Trump asks Supreme Court to lift block on transgender military ban
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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has made a new emergency request of the U.S. Supreme Court seeking an immediate stay of a nationwide injunction blocking the ban on openly transgender military service members.
Solicitor General John Sauer said the injunction, issued by a district court in Washington, usurps the authority of the president in determining who can serve in the nation’s armed forces and runs counter to the high court’s own decision in the first Trump administration to allow the ban to move forward.
The case is Trump v. Shilling in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
There is a separate nationwide injunction in place in a case out of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for a Venezuelan man who is currently imprisoned in a notorious Salvadoran prison filed a habeas petition on Wednesday, asking a federal judge to order the immediate release of their client.
Instead of deporting Edicson David Quintero Chacon to Venezuela, the government is “paying” for his “torture in El Salvador with U.S. taxpayer dollars in flagrant violation of the United States Constitution,” his attorneys said in the filing.
According to the habeas petition, on June 13, 2024, Quintero Chacon went to his routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in North Carolina where he was detained and taken into custody and transferred to a detention center in Georgia. Then, in September 2024, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the U.S. to Venezuela.
On February 10, 2025, he filed a habeas petition challenging his detention in Georgia, saying he “was not fighting [his] case anymore” and that he “just wanted to go home.”
A month later, after being transferred to a detention center in Texas, Quintero Chacon was put on one of the first flights to El Salvador with more than a hundred other Venezuelan migrants.
“Mr. Quintero’s continuing detention—now approaching a year—is lawless,” his attorneys said in the petition. “There is no statutory authority that could possibly justify his continued custody under or by color of the authority of the U.S. government, let alone at CECOT.”
The government’s decision to transfer Quintero Chacon to CECOT, his attorneys said, “will amount to an effective life sentence—and possibly a death sentence.”
Quintero Chacon’s attorneys said in the filing that he has not been charged with or convicted of a crime in any country.
“He is a loving husband, father of two small children, brother, and son, and a skilled carpenter and fisherman,” his attorneys said in the petition.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the habeas petition and questions about Quintero Chacon.
In a 5-4 decision earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal.
Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union said on Wednesday they plan to refile more than a hundred habeas claims in Washington for the men who were deported on March 15.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday is hosting El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, the self-described “world’s coolest dictator” who has become a key ally in the administration’s controversial migrant deportations.
The two men greeted each other outside the White House and shook hands before heading inside for a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office.
There, they will likely face reporter questions on the use of El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT to house migrants removed from the U.S. and the ongoing legal dispute regarding the wrongful deportation of a migrant from Maryland, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia. Trump on Friday said, “If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would tell them to do that. I respect the Supreme Court.”
Trump appeared to amend that statement, though, in a social media post over the weekend where he suggested the fate of those deported now rests with Bukele.
“Looking forward to seeing President Bukele, of El Salvador, on Monday! Our Nations are working closely together to eradicate terrorist organizations, and build a future of Prosperity. President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States,” Trump wrote. “These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government.”
The Justice Department argued in court filings that the courts had “no authority” to direct how the executive branch engages in foreign relations and argued the administration could not interfere with El Salvador’s sovereignty. Another hearing is set in the case for Tuesday.
Ahead of Monday’s meeting, President Trump said he thought Bukele was “doing a fantastic job” and “taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn’t be able to take care of from a cost standpoint.”
“We have some very bad people in that prison, people that should have never been allowed into our country, people that murder drug dealers, some of the worst people on Earth are in that prison and he’s able to do that,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida on Sunday.
When pressed further about the alleged human rights abuses reported at CECOT, President Trump said, “I don’t see it. I don’t see that happening.”
The Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants they allege to be Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, though have done so with seemingly little due process.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a social media post over the weekend, said the efforts continued with another 10 alleged criminals associated with MS-13 and Tren de Aragua deported to El Salvador.
Rubio wrote that the “alliance” between Trump and Bukele “has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.”
Plus, Trump and several officials have floated sending U.S. citizens convicted of violent crimes to the infamous El Salvador prison — something legal experts have said would violate the Constitution.
“The president has discussed this idea quite a few times publicly. He’s also discussed it privately,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week.
“These would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly. And these are violent repeat offenders in American streets,” Leavitt continued.
“The president has said if it’s legal, right, if there is a legal pathway to do that, he’s not sure. We are not sure if there is. It’s an idea that he has simply floated and has discussed, very publicly, as in the effort of transparency,” she said.
(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — The Navy said it canceled a speaking engagement at its academy in Annapolis, Maryland, with popular podcaster and author Ryan Holiday because it wanted to steer clear of what it saw as political content aimed at young naval officers.
Holiday, who speaks frequently about the value of stoicism and has written several books, including “The Obstacle is the Way,” said he had planned to speak to the midshipmen about the “pursuit of wisdom.”
Holiday said he shared his briefing slides in advance with the Navy, which included a reference to the New York Times’ story about the U.S. Naval Academy’s recent decision to pull some 381 books from its library. The Navy asked him to omit the reference, and Holiday said he refused.
“The idea that there are topics that are off limits or that they can’t handle is absurd on its face,” Holiday told ABC News.
When asked why Holiday’s speech was canceled, the Navy said it opted to make a “schedule change that aligns with its mission of preparing midshipmen for careers of service to our country.”
“The Naval Academy is an apolitical institution,” it added. “It is focused on developing midshipmen morally, mentally and physically in order to cultivate honorable leaders, create a culture of excellence and prepare future officers for military service.”
Holiday said the Navy hadn’t given him guidance in advance of the speech and that he didn’t see his presentation as overtly political because he wasn’t telling the midshipmen how to vote. He said it shouldn’t have been a surprise to the Navy that he’d want to discuss current events.
“I assumed we had the basic … standards of academic independence,” Holiday said.
The Navy pulled the books after President Donald Trump ordered the military to stop “promoting, advancing, or otherwise inculcating the following un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories.”
Included in the list of books removed from the academy library is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi.
A separate visit to the academy by filmmaker Ken Burns also was canceled recently, although the cancelation does not appear to be tied to a dispute over content. A spokesperson for Burns said the award-winning documentarian had planned to meet privately with faculty and staff later this month and now hopes to visit the school in October instead.
