The D.C. Circuit didn’t issue any opinions last week, so this recap is brief. The Court did issue two orders of interest, however. The first order came in Miot v. Trump, No. 26-5050, the government’s appeal of the district court order staying the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals under 5 U.S.C. […]

In Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, et al. v. Scott Bessent, in his capacity as Secretary of the Treasury, et al., No. 25-5181, ICE asked the IRS for addresses to assist in nontax criminal investigations. Plaintiffs sought to block the IRS from providing the addresses but lost in the district court. The D.C. Circuit affirmed the […]

Last week, the D.C. Circuit issued two administrative-law opinions. In Affirmed Energy, LLC v. FERC, the court addressed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of changes to regional electricity-market rules. The case involved PJM Interconnection LLC, which manages the electrical grid in parts of thirteen states and the District of Columbia. Each year, PJM holds […]

The D.C. Circuit did not release any published opinions on administrative law last week. Its only opinion dealt with a motion to unseal applications for non-disclosure orders filed by the government under the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2705(b). The orders related to a 2017 grand jury subpoena for records of the chief investigative counsel of the […]

The D.C. Circuit issued four opinions last week. On the admin law side, it was another mine run week: significant to the parties, of course, but fairly standard applications of fairly settled admin law doctrines. (Outside of admin law, last week’s opinions had an international flair, with the court issuing opinions on the Foreign Sovereign […]

There are weeks in which the D.C. Circuit announces decisions that justify its reputation as an appellate court that tackles some of the thorniest and most consequential legal matters. And then there are weeks like last week. The D.C. Circuit handed down three opinions. Maryland Office of People’s Counsel v. FERC, No. 24-1353 involved the […]

The D.C. Circuit issued no opinions this week. Instead of the usual analysis, here are a few almost-year-end statistics. The D.C. Circuit has issued published opinions in 164 cases this year, down from 200 in 2024. As regular readers might guess, the busiest months were August (38) and July (26). The slowest months were February […]

The D.C. Circuit issued only one opinion last week, in a criminal case. The motions panel has been busy in December, however. As has been fairly common, the D.C. Circuit issued two administrative stays to give itself time to resolve two motions. (For a useful overview of administrative stays, see Rachel Bayefsky, Administrative Stays: Power […]

The Supreme Court hears oral argument today in Trump v. Slaughter, (No. 25-332), to decide whether Humphrey’s Executor v. U.S., 295 U.S. 602 (1935), should be overruled.  On Friday, the D. C. Circuit weighed in to the ongoing debate over Humphrey’s Executor just in time to add to the weekend reading of the justices’ law clerks. President Trump fired […]

The D.C. Circuit released no opinions last week. That, and Thanksgiving, might otherwise provide an occasion for a light-hearted post about D.C. Circuit cases involving Turkey pardons and cranberry confiscations (both exist!). But Thanksgiving was a more somber day in Washington, D.C., this year, as it saw the death of one of the two Guardsmen […]

The D.C. Circuit decided one merits case involving the Essential Air Service program, stayed an interim final rule governing commercial driver’s licenses, and denied en banc rehearing of the mandamus order in the Alien Enemies Act case. Essential Air Service First, in Southern Airways Express, LLC v. U.S. Department of Transportation, the court unanimously denied a […]

The D.C. Circuit issued no opinions last week. There was one late October order to note, however—declining a stay pending appeal sought by the FTC. The case is Media Matters for America v. FTC, No. 25-5302, in which Media Matters sued to quash a civil investigative demand issued by the FTC, arguing that it was […]

In a week when the D. C. Circuit issued no opinions, we find ourselves with some time on our hands. Given the dire warnings that our addiction to screens is creating a post-literate society with its attendant personal and social pathologies, this may be a good time to read a book. My recommendation is Justice […]

Halloween is around the corner, and the time is ripe for a “ghoul” to “sit up in its grave and shuffl[e] abroad.” Is Chevron—lately interred by the Supreme Court—that ghoul? One can certainly sense its presence in one of the D.C. Circuit’s opinions from last week: CBOE Global Markets v. SEC. The decision (by Judge […]

Although the D.C. Circuit didn’t issue any opinions last week, it denied a motion for an emergency stay in Abramowitz v. Lake—another case testing the scope of the President’s power to remove inferior officers. The case concerns the Director of the Voice of America, which is the U.S. government’s international broadcaster. The Director reports to […]