The Supreme Court has upheld President Trump travel restrictions and rejected the challenge to the Trump administration’s September 2017 travel ban. (full ruling pdf below). Response from the White House – Statement from the President Regarding Supreme Court Ruling:

Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution. The Supreme Court has upheld the clear authority of the President to defend the national security of the United States.
In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly vet those coming into our country. This ruling is also a moment of profound vindication following months of hysterical commentary from the media and Democratic politicians who refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country.
As long as I am President, I will defend the sovereignty, safety, and security of the American People, and fight for an immigration system that serves the national interests of the United States and its citizens. Our country will always be safe, secure, and protected on my watch.  ~ President Donald Trump

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Oh, heck yes.  This is exactly what we have been talking about.  In an interview with Neil Cavuto, Senator Rand Paul shares his opinion that President Trump should respond to the coordinated political attacks by FBI and DOJ operatives by declassifying the information underneath all their shenanigans.

Good advice.  Without interfering with the IG Horowitz and parallel Proseuctor John Huber approach, President Trump should immediately begin declassifying the documents surrounding the FISA abuse scandal.

Start by declassifying the 99-page opinion of FISA Court Presiding Judge, Rosemary Collyer.  Remove all the redactions and let us see who the FBI/DOJ officials were allowing to have access to the NSA database to conduct searches.  Then declassify the full FISA Title-1 surveillance application used by the FBI and DOJ against U.S. person Carter Page.

If these releases of information create a need for prosecution of the people, entities and former officials behind the documents, then so be it. These documents are unrelated to the issues of the FBI conduct review of IG Horowitz, and extend outside the DOJ. WATCH:

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Federal judge Roger W Titus (Maryland) has ruled that President Trump acted appropriately and within his authority by announcing his intent to rescind the Obama-era executive order surrounding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). However, the Judge Titus order does not stop the previous blocks by activist judges currently working through the courts.

Eventually the state challenges to the recension of DACA will work through the appellate courts and arrive at the Supreme Court. It is likely SCOTUS will take the same position on DACA as they did on DAPA; overrule the state challenges and determine the program unconstitutional.

In the interim, President Trump had requested that congress take up the DACA issue as part of their responsibility to put forth an immigration reform bill. Democrats have abandoned legislative efforts to assist those impacted by DACA, and have instead chosen to make DACA a political issue for the 2018 mid-term election.

MARYLAND – […] Judge Roger W. Titus, a Bush appointee, ruled late Monday President Trump acted within his authority in his plan to rescind an executive order former President Barack Obama announced in 2012 as a way to protect illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors. Trump ended the order over a period of six months until Congress could legislatively solve the problem.

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Moments ago FISA Court Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer responded to the requests from the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte. (full pdf’s below – #1 and #2)

There are nuances in each response specific to the statutory roles of each Chairman and the specific requests made by each committee.  Reflected in Judge Collyer’s responses is a need for careful consideration of each unique request.

♦House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes holds primary oversight authority over the aggregate Intelligence Community (IC).  Chairman Nunes has requested the transcripts from the FISA Court during the DOJ/FBI Title-1 surveillance application over their target, U.S. person Carter Page.

♦House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte holds primary oversight authority over the Department of Justice -including the FISA court- and has requested the actual FISA Title-1 application as submitted by the DOJ/FBI for surveillance of Carter Page.

Judge Collyer responds to both legislative branch chairmen from the position of “never previously receiving such requests.” There are separation of power challenges, but also an understanding inherent in the response to Chairman Goodlatte of the unique statutory oversight his committee holds.

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For those following the increasingly curious case against General Mike Flynn, events took another unusual turn yesterday as Special Counsel Robert Mueller -with agreement from all parties- filed a motion for a protective order to seal documents. These are documents compelled on behalf of the defense, by Judge Emmet Sullivan, prior to sentencing.

On November 30th, 2017, Mike Flynn signed a guilty plea; ostensibly admitting lying to investigators.  The plea was accepted by Judge Rudolph Contreras; who is also a FISA court judge.  Six days later, December 7th, 2017, Judge Contreras “was recused” from the case without explanation.  The case was reassigned to DC District Judge Emmet Sullivan.

The Contreras recusal always seemed sketchy. If the conflict existed on December 7th, wouldn’t that same conflict have existed on November 30th, 2017?

On December 12th, 2017, Judge Sullivan gave out a rather unusual set of instructions to Robert Mueller.  The instructions included Sullivan telling Mueller to turn over to the Flynn defense anything that could be considered exculpatory:

[…]  if the government has identified any information which is favorable to the defendant but which the government believes is not material, the government shall submit the material to the Court for in camera review. (link)

On January 31st, 2018, Robert Mueller requested a delay of sentencing pushing the sentencing phase into May of this year.  And then yesterday, February 14th, 2018, Mueller asks for the information he is turning over to be sealed.

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Former Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Charles, discusses the procedures and processes for gaining a FISA ‘Title-1’ surveillance warrant.   Within the discussion Mr. Charles outlines the FISA review court and a likely path the Carter Page application could have taken after an initial denial.

Additionally, Mr. Charles discusses the downstream ramifications when the U.S. Department of Justice secures a warrant by providing false and/or misleading information to the FISA court: “fruit of the poisonous tree”.

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The explanation by the former ASoS might very well explain why Robert Mueller asked for a delay in the ongoing Mike Flynn sentencing; and simultaneously explain why Judge Ruben Contreras was recused from the case.

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The supreme court has granted a stay against all lower court rulings [READ DECISION HERE] allowing the full President Trump travel and VISA ban to go into effect.  This is a BIG win for President Trump.

WASHINGTON DC – Handing the White House a huge judicial victory, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of President Trump’s travel ban affecting residents of six majority-Muslim countries.

The justices said the policy can take full effect despite multiple legal challenges against it that haven’t yet made their way through the judicial system.

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Against the backdrop of a revised set of administration rules on visa issuance and restricted nationalities; and considering the previously argued ‘Trump travel ban’ guidelines expired Sunday; the Supreme Court has cancelled their hearing of arguments in opposition to the former travel restrictions and visa guidance.

(Via Associated Press) – 1:40 p.m. – The Supreme Court has canceled arguments set for Oct. 10 in the dispute over President Donald Trump’s travel ban, after Trump rolled out a new policy Sunday.
The unsigned order from the justices Monday asks both sides to weigh in by Oct. 5 about what to do with the case.

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Last week former President Obama’s classmate, Hawaii Judge Derrick Watson, once again blocked the implementation of the travel and visa restrictions put into place by President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security.
At the heart of the matter activist Judge Watson is demanding that Homeland Security permit as many foreign terrorists as possible be granted entry into the U.S.  According to the world-view that all occupants of planet earth are inherently future citizens of the United States, Judge Watson claims everyone should be allowed entry into the U.S. regardless of national security concerns.
It should be noted that Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, and other GCC nations have initiated a total Muslim travel ban with Qatar…. meanwhile a U.S. judge frames the limited scope of President Trump’s ‘temporary travel restrictions‘ as overreach. Go figure.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the State of Hawaii to respond by Tuesday at noon to President Donald Trump’s motion to block a judge’s ruling that prevented his travel ban from being applied to grandparents of U.S. citizens and refugees already being processed by resettlement agencies, the court’s public information office said on Saturday.

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Well before most were discussing the possibility of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retiring from the court we anticipated he would.  In January we discussed the ramifications for Senator Schumer filibustering the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the court, and how politics was a land-mine if Schumer took that route.

The reasoning was simple.  Justice Anthony Kennedy wants to retire, and Justice Kennedy holds institutional and traditional reverence for the court far beyond politics.  Kennedy has previously showcased his disdain for politics and how it corrupts the court. Kennedy’s actual outlook is so steeped in judicial tradition he will defer, modify and delay his own personal interests if he senses a need to guard or protect the integrity of traditions within the court from the toxic infiltration of politics.

In all significant ways that matter, Justice Neil Gorsuch was/is more of an ideological replacement (high brow) for Kennedy than he was for Scalia, at least from the perspective of Kennedy.  We anticipated, somewhat based on how Senator Schumer acquitted himself, that Kennedy would retire with a successful Gorsuch appointment.

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