Former President Trump's Legal Battles Rage On: A Comprehensive Update

The courtroom battles connected to Donald Trump over the past several days have felt like a whirlwind—sometimes more like a political drama than the careful workings of the American legal system. Let’s get right into what’s been happening with the most high-stakes court proceedings involving the former president. The most headline-grabbing of these is the ongoing fallout from Trump’s executive actions since his return to power. On July 10, a federal court in New Hampshire issued a sharp rebuke to President Trump’s recent executive order that aimed to restrict birthright citizenship. The case, Barbara v. Donald J. Trump, was brought forward immediately after the Supreme Court left the door slightly open to carrying out parts of the executive order. But civil rights groups, including the ACLU, succeeded in getting the court to block the order and certify nationwide protections for babies born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. This is significant not only because it pushes back against the Trump administration’s ambitious policy, but also because it underscores the ongoing tension between federal courts and the White House over the interpretation of constitutional rights for immigrants and their children. Just days earlier, on July 8, the Supreme Court stepped in to halt a lower court’s injunction against another Trump policy—this time related to a federal workforce shake-up. The executive order in question, Executive Order No. 14210, would permit massive restructuring of federal agencies, and was challenged by the American Federation of Government Employees among others. The Supreme Court stay means that Trump’s reorganization plan can proceed while the legal fight continues in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This battle is critical for hundreds of thousands of federal workers who face uncertainty about their jobs and futures as the litigation unfolds. Meanwhile, on the criminal front, the aftershocks of Trump’s sentencing back in January in New York are still reverberating. On January 10, Trump appeared in court for sentencing related to charges stemming from falsified business records—a case that had dominated headlines throughout late 2024. The sentencing, presided over by Judge Juan Merchan, marked the first time in U.S. history a former president was criminally sentenced. Filed documents and audio transcripts from the state courts show the defense aggressively appealing, filing multiple motions while prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers continue to wrangle over what can be discussed and released to the public. And, circling back to national security issues, litigation is still underway regarding Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, which he used in March to fast-track the deportation of some Venezuelan nationals. The Supreme Court has stepped in to block the removal of these individuals as courts now sort out what kind of due process Trump’s executive order must afford them. This case, and those like it,