We begin today with Chris Geidner of LawDork and his reporting that a Trump 1.0-appoined judge has ruled that the tacky shoe salesman cannot legally send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon.
It was a blunt 31-page opinion issued by a judge Trump appointed to the bench in his first term in office declaring that Trump’s effort to federalize Oregon National Guard troops likely “exceeded his statutory authority” and likely violated the Tenth Amendment.
Immergut issued the opinion and order just one day after hearing arguments in the case, which was brought by both Oregon and Portland, and just two days after the case was reassigned to her. Immergut, who took her seat on the bench in 2019, is presiding over the case because Justice Department lawyers successfully asked the judge initially assigned to the case to recuse himself.
The Trump administration officials and agencies being sued “have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation,” Immergut wrote in concluding her opinion.
Under the temporary restraining order, which lasts through the end of the day on October 18, the Trump administration is “temporarily enjoined from implementing” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s September 28 memorandum federalizing the Oregon National Guard and ordering their deployment to Portland.
Timothy Noah of The New Republic looks at the available data (in lieu of the unreleased jobs report) and concludes that yes, the economy is slowing down
We can guess that the BLS report, if there were a BLS report, would be bad, because the payrolls processor ADP reported this week that the private sector shed 32,000 jobs in September. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimated that 53,000 jobs were added last month, which is still pretty meager. The workforce analytics company Revelio Labs put the gain slightly higher, at 60,000 jobs. The “outplacement” consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas—these are the folks who help your boss fire you—reported that hiring was weaker in September than at any time since 2009. As the economic forecaster Bob Dylan observed in “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
But the absence of a BLS jobs report allows Trump to dismiss these alternate measures as less authoritative, which is true. Never mind that Trump’s idea of data that’s authoritative is data that makes him look good. He fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in August when the BLS reported that the economy created 258,000 fewer jobs in May and June than previously thought. Trump then nominated a partisan hack named E.J. Antoni to take McEntarfer’s place. Trump withdrew Antoni’s nomination earlier this week after a series of negative stories. One of these was that Antoni told Fox News that BLS should suspend its monthly reports while it sought to improve its methodology. “How on earth are businesses supposed to plan—or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy—when they don’t know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy?” he asked.
Good point! But what Antoni didn’t grasp (or didn’t want to grasp) was that withholding BLS jobs data leaves business and the Fed more stranded than releasing imperfect BLS jobs data. We’re experiencing that void now.
Kevin Carey of The Atlantic says that some of the nation’s universities will no longer be autonomous if they agree to a Trump-approved compact that limits free speech.
The compact is the newest escalation in Trump’s attempt to impose ideological dominance over America’s world-class colleges and universities. The document is breathtaking in its ambition, plainly illegal, and shot through with the tensions that mark Trumpism in its latest form.
Bringing higher education to heel has been a top White House priority. It began with massive cuts to federal research funding and charges that some schools violated the civil rights of Jewish students and faculty during protests about the war in Gaza. Whereas Harvard chose to fight the matter in court, Columbia agreed to a sweeping settlement that restored hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants. The deal went far beyond legitimate civil-rights concerns, requiring Columbia to implement Trump-dictated policies around hiring, admissions, DEI, academics, and student discipline, all under the monitoring of the Office of Civil Rights. That success spurred the White House to explore new ways of dictating terms to universities. The compact, it seems, is the result. [...]
The free-speech provisions of the compact are an exercise in contradiction. Until 2023, conservatives were mostly angry that Nazi-curious speakers such as Milo Yiannopoulos were getting shouted down during public events on campus. Over the past two years, their attitude toward speech has swung around 180 degrees toward anger at what protesters are allowed to say and the positions university leaders and faculty choose to adopt.
Sachi Kitajima Mulkey of The New York Times says that the Arctic region is largely becoming the site for a U.S. military buildup as opposed to a region where efforts to combat climate change are deployed.
Instead of focusing largely on climate and environmental science, the Trump administration appears to be pivoting research efforts toward military and defense interests. [...]
President Trump showed his interest in the Arctic region within his first months back in office. He has said the U.S. would go “as far as we have to go” to control Greenland and announced intentions to order new icebreaker ships. [...]
...the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, an independent federal agency, released a reporton Arctic priorities that emphasized military, community, economic and energy security. “The Arctic region is critical to the defense of our homeland, the protection of U.S. national sovereignty, and the fulfillment of our nation’s defense commitments,” one section reads.
That report will inform the forthcoming national Arctic research plan, which would steer science in the region for five years beginning in 2027. It is “specifically aimed at national security,” Cheryl Rosa, the deputy director of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, said at a September meeting.
Finally today, Adam Gabbatt, William Christou, and Helen Livingstone of The Guardian reports that the U,S, is sending “envoys” over to Egypt to hash out the final details of a U.S. “peace plan” for Gaza.
A White House official said the US president was sending his envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, to Egypt on Saturday to finalise the technical details of a hostage release and discuss a lasting ceasefire deal a day after Hamas said it was ready to free hostages under Trump’s plan to end the two-year-old war. In an interview, Trump said “we are very close” to reaching an agreement.
Egypt will also host delegations from Israel and Hamas on Monday to discuss the proposed exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, the country’s foreign ministry said.
The talks come a month after Israel derailed ceasefire negotiations by launching an extraordinary airstrike on Hamas negotiators in Qatar that killed six people, although not its targets.
Scores of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, according to local health officials, despite Trump’s demand that Israel stop bombing in response to Hamas’s declaration.
Everyone have the best possible day that you can!
