Two days ago, I wrote about a pattern operating largely under the radar in the President’s war against higher education. We know about the general grant freezes on about half a dozen elite universities. Then there are countless other grant terminations across a much larger group of universities. One of the complexities of this story is that there are so many different versions of cancellations and terminations going on, it’s hard to figure out which is which. It’s just as hard deciphering to what extent the differences even matter. There are ones tied to prohibited words and concepts (DEI, transgender); there are ones tied to targeted universities; others are terminated on generic efficiency grounds; others are canceled for no clear reason. Are these categories even meaningful or is that all just more smoke and mirrors and distraction?
Continue reading “The NIH Funds-Ghosting, A Follow Up Report”Listen To This: Culture War Losses
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Kate and Josh discuss the Trump administration’s muteness on abortion (so far), their losses in recent Alien Enemies Act cases and the sweet, sweet downfall of eagle Ed Martin.
Continue reading “Listen To This: Culture War Losses”Inside One Venezuelan’s Last-Minute Escape From a Flight to CECOT
The way attorney Jamie Diez describes it, visiting the El Valle Detention Center was usually straightforward. After making the 50-minute drive from Brownsville, he told TPM, he would usually stroll in unannounced. Officials would, after a wait, bring Diez, an immigration attorney, whichever client he was seeing that day. He was so used to El Valle that, on March 15, he showed up wearing shorts.
Continue reading “Inside One Venezuelan’s Last-Minute Escape From a Flight to CECOT”BREAKING: Trump Yanks Ed Martin Nomination
A short time ago, President Trump announced in the Oval Office that he is pulling the nomination of Ed Martin as U.S. attorney for D.C.
Saying he was “disappointed” that Martin’s nomination foundered in the Senate, Trump floated the possibility of bringing Martin into the administration – and specifically into the Justice Department – in some other way.
So we may not be rid of Martin quite yet.
Continue reading “BREAKING: Trump Yanks Ed Martin Nomination”Very Interesting Follow Up About that OPM Contract
From an anonymous TPM Reader …
Continue reading “Very Interesting Follow Up About that OPM Contract”As a former OPM appointee, this seems suspect for numerous reasons. Going through the Federal News Network article, the first thing that doesn’t make sense is in the second paragraph. Leading with retirement applications and RIFs is really odd, since the federal retirement process is a government-wide problem that a central OPM system isn’t going to fix alone, and OPM has no real role in RIFs for other agencies. The small price tag you cite is another huge red flag. This must be for OPM systems only (internal, not in a government-wide capacity) and I know from experience working with Workday and companies like them that $300K doesn’t go very far. I think they got rid of too many people at OPM too quickly (a mix of policy expert people and hands on execution people) and this is a desperate effort to fill that gap.
Elon’s OPM Hands Out No Bid Contract to Cloud-Based AI HR Company
After firing much of its staff, the Office of Personal Management, under Elon Musk’s effective control since late January, has handed out a no bid contract to cloud-AI-based HR company Workday to help handle the mountain of terminations, retirements and layoffs built up over the first three months of the Trump administration. OPM stated in justification for the sole-source, no-bid contract that “an urgent confluence of operational failures and binding federal mandates that require immediate action.”
Continue reading “Elon’s OPM Hands Out No Bid Contract to Cloud-Based AI HR Company”Courts Rush To Beat Back A New Round Of Trump Lawlessness
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
It’s Happening Slower Than You Can See
The historic constitutional clash over President Trump’s lawless immigration policies continues at a pace that is difficult for casual observers to follow on daily basis, but a burst of new activity Wednesday offers a chance to frame up where things now stand and where they’re likely headed.
The Contempt Proceedings
The two cases in which a constitutional clash is ripest are already in the early stages of contempt of court proceedings, but they have been either slowrolled by the Trump administration or put on hold by an appeals court:
- Abrego Garcia: U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland has ordered expedited discovery into what the Trump administration has done and and plans to do to facilitate the return of the mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia. She plans to use the information gathered to determine whether the Trump administration has acted in good faith or stonewalled her orders. But the Trump administration has slowrolled the discovery process, too. Just yesterday, the parties filed a sealed joint motion over a discovery dispute. While the exact nature of the dispute is unclear, Xinis issued a public order later in the day that revealed the administration is invoking state secrets and deliberative process privileges to thwart discovery requests, forcing another round of delays in the case.
- AEA deportation flights: U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of DC has already found probable cause that the Trump administration is in criminal contempt of court for ignoring his order not to deport detainees to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. This is the original AEA case, brought in a late night rush the weekend of March 15. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has imposed an administrative stay on the contempt proceedings, but has been fully briefed since last week and could rule at any time.
The Other Abrego Garcia-Like Case
The Trump administration filed notice yesterday that it is appealing U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher’s order that it facilitate the release from El Salvador’s CECOT prison a Venezuelan man deported there on March 15 in violation of a 2024 settlement agreement protecting asylum seekers like him.
The AEA Detainees In El Salvador
The original Alien Enemies Act case in front of Judge Boasberg has now morphed into a case focused on returning the AEA detainees in El Salvador and providing them with the due process they never received.
In a hearing yesterday, President Trump’s own words came back to haunt him. Boasberg repeatedly pressed a DOJ lawyer on Trump’s admission that he could pick up the phone and secure Abrego Garcia’s release and on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s public remarks at the Salvadoran prison that it was one of the “tools” in the administration’s toolbox. Those statements undermine the administration’s already flimsy argument that the detainees are not in its control but rather the control of El Salvador.
Boasberg seemed inclined to rule that the detainees are in the constructive custody of the United States and therefore can be returned and provided due process, though the exact contours of how that would work remain unclear. Boasberg ordered expedited discovery before ruling in the case, though he acknowledged that the Trump administration may slowroll him just like it’s done in discovery in the Abrego Garcia case.
Third Country Removals
With news reports and evidence on the ground suggesting that the Trump administration was about to deport a group of Asian detainees to Libya yesterday aboard a U.S. military plane, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts issued an extraordinary emergency clarification affirming that his existing order barring removals to third countries applied to Pentagon flights, too. On his own initiative, Murphy also told the parties he is considering adding the Defense Department as a party to the case.
All of this comes after the administration seemed to violate his original order in March that barred third-country removals by using a military plane to transport detainees from Gitmo to El Salvador. Murphy has ordered limited discovery to probe the circumstances of that flight, and this case could yet yield a contempt of court finding, but it’s not quite as far along as the contempt proceedings highlighted above.
Appeals Court Thwarts Trump’s Louisiana Gambit
The 1st Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk can challenge her detention in federal court in Vermont rather than Louisiana, where she is being currently held.
Big Law Flinches On Pro Bono Immigration Work
Some major law firms have backed away from the kind of pro bono work in challenging President Trump’s immigration policies that they engaged in during his first term, the NYT reports.
The Retribution: Joe Biden Edition
The Trump administration is making plans to release the audio of the investigative interview Special Counsel Robert Hur did with President Biden in his classified documents probe, Politico reports. This was the interview that famously led Hur to conclude Biden was an “elderly man with a poor memory.” The transcript of the interview has already been released.
The Destruction: National Endowment For The Arts Edition
All 10 NEA arts directors are leaving the agency, according to the WaPo.
Thread Of The Day
Regs *Taps mic* Hello! I’m a former long-time civil servant turned academic. I wanna tell you some stuff. First, my service was mostly at a place called OIRA, which is an office that oversees federal regulation. I’d therefore rate myself as an above-average tea-leaf-reader for federal regs.
— Bridget Dooling (@bridgetdooling.bsky.social) May 7, 2025 at 7:32 PM
From The Frying Pan Into The Fire
Jeh Johnson, secretary of homeland security under President Obama, is retiring from Paul Weiss – which notoriously struck a deal with President Trump to get out from under his executive order targeting the firm – after being elected co-chair of the Columbia University board of trustees.
A Really Good Point
I’ve seen a lot of coverage of Trump’s attack on higher ed that blames the victims for becoming overdependent on government funding for research, as if universities are piglets sucking at the federal teat. The much more accurate description is of a mutually dependent relationship. But if I had to say who has the upper hand, it’s much closer to the other way around: government – which is to say all of us – is dependent on higher ed.
Josh Marshall makes this point well: “To listen to a lot of news reporting, and by no means only Trump-friendly coverage, you might think that the big research universities got here like so many academic Amtraks. Down on their luck industries that were falling apart and needed federal support to survive.”
Only in a down-is-up world would anyone assess higher ed’s contributions in the post-World War II era in pure science, research, and development across the whole range of technical and scientific disciplines and conclude that universities got a sweetheart deal and the federal government got rooked.
Fetterman Watch
The day before the publication of last week’s disturbing NY Mag piece about Sen. John Fetterman’s health, the Democratic senator broke down in a meeting at his DC office with teachers union representatives, the AP reports:
Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me,” “why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do” and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred.
As the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying. The staffer was comforted by the teachers who were themselves rattled by Fetterman’s behavior, according to a second person who was briefed separately on the meeting.
A Brief Meditation
It’s been too long since I shared volcano content:
Episode 20 of the ongoing eruption at Kīlauea volcano (Hawaiʻi) ended last night after 4.5 hours of continuous lava fountaining. This time lapse, from the V1 cam on the NW caldera rim, shows the precursory activity and subsequent fountaining.
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) May 7, 2025
More info: https://t.co/CuHyo6Tv2e pic.twitter.com/Z8EruJuIyP
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Sic Transit, DeTransitioning Edition
I am reading an April 21, 2025 letter from Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Stephen Ferrara which provides guidance for discontinuing treatment of minors with gender dysphoria at military medical treatment facilities. After noting the Pentagon policy banning the initiation or continuation of treatment with puberty blockers or cross-sex hormone therapy, the letter allows clinicians to offer a tapering-off regime which can last between 6 and 12 weeks, during which military doctors can write prescriptions. Anything longer than 12 weeks must get express approval from Ferrara’s office. The letter also notes administrative changes which will require patients to fill tapering prescriptions “at private sector pharmacies at their own expense.”
Outgoing UMich Prez Santa Ono Pulls His Name from Academic Freedom Letter
Over the weekend, University of Michigan President Santa Ono announced that he was leaving his post to take up the leadership of the University of Florida. It was an interesting choice. It’s been reported that Ono had been warier of resisting or challenging the dictates of the Trump administration than the majority of the University’s Board of Regents, the members of which are elected in statewide elections. The majority of appointees to the University of Florida’s board are appointed by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis.
Continue reading “Outgoing UMich Prez Santa Ono Pulls His Name from Academic Freedom Letter”Let’s Remember Why There’s a System of Federal Research Grants to Universities
This is largely preaching to the choir, but it’s absent enough from the news coverage that is worth stating clearly. Most right-thinking people are aghast at Trump’s onslaught on higher education. The range of reasons is endlessly discussed and doesn’t need to be enumerated here. But through those discussions is the subtext that higher education is dependent on federal subsidies. There is some truth to this when it comes to Pell grants and backstopping student loans. But with grants to fund scientific research, it turns the reality on its head. It’s the federal government which is the initiator here, both historically and also in terms of the ongoing dynamic of grant-making.
Continue reading “Let’s Remember Why There’s a System of Federal Research Grants to Universities”