#fourth circuit

Wow. Diplomatic pressure absolutely worked. Van Hollen got in, met with Mr. Abrego, and becomes the first person to have ANY meeting with any of the people sent to El Salvador on March 15.

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Another good day in the defense of democracy.

April 18, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

It was another good day for those hoping the forces of democracy will prevail over the forces of chaos and autocracy. Four major stories frame the effective resistance that is beginning to turn the tide against Trump.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rebuked Trump’s bad-faith effort to evade responsibility for returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia—and delivered a stirring defense of the rule of law!

Harvard stood firm even as Trump expanded his illegal targeting of Harvard by threatening to exclude tens of thousands of foreign students.

GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski broke the wall of silence behind which most of her Republican colleagues are hiding, chastising them for abandoning the Constitution.

Senator Chris Van Hollen met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the infamous El Salvadoran prison—a testament to his persistence, resistance, and creative thinking.

Concerned citizens across America are planning another weekend of protests against the unlawful and unconstitutional actions of the Trump administration.

Finally, the damage caused by Trump’s assault on the economy is driving markets lower, forcing Trump to make a desperate and illegal threat: Removing the Chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Jerome Powell. The threat is a sign of weakness and fear on Trump’s part.

Let’s take a look at these stories to understand why we should move forward with confidence in our defense of the rule of law.

Fourth Circuit panel rebukes Trump over Abrego Garcia while framing the constitutional showdown in an opinion written for the American people, the Supreme Court, and Trump.

The stakes in the Abrego Garcia case pending before Judge Paula Xinis are high. She has ordered the Trump administration to participate in discovery to learn why the government has refused to comply with the Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia.

The Trump administration appealed Judge Xinis’s discovery order to the Fourth Circuit, repeating the government’s bad-faith arguments to justify its refusal to comply with the orders of Judge Xinis and the Supreme Court.

Trump then asked the 4th Circuit to stop the discovery proceedings designed to learn the “who, why, and how” of the government’s disobedience to the court’s order.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit denied the Trump administration’s request to stop the discovery proceedings before Judge Xinis.

In denying the Trump administration’s request to stop the discovery ordered by Judge Xinis, the Fourth Circuit issued an extraordinary opinion that perfectly captures the conflict at the center of the Abrego Garcia case and describes the impending constitutional crisis that would be caused by Trump’s continued refusal to comply with the orders of Judge Xinis and the Supreme Court.

The relatively brief opinion by the Fourth Circuit deserves to be read in its entirety—and today, I am going to ask you to do just that. Rather than directing you to a different site to read the opinion, I have copied it below. I have removed legal citations and procedural references to make an easy-to-read opinion even more accessible.

The opinion by the Fourth Circuit perfectly frames the crisis to come while highlighting the underlying constitutional and democratic values that are at stake. I have bolded some portions of the opinion for emphasis. Otherwise, the words below are those of the Fourth Circuit in their entirety.

Abrego Garcia v Noem | No. 25-1404 | April 17, 2025

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Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit handed the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) a big loss when it comes to hemp. In Anderson v. Diamondback Investment Group, LLC, the court ruled that the DEA’s interpretation, which classified a host of hemp-derived products as illegal, was incorrect. I’ve previously written about the impact of Loper Bright Enterprises v.…

The following excerpt has been extracted from the full text referred to by Justia US Law, a website specializing in legal information retrieval. It was published in June 2021.

The Fourth Circuit decision finds that immigration judges must affirmatively develop the record, which includes suggesting particular social groups for those without lawyers.

Steves v. JELD-WEN: 4th Circuit Affirms Divestiture in Private Antitrust Lawsuit

The recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Steves & Sons, Inc. v. JELD-WEN, Inc., 2021 WL 630521 (4th Cir. Feb. 18, 2021), is noteworthy for its affirmance of the trial court’s unusual grant of the equitable remedy of divestiture in a private antitrust suit brought by a customer challenging a merger of competing suppliers.  That challenge was brought under Section…

The following excerpt is from Amaya v. Rosen, No. 19-1619, 2021 WL 232554 (4th Cir. Jan. 25, 2021). The full decision is available here.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s Decision to Vacate Mountain Valley Pipeline Nationwide Permit

On November 27, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued the most recent in a series of decisions from various courts affecting the federal permitting and construction of interstate pipelines. Sierra Club v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, No. 18-1173 (4th Cir. Nov. 27, 2018). In this instance, the Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the Clean Water Act…

The Supreme Court of the United States just hours ago dismissed Hawaii’s challenge to President Trump’s extreme vetting executive order remanding the case back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for dismissal as the case is now moot due to the expiration of the 120-day pause which ends today.

Washington Times by Stephen Dinan and Andrea Noble

…The justices acted on the same day that the 120…