The Dictatorship
Judge in Abrego Garcia case blasts ‘continued mischaracterization’ of SCOTUS order
The Trump administration is still fighting against complying with court orders to facilitate Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release from El Salvador. Its latest attempt was so brazen that it led the judge presiding over the case to call it a “willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.”
The rebuke came Tuesday in an order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who initially instructed the government to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador. An immigration judge previously ruled the government was not allowed to send him there.
The Supreme Court largely upheld Xinis’ order earlier this month, when it said her command “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
The justices sent the case back to Xinis for her to clarify the “effectuate” part of her order, which she amended to say that the government must “take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible.” She also granted Abrego Garcia’s request for expedited discovery — “discovery” being the information gathering process during litigation.
Specifically, Xinis’ ordered the discovery “to ascertain what, if anything, the [government] Defendants have done to ‘facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.’”
That language she cited is from the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, Trump Justice Department lawyers objected to answering certain discovery questions that the DOJ said were “based on the false premise that the United States can or has been ordered to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.” (The DOJ added the italics for emphasis.)
Let’s break down what’s happening there.
The government begins by calling what the Supreme Court said a “false premise.” It’s unclear how that can be a “false premise” if it’s what the Supreme Court said to do. An odd start, but it gets odder when we look more closely at the authority on which the DOJ relied for that proposition.
The DOJ references the Supreme Court’s orderbut this line — “See Abrego Garcia, 604 U.S.—, slip op. at 2 (holding Defendants should ‘take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United State’) (emphasis added)” — includes a quotation that doesn’t appear in the high court’s order.
That quotation —”take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United State[s]” — does, however, appear in Xinis’ amended order that she issued after the Supreme Court sent the case back to her. The DOJ’s parenthetical quotation apparently accidentally leaves the “s” off of “United States.” This is something that wouldn’t usually need mentioning, but it’s another error that’s indicative of the government’s not only defiant but sloppy approach.
And to address the merits, such as they are, of the DOJ’s incorrectly cited position, it seems to imply that it’s illogical to say that the government must provide information about its efforts to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release because it was only ordered to facilitate his return — which, in addition to not being true, doesn’t make logical sense on its own terms, because he couldn’t be returned without being released. It might have come closer to making sense if they were saying that they couldn’t provide information about facilitating his return if they were only ordered to facilitate his releasebut that’s not what’s happening here and that’s not what they said.
At any rate, Xinis didn’t appreciate the DOJ’s “false premise” argument. In her Tuesday orderthe Obama appointee called out both government officials and the lawyers representing them. “Defendants — and their counsel — well know that the falsehood lies not in any supposed ‘premise,’ but in their continued mischaracterization of the Supreme Court’s Order,” she wrote, adding: “Defendants’ objection reflects a willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.”
In the order, Xinis told Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to amend some of their questions and for the government to answer outstanding requests by 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Whatever comes of this phase of the litigation, the episode emphasizes that, if and when the case goes back to the justices, they shouldn’t leave any wiggle room in their order like they did the last time. That alone apparently wouldn’t guarantee compliance if the government won’t even recognize the clear command that has already come from the high court, but it could help bring this needlessly drawn-out phase of the case to a close.
To be sure, returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S. wouldn’t ensure that he stays here. After admitting to erroneously sending him to El Salvador, where he has been detained without conviction of any crime, the government’s position is that if he returns to the U.S., officials would seek his removal to a different country or seek to terminate the order preventing his removal to El Salvador because, it alleges, he’s a member of the MS-13 gang, which the administration has deemed a foreign terrorist organization. As to that terrorist gang allegation, which Abrego Garcia contests, Ronald Reagan-appointed appellate Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote last week in this case: “Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process.” Whether and when that process comes remains to be seen.
Subscribe to theDeadline: Legal Newsletterfor expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined BLN, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
The Dictatorship
Trump joins Republicans calling to punish Canada for hazardous wildfire smoke in the U.S.
President Donald Trump is threatening to increase tariffs on Canada over wildfire smoke that has blanketed large swaths of the Midwest and Mid-Atlanticjoining several Republicans who have called for the U.S. ally to be punished for the intense air pollution.
“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote on Truth Socialon Friday, adding: “This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying.”
Trump did not elaborate on his tariffs threat.
Smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires has caused air quality from Detroit to Washington, D.C., to plummet to unhealthy levels in recent days.
There are dozens of active wildfires in the U.S. as well. A Canadian helicopter pilot was was killed last week in a crash while fighting a fire in Colorado.
Trump is not the only Republican who has criticized Canada over the wildfire smoke. Earlier this week, four House Republicans from Michigan wrote a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with a warning that appeared to allude to Trump’s threat to annex Canada.
“Sovereignty comes with responsibility,” the lawmakers wrote.
“This is the third consecutive year we have had to write to Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to,” they wrote, later adding: “If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has also said he intends to introduce a bill “to sanction Canada and the responsible Canadian government officials for this atrocity.”
In a statementMoreno’s office said: “Canada’s government failed to invest in wildfire prevention methods including forest thinning, fuel reduction, prescribed burns, and stronger enforcement against arson.”
Hotter temperatures and drier conditions as a result of the climate crisis have been major drivers of recent wildfires in North America. The Trump administration has cut funding for climate science, withdrawn the U.S. from global bodies and agreements aimed at tackling climate change and promoted the fossil fuel industry while rolling back renewable energy initiatives.
In response to the GOP complaints, some Canadian officials have noted that their country has helped with firefighting support in the U.S. during recent wildfires.
“If there’s some politicians out there chirping away, well, maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Friday, “because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends.”
Doug Ford on American complaints over wildfire smoke: “If there’s some politicians out there chirping away, well, maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help. Because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends.” pic.twitter.com/9e2TCVbqxC
— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson_)”https://x.com/sarobertson_/status/2078166329811460324?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 17, 2026
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
Nothing has absorbed Maine politics like the candidacy of Graham Platner. Almost from the moment he announced his run for the U.S. Senate in mid-August 2025, he drew big crowds and lots of attention. His strongest backers stuck with him through controversy after controversy until Jenny Racicot publicly accused him of sexual assault. Platner denied the allegation, but his support collapsed.
Yet even after Platner officially withdrew as the nominee on July 10 and the Maine Democratic Party began the process of replacing himit seemed like Mainers were going to keep talking about him for a while. Many of his committed voters were deeply disappointed about what they learned; others were very angry that the news had been revealed. Some suggested they might write in Platner’s name or not vote at all in the fall.
Then came an awful event that starkly shifted Mainers’ attention, and moved the focus of the Maine Senate race from Platner to Sen. Susan Collins.
The killing of 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday was a real shock in the state. Maine often has the lowest rate of violent crime nationally and homicides are rare, with only 21 in 2025.
Maine, like Minnesota, is a highly participatory state, and both places responded similarly to ICE incursions this past winter.
Of course, it wasn’t just Guerrero’s death that was the story, but also who shot him — an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer — and the circumstances of his killing. For one, unlike other shootings by ICE officers, the Department of Homeland Security did not even claim that Guerrero posed any sort of imminent threat or that the shooter feared for their life. Rather, DHS said that Guerrero’s “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
Moreover, Guerrero was legally in the country, according to local immigrant rights groups. And Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said Guerrero wasn’t even the person ICE was seeking.
Witnesses were shaken by what they saw. One bystander, Daniel Boucher, “choked up” recounting his experience, reported The Associated Press. “His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said of the victim. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’” In Akerleyanother neighbor who heard the shots and looked out the window to see some of what happened, told a local news station, “You know, it shatters the illusion that Maine is safe … I don’t know what he did, but he didn’t deserve to be executed in the street.”
Mainers quickly mobilized, with demonstrations in BiddefordPortlandBangor and Scarborough. “This is a land for people who want to be here,” said one rallygoer. “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you came from, what color your skin is. That’s what America is about.”
Both Senate candidates and members of the public criticized Collins. Protesters in Biddeford crowded the doorway at the senator’s local officeshouting, “Vote her out!” Senate candidate Shenna Bellows argued that she had already acted when, as secretary of state, she blocked ICE from getting undercover license plates and proclaimed, “There should be no secret police in our state.” Another contender, Troy Jackson, referred to “ICE’s rogue actions” and blasted Collins for voting “to send $70 billion dollars to ICE with no reforms.” A third potential Democratic nominee, Nirav Shahcontended, “There is a straight line from Sen. Collins to the lawlessness we saw yesterday.”
While, as I’ve noted, some Platner supporters were deeply unhappy that he wasn’t going to be the Democratic nominee, his absence in the aftermath of the shooting didn’t seem to matter in the least.
And why should it have? Maine, like Minnesota, is a highly participatory state, and both places responded similarly to ICE incursions this past winter.
Collins tried to claim credit for ending the winter surge. But Democrats and immigrant rights leaders were skeptical and pointed to her support for increased ICE funding without any reforms.
In both places, ICE showed up with face masks and randomly detained people, including those in the country legally. Agents smashed in the car windows of a University of Maine-trained civil engineer, Juan Sebastián Carvajal-Muñozand took him away with the car still running. He had a valid permit to work, an engineering job and no criminal record. A man training to be a corrections officer in southern Maine suffered the same fate, and as did others, including asylum seekers.
Then, as now, Mainers came togethersometimes via social media and sometimes through various groups, to try to counteract ICE.
As in Minnesota, ICE was heavy-handed and showed disrespect for civil rights. Two Maine women observing ICE were told they would be put on a domestic terrorist watch list and sued. “Only 11 of the nearly 200 people detained in Maine during a massive January immigration enforcement surge were recorded as having a criminal record,” the Bangor Daily News reportedmaking ICE look even more abusive.
At the time, Collins tried to claim credit for ending the winter surge. But Democrats and immigrant rights leaders were skeptical and pointed to her support for increased ICE funding without any reforms.
Now, Collins is again responding in her classic both-sides way. On the one hand, the incumbent urged DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin “to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops” and tepidly acknowledged that the lack of a recording device on the shooter was “extremely unfortunate.” On the other hand, Collins blamed Democrats for a delay in body cameras and contended that eliminating ICE “would make our country less safe.”
Platner’s fall upended the state’s biggest race for a time. But there are plenty of ICE critics, both political leaders and not, who are taking charge of the response to Collins and the agency.
And, though the Democratic Senate nominee is unknown again, Mainers are rising up, speaking out and moving on.
Amy Fried is professor emerita of political science at the University of Maine. She also has a Substack, Political Sightlines.
ByBrian Lowry
Before “The Odyssey” embarked on its theatrical journey, writer-director Christopher Nolan suffered slings and arrows from conservative social media warriors. In their quest to gin up culture war controversy over casting choices in a movie they hadn’t seen, they have succeeded only in helping promote a film that hardly needed extra publicity, while making themselves look stupid.
Because those launching ill-informed broadsides against the film included Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. — railing on social media against the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy because she’s Black, and Elliot Page as a Greek warrior because he’s trans — the attacks became difficult for the media to ignore. Plus, anti-“woke” crusading against a familiar target like “liberal Hollywood” remains one of those gifts (or grifts) that keeps on giving.
Despite the advance obsession over Nyong’o and Page’s characters, the two actors each occupy no more than a few minutes of screen time.
Yet Nolan’s film merely makes those conservative provocateurs sound foolish. At a run time of almost three hours, “The Odyssey” continues the “Oppenheimer” director’s personal war on moviegoers’ bladders. But despite the advance obsession over Nyong’o’s and Page’s characters, the two actors each occupy no more than a few minutes of screen time in a film that stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway. The beauty of being Nolan, at this point, is that his reputation and track record enable him to attract identifiable talent — a la Zendaya, rapper Travis Scott and horror queen Mia Goth — for even smallish roles, a clever means of broadening the film’s appeal.
Musk and others sought to transform that into something nefarious, bizarrely arguing that the diverse casting represented some kind of cynical ploy for awards attention, as well as anti-white bigotry. Never mind that “The Odyssey” is, after all, a mythological tale, so it’s not like the producers cast Nyong’o to play J. Edgar Hoover.
Nolan himself has diplomatically dismissed the right-wing naysaying when asked about it, even as he basks in a torrent of critical praise for the film. Imbued with a visual grandeur that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible, “The Odyssey” arguably isn’t one of the British filmmaker’s best — movies like “Inception” and “The Prestige” set a very high bar — but it certainly possesses the majesty to qualify as a worthy follow-up to the Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer.”
Without giving too much away, if one can even spoil a 3,000-year-old tale, Nolan’s take on “The Odyssey” also not-so-subtly incorporates modern and timeless themes, including questions about humanity and the toll of eroding a society’s standards of honor and decency. As Jon Stewart told the director earlier this weekthat makes it a fitting companion to “Oppenheimer,” while delivering a perhaps unintended rejoinder to Musk and his army of social media trolls.
In an interview with The TelegraphNolan politely said such criticism “comes with the territory,” calling it “irrelevant” because those griping months ago, when the anti-“Odyssey” campaign began, hadn’t seen the film. He also cited his experience with the “Batman” trilogy, a fan base with very strong opinions about what will best serve the franchise.
Nolan and Universal, happily and deservedly, appear destined to win this latest battle without stooping to engage their loudest critics.
The people grousing when director Zack Snyder cast Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight, however, mostly operated in good faith, which can’t be said for those attempting to use insufficient fidelity to Homer’s original story to tap into an inexhaustible reservoir of outrage.
The saving grace for them is that those parroting their “go woke, go broke” talking points generally don’t devour box-office reporting by the Hollywood trade papers or necessarily grasp that movies are a global product, which is the metric by which the film looks destined to shine. Although the summer box office has proved unpredictable — with horror movies like “Obsession” raking in record totals and “Moana” and “Supergirl” failing to exhibit much girl power — projections are that “The Odyssey,” tailor-made to premium large-screen formats, will earn roughly $200 million worldwide its opening weekend. That voyage began with nearly $18 million in Thursday previewsthe highest domestic total this year.
Whatever the final tally, it should go a long way toward erasing the prospect of a “go broke” scenario for Universal Pictures, the studio releasing the film. Nolan and Universal, happily and deservedly, appear destined to win this latest battle without stooping to engage their loudest critics. But with such relentless foes, consider that one modest victory in what has become a seemingly endless culture war.
Brian Lowry
Brian Lowry is a media columnist and critic, most recently at BLN, and before that Variety and the Los Angeles Times.
- Red states reject Trump’s shift on overdose prevention
- Trump joins Republicans calling to punish Canada for hazardous wildfire smoke in the U.S.
- The ICE shooting in Maine upended Susan Collins’ re-election race
- ‘The Odyssey’ is majestic – and makes its conservative critics look foolish
- John Fetterman is threatening to leave the Democratic Party. I say good riddance.
- Trump’s Thursday speech should be recognized for what it truly was
- The parking-lot poobahs who ruled over the World Cup
- Parent advocates urge Senate panel to subpoena Zuckerberg, Google CEO
- Capitol agenda: Trump leans in on his SAVE America pitch
- Parent advocates urge Senate panel to subpoena Zuckerberg, Google CEO
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship10 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words