WEEKLY GOOD NEWS ROUNDUP FROM THE FRONT – 2/8/26
Here’s a recap of all of the good things that have happened over the past week in our battle to defend our country from the ravages of the current administration, and to turn this ship around!
*Reminder: The full pdfs of all of the orders, TROs, and other documents discussed below are permanently available to Notes from the Front members in the archives here: https://annepmitchell.substack.com/archive
Not a Notes from the Front member yet? Upgrade here for $5 a month and get instant access to all of the documents, the private chat, our private dropbox, and more!
https://annepmitchell.substack.com/subscribe
Ok, on to this week’s good news!
JUDGE EVISCERATES NOEM IN TPS TAKEDOWN!!
In a *scathing* 83-page opinion (included for Notes from the Front members) U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes absolutely *pummels* Noem for her handling of, well, everything, although this particular opinion is about the administration trying to take away the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Haitians. I’m going to jump to the end first, because it is just *so* delightful!
“There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table. Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side – or at least has ignored them. Does not have the law on her side – or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).
Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.”
OUCH!!!
Now let’s back up, because the very beginning of Judge Reyes’ opinion and order is almost as good as the conclusion:
“On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: “America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions.” More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington’s vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually.”
The thing is, by cancelling TPS status for Haitians the administration is literally telling them to return to or get sent back to a region that is ON OUR OWN GOVERNMENT’S “DO NOT TRAVEL TO” LIST!! In fact, that advisory includes “Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.”
One of the most beautiful things about this opinion is that the Judge, as I have repeatedly said that they would do, and are doing, uses Noem’s *own words* to hang her.
For example, “Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies”. Judge Reyes even includes screenshots of Noem’s own social media posts!
She also provides a fairly lengthy footnote going into the etymology of the term, and I apologize for using it here but I quote, “shithole”. (That’s footnote 6 for you Notes from the Front members.)
And then there’s this lovely section:
“To recap, Secretary Noem’s national interest analysis involved cohorts that she cannot say include any current Haitian TPS holders: individuals who are not in the country, individuals in the country unlawfully, individuals in an over-inclusive database, and individuals already subject to exclusion from the TPS statute. This is not a minor detail. Because her national interest analysis focuses only on cohorts that do not involve Haitian TPS holders, there is no reasoned basis to believe that terminating Haiti’s TPS designation will address any of the concerns she raised. Quite the opposite, since turning around 353,000 lawful immigrants into unlawful ones overnight will further burden the very immigration-enforcement system she claims is already over-burdened. This is the type of irrational decision-making the APA prohibits.”
In fact, Judge Reyes mentions Noem, by name, and takes her down, in many, many, many paragraphs.
It’s wonderful.
JUDGE REMOVES DEATH PENALTY CHARGES AGAINST LUIGI MANGIONE FOR KILLING OF UNITED HEALTH CARE CEO BRIAN THOMPSON
While I really can’t go into all of the ins and outs of death penalty stuff here, I *do* have the 39-page order for Notes from the Front members (it’s in your inbox now), and here’s the quick and dirty:
Basically, there were four counts (charges) against Mangione. In two of them, which were the ones which carried the potential for the death penalty, the Judge ruled that the law on which the government was relying was *not properly applied by the government*. So, basically, the counts (Count Three and Count Four) were tossed on technicalities.
Mangione still faces two counts, which carry a penalty of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Now to be clear, I DO NOT support murder. I also do not support the death penalty, for many, many reasons including, yes, lots of mistakes are made, but also it makes victims of other, innocent people, such as the defendant’s parents, the defendant’s children, etc…
LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST THE U.S. FOR THE HIGH SEAS EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS IN VENEZUELA
I don’t usually write about lawsuits which have just been filed, focussing primarily on explaining orders from the Courts, but I know you would want to know about this one.
We knew it was coming, and here it is. In a 23-page Complaint (included for Notes from the Front members), family members have sued our country over the extrajudicial killings of their *non-narcotrafficker* loved ones. The caption itself (that’s the part that says who are the parties to the lawsuit) tells the heartbreaking stories:
LENORE BURNLEY, as mother of CHAD
JOSEPH, and on behalf of his beneficiaries, and
SALLYCAR KORASINGH, as sister of RISHI
SAMAROO, and on behalf of his beneficiaries,
Plaintiffs,
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Defendant
Reread that and let that sink in a minute. A mother is suing our country because our president ordered her son killed, with no due process, no warrant, no warning. By all accounts he was simply a fisherman who was fishing, when BAM. Same for Sallycar’s brother.
Same for the other four people on that boat, and countless others on the other boats that our rogue regime has blown to bits without *any* due process. (And don’t get me started on Minneapolis.) Actually they aren’t countless – the lawsuit includes the count: 125.
Says the complaint, “On October 14, 2025, the United States government authorized and launched a missile strike against a boat carrying six people traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad. The strike killed all six, including Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, two Trinidadian nationals who had been fishing in waters off the Venezuelan coast and working on farms in Venezuela, and who were returning to their homes in Las Cuevas, in nearby Trinidad and Tobago.
The October 14 attack was part of an unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign of lethal strikes against small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. Since this military campaign began on September 2, the United States has launched 36 armed attacks against boats in international waters, killing an estimated 125 people.”
Tellingly, the Complaint says that “Reports indicate that inside the Department of Defense, many officers have questioned the legality of the strikes, and that some have even sought private counsel out of concern for potential criminal liability.”
The lawsuit then goes on to explain two *U.S. Federal* laws that these strikes have violated: the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA).
The Plaintiffs also include images in the Complaint, including pictures of both Chad and Rishi, and I’m not gonna lie – they moved me to tears.
And in another example of what I’ve been telling you, that the things this administration says are lengths of rope which will be used to hang them, the Complaint includes this:
“In fact, the White House Chief of Staff admitted in an interview published on December 16, 2025, that the United States’ goal in targeting boats had nothing to do with drugs at all, but that the President planned to “keep blowing boats up” until President Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, resigned.”
And guess what, I’ve confirmed this. Susie Wiles said this to a Vanity Fair journalist, and it is actually quoted in *several* places on Vanity Fair’s website.
The Complaint goes into depth about the laws (so you Notes from the Front law buffs will appreciate this Complaint). I personally would never have imagined, before 2025, that I’d see a lawsuit citing the Death on the High Seas Act! But there is also a lot of heartbreaking narrative, so be warned.
The way I see it, the U.S. has two likely defenses that it can mount (not saying they are legitimate, I’m saying what I think they will say in response): The “because the president can and we don’t have to tell you our secret reasons because… national security” defense, and, specific to these Plaintiffs, the “you can’t prove they are dead because there are no bodies” defense.
I do want to point out the relief for which they are asking:
“Pecuniary, compensatory, and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial”
Some people don’t really understand that *unless there is a criminal case and someone is arrested*, “justice” usually means money awards. Oh sure, it can also mean the Court ordering the defendant to do or fix something (such as “stop selling baby powder with asbestos”), but generally “justice = money awards”. So in this case, “justice” will equal money.
FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS ADMINISTRATION TO *UNFREEZE* BILLIONS IN CHILD CARE FUNDING
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Vernon Broderick put in place a preliminary injunction and ordered that the administration, including RFK Jr., who is a named defendant, release, and remove any restrictions inhibiting the states from accessing, the funds that had been frozen under a new policy, “which restricted or cut off federal funding for the Child Care Development Fund, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grants programs.” That policy had attempted to freeze and withhold *$10 billion* in child care funds. (Note: this is a preliminary injunction, the Courts still need to decide the actual merits of the case.)
Those states are New York, Minnesota, California, Illinois, and.. yay!… Colorado! (And Attorney General Phil Weiser’s firm legal position leading to many, many wins against this administration is only one of the reasons that I’ll be voting for him as our next Governor).
COURT ORDERS RELEASE OF THE 5-YEAR OLD FROM ICE CUSTODY AND BOY IS THE JUDGE ANGRY!
In a year that has seen a *lot* of judges impatient and even irate with this administration, I don’t believe I have *ever* seen a judge express such complete outrage in an order.
Calling out the government and ICE for the “ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented” government pursuit for “daily deportation quotas” and culminating with:
“Philadelphia, September 17, 1787:
“Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?”
“A republic, if you can keep it.” ”
And:
“With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike…It is so ORDERED”
…the Judge orders 5-year-old L.C.R. and his father released.
And, as you’ve already read here, he was!
You’ll want to frame this 3-page order!
___
And that’s the good news from the past week!
Remember, if you are a Notes from the Front member *all* of the original source documents (transcripts, orders, and the like) are in the archives here. If you’re not a Notes from the Front member yet, please consider joining us! It’s only $5 a month, and with it you get all of the documents that are included with each article, access to our private chat, the podcast, and more! You can cancel any time. Join here
This is me, reporting from the front line of the battle to save the soul of our country.
Anne
Anne P. Mitchell, Esq.
Source