Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson earned a jab from one of her liberal colleagues on Tuesday as the justices increasingly feel compelled to single her out in legal opinions.
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The Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to move forward with plans to reduce the federal workforce.
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The lawsuit filed by the parents of Josselin Corea Escalante Vega was released publicly on Monday, revealing they seek $700,000 from Metro Nashville and Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) after their daughter was killed during the January attack on Antioch High School (AHS).
Filed in the Tennessee Circuit Court for Davidson County by parents Josseline Escalante Vega and German Corea, the lawsuit accuses MNPS and Metro Nashville of negligently failing to protect their daughter from Solomon Henderson, who fired about 17 shots inside the school, including the bullet that fatally struck Josselin Escalante Vega on January 22, by specifically failing to ensure a safe environment for the students.
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A federal judge in Boston on Monday blocked the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act’s provisions to defund Planned Parenthood, just days after President Donald Trump signed the law.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, issued the temporary restraining order.
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The Stewart County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) told The Tennessee Star on Monday that the criminal case against Ruian Huang, 56, a Chinese national accused of operating an elaborate marijuana growing operation described in 2023 as the largest in Stewart County’s history, has yet to reach trial.
More than a year has passed since more than 2,000 marijuana plants were allegedly discovered in a “very sophisticated environment” at a vacant church in Indian Mound. The sheriff’s office told The Star that Huang remains the only individual charged following the search. Huang was set to go to trial in June, but the SCSO stated a language barrier, imposed by Huang’s limited understanding of English, required an interpreter to be present.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, provided an in-depth update of the latest legal filings in the case of alleged human smuggler and citizen of El Salvador Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
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U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, during the Monday court appearance for the lawsuit brought against the federal government by Kilmar Abrego Garcia, called for an additional hearing on Thursday, when she instructed the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide additional information about the possible fate of the alleged human smuggler if he enters the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Currently held by the DOJ in pretrial confinement after being returned to Tennessee on June 6, the Thursday court date for the immigration case will occur less than one week before U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw will hear arguments over the possible reversal of an earlier ruling by Magistrate Barbara Holmes, which denied prosecutors a detention hearing for Abrego Garcia.
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President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador on Saturday raised the April remarks made by U.S. Senator Chris van Hollen (D-MD) at a press conference held following his return from El Salvador, where he met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in response to the alleged human smuggler’s claims of experiencing torture during his stay at the country’s prison complex, the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).
The foreign leader posted the video of Van Hollen’s comments to X in rebuttal to the Thursday claims made by Abrego Garcia’s immigration attorneys in Maryland, which alleged he was subjected to mental and physical torture at CECOT, which left him bruised, and caused him to dramatically lose 31-pounds over a two-week period.
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Federal prosecutors last Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw to reverse Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Holmes’ earlier decision to deny the Department of Justice (DOJ) request for a detention hearing for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the previously deported citizen of El Salvador who pleaded not guilty to federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire wrote that Holmes “erred factually and legally” by rejecting prosecutors’ application of the Bail Reform Act, but also when the magistrate “failed to assign proper weight to sworn testimony” by a federal agent who provided testimony during her June 13 hearing, which revealed new details about the allegations against Abrego Garcia.
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After facing repeated defeats in the lower courts, the Trump administration scored big in the Supreme Court’s 2024-2025 term.
While the administration’s most significant victory was a decision in Trump v. CASA to rein in district court judges’ use of nationwide injunctions, it also secured favorable rulings on emergency docket applications and positions it staked out in amicus briefs supporting other parties.
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President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador on Thursday released video footage purportedly showing the cell where Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained at the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison complex, which the foreign leader says disproves the alleged human smuggler’s claims of torture while incarcerated in his homeland.
The video posted by Bukele to the social media platform X contains various photos and videos of Abrego Garcia at the CECOT prison, including footage of his cell from March 30, which appears to fall one day after the period when Abrego Garcia claimed guards were beating him due to his status as a new arrival at the prison.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has requested the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee to set a trial date for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador who was deported in March, then returned to the United States last month to face federal human smuggling charges in Nashville.
Acting U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire submitted the DOJ motion requesting Chief District Judge Waverly Crenshaw set a trial date on Wednesday, when he noted that Abrego Garcia is legally entitled to receive a jury trial within 70 days of his initial court appearance on June 6, as he has not waived his right to a speedy trial.
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Murray Osorio, the immigration law firm representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador now facing federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee, on Wednesday submitted an amended complaint seeking new relief that includes the supervised release of the alleged human smuggler back into Maryland.
The amended complaint claims that Abrego Garcia was first misled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after he was detained in March, when he claims he was reassured he would go before an immigration judge following his detention by agents who identified themselves as part of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to take up two cases in its next term on laws banning transgender women from participating in girls and women’s sports, based on biological sex.
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U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) applauded President Donald Trump’s nominees to serve as the U.S. attorneys for the western and middle districts of Tennessee.
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Attention, all parents and college students worried about the ever-rising cost of college tuition. The Department of Justice has finally—after three decades—started enforcing the federal law that prohibits states from offering in-state tuition to illegal aliens unless they also offer in-state tuition to everyone else—including all citizen students from out of state.
The law it’s enforcing has existed since 1996, when Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.
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Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris on Tuesday claimed reports indicating the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) entered into a full 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were misreported by Tennessee media outlets, telling the Herald-Citizen that his agency is only working with federal immigration officials to screen inmates after their arrest.
While agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies allow police and sheriff’s deputies to perform a wide range of immigration enforcement actions with federal oversight, Farris told the outlet that the agreement between PCSO and ICE only involves additional screening capabilities for arrested suspects.
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State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) on Monday filed legislation that would establish a new criminal offense for law enforcement officers, including federal agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to wear face masks when dealing with the public.
Titled the Stop American Gestapo Act (SAGA), the Democrat’s House Bill (HB) 1442 would make it a Class C misdemeanor in Tennessee for law enforcement officers, including federal agents, to “wear a mask, face covering, or personal disguise while interacting with the public in the performance of the law enforcement officer’s official duties.”
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From China to Houston to cities and military bases in Oregon, Washington and California, federal agents tracked down and arrested two alleged Chinese spies for acting as agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting U.S. Navy personnel.
Last week, the culmination of a multi-agency investigation resulted in law enforcement officers disrupting a “clandestine PRC Ministry of State Security Intelligence network operating in the United States,” the Department of Justice said.
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The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the state’s abortion ban from 1849 on Wednesday.
The court’s liberal-leaning majority affirmed a lower court ruling overturning the abortion ban in a 4-3 decision. The court ruled that the ban was superseded by a more recent Wisconsin law that criminalizes abortions only after a fetus can survive outside the womb.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged three Tennesseans as part of the department’s largest ever crackdown on health care fraud.
Kossie Lamon Simmons, Katina Marzie Simmons, and Tritia Margalizita Townsend have been charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and health care fraud.
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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter Tuesday to the 50 state governors, urging them to remove distractions from roads, including divisive and distracting political messaging like rainbow crosswalks.
“Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” Duffy said in a statement first provided to The Daily Signal. “Today I am calling on governors in every state to ensure that roadways, intersections, and crosswalks are kept free of distractions.”
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A court is allowing a constitutional lawsuit to go ahead against the Arizona Association of Realtors (AAR) by a realtor whom the AAR disciplined for posting conservative memes on social media. This is the first time in the state’s history that a constitutional claim has been allowed against a private organization, according to Ryan Heath, realtor Chad DeVries’ attorney.
Heath wrote on his Substack, “Because the court has permitted his due process claims to proceed, DeVries has now successfully advanced a novel legal theory: that AAR’s control over access to the real estate profession makes it subject to constitutional due process requirements, even though it is a private entity.”
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A top Republican senator released FBI emails Tuesday appearing to show the bureau did not pursue intelligence indicating Communist China was looking to hijack the 2020 presidential election with a potential mail-in ballot scheme to assist then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The bureau appeared, based on the emails, afraid it would undercut then-FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assurances to Congress that foreign meddling did not pose a threat to the presidential race.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday identified a murder suspect arrested in Nashville as an illegal immigrant from Honduras who entered the country without inspection by immigration officials more than a decade ago.
An ICE press release revealed Josue Hernandez-Moxje, 23, to be a citizen of Honduras. The agency confirmed he “entered the United States without inspection around 2013 or 2014,” and was arrested in Louisiana after being charged with committing the April the murders Jaime Valdez-Garcia and Amir Wilkerson in Nashville.
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President Donald Trump announced the individuals he is nominating to serve as the U.S. attorneys for the western and middle districts of Tennessee on Tuesday.
The president nominated Braden Boucek to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, while Trump selected David Michael Dunavant to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.
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The Air Force and Space Force met their recruitment goals for fiscal year 2025 three months early, the services announced Monday.
The two services have gained a total of 30,000 new recruits so far this fiscal year, already sending 25,000 to basic training, the Air Force said in statement. The Air Force, along with other branches of the armed services, struggled to gain new recruits under former President Joe Biden as his administration prioritized political missions like diversity, equity and inclusion, while the coronavirus pandemic also hurt recruitment.
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Bryan Kohberger, the man accused in the Nov. 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, is due in Latah County Court in Idaho on Wednesday after accepting a deal to plead guilty and avoid the death penalty.
Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed at an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. All four were repeatedly stabbed in their beds in the early morning hours.
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Tennessee immigration laws passed by the General Assembly earlier this year took effect on Tuesday, including legislation authorizing state grant funding for law enforcement agencies who sign 287(g) agreements to assist U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), as well as legislation prohibiting illegal immigrants from legally driving in Tennessee, where they are barred from applying for a driver’s license, by using a driver’s license issued by another state.
Among the legislation passed during the special session called by Governor Bill Lee earlier this year was Senate Bill 2, which authorizes the creation of the Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division (CIED) within the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS), where the new division’s chief executive will manage collaboration and communication with federal immigration officials, create statewide immigration enforcement strategies, and coordinate the “participation in federal immigration programs” by local law enforcement.
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The new Civil Rights Enforcement Division (CRED) within Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s Office is officially open and accepting discrimination complaints under the Tennessee Human Rights Act and the Tennessee Disability Act.
During the recent legislative session of the Tennessee General Assembly, lawmakers passed a measure reassigning the responsibility of handling key complaints from the Tennessee Human Rights Commission to the Tennessee Attorney General.
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The U.S. Department of Justice Monday filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles’ sanctuary city policies, citing the supremacy clause regarding the preemption of federal statutes over state and local law in the U.S. Constitution. According to Los Angeles City Council members, one in 10 Los Angeles residents may be an illegal immigrant.
The city of Los Angeles passed a new sanctuary city ordinance after President Donald Trump’s election, barring city resources from being used for immigration enforcement or cooperating with federal authorities engaged in immigration enforcement.
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Republican Party of Arizona (AZGOP) announced Monday that they filed a joint lawsuit fighting an Arizona law allowing those who have never resided in the state to vote.
The suit, filed against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, seeks to fight against a law allowing “any United States citizen who has never resided in the United States and whose parent is a United States citizen who is registered to vote” to vote in federal elections in Arizona using mail-in ballots.
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U.S. District Court Magistrate Barbara Holmes for the Middle District of Tennessee on Monday agreed to the request by Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys to delay her consideration of his potential release until July 16, when District Court Chief Judge Waverly Crenshaw will have reviewed her decision to deny the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) a detention hearing for the citizen of El Salvador.
Because Abrego Garcia is subject to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer, the prosecutors, Holmes, and Abrego Garcia’s attorneys previously acknowledged her order to release the alleged human smuggler on his own recognizance would functionally facilitate his transfer from DOJ custody, where he is currently held by the U.S. Marshals, to the custody of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where the citizen of El Salvador will be held by ICE.
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The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to consider a challenge on limitations around coordinated party campaign spending.
The case, National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, asks the justices to consider whether the federal law limiting coordinated spending violates the First Amendment.
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Esteban Taperia, who on Monday was subject to a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was arrested last week after he reportedly brought a 13-year-old girl from Guatemala to a Nashville hospital, where he allegedly admitted to fathering the child, and said he intended to raise the infant.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office data confirms Taperia, 21, and has since been charged with eight counts of felony statutory rape, and that the jail was requested to hold Taperia for a transfer to ICE custody.
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The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office became the first Tennessee county last week to join the Immigration and Enforcement (ICE)’s 287(g) Task Force Model program.
This program allows state and local law enforcement agencies to “enforce limited immigration authority while performing routine police duties.” Additionally, ICE states these entities can “exercise limited immigration authority as active participants on ICE-led task forces.”
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Acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire said in a filing submitted on Friday that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee lacks the authority to instruct the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to house Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Maryland.
McGuire submitted the filing after the Maryland immigration attorneys for Abrego Garcia, the firm Murray Osorio, made their own submission to U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, requesting the judge issue an order demanding Abrego Garcia be housed by DHS in Maryland, and that such a ruling is necessary to force compliance with an earlier ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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A “comprehensive dossier” was submitted last week to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Weaponization Working Group, which was created by President Donald Trump in February, urging the administration to examine a series of cases which purportedly reveal a “deliberate, coordinated” attempt by the Biden administration to curb parental rights.
The Parents Demanding justice Alliance (PDJA), a coalition led by parental rights advocate Kelly John Walker and filmmaker Sam Sorbo, announced its submission of the dossier last Tuesday, when it urged the Weaponization Working Group to confront an alleged “systemic and unconstitutional campaign of intimidation, prosecution, and suppression directed at parents across the United States.
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The Fountain Hills Town Council selected election integrity attorney Jennifer Wright earlier this month as their town attorney on contract.
The town’s previous legal representation resigned after accusations arose regarding their billing practices. Wright previously served as the civil attorney for the Arizona Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit, and afterwards represented both Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh in their election challenges.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, criticized what he described as a coordinated effort between activist judges and defense attorneys to drag out the case of alleged human smuggler and citizen of El Salvador Kilmar Abrego Garcia for political purposes and media attention.
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The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday informed U.S. District Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in a legal filing that “it does not oppose” the request by Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his attorneys for a delay in her ruling on whether to release the citizen of El Salvador from Department of Justice (DOJ) custody, but appeared to question the attorneys and Holmes over their apparent “surprise” that Abrego Garcia may be deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Abrego Garcia’s request to remain in DOJ custody until July 16 was submitted by his attorneys in the federal case out of Tennessee after immigration lawyers representing the alleged human smuggler asked U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis to order ICE to detain Abrego Garcia in Maryland.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday celebrated the arrests of more than 2,700 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and highlighted that the Supreme Court’s decision to rein in universal injunctions would allow for their swift deportations.
The Trump administration has attempted to use the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport members of the violent Venezuelan gang, though that effort has faced intense legal scrutiny, including judicial injunctions.
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The Supreme Court upheld a Texas law requiring porn websites to verify the age of their visitors on Friday.
In an 6-3 ruling, the majority held Texas’ age verification law does not violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intends to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador following the conclusion of his federal trial in the Middle District of Tennessee, said assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
McLaughlin made the remarks during a Friday appearance on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” in the wake of a federal prosecutor indicating on Thursday that the federal government planned to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country if he is released from U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) custody, and White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson later indicated the statement were misreported.
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The attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the federal case against him in the Middle District of Tennessee claimed in a Friday legal filing that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) offered a reduced sentence to an alleged co-conspirator in exchange for incriminating information about the citizen of El Salvador.
Submitted to U.S. District Magistrate Barbara Holmes, the request by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys request their client be kept in DOJ custody until at least July 16, which would give District Court Judge Paula Xinis time to consider the Thursday request by his immigration lawyers to force the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain him in Maryland.
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The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s request for partial stays of lower court orders blocking the enforcement of his birthright citizenship executive order.
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No other American president has faced as much hostile, ideologically driven judicial warfare as has President Donald Trump. But there was a president who also faced a slew of new, hostile judges appointed by his predecessor — and his example provides an interesting historical lesson.
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The Supreme Court still has six major opinions to release, including cases on President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship ban and religious opt-outs for mandatory LGBTQ storybook readings.
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Attorneys confirmed in court on Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador returned to the United States to face human smuggling charges, to a third country, if he is released from Department of Justice (DOJ) custody on Friday.
The remarks were made in a hearing called by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in response to an emergency motion filed by Murray Osorio, the immigration attorneys representing Abrego Garcia in his Maryland lawsuit over his March deportation, which would compel ICE to detain Abrego Garcia in Maryland.
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The U.S. Marshals Service told The Tennessee Star on Thursday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador deported in March and returned last month to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, remains within their custody pending a final decision from U.S. Magistrate Barbara Holmes.
Following his Wednesday court appearance, when Holmes instructed Abrego Garcia’s attorneys to submit additional arguments ahead of his potential release, at which time he would likely be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a U.S. Marshals spokesman told The Star, “He is currently in U.S. Marshals Service custody.”
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