‘Unfair exclusionary policy’: 2nd judge blocks Trump’s transgender military ban in scathing ruling
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(WASHINGTON) — If allowed to go into effect, the Trump administration’s new policy on transgender soldiers would be a “de facto blanket prohibition” that seeks “to eradicate transgender service,” a federal judge wrote Thursday in issuing a preliminary injunction against the policy.
In a 65-page opinion issued late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle became the second federal judge to block the policy, which he described as discriminatory and disconnected from the goals of “military readiness, unit cohesion, lethality, or any of the other touchstone phrases long used to exclude various groups from service.”
The Justice Department filed notice Friday that it would appeal the judge’s decision.
While the Trump administration had argued that the judiciary should defer to military leadership, Judge Settle — who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush near the height of the War on Terror — said he is unable to condone a “unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair exclusionary policy.”
“The government falls well short of its burden to show that banning transgender service is substantially related to achieving unit cohesion, good order, or discipline. Although the Court gives deference to military decision making, it would be an abdication to ignore the government’s flat failure to address plaintiffs’ uncontroverted evidence that years of open transgender service promoted these objectives,” he wrote.
The group of seven active-duty service members who brought the lawsuit argued that the policy “purposefully discriminates” against soldiers based on their gender identity — an argument that Justice Department lawyers attempted to rebut by reframing the question as a medical issue, impacting only people who suffer gender dysphoria. Judge Settle was unconvinced, writing that the policy “uses gender dysphoria as a proxy to ban all transgender service members.”
“The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record,” he wrote, finding that each of the plaintiffs would be irreparably harmed by the policy, which would curtail their military service.
Judge Settle also called out the Trump administration for seemingly disregarding the service history of the transgender soldiers who brought the case, such as the Commander Emily Shilling, a naval aviator with 19 years of service who flew 60 combat missions before becoming a Navy test pilot.
“There is no claim and no evidence that she is now, or ever was, a detriment to her unit’s cohesion, or to the military’s lethality or readiness, or that she is mentally or physically unable to continue her service,” Settle wrote.
“There is no claim and no evidence that Shilling herself is dishonest or selfish, or that she lacks humility or integrity. Yet absent an injunction, she will be promptly discharged solely because she is transgender,” wrote the judge.
(NEW YORK) — The Columbia University student who was detained in Vermont by Immigration and Customs Enforcement told ABC News that he was about to sign a document saying he was willing to take the Pledge of Allegiance, one of the final steps in the process to become a U.S. citizen, when masked agents suddenly arrested him.
In an interview nearly a week after a federal judge ordered him released from detention while his case proceeds, Mohsen Mahdawi recounted his arrest and detainment, saying that he feared his citizenship interview was a “trap” and that he’s concerned that democracy in the U.S. is under attack.
“It was a moment of like, should I be happy or should I be cautious when I received the notice?” Mahdawi told ABC News about receiving the notice for his citizenship interview. “And I sense that this might be a trap. And for sure, indeed, it was an alarm bell where I directly reached out to my legal team in order to navigate, you know, the pros and cons and this risk that I think that I may lose my freedom.”
Mahdawi said that, as he was completing his interview, “at that moment, [I had] very strong feelings of, ‘Oh my god, things are working out. And then they came into the office … and you can imagine the feeling between, I am being excited to receive the citizenship, and then feeling of betraying disappointment.”
A Department of Homeland Security official pushed back on concerns that the interview may have been a trap staged to detain Mahdawi.
“The Department does not ‘stage’ interviews or any other type of adjudication,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “If an alien is seeking a benefit, they will almost assuredly be interviewed. If the alien is subject to detention, that alien will almost assuredly be detained. One has no bearing on the other.”
“Illegal aliens do not have a right to roam freely in our country, nor do they have a right to elude federal authorities,” McLaughlin said.
Mahdawi, who co-founded a university organization called the Palestinian Student Union with detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank before moving in 2014 to the U.S. where he has been a legal resident for 10 years.
His lawyers believe that, like Khalil, he is being targeted by the Trump administration under Immigration and Nationality Act section 237(a)(4)(C)(i), which asserts that the secretary of state can deem a person deportable if they have reasonable ground to believe that the person’s presence or activities in the U.S. could have adverse foreign policy consequences.
In response to the government’s allegations against him, Mahdawi and his lawyers have firmly refuted allegations that he ever threatened Israelis or those of the Jewish faith. He told ABC News he has been advocating for peace and protesting against the war in Gaza.
“So for them to accuse me of this is not going to work, because I am a person who actually has condemned antisemitism,” Mahdawi said. “And I believe that the fight against antisemitism and the fight to free Palestine go hand in hand, because, as Martin Luther King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
After his arrest at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Vermont, where he was undergoing his citizenship interview, Mahdawi said he was quickly put in handcuffs, but was not given a reason for why he was being detained.
“The first thing they’ve done is they isolated me from my lawyer, separated me from my lawyer,” Mahdawi said of his arrest. “They did not show us any paperwork they had on them. I told them, ‘I am a peaceful man and I will collaborate.'”
Mahdawi claims ICE officials were planning to send him to Louisiana where Khalil is detained, but missed the flight by a few minutes. His lawyers, who crafted several habeas petitions in anticipation that he could be detained, filed an emergency request for a temporary restraining order, which a federal judge granted.
“They were preparing to send me to Louisiana,” Mahdawi said. “They had my flight tickets really printed, and two agents came to take me … to ship me on a commercial flight from Burlington Airport to New York and from New York to Louisiana.”
At his bail hearing last week, the Department of Justice argued against Mahdawi’s release, saying that during a 2015 FBI investigation, a gun shop owner alleged that Mahdawi had claimed to have built machine guns in the West Bank to kill Jews, proving that he was a threat. According to a police report obtained by ABC News from Windsor Police in Vermont, a “concerned citizen” alleged that Mahdawi “seemed to have knowledge about gun design and function.”
But that investigation was closed and Mahdawi was never charged with any crime, a point that Judge Geoffrey Crawford highlighted when he ordered Mahdawi’s release last week.
During the hearing, the federal judge said that while the allegations were “shocking,” he noted that because the FBI at the time decided to close the case, he understood that to mean that the FBI came to the conclusion that the allegations made by the gun shop owner and the other individual were unfounded claims.
Judge Crawford noted during last week’s hearing that Mahdawi had received letters of support from over 90 community members, including from members of the Jewish community, adding that “people who have in a consistent pattern described him as peaceful.”
The judge also said Mahdawi had “made substantial claims that his detention was in retaliation for his protected speech.”
Mahdawi told ABC News that his Buddhist faith has kept him grounded as his immigration and federal cases continue to play out in court and the threat of deportation still lingers.
He said he believes “everybody should be alert and alarmed” that the Trump administration targeted him for his advocacy.
“We are at a very critical time,” Mahdawi said. “What is happening in America is going to affect the rest of the world. The attack on democracy that guarantees many rights for people, democracy that has established international order and human rights, is a very dangerous phenomenon.”
During the interview, Mahdawi said he first experienced true freedom when he moved to the United States — a feeling he claims to still have despite his legal battle.
“They can put me in prison, but my spirit is free, and the free spirit is a spirit that does not give up on the idea of justice,” he said. “The free spirit is a spirit that empathizes with everyone, including its oppressor, so I do feel free.”
(WALKER, Iowa) — More than 40 years after a 24-year-old man was killed in rural Iowa, a suspect has now been arrested in connection to his murder through DNA research, according to the Linn County Sheriff’s Department.
Michael Schappert, 64, was arrested on Wednesday for the 1983 murder of Ronald Lee Novak, who was brutally killed on Dec. 23, 1983, in rural Walker, Iowa, officials announced on Wednesday.
At the time of the incident, a friend of Novak found him “deceased in an unheated room in his home” after “what appeared to be an apparent robbery and/or burglary,” officials said in a press release.
Novak had been beaten, shot in the chest and was found with his hands bound behind his back, officials said. At the time, the medical examiner ruled that Novak “died from a combination of those injuries, shock and hypothermia,” officials said.
Over the course of the last 10 to 12 years, investigators have tested DNA on Novak’s clothing and a hammer believed to have been used in the attack. The testing eventually led to the identification of Schappert as the suspect, Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Officials said genetic genealogy — the process of taking unknown DNA and identifying it by comparing it to family members who voluntarily submitted their DNA samples to a database — “assisted in Schappert’s identification.” Through testing, investigators were able to narrow the DNA down to three brothers, and did further testing to allow them to determine it was Schappert.
The investigation revealed that Schappert, who now lives in Fairview, Oregon, and others “likely went to Novak’s home with the intent to rob him of money and marijuana,” officials said. The investigation still remains open as officials said they believe at least one more suspect was involved in Novak’s murder.
“By naming a suspect, it may cause other people to now come forward that maybe weren’t willing to do so previously, or maybe this has jogged their memory some 41 years later,” Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said during the press conference.
Patti Wilson, Novak’s sister, told reporters on Wednesday that the investigation has been “a long ride” for the family and she “didn’t know if I would ever see this day come.”
“You start to give up hope that there will be an answer. I wanted it so bad. We look forward to the trial,” Wilson said.
Wilson said her brother was “a little elusive” and they are not sure who he was spending time with when he died, but she said the family did not recognize Schappert.
“We recognize the pain and trauma that Mr. Novak’s loved ones have endured for more than 40 years while his murder went unsolved. It takes strength to endure such hardship and to remain hopeful that someday the person or persons responsible would be caught and brought to justice,” Gardner said in a statement.
Schappert has been charged with first-degree murder and is currently being held in the Multnomah County Detention Center in Portland, Oregon, “pending an extradition hearing to be returned to Linn County, Iowa,” officials said.
It was not immediately clear whether Schappert has retained an attorney to speak on his behalf.
Officials said anyone with more information related to the investigation or additional potential suspects related to this case should contact the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.
Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
(SOUTH PACIFIC) — A Carnival Cruise Line ship rescued four people and three dogs from a disabled catamaran caught in treacherous conditions in the South Pacific on Thursday morning, marking the second rescue operation by the cruise line in a week, according to a press release from Carnival Cruise Line.
“We were stuck in an interesting position,” one of the rescued passengers said in video obtained by ABC News. “We got demasted, lost our engines, and after we got demasted, it was stuck under the boat, and it was hitting it on every big wave.”
The Carnival Splendor diverted its course after receiving an alert from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Nouméa about a distress call. The ship reached the stranded vessel after a five-hour journey south of New Caledonia.
The situation had become increasingly dangerous for the stranded sailors.
“It was like four to five meters swell, 30 to 40 knot winds, and we’re in this massive lightning storm, and the swell was coming over the boat,” the rescued passenger said. “Yeah, we were dead in the water, 170 nautical miles off of New Caledonia with the three puppies.”
The rescued passengers—two couples and their three dogs—are now receiving food, water, and medical assistance aboard the Carnival Splendor.
“Luckily, Carnival, the captain here was an absolute legend came and he saved the day, and now the doggies get their first cruise,” the rescued passenger added.
The rescue operation won’t impact the cruise schedule, with the ship’s 3,300 passengers still set to visit Mystery Island and Noumea as planned before returning to Sydney on Tuesday. The Splendor departed Sydney on Monday for an eight-day round trip cruise to Vanuatu and New Caledonia, Carnival Cruise stated.
This rescue follows another recent Carnival Cruise Line operation in which the Carnival Paradise rescued five men from a makeshift raft south of Cuba last week, according to video obtained by FOX35.
