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Justice Neil Gorsuch is not pleased with judges setting nationwide policy. But how common is it?
CBSN
Washington — When the Supreme Court heard arguments in two high-stakes, separate cases last month, Justice Neil Gorsuch raised concerns about how both disputes arrived at the court.
The cases — one involving the Biden administration's communications with social media companies and the other, the accessibility of a commonly used abortion pill — landed before the justices after federal district courts issued nationwide orders that blocked federal agencies from taking certain actions.
In the social media case, a Louisiana judge barred certain White House and administration officials from communicating with social media companies. In the abortion case, a Texas judge suspended the Food and Drug Administration's 2000 approval of the drug mifepristone — it was later reversed by a federal appellate court — and blocked a series of actions taken by the agency that made the drug easier to obtain.
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More than 2 million federal employees face a looming deadline: By midnight on Thursday, they must decide whether to accept a "deferred resignation" offer from the Trump administration. If workers accept, according to a White House plan, they would continue getting paid through September but would be excused from reporting for duty. But if they opt to keep their jobs, they could get fired.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.