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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s book, ‘Antisemitism in America: A Warning,’ is slated for release on Tuesday, but promotional events for the long-serving lawmaker’s book that were scheduled for this week are being called off.

‘Due to security concerns, Senator Schumer’s book events are being rescheduled,’ a statement to Fox from a book tour spokesperson noted.

The senator had been scheduled for multiple events this week.

Schumer irked some Democrats last week by voting to overcome a procedural hurdle and advance a Trump-backed government funding measure to a vote as the nation faced the prospect of a partial government shutdown.

He and a number of other Senate Democratic caucus members voted to invoke cloture, but then voted against passing the measure.

Two members of the Senate Democratic caucus – Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. – voted to both invoke cloture and to pass the measure. 

Shaheen announced last week that she will not seek re-election in 2026.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Senate Republican who voted against passing the funding measure last week.

Ahead of the vote, Schumer said that while the ‘bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse.’

Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report

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Ukraine now has a cruise missile that can travel over 600 miles, far enough to reach Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy boasted over the weekend. 

‘We have significant results,’ Zelenskyy said Saturday. ‘Long Neptune has been tested and successfully used in combat. A new Ukrainian missile, an accurate strike. The range is a thousand kilometers,’ or 620 miles. 

That puts Moscow within striking range. 

The missile has been in development for years. Battle watchers believe the combat success Zelenskyy referred to was a Friday strike on an oil refinery in Tuapse, Russia, some 300 miles from the front line. 

The refinery is under 60 miles from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sprawling cliffside palace on the Black Sea in Gelendzhik. 

The Neptune cruise missile was used in April 2022 to take out a flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. 

Zelenskyy recently pledged that Ukraine would produce 100,000 long-range munitions in 2025.

Russia intercepted and destroyed several Ukrainian drones flying over Moscow on Friday, with some coming as close as just two miles away from the Kremlin, according to Russian officials. White House envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow last week.

The fresh attacks and new offensive weapons contradict the delicate ceasefire negotiations that will culminate in a phone call between President Donald Trump and Putin on Tuesday. 

Zelenskyy has already agreed to the terms of a 30-day ceasefire after meetings with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia. 

‘We’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants, that’s a big question. But I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much, by both sides, Ukraine and Russia,’ Trump said of his call. 

Russia has not accepted the terms of the ceasefire and accelerated attacks on Ukraine after Zelenskyy said he would agree to it. 

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Americans once again donned their green beads and shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, celebrating the largest Irish diaspora in the world. St. Patrick’s Day has become an opportunity for Ireland and the United States to celebrate their rich cultural and political connections. 

New York City is hosting its 264th St. Patrick’s Day Parade today – marking the oldest and longest standing St. Patrick’s Day parade in the world. The first parade was held in 1762, predating America’s Declaration of Independence. 

Major cities across the United States hosted their own St. Patrick’s Day parades this weekend – including Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago. Chicago even dyes the Chicago River green each year to mark the celebration. 

President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson kicked off the Irish celebrations last week by welcoming ​Taoiseach Micheál Martin to the White House. 

‘America’s truly been blessed by the courage and unstoppable spirit of the Irish,’ Trump said at the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon on Wednesday. ‘Over the generations, Americans of Irish ancestry have helped build our railroads and raise our cities and man our factories, enrich our culture with art and music and literature – we see that all over – and protect our communities by joining the proud tradition of Irish-American police officers and firefighters. And few have done more for the Stars and Stripes than the sons and daughters of the Emerald Isle.’

While the first wave of Irish immigrants arrived in the United States in the 1700s, immigration reports reveal the Great Famine in the 1800s nearly doubled the population of Irish in the United States – as over a million Irish died from starvation while another million immigrated to the United States. 

Trump, a native New Yorker, spoke with pride of New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, watching ‘hundreds of citizens decked in Irish green’ marching up Fifth Avenue and past ‘the most beautiful cathedral in the world,’ St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

The Taoiseach’s trip to Washington, D.C., began with a breakfast at the vice president’s residence, followed by the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon and a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office answering questions from reporters. 

‘Irish America has been at the heart of shaping this great nation. The ideals of liberty, democracy and equality of opportunity forged in this country did much to inspire Irish independence. Our histories are interconnected because our people are interconnected. Today, as the president has said, more than 30 million people claim Irish ancestry in the United States,’ Martin said. 

The celebratory events were not without some political tension when Trump said the United States has a ‘massive deficit’ with Ireland because they ‘took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents who didn’t know what they were doing.’ Trump said the European Union, which includes Ireland, ‘treats us very badly.’ 

Martin countered Trump’s comments, saying,It’s a two-way street to where we are investing a lot more in America now.’ However, Trump maintained that reciprocal tariffs were only fair. 

Martin presented Trump with a crystal bowl filled with shamrocks, a tradition that dates back to 1952 to symbolize the long-standing friendship between Ireland and the United States. Martin said the Shamrock Bowl ceremony is ‘an important moment to reflect upon the relationship between our two countries.’

Speakerof the HouseTip O’Neill, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and fellow Irish-American lawmakers began the Friends of Ireland Caucus and Luncheon in 1981, during ‘The Troubles.’

‘The Troubles’ were a period of political and sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s and 1998. Irish Republicans, who were predominately Catholic, sought a united Ireland, while Unionists, who were mostly Protestant, wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. 

When Britain tried to enforce military conscription in Ireland during World War I, Irish nationalists, labor unions and the Catholic Church united in opposition. As support for Irish independence grew, Sinn Féin, an Irish nationalist party, gained popularity following the 1916 Easter Rising.

After winning a majority in the general election in 1918, Sinn Féin declared Irish independence and established the First Dáil, or the Irish Parliament. But Britain refused to recognize Irish independence, leading the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to launch the Irish War of Independence in 1919. 

The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 ended the war and created the Irish Free State, which became the Republic of Ireland in 1949 and allowed the six counties of Northern Ireland to remain in the United Kingdom. Catholics in Northern Ireland faced discrimination from the unionist government, who favored Protestants. Inspired by the Civil Rights movement, Catholics began peaceful protests demanding equal rights in Northern Ireland in the 1960s. 

Conflicts between the unionist government and nationalist protesters escalated into ‘The Troubles’ – 30 years of violence between British soldiers and the IRA. The United States was instrumental in ending ‘The Troubles’ in 1998. 

Former President Bill Clinton helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which largely ended the violence in Ireland by establishing a power-sharing agreement between unionists and nationalists – strengthening the relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. 

Martin on Wednesday said former President Ronald Reagan initiated the United States’ role in the peace process, as the first U.S. president to visit Ireland. The Reagan administration helped develop the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, which laid the groundwork for the Good Friday Agreement. 

‘Nowhere is the strength of the U.S.-Irish relationship more in evident than in our own peace process. 44 years ago, President Reagan called for a just and peaceful solution to the conflict that has for so long devastated lives on our island. Politicians from both sides of the aisle rose to the occasion, and the lasting peace we enjoyed today on our island is a signature achievement of U.S. foreign policy, and this story of peace is one that we both wrote together,’ Martin said. 

Martin commended Trump for leading peace negotiations in Ukraine and the Middle East during his visit to Washington, following Trump’s contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last month. 

‘We are ready to play our part in supporting work, to end conflict and to secure peace in the Ukraine, or in the Middle East or wherever. We welcome very much the unrelenting focus and effort that President Trump and his administration has brought to this task from his very first days in office,’ Martin added. 

Yet, there were Irish officials who disagreed with Martin’s sentiment and boycotted the events at the White House last week. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill skipped St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the U.S. this year to protest Trump’s calling for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

Trump said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. would ‘take over the Gaza Strip.’ Trump also suggested relocating Palestinians to rebuild Gaza as the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’ 

When reporters asked Trump about the boycott during the press conference in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said, ‘I really haven’t heard that.’ However, Trump also seemed to walk back his Gaza comments, telling a reporter:’Nobody’s expelling any Palestinians.’

Ireland is a long-time supporter of Palestinian independence, as many Irish draw parallels with the British occupation of Ireland. Ireland has advocated for full Palestinian statehood and a two-state solution throughout the war in Gaza. Irish citizens have vocally opposed the war in Gaza and consistently protested in support of Palestinians since the war began. 

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been ordered to pay more than $54,000 for violating the state’s open records laws in relation to the prosecution of President Donald Trump.

The county’s Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause formalized her ruling Friday and ordered Willis to pay $54,264 in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs after ‘intentionally’ failing to provide records requested by Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney who filed the motion to disqualify Willis from prosecuting Trump on charges of allegedly interfering with the 2020 presidential election.

Krause stated that Willis’ office failed to provide documents related to the employment of Nathan Wade, the former special assistant district attorney forced to resign from the Trump case due to his romantic relationship with Willis. 

Merchant believed that Willis and Wade may have financially benefited from Wade’s appointment as the special prosecutor in the case.

‘Defendants — through the Open Records custodian, Dexter Bond — were openly hostile to counsel for Plaintiff, Ms. Merchant, and testified that Ms. Merchant’s requests were handled differently than other requests,’ the court order said.

Bond, who testified that his usual practice was to call a requestor to receive additional information to fulfill requests, indicated that he refused to communicate with Merchant by telephone, the court order stated.

‘While there is no requirement under the ORA for Mr. Bond to call any requestor about a particular request, Mr. Bond’s handling of Ms. Merchant’s requests in this manner indicates a lack of good faith,’ the order said. ‘Defendants’ failures were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious.’

Merchant, who reacted to the ruling in a post on X Friday, said she was ‘proud that we have judges willing to hold people in power accountable when they ignore the law!!!!’

Fox News Digital reached out to Merchant and Willis’ office for additional statements but did not immediately receive a response.

The DA’s office has 30 days from the court’s order to pay the penalty. The plaintiff also received injunctive relief directing Willis to finally provide the requested documents.

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Nationwide injunctions ordered against the first Trump administration account for more than half of the total injunctions ordered against the federal government since 1963, data show. 

Nationwide injunctions are court orders that prevent the federal government from implementing a policy or law that has a cascading effect impacting the entire country, not just the parties involved in the court case. 

Trump’s first administration faced 64 injunctions out of the total 127 nationwide injunctions issued since 1963. There were 32 injunctions issued against the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations collectively since 2001, meaning the first Trump administration was on the receiving end of double the amount of nationwide injunctions than his two predecessors and successor combined, according to the April 2024 edition of the Harvard Law Review. 

The Harvard Law Review found there were six injunctions issued against the Bush administration, 12 against the Obama administration and 14 against the Biden administration. 

Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January has brought with it more than 120 lawsuits from activists, government employees and others targeting his executive orders and actions. The lawsuits have resulted in nationwide injunctions in some cases, including 15 in February alone, according to Trump’s acting solicitor general, Sarah Harris.

Trump filed an emergency appeal Thursday asking the Supreme Court to narrow three injunctions that were issued to halt Trump’s nullification of birthright citizenship. The emergency appeal requests the injunction only cover individuals directly impacted by the relevant courts. 

Harris argued in the emergency appeal that nationwide injunctions have hit ‘epidemic proportions’ under the second Trump administration, noting that the federal government faced 14 universal injunctions in the first three years of the Biden administration compared to 15 leveled against the Trump admin in one month alone. 

‘Years of experience have shown that the Executive Branch cannot properly perform its functions if any judge anywhere can enjoin every presidential action everywhere,’ Harris wrote.

Officials in the first Trump administration also railed against the flow of injunctions ordered against the 45th president’s policies and laws, including the former chiefs of the Department of Justice. 

‘Courts issued an average of only 1.5 nationwide injunctions per year against the Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations, and 2.5 per year against the Obama administration,’ former Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams said in February 2019.  

‘In President Trump’s first year in office, however, judges issued a whopping 20 nationwide injunctions – an eightfold increase. This matches the entire eight-year total of such injunctions issued against President Obama during his two terms. We are now at 30, matching the total number of injunctions issued against the first 42 presidents combined.’

Former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr added in remarks later in 2019 that there were ‘only 27 nationwide injunctions­ in all of the 20th century’ compared to 37, at the time, against the first Trump administration. 

‘Since President Trump took office, federal district courts have issued 37 nationwide injunctions against the Executive Branch. That’s more than one a month. By comparison, during President Obama’s first two years, district courts issued two nationwide injunctions against the Executive Branch, both of which were vacated by the Ninth Circuit. And according to the Department’s best estimates, courts issued only 27 nationwide injunctions­ in all of the 20th century,’ the former AG said in May 2019. 

Harvard Law Review found that the judges who issued the injunctions against the first Trump administration were overwhelmingly ordered by judges who were appointed by a Democrat. 

Democratic-appointed judges ordered 92.2% of the injunctions against the Trump administration, meaning just five of the 64 injunctions were ordered by Republican-appointed judges. 

Republican-appointed judges ordered all 14 of the nationwide injunctions against the federal government under the Biden administration. 

Injunctions under the Bush and Obama eras were much more bipartisan, with 50% of the injunctions in the Bush era issued by Democratic-appointed judges, and Republican-appointed judges ordering 58.3% of the 12 injunctions in the Obama era. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

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State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Monday that ‘the ball is now in Russia’s court’ to accept a U.S.-proposed ceasefire deal that Ukraine agreed to last week.

The U.S.-backed proposal, which includes an immediate 30-day ceasefire and guaranteed resumption of U.S. military aid and intelligence to Ukraine, was finalized during diplomatic talks in Saudi Arabia last week.

‘Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate interim 30-day ceasefire to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The ball is now in Russia’s court,’ Bruce said during the State Department’s second briefing of Trump’s second term. ‘Following this historic meeting, Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio traveled to the G7 in Canada, where our partners expressed support for a swift and a durable end to this conflict.’

After President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, Putin said during a news conference that he agreed with the truce in principle, noting, ‘The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it.’ Meanwhile, Trump’s national security advisor, Michael Waltz, said following the meeting that there is ‘cautious optimism’ a ceasefire could be close at hand.

While a ceasefire appears imminent, Russia and Ukraine still need to resolve key disagreements before finalizing the deal.

These include negotiations related to Ukraine’s entrance into NATO — which Russia has said is a non-starter — territorial integrity disputes and security guarantees, such as whether NATO peacekeeping troops will be allowed in Ukraine to maintain the ceasefire. Potential prisoner swaps will also need to be ironed out between the two warring nations.

Trump has also signaled that control of certain land and power plants in Ukraine would also be part of the negotiations.

While Trump and his team have expressed optimism about the deal, GOP South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said only ‘time will tell’ whether Putin plans on ‘deceiving us.’

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President Donald Trump said he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about the final points of a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said many ‘elements’ of the Final Agreement’ have been agreed to ‘but much remains.’

‘Thousands of young soldiers, and others, are being killed. Each week brings 2,500 soldier deaths, from both sides, and it must end NOW,’ Trump wrote. ‘I look very much forward to the call with President Putin.’

Some points of discussion could involed territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The Trump administration has been working on a deal to end the three-year war. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko reportedly said that the Kremlin wants an ‘ironclad’ guarantee that Ukraine will be prohibited from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that ‘we have never been closer to peace,’ as the U.S. waits for Russia’s answer on a 30-day ceasefire agreement. 

Ukraine accepted the deal earlier in the week after a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia, on the condition that Moscow commits to the plan.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for tougher sanctions on Russia and accused Putin of trying to drag out the peace talks to prolong the war.

‘It’s clear to everyone in the world—even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years—that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war,’ the Ukrainian leader wrote Monday on X. ‘For a week now, Putin has been unable to squeeze out ‘yes’ to the ceasefire proposal. He’s saying whatever he wants, but not what the whole world wants to hear.’

He called for world leaders to pressure Moscow into ending the conflict.

‘The unconditional ceasefire proposal is essentially about saving lives, allowing diplomats to work on ensuring security and a lasting peace—the proposal that Russia is ignoring,’ he said. ‘Pressure is needed to finally make Moscow accept that their war must be brought to an end.’

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The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is over as Israeli fighter jets began striking the Gaza Strip after Hamas refused repeated hostage deal offers, officials said. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began striking Hamas terrorist targets across Gaza ‘in order to achieve the war objectives set by the political leadership, including the release of all our hostages—both the living and the fallen,’ the office of Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a letter. 

‘This decision comes after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all proposals presented by U.S. President’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, as well as the mediators,’ the letter states. 

Israel will intensify its military actions against Hamas moving forward, authorities said.

‘Under the direction of the political echelon, the IDF and Shin Bet are widely attacking terrorist targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip, more details below,’ the IDF and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, said in a joint statement. 

Netanyahu’s office said Hamas ‘rejected all offers it received’ from the Trump administration’s special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff and the other mediators, the Times of Israel reported. 

‘Tonight, we returned to fighting in Gaza due to Hamas’ refusal to release the hostages and threats to harm IDF soldiers and Israeli communities,’ Katz said. ‘If Hamas does not release all the hostages, the gates of hell will open in Gaza, and Hamas’ murderers and rapists will meet the IDF with forces they have never known before.’

He noted that Israel ‘will not stop fighting until all the hostages return home and all the war’s goals are achieved.’

In a statement, Hamas blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘and the Nazi Zionist occupation fully responsible for the repercussions of the treacherous aggression on Gaza, and for the defenseless civilians and our besieged Palestinian people, who are subjected to a brutal war and a systematic policy of starvation.’

The terror group called for the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council to urgently convene to adopt a resolution demanding Israel halt military operations and fully withdraw from Gaza. 

Hamas has insisted on sticking with the original terms of the deal, with Israel fully withdrawing from Gaza and agreeing to permanently end the war in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages. 

Netanyahu has long insisted that Israel will not end the war until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities have been destroyed.

The strikes come after nearly two months of a ceasefire to pause the 17-month-long war where dozens of hostages were released for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

On Monday, Israeli forces launched airstrikes in Gaza, southern Lebanon and southern Syria. The IDF said it was targeting terrorists plotting attacks. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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President Donald Trump has signed more than 80 executive orders since returning to the White House in January — prompting more than 100 lawsuits against his administration. 

While Democratic lawmakers have accused the Trump administration of launching a ‘constitutional crisis’ within the U.S. as a result of these orders, the White House has claimed that ‘low-level’ judges have issued unconstitutional injunctions barring Trump from implementing his agenda and that it will appeal adverse rulings. 

‘You cannot have a low-level district court judge filing an injunction to usurp the executive authority of the President of the United States,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday. ‘That is completely absurd. … It’s very clear that there are judicial activists throughout our judicial branch who are trying to block this president’s executive authority.’ 

Here are some of the judges, appointed under the Obama and Biden administrations, who’ve pushed back against Trump’s orders: 

James Boasberg

Boasberg has served as the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia since March 2023, and was first appointed as a judge to the District Court in March 2011 under the Obama administration. 

Boasberg issued several key rulings on various cases during Trump’s first administration. For example, he blocked Arkansas, Kentucky and New Hampshire from implementing work requirement waivers for Medicaid recipients, after the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a policy permitting states to enforce the waivers for Medicaid recipients. 

Ultimately, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling in February 2020 upholding Boasberg’s previous decision in the Kentucky and Arkansas case. In the ruling, the appeals court said that former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar ‘failed to analyze whether the demonstrations would promote the primary objective of Medicaid — to furnish medical assistance.’

The Supreme Court then dismissed all pending cases related to the Medicaid work requirements in April 2022. 

On Saturday, Boasberg issued an order halting the Trump administration from deporting migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which permits deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing. 

However, the flight continued to drop off the migrants in El Salvador, and Leavitt said Sunday the order had ‘no lawful basis’ since Boasberg issued it after the flight’s departure from U.S. airspace. 

Boasberg graduated from Yale College in 1985 and Yale Law School in 1990. He also served a seven-year term from 2014 to 2021 on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which handles surveillance requests for foreign intelligence gathering. 

Leo Sorokin

Sorokin, an Obama appointee, joined the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2014, after previously serving as magistrate judge on the same court. 

Sorokin spearheaded a delayed-sentencing program in Massachusetts known as the Repair, Invest, Succeed, Emerge, or RISE, program. The program offers some criminal offenders a yearlong delay in sentencing for some criminal offenders who qualify for pretrial release as they undergo an intensive supervision program.

‘I’m thrilled with how the restorative justice part of RISE has gone, so we’re expanding,’ Sorokin said at an event at Columbia Law School in 2020. ‘I think it’s lawful. I think it’s correct. I think it’s what we ought to be doing.’

Sorokin said his motivation to launch the RISE program stemmed from a conversation he had with a man convicted of bank robbery who explained he wanted to apologize to the bank teller and to his sisters for committing the crime. 

Sorokin blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order to ban birthright citizenship in February — joining other judges from Maryland and Washington state in issuing nationwide injunctions against the ban. The Trump administration requested the Supreme Court step in Friday and allow it to execute the order, and the Supreme Court requested responses from challengers by April 4. 

Sorokin attended Columbia Law School and has worked as a professor for Boston University School of Law. 

Amir Ali

Ali, a Biden appointee, is one of the newest judges to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, joining the court in December 2024. Ali also helped launch the MacArthur Justice Center’s Washington, D.C., branch in 2017, a nonprofit law firm that specializes in criminal justice reform and civil rights issues. 

Ali, who eventually led the firm as the executive director, argued and won two cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the MacArthur Justice Center. 

Ali’s ties to the firm came under scrutiny during his confirmation hearing in February 2024 before the Senate, where lawmakers asked him about remarks his MacArthur Justice Center colleague, Cliff Johnson, made in 2020 asserting that defunding the police paves the way for a ‘movement toward making police departments obsolete.’

 

However, Ali told lawmakers that he didn’t espouse those views, nor did the MacArthur Justice Center. 

‘Let me be very clear about this,’ Ali said. ‘I have never advocated for taking away police funding. I would not take that position, and the MacArthur Justice Center has not taken that position.’

On March 11, Ali issued a ruling that determined the Trump administration likely exceeded its constitutional authority when it sought to halt payments the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) owed to contractors amounting to $2 billion in funding Congress had approved.

Ali has also taught classes on civil, criminal and appellate litigation at schools, including Harvard Law School and the Georgetown University Law Center. 

Beryl Howell

Howell, an Obama appointee, joined the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2010. She previously served as staff and as general counsel of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1993 to 2003. 

Howell ruled against the Trump administration March 6, and wrote in her ruling that Trump did not have the authority to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board at will. The Trump administration dismissed National Labor Relations Board chair Gwynne Wilcox in January, prompting Wilcox to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for violating the National Labor Relations Act, which states negligence and misconduct are the only causes to fire a member of the board. 

‘A president who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,’ Howell wrote in the ruling — a reference to a White House social media post in February depicting Trump wearing a crown with the caption ‘Long Live the King.’ 

Howell also ordered that Wilcox be reinstated to her position. 

Howell attended Columbia University School of Law, and served as the deputy chief of the narcotics section and an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York from 1987 until 1993. 

Her work at the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York earned her the Attorney General’s Director’s Award for Superior Performance and other commendations for her work focusing on international narcotics, money laundering and public corruption cases.

She’s also worked as a professor of legal ethics at American University’s Washington College of Law. 

Ana Reyes 

Reyes, a Biden appointee, joined the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in February 2023 following a career as a litigation attorney with Williams & Connolly LLP focusing on international litigation, representing foreign governments, foreign government officials and multinational companies. 

Previous pro bono work also includes representing refugees for groups like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Human Rights First. She also received the Hispanic National Bar Foundation’s ‘Judicial Leadership Award’ in 2023. 

Reyes is overseeing a case that LGBTQ legal rights advocacy group GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed in February against the Trump administration for its executive order barring transgender individuals from serving in the military. 

The groups are seeking a preliminary injunction pausing the ban while litigation is pending, and Reyes is expected to issue a final decision on the preliminary injunction by March 25.

Reyes attended Harvard Law School, and has co-taught classes at Yale Law School and Georgetown University Law Center on trial practice and advocacy in international arbitration. 

Loren AliKhan

AliKhan, a Biden appointee, joined the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in December 2023, after previously serving as an associate judge for the D.C. Court of Appeals. 

AliKhan ruled against the Trump administration in February, indefinitely blocking the Trump administration from freezing federal grants and loans. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit a group of nonprofit organizations filed in January after the Trump administration’s Office of Management announced a pause in loans and grants. Although the administration rescinded the memo, the White House clarified that the order still remained to freeze funds. 

‘In the simplest terms, the freeze was ill-conceived from the beginning,’ AliKhan wrote in a ruling in February. ‘Defendants either wanted to pause up to $3 trillion in federal spending practically overnight, or they expected each federal agency to review every single one of its grants, loans, and funds for compliance in less than twenty-four hours. The breadth of that command is almost unfathomable. Either way, defendants’ actions were irrational, imprudent and precipitated a nationwide crisis.’

AliKhan attended Georgetown University Law Center, and supported O’Melveny & Myers, LLP’s Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Clinic at Harvard Law School, as well as the legal writing program at Yale Law School.

She received the National Association of Attorneys General’s ‘Senior Staff of the Year’ award in 2020. 

Fox News Breanne Deppisch, Jake Gibson, Andrea Margolis, Lucas Y. Tomlinson and Bill Melugin contributed to this report. 

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Nestled in a modest storefront in New York City’s East Village, Mary O’s Irish Soda Bread Shop blends into the other red-brick businesses on the block. But one thing sets it apart: Customers routinely line up, sometimes for hours, to get their hands on her freshly baked goods before they sell out.

The shop’s menu is simple, featuring Irish soda bread loaves and scones served with salty butter and fresh raspberry jam. The recipes, passed down through generations of Mary O’Halloran’s family, are at the core of her operations. But the secret to her success is precision. Only O’Halloran herself handles the batter, a non-negotiable standard she insists maintains the quality of her baked goods.

“I’ve had people come and say, ‘Why don’t you have somebody come in and help you?’ It’s not going to work,” she said. “The scone does not come out the same.”

Mary O’Halloran mixes her next batch of soda bread batter for customers waiting in the store.NBC News
Mary O’s storefront in the East Village of New York.NBC News

O’Halloran said the demand for her soda bread scones surges every March for St. Patrick’s Day, but her journey to success hasn’t been easy. Five years ago, O’Halloran was facing the closure of her East Village pub due to the financial strain of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her husband, a longshoreman working in Alaska, was unable to return home due to travel restrictions, leaving her to manage the business alone.

Mary O’Halloran’s Irish soda bread loaf.NBC News
Mary O’Halloran’s Irish soda bread scone served with Irish butter and fresh raspberry jam.NBC News

It was her loyal pub customers who encouraged her to start selling her scones, a treat they had grown to love. What began as a small-scale venture soon caught the attention of Brandon Stanton, the creator of the viral “Humans of New York” social media account with more than 12 million followers.

After interviewing O’Halloran, Stanton offered to help spread the word about her scones. Reluctant at first, O’Halloran eventually agreed, leading to a spike in sales.

“So I wrote a story on this, and we ended up that night selling a million dollars’ worth of scones,” Stanton told NBC News. “It is one of the greatest stories in the world.”

Customers line up inside Mary O’Halloran’s shop for scones and loaves of Irish soda bread.NBC News

The overwhelming response turned O’Halloran’s small baking operation into a community effort. Regular customers and neighbors pitched in by packing orders, printing labels and decorating boxes with handwritten notes and custom drawings from one of her daughters. Despite the surge in demand, O’Halloran remained committed to quality, handling every batch of batter herself.

“Mary is where she is because that scone tastes so dang good,” Stanton said. “She would have got there without me.”

It took more than a year to fulfill the backlog of orders, but the hard work paid off. The revenue not only saved her pub, but allowed her to open Mary O’s Irish Soda Bread Shop in November 2024. Customers from around the world flock to her store to sample the viral scones and meet the woman behind the treats.

“I live in Los Angeles, but they told me, you know, next time you’re in town, there’s a place we have to go, and it’s the best scone you’ve ever had. It’s the best soda bread,” out-of-towner David Murphy said.

For O’Halloran, the hard work has been worth it.

“I love it, so it’s easy,” she said. “Of course I’m tired, but I love what I get from it with people. So it’s easy.”

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