John Hawkinson

#cambma municipal 2025 election realtime results from me: bsky.app/profile/johnha…

@AmtrakNECAlerts thanks for this and the subsequent push and text updates. Some trains have arrived and left so it would be nice to have an operational understanding of what can still happen tonight.

As of 8:09 PM ET, Train 169 is delayed departing Boston (BOS) due to rail congestion resulting from single tracking conditions. Crews are working to fully restore the tracks in the area. We will update as more information becomes available. We appreciate your patience. For customers still waiting to board this train, departure estimates are subject to change. If a train is delayed past its scheduled departure time, it may still leave earlier than the updated estimate, if conditions allow. To avoid missing your train, please stay near the boarding area and monitor for announcements or updates.

@AmtrakNECAlerts how about some updates on the derailment at south station and whether 169 will run or cancel?

JUST IN: Judge William Young (Reagan) in fine fettle as he mostly denies DOJ's motion to stay remedy for 'breathtaking misconduct' in deportation drive v. pro-Palestinian activists. Young mocks DOJ for undercutting Trump's unitary executive claims. Doc: documentcloud.org/documents/2786…

@BaniasLaw (I did actually try to find it and failed. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.)

@johnhawkinson @ICEgov @Lin_Manuel @AttyStevenBrown Give me a bit. I will get it up. Just moving to quickly on a friday.

DC rules that @ICEgov's #SEVIS terminations were unlawful at summary judgment. An amazing introductory paragraph and footnotes. #SaveSEVIS #F1 Well done, @Lin_Manuel and @AttyStevenBrown

@smmarotta And somehow they're still permitting a world where SAUSAs don't have functioning DOJ emails (or something) & cannot get orders from judges that are docketed in CM/ECF without hearing from an anonymous paralegal? This should not be acceptable. An appearance must mean something?

@smmarotta Reading the 9-page order, things are much worse than I thought. "This Court would never allow a private attorney or litigant to rely on an “I’m too busy” excuse to justify disobedience of a court order. The Government is no different." Except apparently it still is.

But does the attorney get 24 hours' rest now? (Apparently, no. He gets a $500 daily fine.)

@kyledcheney Surely they take the position that "mandatory detention" triggers the "prohibited by law" prong, so it's not necessary to get to "exceptional circumstances"?

ICE's policy to sharply limit detention of pregnant/nursing mothers was adopted in 2021. It says ICE shouldn't detain pregnant/nursing mothers unless there are "exceptional circumstances." What are exceptional circumstances? Threats to life or national security. politico.com/news/2026/02/1…

NEW: Judges are asking increasingly pointed questions about why ICE is detaining pregnant/nursing mothers — and whether a 2021 policy sharply restricting the practice remains in force. They’ve ordered many released, warning of threats to safety/health. politico.com/news/2026/02/1…

JUST IN: Trump admin sues Harvard for allegedly slowwalking requests for admissions data from DOJ. Suit assigned to Judge Myong Joun (Biden). Doc: justice.gov/opa/media/1427…

My live coverage of this morning's Kseniia Petrova discovery hearing (Bill Fick of @fickmarx for Petrova) was over on Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/johnha… Judge Dein will grant at least some discovery into selective/vindictive prosecution.

Nah, it's back: bsky.app/profile/johnha…

Gosh, with bsky apparently broken, should I move my #cambma city council live posting back to Twitter for the evening? (My inclination is No, but perhaps!)

@AndrewDSteele94 @Greg651 [*] And yes, they have to file the appeal within 60 days, but no that's not the end of it. Absent hearing from OSG they file "protective appeals" and seek abeyance in the COA until they have a decision whether to pursue the appeal. Not that that's happened for this issue.

@AndrewDSteele94 @Greg651 Another important aspect of it is that the Government is likely to be the one to appeal, and they have their own schedule for that and do not seem eager to do it. Even at the best of times, appellate approval from the Solicitor General in immigration cases can take months[*].

@AnnaBower [*] Yes, D.Iowa and D.Minn are both in the 8th circuit, so this is not really an intercircuit assignment. I don't actually know how those happen and if a Judicial Conference committee is involved.

@AnnaBower In case you missed it, D.Minn and the Committee on Intercircuit[*] Assignments are way ahead of you. If you review this morning's D.Minn habeas decisions, you'll find some from Stephen H. Locher, a D. Iowa judge who is sitting by designation in D. Minn, I believe.

Once again, I suggest reviving Circuit riding—this time at the district court level. Day in and day out, district judges across the ideological spectrum deal with this DOJ’s stonewalling & misrepresentations. Perhaps some SCOTUS justices would benefit from seeing it firsthand.

@gynepareidolia @kyledcheney @mrddmia I'm not here to defend non-compliance with Maldonado Bautista and Guerrero Orellana. But evidence of a bad act in one area is not the same as evidence of a bad act in another area that doesn't have jurisdiction-stripping statutes, and that's what your argument boils down to.

@johnhawkinson @kyledcheney @mrddmia Their position is the definition of indefensible. A declaratory judgment disposes of the law is it relates to the parties. Adopting a policy contrary to a declaratory judgment to deprive someone of liberty is oppression under color of law in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242. >>

Since July, I've tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE has illegally detained people without bond or due process. This is one that stands out: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

@gynepareidolia @kyledcheney @mrddmia It certainly does not show that. The way to show bond hearing orders would be unfair or futile would be to show hearings denied or bond withheld. And I think have seen no evidence of those things. DOJ's position on the class judgments is troubling but not indefensible.

@johnhawkinson @kyledcheney @mrddmia It shows that would be futile to attempt to exhaust administrative remedies because the agency has adopted a policy contrary to the law. DOJ's decision to adopt a policy in blatant violation of the law demonstrates that any such bond hearing would be fundamentally unfair.