two incidents.
In a message posted on X, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the back-to-back disasters a “heart-wrenching week.”
Regarding the Philadelphia crash, Duffy said, “We’re not going to have answers right away. It’s going to take time. But as I get those answers, I’m going to share it with all of you.”
ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos contributed to this report.
In this photo released by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, damaged buildings are shown in Rolla, Missouri, on March 14, 2025. Via Troop 1/Missouri State Highway Patrol
(NEW YORK) — At least 18 people are dead after severe weather hit parts of Missouri, Texas and Arkansas overnight, officials said.
Eleven storm-related fatalities were reported in the Missouri counties of Ozark, Butler, Wayne and Jefferson, the state highway patrol said. Three people were confirmed dead in Independence County, Arkansas, the state’s emergency management division said.
Four were reported dead in Texas, officials said Saturday.
At least 29 people were injured in eight Arkansas counties, state emergency officials said.
Additionally, 238,792 customers are without power across five states — Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Texas and Arkansas, according to Poweroutage.us.
Millions of Americans across the country are on alert for severe weather with tornado watches in effect for eight states: Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
A new particularly dangerous situation tornado watch was issued Saturday across much of Mississippi, as well as portions of eastern Louisiana until 6 p.m. CT this evening. This includes cities such as Jackson, Tupelo, Meridian, Mississippi; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“A tornado outbreak appears imminent with the potential for multiple, intense to violent long-track tornadoes from mid-day through this evening,” according to the National Weather Service.
Another tornado watch remains in effect for portions southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana until 1 p.m. CT this afternoon. A line of severe storms is sweeping east across the region bringing the threat of strong tornadoes, damaging wind gusts, and large hail.
Any stronger, slow-moving storms bringing torrential rain could also trigger areas of dangerous flash flooding in the coming hours.
Emergency management was working through the damage Saturday morning, but Robert Myers with the Butler County Emergency Management Agency said daylight would give them a better idea of the amount of destruction.
The Black River Coliseum has been opened as shelter and Myers said that there are people with injuries in nearby hospitals but did not have an exact number.
There were 23 reported tornadoes overnight across four states – Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Mississippi as the severe weather outbreak continues into Saturday. Winds gusted up more than 80 mph causing damage in the Midwest from Missouri to Wisconsin.
The Storm Prediction Center said that numerous significant tornadoes, some of which could be long-track and potentially violent, are expected and cities in the high risk areas include Hattiesburg, Jackson, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
The most dangerous tornado threat should begin Saturday during the late morning to early afternoon hours in Louisiana and Mississippi before spreading into Alabama late afternoon into the evening, followed by the western Florida panhandle and into western Georgia through late Saturday night.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued a state of emergency effective noon Saturday in preparation for severe weather moving into the state this evening and into the morning.
The severe storms are expected to be weaker on Sunday as the storms reach the East Coast from Florida to the Mid-Atlantic.
Damaging winds, large hail and brief tornadoes on Sunday afternoon will be possible for the Southeast, while heavy rain and damaging wind threat will reach the Northeast Sunday evening into the overnight.
The severe weather outbreak is all part of a major cross-country storm system that is also prompting fire danger and red flag warnings across the Plains.
