The Week Trump's DOJ Got Spanked by a Judge, the Ninth Circuit, and His Own Pollster
Four losses this week, and the common thread is almost poetic: a federal judge, an appeals court, and Reuters' own number-crunchers all took one look at Team Trump's week and said no. Pour something cold — the comedy writes itself, and for once, so does the math.
1. Trump Fired James Comey's Daughter. A Federal Judge Just Called It Illegal.
A federal judge in Manhattan ruled Monday that the Trump DOJ's 2025 firing of Maurene Comey — a career federal prosecutor and daughter of fired FBI Director James Comey — violated civil service law, ordering her reinstated with full back pay. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman found the government never gave her a legally sufficient reason or the procedural protections federal law requires before cutting her loose — and the DOJ itself has already said it disagrees and plans to appeal, which is corporate-speak for 'we got caught.' Comey was fired months after her father was indicted in a prosecution widely read as retaliatory; Furman didn't rule on the retaliation claim, but he didn't need to — the paper trail did the talking.
Fire the prosecutor, lose to the prosecutor. If this family keeps beating Trump's DOJ in court, somebody should put them on retainer.
2. The DOJ Tried to Toss 20,000 California Ballots. The Ninth Circuit Tossed the DOJ Instead.
The Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 on Monday that the Trump administration's emergency bid to force California to set aside roughly 20,000 mail ballots — ballots DOJ claims belong to likely noncitizens — came too fast for the lower court to even weigh in, so the panel dismissed the appeal on jurisdictional grounds and sent it back down. Al Jazeera notes the majority — which included a Trump appointee — pointed out DOJ knew about these supposed noncitizen voters for months and waited to sue until after mail ballots were already being processed. One judge dissented; the other two just asked why the emergency wasn't an emergency three months ago.
Nothing says 'ironclad election fraud case' like filing it the week ballots are already being counted. Slow down, counselor — the midterms are in a week, not a decade.
3. USCIS Tried to Give Refugees 10 Days to Fight Deportation. A Judge Gave Them Their 30 Back.
A Boston federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration rule that would have slashed, from 30 days to 10, the window refugees get to contest the termination of their legal status — a change that could have hit up to 186,000 people. U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick's order, which runs through November 6 while the case proceeds, came two days after refugee groups and four refugees from Afghanistan, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Iraq sued over a rule USCIS had quietly posted just two weeks earlier. The government says the shorter window is about fraud prevention; the judge, less convinced, hit pause before the ink on the rule was even dry.
They tried to out-paperwork due process. Due process filed a motion back.
4. A Week Before the Midterms, Trump's Favorite Pollster Has Republicans Down Double Digits
Reuters/Ipsos's final pre-midterm poll, released Monday, has registered voters favoring Democrats over Republicans 47% to 36% on the generic congressional ballot — an 11-point gap with Election Day exactly one week out. Trump's own approval ticked up a single point to 32% in the same survey, which is less a comeback than finding a slightly less-deep basement. Political Wire rounds up the rest of the field showing the same story: Democrats holding a clear national lead everywhere pollsters looked this week.
A one-point approval bump and an 11-point beatdown on the ballot that actually counts. Rearrange the deck chairs if you want — it's still the Titanic.
Now go back to doomscrolling. You've earned five minutes of not-doom.