Supreme Court hears arguments on US power to strip green cards

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices grappled over a president’s power over immigration enforcement Wednesday during oral arguments over a technical challenge to the government’s ability to take away someone’s green card as they enter the country.

Over the course of more than an hour of oral arguments, the justices delved into what checks or reviews, if any, immigration officers would have on the power to take away the more permanent green cards and instead admit those immigrants into the country with the temporary status of parole.

Sopan Joshi, assistant solicitor general, argued federal immigration officials should not have to meet a high standard like “clear and convincing evidence” to do so. Joshi pointed out that in the legal challenge before the justices, an immigration official found on a database that the immigrant had been indicted on a criminal charge.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pointed out that allowing unchecked ability to admit green card holders through parole would create an incentive to single out immigrants, who find it harder to travel and retain work on parole.

—CQ-Roll Call

Katie Porter’s former staffers come to her defense as she campaigns for California governor

Nearly three dozen former staffers for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter are coming to her defense months after a pair of videos showing her interactions with an employee and a journalist went viral.

The letter, dated Monday, said those videos show only “a caricature built from a few clips on a bad day,” rather than a Porter who “shows up for her team.”

“The traits that make Katie effective don’t always look soft around the edges,” the letter, signed by 30 staffers from her former congressional office and past campaigns, said.

“People are drawn to Katie’s leadership because she is a workhorse. She asked of us what she expected of herself,” the letter, sent to the Southern California News Group by one of the signees, said. The staffers’ defense of the former Orange County Congress lawmaker comes as the race for California governor is ramping up.

—The Orange County Register

Miami-based cruise line suffers a legal setback in video voyeur case

Possible victims of a cruise ship crew member who planted a hidden camera to watch a young girl undress in her cabin won a significant legal victory on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Detra Shaw-Wilder ruled against Miami-based Royal Caribbean’s attempt to require that all potential victims go through individual arbitration with the cruise line, generally a secretive process often favored by corporations. Her decision removes one of the biggest obstacles each plaintiff or guest was facing in holding the company accountable and receiving damages depending on how far the case advances.

The original class action civil lawsuit was filed Oct. 15, 2024, in Miami federal court against Royal Caribbean Cruises and Arvin Mirasol, a former room attendant. The plaintiff, referred to as Jane Doe in the complaint and represented by the Miami firm Lipcon, Margulies & Winkleman, was a passenger aboard Symphony of the Seas around Feb. 25, 2024.

Mirasol regularly cleaned passenger rooms, restocked towels and changed sheets on Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, a vessel that carries 5,518 passengers and 2,200 crew members. But that wasn’t all he did, according to court filings and the criminal complaint from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

—Miami Herald

War crimes court rejects bid to free Philippines’ Duterte

The International Criminal Court’s appeals chamber ruled that the tribunal has jurisdiction over the case of ex-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity and rejected his bid for release.

The appeals chamber by a majority “has rejected all four grounds of appeal,” Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza said in live-streamed proceedings on Wednesday. “Having rejected the entire appeal, the appeals chamber considers that the defense’s request for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Duterte is moot.”

It was a fresh setback for the firebrand politician who has been detained in an ICC facility in The Hague since March last year. The 81-year old is facing charges related to his administration’s war on drugs that killed thousands of suspects. He waived his right to be present in the proceedings.

Duterte led the Southeast Asian nation from 2016 to 2022. Manila officially withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019, which is central to the defense’s challenge to the ICC’s jurisdiction over the case.

—Bloomberg News