Steve Vladeck
@steve_vladeck

#SCOTUS leaves in place Eighth Circuit’s emergency nationwide injunction blocking the student loan debt relief program pending expedited merits argument.

Among other things, it’s another example of the Court punting a major dispute from the shadow docket to the merits docket.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has won a federal judge's approval to carry out a rare intervention to improve the precarious water system in Mississippi’s capital city, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday, months after the system's partial failure.

The department filed the proposal for intervention on Tuesday and U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate approved it later that day in Mississippi. The move authorized the appointment of a third-party manager to oversee reforms to Jackson’s water system, which nearly collapsed in late summer and continues to struggle.

At a news conference in Washington, Garland said the proposal is necessary to “stabilize the circumstances” in Jackson as soon as possible while city, state and federal officials negotiate a court-enforced consent decree.

“We have to get something done immediately," Garland said. “The water is a problem right now, and we can’t wait until a complaint is resolved.”

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has won a federal judge's approval to carry out a rare intervention to improve the precarious water system in Mississippi’s capital city, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday, months after the system's partial failure.

The department filed the proposal for intervention on Tuesday and U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate approved it later that day in Mississippi. The move authorized the appointment of a third-party manager to oversee reforms to Jackson’s water system, which nearly collapsed in late summer and continues to struggle.

At a news conference in Washington, Garland said the proposal is necessary to “stabilize the circumstances” in Jackson as soon as possible while city, state and federal officials negotiate a court-enforced consent decree.

“We have to get something done immediately," Garland said. “The water is a problem right now, and we can’t wait until a complaint is resolved.”

TALLAHASSEE — On the first day of the trial in which ousted Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren is trying to get his job back, a top official for Gov. Ron DeSantis testified that he did a thorough job figuring out that Warren was a troublingly progressive prosecutor who was “hostile and antagonistic” to law enforcement and needed to be booted from office.

On Wednesday morning, however, Warren’s attorneys pounced during their cross-examination of public safety czar Larry Keefe to point out holes and omissions in his research, including the fact that, outside of the Orange County sheriff, he talked to only Republicans while doing his research on DeSantis’ behalf.

The questioning at one point prompted U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle to ask Keefe: “You can’t give me the name of a single Democrat you talked to besides the sheriff of Orange County?”

That’s correct, Keefe replied, but he clarified that he didn’t know, and didn’t try to find out, anyone’s political affiliation.

“My wife is a Democrat,” Keefe added.

TALLAHASSEE — On the first day of the trial in which ousted Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren is trying to get his job back, a top official for Gov. Ron DeSantis testified that he did a thorough job figuring out that Warren was a troublingly progressive prosecutor who was “hostile and antagonistic” to law enforcement and needed to be booted from office.

On Wednesday morning, however, Warren’s attorneys pounced during their cross-examination of public safety czar Larry Keefe to point out holes and omissions in his research, including the fact that, outside of the Orange County sheriff, he talked to only Republicans while doing his research on DeSantis’ behalf.

The questioning at one point prompted U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle to ask Keefe: “You can’t give me the name of a single Democrat you talked to besides the sheriff of Orange County?”

That’s correct, Keefe replied, but he clarified that he didn’t know, and didn’t try to find out, anyone’s political affiliation.

“My wife is a Democrat,” Keefe added.

Steve Vladeck
@steve_vladeck

Leaving aside that this should’ve been easy (the plaintiffs clearly don’t have standing), the admin. has already told #SCOTUS in the Missouri case that it will ask the Justices to freeze Judge Pittman’s nationwide injunction, too. This clears the way for the Court to tackle both.

Mike Scarcella
@MikeScarcella

Now -- 5th US Circuit rejects Biden DOJ bid to reinstate student debt relief plan, per @nateraymond
/ Court keeps in place, for now, order from Texas federal judge https://reuters.com/legal/us-judge-declares-bidens-student-debt-relief-plan-unconstitutional-2022-11-11/

Acyn
@Acyn

207 Republicans vote against Paid Sick Leave For Rail Workers

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita apparently will not stop until he’s punished Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim who had to travel from Ohio to end her pregnancy.

In his latest salvo, Rokita’s office filed a complaint asking the Indiana medical licensing board to discipline Bernard, saying she violated the law by telling a reporter that she would be treating the child in Indiana, given Ohio’s abortion ban that took effect right after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The complaint also alleges that Bernard did not properly report the abuse to state authorities. Notably, Rokita isn’t claiming she violated the law by providing the child an abortion; he’s just trying to punish her in any other way possible. The reasoning behind Rokita’s incessant work against Bernard is clear: She publicly discussed a case in which abortion was obviously, inarguably a net good and necessary to protect the girl’s life.

Bernard’s attorney, Kathleen DeLaney, called the move a “last-ditch effort to intimidate Dr. Bernard and other providers of abortion care.” She went on: “Though I am disappointed he has put my client in this position, we are not surprised given Mr. Rokita’s consistent efforts to use his office to seek to punish those with whom he disagrees at the expense of Indiana taxpayers.”

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita apparently will not stop until he’s punished Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim who had to travel from Ohio to end her pregnancy.

In his latest salvo, Rokita’s office filed a complaint asking the Indiana medical licensing board to discipline Bernard, saying she violated the law by telling a reporter that she would be treating the child in Indiana, given Ohio’s abortion ban that took effect right after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The complaint also alleges that Bernard did not properly report the abuse to state authorities. Notably, Rokita isn’t claiming she violated the law by providing the child an abortion; he’s just trying to punish her in any other way possible. The reasoning behind Rokita’s incessant work against Bernard is clear: She publicly discussed a case in which abortion was obviously, inarguably a net good and necessary to protect the girl’s life.

Bernard’s attorney, Kathleen DeLaney, called the move a “last-ditch effort to intimidate Dr. Bernard and other providers of abortion care.” She went on: “Though I am disappointed he has put my client in this position, we are not surprised given Mr. Rokita’s consistent efforts to use his office to seek to punish those with whom he disagrees at the expense of Indiana taxpayers.”

The parents of a teenage Mississippi rape victim had to travel more than 500 miles to help their daughter obtain an abortion in Illinois, WAPT’s Megan West reported. The family told the local Jackson anchor that they learned their daughter was pregnant three days beyond Mississippi’s legal limit of six weeks.

The parents, whom WAPT referred to only as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe,” said they did not know that abortion was illegal in Mississippi or that the state’s only abortion clinic had closed until they sought help for their daughter.

“We didn’t (know) until after we was trying to find places that would (provide abortion care), and they told us that if we would’ve known about it at least three days ahead that we could’ve got an abortion in Mississippi,” John Doe said in blurred video footage WAPT aired in a Nov. 22 broadcast. The station reported that authorities have charged multiple individuals for sexual battery for the teen girl’s rape.

“I called my OB, the one who delivered my babies,” Jane Doe told WAPT, her voice distorted in the footage. “And I explained my situation to him. It was the ugliest feeling having to explain to the doctor that delivered your child that she was raped, and then him having to tell you he can’t do anything to help.”

Doe told WAPT that the family decided against traveling to The Pink House West, the New Mexico clinic owned by JWHO’s former owner, because of its distance. The family ultimately traveled more than seven hours to the closest abortion clinic they could find: a Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights, Illinois.