A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

REUTERS/David 'Dee' Delgado

A growing wave of lawsuits by fired immigration judges is poised to test how far President Trump’s removal authority extends over executive-branch judges, and whether federal anti-discrimination laws still apply.

At least five former judges have filed lawsuits alleging they were targeted because of their backgrounds, prior advocacy for immigrants, or protected characteristics including race, sex, national origin, age, and political affiliation. Most seek reinstatement, back pay and damages.

The plaintiffs include George Pappas (Massachusetts), Florence Chamberlin (California), Carla Espinoza (Illinois), Kyra Lilien (California) and Tania Nemer (D.C.).

The DOJ is expected to argue immigration judges are “inferior officers” subject to at‑will removal under Article II, potentially outside standard civil-rights protections.

The Trump administration has fired at least 113 immigration judges and a similar number have taken buyouts, resigned or retired out of a total of approximately 700 judges, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges. At ⁠the same time, the DOJ has hired new judges, which it now calls "deportation judges," some on a temporary basis and most with military or enforcement backgrounds. On Thursday the administration added the largest class of new immigration judges in the agency's history. The DOJ said 77 new permanent immigration judges and five new temporary ones were sworn in.

Before you mentally check out for the long weekend, here’s a quick, can’t-miss roundup of stories worth reading (or at least skimming) before you post that OOO message.

My colleagues Joseph Ax and John Kruzel did a dive into the U.S. Supreme Court’s uneven application of its “Purcell principle.” Read that story here.

Speaking of SCOTUS, the end of the term is nigh and Jan Wolfe did a nice roundup of looming rulings in four major Trump-related cases, which you can read here.

Jack Queen gave us insights into whether cruise ship passengers can sue over the hantavirus outbreak and took a look at how President Trump’s court setbacks have failed to blunt his campaign against the media.

A Reuters review found the number of U.S. drug, gun and other prosecutions fell sharply as investigators focused on immigration and about half the federal prosecutors in Minnesota left. Brad Heath, Andrew Goudsward and Kristina Cooke have more on that here. 

And finally, Reuters won two Pulitzer Prizes earlier this month, one for national reporting for stories on Trump’s campaign of political retribution, and a second for beat reporting for investigations revealing how Meta knowingly ‌exposed users, including children, to harmful AI chatbots and fraudulent advertisements.

That’s how much Sullivan & Cromwell partner Matthew Schwartz, nominated by President Trump to a seat on the 2nd Circuit, reported earning last year. Read more in this week’s Billable Hours.

—Peter Ticktin, an attorney representing more than 400 January 6 defendants. Ticktin said the $1.7