Some news that isn’t about Trump

Checking in on the other two branches of government.

Good morning! It’s Friday, January 24, 2025. Election Day 2026 is 648 days away.

The Trump administration isn’t even a week old, but it already feels like it’s been longer, with the blizzard of news that the 45th/47th president inevitably brings. “Day four of Trump II” seems more like “month four,” as Puck’s Tara Palmeri put it yesterday.

This morning, I want to start with three important Trump-related items…and then, as is my Friday practice, I’ll dive underneath the headlines to bring you under-the-radar stories from within the other two branches of government, which I expect will be getting short shrift in coverage for the next four years.

I like to think of these Friday pieces as taking my political reporter hat off, and putting my government reporter hat on — letting you know what your elected (and un-elected) representatives in Washington are working on. These stories may not be flashy, but they’re the important work of governing that often goes overlooked — even when it can have a meaningful impact.

But first… 1) A federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. “I’ve been on the bench for over four decades,” U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Seattle-based Reagan appointee, said. “I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”

Under Coughenour’s ruling — which came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington attorneys general — Trump’s executive order will not be able to go into effect for the next two weeks while litigation continues. The case will likely ultimately land at the Supreme Court, setting up an early test of how far the justices — one-third of whom he appointed — will allow Trump to stretch his power.

2) The Senate advanced Pete Hegseth’s controversial nomination to be Defense Secretary. Hegseth cleared a procedural hurdle in a close 51-49 vote, along party lines except for defections from Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

Both moderate Republicans took issue with Hegseth’s relative inexperience and previous statements about women in combat. New revelations also emerged shortly before the vote from Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, who alleged that Hegseth made his ex-wife fear for her safety, and his attorney, who disclosed that Hegseth paid $50,000 to a woman in 2017 to settle claims of sexual assault she made against him.

A final confirmation vote on Hegseth is expected tonight.

3) Trump’s immigration agenda is beginning to be implemented. To wit:

• Thousands of additional active-duty U.S. troops are being sent to the border.

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been empowered to quickly deport migrants who were allowed into the U.S. under temporary Biden-era programs.

• Agents across the federal government — including at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — are being given the same powers as immigration officers, allowing them to help carry out deportations.

• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced this morning that the administration had started carrying out deportation flights using military aircraft.

And now, let’s travel across Pennsylvania Avenue to find out what else happened this week in the U.S. government:

Congress

The House passed nine bills this week, all of them with significant bipartisan support. The Senate approved one bill and two nominations, while failing to approve a second bill.

A notable bill you might have missed: As the wildfires in California continue to rage, the House passed the Fix Our Forests Act, which would allow wildfire protection and forest management projects to receive quicker approval by expediting environmental reviews.

The bill also sets up new programs for federal, state, local, and tribal collaboration on fighting wildfires; mandates the adoption of new technologies to prevent wildfires; commissions a study into a potential Western headquarters for the U.S. Forest Service; and creates a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program, which would ensure assistance for the next-of-kin of those who are injured or die in the line of duty fighting wildfires.

The bill passed 279-141, with 64 Democrats in favor. Environmental groups objected to the bill, saying it would benefit loggers.

On the topic of forests: The chamber also voted 359-62 to approve the Continued Rapid Ohia Death Response Act, which would commit federal resources to combating Rapid Ohia Death, a fungal disease that is quickly ravaging Hawaiian forests, and unanimously for the ACRES Act, which would mandate accurate reporting on the work agencies are doing to combat wildfires. (Per NBC News, the Forest Service has been overstating its work in the area for decades.)

All 62 dissenters on the Rapid Ohia Death bill were Republicans.

Immigration: Both the House and Senate voted for the Laken Riley Act, sending it to the White House to become the first bill signed into law by President Trump in his second term. The measure would require federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting, while also authorizing state attorneys general to sue the federal government for failures to carry out immigration law.

The measure was approved 263-156 in the House (with 46 Democrats and all Republicans in support) and 64-35 in the Senate (with 12 Democrats and all Republicans in support).

Abortion: The Senate failed to advance the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would penalize health care practitioners who fail to provide for infants who survive botched abortion attempts. The bill failed 52-47, along party lines (one Republican was absent).

According to a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report, 143 infants died after being “born alive” following abortion attempts between 2003 and 2014, although the agency acknowledges this could be an undercount. Doctors are already required to provide care for infants who survive abortion attempts, but this bill would add specific penalties — a fine, five-year prison term, or both — for failing to do so.

💭 Quick thought bubble: It’s notable that a significant chunk of Democrats — as they try to find their way as a party in the Trump era — felt it politically necessary to support an immigration bill, but not an anti-abortion bill. As I wrote yesterday, immigration is one of the few issues where Trump arguably commands a mandate, potentially necessitating changes on the part of the opposition party; abortion, on the other hand, is an issue where a majority of the country aligns more closely with Democrats.

Nominations: Just as the first piece of legislation of the Trump era (the Laken Riley Act) was bipartisan, so were the first two confirmation votes. The Senate voted 99-0 to confirm one of its own, Florida’s Marco Rubio, to become Secretary of State, and 74-25 install former Rep. John Ratcliffe as CIA Director.

The nominations that go through the Senate quickly are the ones that command bipartisan support. From here on out, with a possible handful of exceptions, expect tighter votes on the nominees that Democrats refuse to expedite.

Monuments: The House voted unanimously for the Hershel Woody Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act, establishing a monument for Medal of Honor recipients on the National Mall, and the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act, which would set aside land within the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to create a sacred site remembering the Wounded Knee Massacre, an 1890 battle in which nearly 300 Native Americans were killed by the U.S. Army.

And more: The House also unanimously approved the MAPWaters Act, providing better maps of federal waters for outdoor recreationalists; the SHARKED Act, establishing a task force on shark depredation; and the Lake Winnibigoshish Land Exchange Act, greenlighting a Minnesota land exchange.

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in four cases this week, including Barnes v. Felix, a case on police killings.

The case stems from the 2016 death of Ashtian Barnes, an unarmed Black man who was stopped by Officer Roberto Felix Jr. while driving in Houston. Unbeknownst to Barnes, the license plate of his car — which had been rented — was linked to unpaid tolls incurred by another driver.

Felix asked Barnes for his license and registration; Barnes couldn’t find the documents. According to Felix, he then asked Barnes to step out of the car, leading Barnes to start the engine and begin to drive away. Felix then shot Barnes twice, killing him. Barnes’ mother, Janice Hughes Barnes, brought a lawsuit, alleging excessive force.

An appeals court sided with Felix, applying the “moment of threat” doctrine, which holds that police officers can use deadly force if they perceive themselves to be in danger at the moment the force was used — without taking into consideration the broader context of a given incident.

Four appeals courts have endorsed the doctrine, but the Supreme Court has never weighed in. During arguments, a majority of justices (both liberal and conservative) appeared likely to side with the Barnes family, seeming skeptical of the doctrine and more favorable towards one that calls for consideration of more than just the seconds before a shooting. “Everybody agrees it’s wrong,” Justice Neil Gorsuch, a libertarian-leaning Trump appointee, said at one point, referring to the lower court ruling. “What’s the harm of saying that?”

The court also issued a rare ruling in favor of a death row inmate, allowing Brenda Evers Andrew — the only woman on death row in Oklahoma — to challenge her death sentence in the lower courts. Andrew was convicted of first-degree murder in 2004 for the shooting of her estranged husband. She has claimed that she didn’t receive a fair trial because prosecutors focused unduly on her sex life, allegedly describing her as a “slut puppy” (prosecutors dispute this) and holding up her thong underwear.

In a 7-2 unsigned opinion — with Justices Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissenting — the Supreme Court ruled that Andrew presented enough evidence to necessitate a lower court reexamining the case.

Finally, as it does most weeks, the court issued a long list of cases it was declining to hear: the justices take on precious few cases each year, so the vast majority of cases that reach the Supreme Court are “decided” by the justices refusing to hear them, thereby leaving the lower court ruling intact.

Among other cases, the justices declined to hear a case out of Montana that state Republicans were hoping to use to revive the “independent state legislature doctrine” (a legal theory which the court has previously rejected) and a case from former Rep. Steve King (R-IA) seeking to challenge a $750 fine he received for using a meme in a campaign ad.