Supreme Court rejects Mark Meadows’ appeal in 2020 election interference case
<p><img width="150" height="150" src="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supremecourt-4-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="Supreme Court rejects Mark Meadows’ appeal in 2020 election interference case" title="Supreme Court rejects Mark Meadows’ appeal in 2020 election interference case" style="float:right;" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supremecourt-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supremecourt-4-570x570.jpg 570w, https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supremecourt-4-500x500.jpg 500w, https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supremecourt-4-1000x1000.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />The Supreme Court turned down a plea from Mark Meadows, who served as chief of staff to Donald Trump during his first term in office, to transfer his Georgia election interference prosecution to federal court. The announcement came as part of a list of orders...</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/11/supreme-court-rejects-mark-meadows-appeal-in-2020-election-interference-case/">Supreme Court rejects Mark Meadows’ appeal in 2020 election interference case</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com">SCOTUSblog</a>.</p>
The Supreme Court turned down a plea from Mark Meadows, who served as chief of staff to Donald Trump during his first term in office, to transfer his Georgia election interference prosecution to federal court. The announcement came as part of a list of orders released on Tuesday morning from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any new cases to their docket for the 2024-25 term.
Meadows, along with Trump and 17 others, was indicted in 2023 by a Fulton County grand jury on charges that he had interfered in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Meadows sought to move his case to federal court, arguing that he had been acting in his official capacity as chief of staff and could therefore seek immunity from prosecution.
A federal district court rejected his plea, concluding that Meadows had not shown a connection between the conduct for which he had been indicted and his job as chief of staff.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld that decision. It reasoned that the law allowing federal officials to move their cases to federal court does not extend to former officers. But in any event, the court of appeals added, Meadows’ “participation in an alleged conspiracy to overturn a presidential election was not related to his official duties.”
The justices also declined to take up a pair ofchallenges to New York’s rent-regulation laws, and in particular to the 2019 amendments to the laws. The challengers – landlords in New York City and Yonkers – contended that the amendments are a physical taking of their property, in violation of the Constitution, because they give tenants a veto over the conversion of buildings into condos, which denies them the right to use their property as they see fit, and because they limit the landlords’ ability to reclaim rental properties for their own use.
The landlords had also asked the justices to overrule or clarify their 1978 decision in Penn Central Transportation v. New York City, in which the court ruled that the ban on construction of a 55-story office tower over New York’s Grand Central Terminal did not limit the use of the property so much that it effectively deprived the owner of the use of its property.
However, after considering the cases for several weeks, the justices ultimately denied review, with Justice Neil Gorsuch noting that he would have granted the petitions.
The justices did not act on several of the high-profile petitions for review that they considered last week, including a challenge to the admissions policy at three of Boston’s elite public schools and an effort by Wisconsin parents to challenge a school district’s policies for supporting transgender and non-binary students.
The justices are scheduled to meet for another private conference on Friday, Nov. 15.
<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/HcOwuZFAmHbep04qHVv5Pnn9ye8UNv30" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of grants to teachers" title="Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of grants to teachers"> <img width="150" height="150" src="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/supremecourt-19-150x150.jpeg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of grants to teachers" title="Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of grants to teachers" style="float:right;" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/supremecourt-19-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/supremecourt-19-570x570.jpeg 570w, https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/supremecourt-19-500x500.jpeg 500w, https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/supremecourt-19-1000x1000.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /><p><a class="a2a_button_facebook" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/facebook?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scotusblog.com%2F2025%2F03%2Ftrump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers%2F&linkname=Trump%20asks%20Supreme%20Court%20to%20allow%20cancellation%20of%20grants%20to%20teachers" title="Facebook" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/linkedin?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scotusblog.com%2F2025%2F03%2Ftrump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers%2F&linkname=Trump%20asks%20Supreme%20Court%20to%20allow%20cancellation%20of%20grants%20to%20teachers" title="LinkedIn" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/twitter?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scotusblog.com%2F2025%2F03%2Ftrump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers%2F&linkname=Trump%20asks%20Supreme%20Court%20to%20allow%20cancellation%20of%20grants%20to%20teachers" title="Twitter" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_button_email" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/email?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scotusblog.com%2F2025%2F03%2Ftrump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers%2F&linkname=Trump%20asks%20Supreme%20Court%20to%20allow%20cancellation%20of%20grants%20to%20teachers" title="Email" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_button_printfriendly" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/printfriendly?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scotusblog.com%2F2025%2F03%2Ftrump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers%2F&linkname=Trump%20asks%20Supreme%20Court%20to%20allow%20cancellation%20of%20grants%20to%20teachers" title="PrintFriendly" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_no_icon addtoany_share_save addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scotusblog.com%2F2025%2F03%2Ftrump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers%2F&title=Trump%20asks%20Supreme%20Court%20to%20allow%20cancellation%20of%20grants%20to%20teachers" data-a2a-url="https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/03/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers/" data-a2a-title="Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of grants to teachers">Share</a></p><p>The Trump administration <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/24a910.html">came to the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning</a>, asking the justices to pause an order by a federal judge in Massachusetts that requires the Department of Education to reinstate more than $65 million in training grants meant to address teacher shortages that it terminated in February because they funded programs that have diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.</p>
<p>Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris portrayed the lawsuit, which was filed in March by eight states (California, along with Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Wisconsin) as part of a broader problem – specifically, “a flood of recent suits that raise the question: ‘Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever)’ millions in taxpayer dollars?”</p>
<p>The case centers on two grant programs for teacher recruitment, training, and professional development. In early February, the Department of Education canceled almost all of the grants – 104 out of 109 – because reviews found “objectionable” material relating to DEI in them.<span id="more-319368"></span></p>
<p>The challenging states went to federal court in Massachusetts in early March, alleging that universities and nonprofits in their states had received grants through the programs, and that the termination of the grants violated the federal law governing administrative agencies. </p>
<p>After a hearing on March 10, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun issued a temporary order that required the government to reinstate the grants that it had terminated in the states bringing the lawsuit, and he barred the government from implementing other terminations in those states.</p>
<p>Joun explained that if he denied the temporary relief that the states were seeking, “dozens of programs upon which public schools, public universities, students, teachers, and faculty rely will be gutted.” But if on the other hand he granted the temporary relief, the department would simply have to “disburse funds that Congress has appropriated to the States and others.”</p>
<p>The United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit declined to put the district court’s order on hold while the government appealed, but it agreed to fast-track the appeal itself.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a federal district court in Maryland has also ordered the Department of Education to reinstate terminated grants in a different lawsuit.</p>
<p>In its plea for the justices to block Joun’s order, the Trump administration complained that Joun had issued a temporary order “without awaiting briefing from the government or correctly assuring itself of its” authority to consider the case. Then, it contended, Joun had extended his temporary order “for up to two more weeks, until” it rules on the states’ request for a preliminary injunction, which would reinstate the grants indefinitely, until Joun rules on the merits of the states’ request or it is overturned by a higher court.</p>
<p>Until the Supreme Court weighs in, Harris asserted, federal courts around the country will continue to act beyond their authority “by ordering the Executive Branch to restore lawfully terminated grants across the government, keep paying for programs that the Executive Branch views as inconsistent with the interests of the United States, and send out the door taxpayer money that may never be clawed back.” The justices, Harris pleaded, “should put a swift end to federal district courts’ unconstitutional reign as self-appointed managers of Executive Branch funding and grant-disbursement decisions.”</p>
<p>Nationwide injunctions have become a popular target in recent weeks, particularly among supporters of the president’s agenda. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced on Wednesday that he would chair a Senate Judiciary Committee <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/rule-by-district-judges-ii-exploring-legislative-solutions-to-the-bipartisan-problem-of-universal-injunctions">hearing on nationwide injunctions next week</a>. “The practice of sweeping nationwide injunctions, broad restraining orders, and judicial policymaking must end,” he said.</p>
<p>Harris also asked the court to issue an administrative stay, which would put Joun’s order on hold while the justices consider the government’s request.</p>
<p><em>This article was <a href="https://amylhowe.com/2025/03/27/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers/">originally published at Howe on the Court</a>. </em></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/03/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-cancellation-of-grants-to-teachers/">Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of grants to teachers</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com">SCOTUSblog</a>.</p>
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<p>The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised concerns over an alleged plot by supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stage a protest at the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Tuesday. The State APC Chairman, Jarret Tenebe, in a petition issued on Monday, urged security agencies, including the […]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.naijanews.com/2025/03/03/edo-apc-raises-alarm-over-alleged-pdp-protest-at-tribunal/">Edo APC Raises Alarm Over Alleged PDP Protest At Tribunal</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.naijanews.com">Naija News</a>.</p>
