Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Feels the Wrath of Federal Judge After SCOTUS Loss

Episode Date: April 12, 2025

Legal AF’s Michale Popok dives into the latest legal showdown between Trump and Judge Xinis, exploring how the Supreme Court’s order empowered Xinis to take bold action, as Trump refuses to back down from this high-stakes battle. Reverse hair loss with @iRestorelaser and get $625 off with the code LEGALAF at https://irestorelaser.com/LEGALAF! #irestorepod Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're on a collision course. Federal Judge Paula Zinnis on one hand, the Trump administration on the other, in the shadow of a Supreme Court decision from late last night, which reinforces and supports the jurisdiction and power of Judge Zinnis to order that the Trump administration facilitate the return immediately of Abrego Garcia, Armando Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. And now the Trump administration has asked Judge Zinnis off of last night's Supreme Court decision for more time to give her the information that she's demanded by today.

And she's refusing. What if they refuse? What if they don't comply with the Supreme Court's order, which was against them and supportive of Judge Zinnis. I'm gonna break it down for you in this fast-moving story right here on the MidasTouch Network. How did we get here? The United States Supreme Court, we've reported on this now, ruled 9-0 effectively that Judge Zinnis was right and the Trump administration was wrong. that they violated Armando Abrego Garcia, a green card

holder, his rights, his due process rights. They committed an illegal act by overriding, by deportation, a protective order issued by an immigration judge. That that was illegal. It was illegal at the time, it was illegal now. And that he should be brought back from the jails of El Salvador. The judge of the unsigned opinion off of the emergency docket says that all things about what Judge Zinnis had ruled, that due process demands that this injunction be issued in order to require the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia, all of it was affirmed by the Supreme Court. Their only issue was whether the one word in the order effectuate, effectuate. She said you also need to effectuate his return and they said well you could order facilitate but you can't necessarily order effectuate because that might bleed into the powers of the president in matters of foreign affairs.

But that's it. Based on that ruling, the judge already had an order about getting a status report about what diplomatic measures, what ways they are facilitating his return. Facilitation can take many, many forms and she wants to know what they are facilitating his return. Facilitation can take many, many forms and she wants to know what they are. And the Supreme Court ruled, and I'll show you where, the Supreme Court ruled last night that the judge is entitled to know

and the Trump administration is required to tell what steps they've taken and what future steps they're gonna take. Phone calls, diplomatic entreaties, memorandum, revoking the contract, placing him there with a six million dollar payment for prisoner housing, all sorts of diplomatic, extra diplomatic state department, Department of Justice, Christie Noem, Homeland Security, Donald Trump, what are they doing?

So the Trump administration got a hold of that and filed their motion for a modified schedule, which the judge has effectively denied, giving them only until late morning this morning to file their response, which we're still waiting on. It says, defendants request that the court, Judge Zinnis in Maryland, modify its amended preliminary injunction to allow defendants a reasonable period of time to evaluate the Supreme Court's order. The Supreme Court entered its order partially granting and partially denying defendant's stay application

after business hours last night. See, I guess the Department of Justice does sleep. The court's order followed several hours later. The court said, okay, I just got a remand, an instruction back to me from my bosses at the Supreme Court to conduct a hearing to get to the bottom of the facts with the government prepared to give me those facts. Let's have that hearing today at nine o'clock in the morning. They said, no, it's too early. This is not even a full business day your honor. We're not counting PTO here,

the guy's been sitting and rotting in jail for 27 days, time to bring him home as his lawyers said. They go on in their filing which was rejected resoundingly by the judge. The initial deadline contained in the amended preliminary injunction requires the defendant to provide the court with a plan for diplomatic engagement 30 minutes into the business day following the decision. And that is in violation of the they believe of one line in the order, which I'm going to read to you again, that says that the court needs to clarify its directive with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch of the conduct of foreign affairs.

That only has to do with whether she's allowed to force him, the Trump administration, to effectuate his return rather than facilitate, not when she holds her hearing or how quickly they need to respond. The deference requires that the executive be given a meaningful opportunity to review the Supreme Court's decision, which was effectively one paragraph long, in order to provide the steps that they will be taking to comply, and therefore they've asked

until the 15th of April and a hearing on the 16th of April. No, says the judge. Here's what the judge had to say in rejecting this filing by the Trump administration. And she's incredulous and she's pissed. Let's read it. The defendant asked this court to extend the deadline, arguing that they require several days

to meaningfully review the Supreme Court's decision issued last night at 7 p.m. And that it is impracticable for defendants to comply with the court's 930 a.m. deadline only a few hours after the Supreme Court issued its order. The court largely rejects the defendant's request. First, the Defendants Act of sending a Brego Garcia to El Salvador was wholly illegal from the moment it happened and defendants have been on notice of the same. Indeed as the Supreme Court credits, in other words, Supreme Court supported the trial judge in this area. They didn't find her

to be a Marxist, they didn't find her to be a crazy lunatic left-wing judge who's rogue. They supported her. Here's what the judge reminds the Trump administration, that the Supreme Court said that the United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal. Hey, look at me, Michael Popock here.

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You don't have to fight it alone, thanks to iRestore. So we've got an illegal act by the United States which is imperiling the life of Abrego Garcia, a father of one married to a U.S. citizen who's been there rotting in a jail he shouldn't be in without due process for 27 days. The Constitution demands his immediate return and an immediate hearing, not something on the Trump schedule. The judge continues. Second, on page one, the defendant's suggestion they need more time to meaningfully review

a four-page order that reaffirms the basic principle blinks at reality. It's not even a four-page order. It's a page and a half order, and the rest is a statement by Sotomayor, almost in dissent, about the majority decision. Third, the judge says, the defendants, the Trump administration, misconstrued the Supreme

Court's ruling, somehow suggesting that the court's amended order requiring prompt attention in this matter is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's directive. Nothing could be further from the truth. As the Supreme Court plainly stated last night, quote, the government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken past tense and the prospect of further steps all against the backdrop of this court needing to ensure quote that the government lives up to its obligations to follow the law. That was a quote from Sotomayor at the end of her statement in which she said trial judge make sure the government lives up to this order.

Accordingly she granted additional time to 1130. They're gonna miss, they've missed their deadline already. We'll see what they file. It's gonna be some crazy, almost flouting of the court's order. They may even file a petition with the United States Supreme Court asking for reconsideration and for further remand directions to this judge. I don't think they're gonna win that, but they may try that. Here's what happened last night just to remind everybody. The judge back on the 4th of April issued her order in which she required that the defendants, Trump administration, are ordered to facilitate and effectuate the return of the plaintiff by Monday night, April 7th. This preliminary relief, the court said, Judge Zinnis, is to restore the status quo

and to preserve Abrego Garcia's access to due process in accordance with the Constitution and governing immigration law. And that's where the Supreme Court launched together, nine-zero. Now, they didn't order Abrego Garcia's expatriation and being brought back to the United States, but everything else they said. They said she was right, the judge was right, she had jurisdiction, she made the right ruling, she references appropriately the constitution and due process rights of her Briego-Garcia. She appropriately notes a major factor is the fact

that a Briego-brego Garcia's rights have been violated by an illegal act by the government. That's why we're on a fast track here folks. It's not if we don't we don't get to go for a stroll in the woods and take lunch at the Department of Justice because they don't want to deal with a guy who's illegally sitting in a prison. Move, in other words, bring him home. The court went on to say that on Friday April 4th, this is the Supreme Court now, the United States District Court Judge Zinnis entered an order directing the government to facilitate

and effectuate the return. On the morning of April 7th, the United States filed this application and the court stayed the order. The court went on to say that to the extent the government's, it's on page two, sorry, this is the majority or the nine zero decision, the rest of the district court's order remains in effect but requires clarification. We're fine with her citation to due process

rights of Ibrigo Garcia, to the Constitution, to immigration law, to ordering that the facilitation of his return happen right now. They're only hung up about the word effectuate. Effectuate seems to imply to them, maybe if that's what the judge intended, that if they can't get it through diplomatic facilitating means, that they go in there and break into the jail and bring them out, and they're not going that far. But that's it.

And they reference the power of the executive branch in foreign affairs about, well, you're not going to set a drone strike into the prison, even though you put them there, to break them out. Short of that, they sided with Zinnis 100%. So to Mayor, writing for Jackson and Kagan in a statement, not quite at the set but pretty close, said that they would agree with everything that the judge did, including the word effectuate. And here's how she ends her statement. I agree with the court's order that the proper remedy is to provide Abrego Garcia with all

the process to which he would have been entitled had he not been unlawfully removed to El Salvador. That means the government must comply with its obligation to provide a brego-garcia with the due process of law, including notice and an opportunity to be heard, and in any future proceeding. It must also comply, she said, with immigration law and with the convention against torture. She then instructed the judge at the very end of her ruling, you are to make sure that the government lives up to its end of the bargain of this order. And that's exactly what she's doing.

Why the Trump administration is choosing this for the latest assault on our Constitution, that will leave for another day. If I were them, tail between legs, I would have already done all the things necessary to get him popped from that prison in El Salvador and not fight over it in an inhumane, depraved way. But they're continuing to fight like a dog with a bone on anything that Donald Trump finds interesting. If I were them, discretion being the better part of valor, I would have already conceded this case and gotten the guy out and let the Supreme Court continue to rule in their favor on other things that are not obscenely illogical and against our constitution. Pick your battles. But Trump doesn't pick his battles. Everything's a battle because everybody's a nail to a hammer and that's

all he's got in his bag. We'll continue to follow it right here on the Midas Touch Network. Hit the subscribe button for Midas Touch and come on over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel Legal AF MTN and do the same thing. I'll see you on my next report here on the Midas Touch Network on Legal AF the podcast. I'm Michael Popock. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at LegalAFMTN. That's at LegalAFMTN.