Good morning. More than 900 DOJ alumni warned the Senate against confirming Emil Bove to the 3rd Circuit. The Judiciary Committee is set to vote on advancing his nomination today. Plus, the 9th Circuit will consider whether the Trump administration can eliminate union bargaining for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and venture capitalist Marc Andreesenwill take the stand in an $8 billion Meta trial. Happy Thursday. Hold on for one more day.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on whether to advance President Trump's nominee for the 3rd Circuit, Emil Bove. Here’s what to know:
Reuters exclusively reported this week that the DOJ explored bringing criminal charges against Minnesota judges and defense lawyers who discussed requesting virtual court hearings to protect defendants from being arrested by federal immigration officers. FBI agents in Minneapolis opened a preliminary inquiry after Bove ordered prosecutors in a January 21 memo to pursue potential criminal cases against "state and local actors" for impeding immigration enforcement. Read more about that here.
Yesterday, more than 900 former DOJ employees warned the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee against confirming Bove, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Read more about that here.
"We are all alarmed by DOJ leadership's recent deviations from constitutional principles and institutional guardrails," the former department employees wrote, adding that Bove had "disgraced" the department. Read the full letter here.
The letter was signed by officials who served from as far back as the Kennedy administration through the current Trump administration, and it was organized by Justice Connection, a new group launched to advocate on behalf of DOJ workers.
Earlier this week, 76 former federal and state judges also sent a letter to the committee in opposition to Bove's nomination. Read that letter here.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreesen is expected to take the stand to defend against allegations by investors that Meta’s board should be held liable for billions of dollars in fines for privacy violations by Facebook. The eight-day bench trial also seeks to force Mark Zuckerberg to divest profits from sellingMeta stock.
The Massachusetts cities of Chelsea and Somerville will urge a federal judge to block the Trump administration from withholding federal funding from the two so-called sanctuary jurisdictions for declining to cooperate with the president's hardline immigration crackdown. Read the complaint.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
That’s how much money in grants FEMA approved over the past four years to fund infrastructure upgrades to protect against natural disasters. A group of 20 mostly Democrat-led states filed a lawsuit in Boston federal court seeking to block the Trump administration from terminating the grant program. Read the complaint.
In the courts
The Trump administration told the D.C. Circuit that it is in settlement talks in a regulatory dispute that was at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court’s blockbuster ruling last ye
