On February 13, U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin, an Obama appointee, enjoined President Trump’s order on birthright citizenship. Doe v Trump, U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, 1:25cv-10135. Here is the 31-page opinion, which stresses that the Fourteenth Amendment is not concerned about the parents of the person born in the United States, just the person born here.
The other decisions that agree were issued recently in Maryland, Washington, and New Hampshire.
The American Solidarity has renewed its political body status in California. This means the election officials will continue tallying the number of people who register into the party. Thanks to Eric Wong for this news.
On February 12, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB 6002. The bill makes it a felony for a city council member, or a county governing board member, to vote to create a sanctuary for persons who are not legally in the United States.
On February 7, Cornel West filed this amended complaint in his Pennsylvania ballot access lawsuit, West v Pennsylvania Department of State, w.d., 2:24cv-1349. The case challenges the unequal state requirements for presidential elector candidates. If a party has 15% of the registration, its candidates for presidential elector need file nothing. Instead the party files a list of their names and addresses.
But everyone else must have a full slate of presidential elector candidates, and each presidential elector candidate must submit a notarized declaration of candidacy. This rule kept Cornel West, Claudia De la Cruz, and Randall Terry off the ballot last year.
On February 13, the U.S. Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. As far as is known, this is the first time in history when an independent or minor party presidential candidate became a member of a President’s Cabinet, after having run for president outside the two major parties.
