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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* That was quick: “A federal judge on Friday granted Harvard University’s emergency motion to block the Trump administration from revoking its ability to enroll international students, as litigation on the matter continues. In her order, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said Harvard showed ‘it will sustain immediate and irreparable injury’ if the Trump administration is allowed to implement its revocation notice before ‘there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.’”
* The law firms challenging the White House's offensive are, at least so far, undefeated in court: "A U.S. judge on Friday overturned President Donald Trump's executive order targeting Jenner & Block, dealing another setback to his administration's crackdown on prominent law firms that represented Trump's political adversaries or employed lawyers who investigated him in the past."
* Trump’s contempt for the EU is a sight to behold: “President Donald Trump threatened to slap European imports with a sweeping 50% tariff, writing online Friday that trade talks with regional leaders are ‘going nowhere.’’
* SCOTUS news: “The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed the Trump administration to shield Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from freedom of information requests seeking thousands of pages of material. Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay that puts lower court decisions on hold while the Supreme Court considers what next steps to take.”
* The Fifth Circuit strikes again: “A federal appeals court ruled that a public librarian’s decision to pull certain books off the shelves can’t be challenged under the First Amendment, a ruling that could jeopardize other cases over book restrictions in libraries. A divided en banc US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found Friday that parties behind the challenge couldn’t invoke a First Amendment right to receive information to challenge a library’s removal of books.”
* Trump’s video targeting South Africa was already an embarrassment, and now it’s worse: “President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.”
* On a related note, many in South Africa quickly learned of the fact that the American president presented evidence against their country that wasn’t real.
* The latest executive order: “President Trump signed four executive orders on Friday aimed at accelerating the construction of nuclear power plants in the United States, including a new generation of small, advanced reactors that offer the promise of faster deployment but have yet to be proven.”
* I’ll look forward to learning more about this apparent deal: “President Donald Trump said Friday that U.S. Steel will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh as part of what he called a ‘planned partnership’ between the iconic American steelmaker and Japan-based Nippon Steel, which has sought to buy it. Nippon Steel’s nearly $15 billion bid to buy U.S. Steel was blocked by former President Joe Biden and, after Trump became president, subject to another national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.”
Have a safe holiday weekend. See you again on Tuesday, May 27.