We Are Seeing An Extended "Cone Of Silence" -- As To The Current Ugandan Marburg Outbreak Stats, Now...

There was a reported first case -- and death -- about 20 days ago, in Uganda.

But since then -- with other viral vectors circulating in Uganda (prmiarily Bundibugyo / Ebola), the ministry has gone quiet about Marburg. The nation did say the last current Ebola patient had left the hospital, there -- but with all we know elsewhere in DRC primarily -- that bit of good news may prove to be fleeting.

So all of this puts a very fine point on the silence from Uganda on the Marburg patient/outbreak numbers. Here is Helen Branswell, for STAT+ reporting:

. . .The government of Uganda has gone quiet on an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus that it reported late last month, with the World Health Organization acknowledging Thursday it has made repeated requests for updated information on the status of the investigation into how it started and how far it may have spread.

“We’ve sent several additional requests for information, and we’re still waiting to hear from them specifically on the outcomes of the investigation that we know that they’re carrying out,” Chikwe Ihekweazu⁩, executive director of the Geneva-based agency’s Health Emergencies Program, said during a new conference. . . .

Now you know. Onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते

Psyche Fly-By Of Mars -- As A Movie -- And, Musk Won't Launch Before Thursday This Week. Heh.

The promised "video fly-by" of Mars, or Barsoom if you prefer -- is now up, at NASA's YouTube page.

I thought we'd have seen it by end of May, but here it is -- finally, in mid-July. Pretty cool, either way:

. . .NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew by Mars on May 15, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed and slightly tilt its trajectory. The flyby also gave the team an opportunity to prep for the science they will be conducting when they reach the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029.

Using Mars as a stand-in for the asteroid during the flyby, they could test the spacecraft’s science instruments. The results, downlinked and analyzed over the subsequent weeks, were impressive. Not only did the instruments operate precisely as designed, delivering data that matches what NASA already knows about Mars, they also provided a few new insights about the planet along the way.

“The mission’s imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer teams worked overtime to make full use of this planetary encounter, and all instruments delivered great results,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at the University of California, Berkeley. “We didn’t anticipate big discoveries, given how extensively the planet has been studied, but we did complement Mars science with the data we collected through Psyche’s unique perspective. . . .”

Oh. And Musk's next Starship attempt for launch will be no earlier than this Thursday or Friday. Musk seemed rather. . . unclear. Hilarious. Out.

नमस्ते

Trivia: Fitton-Shill Plaintiffs Offer Decidedly Weak Sauce -- On Statute Of Limitations Issue, In Evanston Reparations Case...

I won't quote any of this nonsense -- but instead just link to it -- for the sake of a complete record.

USDC Judge Kness has already ruled that these faux-plaintiffs / crisis actors cannot stop a statute of limitations challenge mounted by Evanston -- essentially by saying it is inconvenient for them to admit to the defects in their case.

And relatedly -- as their "case" falls away, so to does the Trumpian US Attorney's attempt to intervene, here.

This is civil dispute between private parties (if any dispute there actually be). He cannot "intervene" where there is no case or controversy, to begin with. That is so, because the shills missed the deadline to file.

He may separately bring his own suit -- but again, the statute of limitations will bar his efforts, as well. He is just. too. late. Onward, smiling -- in spite of the poor air quality here.

नमस्ते

In Each Recent Ebola Outbreak, Fear And Hostility From The Communities... Has Been A Vexing Issue. But In No Manner A Unique One.

So too, in this 2026 version -- but the burning of 12 treatment facilities. . . seems more extreme (so far), even when compared to the 2012-14 outbreak. That one killed over 11,300. [We are likely approaching 1,000 deaths this time, but perhaps there were 500 deaths before it was officially accepted in DRC that the current outbreak was underway.]

The NYT has an excellent long-form look into this phenomenon, this morning. Here's that -- proving that this is common -- across various pandemics, centuries -- and cultures:

. . .[T]his would be easy to chalk up to poor education and anachronistic rituals: “Fear and ignorance as ebola ‘out of control’ in parts of west Africa,” as one Guardian headline put it in 2014. But unrest during epidemics is not about Ebola, Africa or education. It is something societies have struggled with for centuries, and it is evident in rich countries as well as poor ones, in modern times and medieval ones.

During the Covid pandemic, Western doctors, nurses and health officials received not only applause and gratitude but also death threats. Patients denied that Covid existed as they died of the disease. Protesters carrying guns occupied sidewalks outside hospitals. Multitudes embraced treatments, such as ivermectin, that study after study showed to be ineffective. Vaccinators in Italy were assaulted. A German gas station attendant and a Michigan Family Dollar security guard were killed after asking customers to wear masks. . . .

[Public health] outbreaks elicit a contradictory mix of responses. They often unfold in three acts, wrote Charles E. Rosenberg, a medical historian: First, people deny reality and put off behavioral changes that might slow the spread. Then they demand explanations, often blaming “individual and community sins” or, in some cases, doctors. Finally, they take action. Then they have to contend with the aftermath of both the infections and the finger-pointing -- the life-and-death consequences for themselves and their neighbors. . . .

It’s about history and culture and politics and even just about how people love and care for others in their family who are sick. And to reduce it to something like ‘resistance’ that needs stamping out in a really militaristic, heavy-handed response — that’s the exact wrong way to go.” Only when we understand these tendencies, she and other scholars say, can we navigate them. . . .

Indeed. Now you know -- and. . . also now, back in a Canadian wildfire smoke-tinted Chi-, this morning -- the sky is decidedly yellow, and breathing the air without a mask. . . delivers a sore throat within ten minutes. Ugh. But onward, just the same.

नमस्ते

Tangent: Starship Engine Glitch; SpaceX Plunges To $125, This Morning. Hilarious.

Well, I guess we won’t have to wait until September to see $130 on the NASDAQ. In fact, we’ll see you formerly irrational boosters (buying in at $225, a month ago)… at sub- $125 today.

Right now — it has touched $122 and change.

Here is the latest, from Yahoo -- posting an article from the UK’s The Independent:

. . .SpaceX was forced to abort its latest Starship launch just seconds before lift off on Thursday after some of the engines on the world's biggest rocket failed to start.

The scrubbed launch came just hours after SpaceX shares fell below their initial public offering (IPO) price of $135 for the first time, marking a 40 per cent drop in value over the last month. . . .

This is all very droll — and given Musk‘s well-documented history of making wildly overstated claims — about publicly traded securities with which he is/was affiliated, this is/was all very much predictable.

Grin -- a great day ahead in the mountains with both of my boys!

नमस्ते

A New Era In Oral Cardiovascular Risk Management Dawns: In the US, Merck's Lipfendra (PCSK9 Pill) Goes On Sale. Stock Jumps ~4%.

This entire blog -- now over 10,000 posts (and spanning all the days since early 2008) was originally my editorial narrative arc of a clearly suspect LDL pill called Vytorin. Back then, CEO Fast Fred Hassan was touting it, while the esteemed Yale MD, Dr. Harlan Krumholz (later) came to call this drug "a very expensive placebo" -- for cholesterol management.

The markets for managing high cholesterol, a primary risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, are vast -- into the high teens of billions of dollars a year, in the US alone. Finally, now -- with this morning's FDA approval -- a drug that actually works to improve outcomes (as a pill) is on market. And at ~$310 a month, most US patients are likely to receive the therapy. Sweet -- Merck's NYSE price is bound to rise today -- but here is the latest, via Reuters:

. . .The pill Lipfendra is intended to treat patients with hypercholesterolemia, which can be identified by elevated levels of LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol ⁠in the blood, often leading to plaque buildup in the arteries.

With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval, Lipfendra, also called enlicitide, would become the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor to enter the market, offering an alternative to a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs long dominated by injectables.

Its list price will be $10.50 per day, based on a 30-day supply, Merck told Reuters. The company's shares were up 1.1% in premarket trading. . . .

Now you know. Full circle -- and so, nearly 20 years later, the debacle that was the "very expensive placebo" called Vytorin -- at now gone-Schering-Plough, is at an end.

Smile -- rest of my crew arrives by jet this aft -- then into the cool but wild-fire hazed mountians again.

नमस्ते

SpaceX Now Trading BELOW The IPO Price. Yawn.

Just as we said it would -- now with further to fall, by September.

What do they say -- about a fool, and his money?

Right.

Musk is a charlatan and con-man. Period.

नमस्ते

This Seems Excessive — But Okay. Whatever.

Recall that both DRC and Uganda have outbound travel measures, already in place -- for Ebola and Marburg -- respectively.

I am not sure this is really needed -- but I suppose excess caution makes some sense, with thousands dead, and more dying in DRC. [And yet, we know Ebola only speads via very close contact, despite Tangerine 2.0's legendary misunderstandings of viral vectors / transmission -- Bundibugyo / Ebola is not air-borne.]

Here is the latest, from Reuters:

. . .The Trump administration on Monday said it is blocking American citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo from traveling to the U.S. on commercial flights, according to a White House official.

The ‌order, which is being taken under a transportation authority known as Title 49, will place U.S. citizens in Congo or those who have recently left on a “do-not-board” list until they have spent at least 21 days in a third country, the person said. . . .

Now onward, as E. Jean Carroll receives her first ~$5.6 million from Tangerine, from his libelous lies. About $84 million, more -- next.Smile.

नमस्ते

[U: Full 56 Page Opinion] The IRS Cannot Be… Bought. Not by Trump & Blanche, Anyway.

Mid-flight, I see that Tangerine 2.0 & Todd Blanche are now reaping the whirlwind, for their corrupt and thus unenforceable IRS "settlement" self-dealing. Flawless. [Updated: here is the full USDC opinion.]

And Blanche may lose his NY bar card, behind it all -- sweet:

. . .A federal judge on Monday ruled that President Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was an improper exercise in self-dealing and barred him from claiming that the extraordinary tax protections he received were part of a legitimate settlement agreement.

In the order, the judge, Kathleen M. Williams, also referred the lawyer who brought Mr. Trump’s case against the I.R.S. to the Florida bar for potential disciplinary proceedings. Judge Williams added that she would forward her decision to the New York bar, which is already investigating the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche. . . .

Excellent! Touching down in 30 minutes or so. . . to a saner world.

नमस्ते

First Patients Dosed, In DRC Clinical Trial For A Bundibugyo Therapeutic... Fingers Crossed.

This is good news -- and here is to hoping it turns out to be both effective, and safe.

Here's the latest -- per the UK Guardian:

. . .[This] is a record pace to set up and start this kind of research, scientists said, with patients enrolled just six weeks after the outbreak being declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 17 May.

Nevertheless, in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, where the virus is raging, people are impatient.

“I hope these drug trials proceed quickly,” said Neema Haba, a mother of three and banana seller. “Financially, we are being driven to the brink by this outbreak and nothing is going right. We are struggling to provide for our children.”

As of 9 July, there had been 1,792 confirmed cases and 625 deaths caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is no vaccine and no approved treatment. It is still “in the expansion phase”, according to the WHO. . . .

Hopes of turning the tide now rest with scientists searching for effective medicines.

The Partners treatment trial has opened with two drugs on its books – remdesivir, and MBP134. Patients will be randomly allocated to receive either drug, a combination of the two, or simply standard, supportive care.

Remdesivir is an antiviral made by pharma company Gilead Sciences, while MBP134 is a monoclonal antibody developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, containing two specially engineered immune proteins that recognise and neutralise the virus.

Both are given intravenously – MBP134 as a one-off infusion, and remdesivir as 10 days of intravenous therapy.

“These two drugs actually have been proven to work against the Bundibugyo virus in animal models,” said Prof Laurens Liesenborghs of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, who is working on the trial in Ituri. . . .

Now you know -- jetting out of Midway, by 11 am tomorrow. Smile. . . .

नमस्ते

2026 Lassa Fever Outbreak In Nigeria -- Still Spreading Ferociously... And At Higher Mortality Rates, Too: Killing About 1-In-4.

This is very hard news. But to be expected, in a time of disappearing American leadership, on public health prevention, globally.

The erstwhile folks at OutbreakNewsToday (once again), have the latest -- from Nigeria:

. . .According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), since the beginning of the year through the end of June, 2026, 922 confirmed Lassa fever cases have been reported in the country, up from 790 cases reported during the same period in 2025. . . .

The death toll from confirmed cases has also increased compared to last year. Cumulatively, 221 deaths (compared to 148 deaths in 2025) have been reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 24.0% which is higher than the CFR for the same period in 2025 (18.7%).

In total for 2026, 23 States have recorded at least one confirmed case across 111 Local Government Areas (LGA). . . .

Now you know -- with bbgrrl's 10^th birthday party in a couple hours -- then on a jet, in the morning -- to the high Rockies for a week -- blogging will be sparse. Smile.

नमस्ते

The LINK Mission Continues To Work Checklists, Toward A Grappling With, And Then A Boosting Of... Swift's Now Decaying Low Earth Orbit...

The "excess momentum" mentioned below was likely a sort of over-rotation / spin problem. Not uncommon, after such a launch. We're glad the team got it resolved -- and now will use autonomous software to keep the appropriate (Sun facing) attitude for the solar panels. [Latest prior backgrounder here.]

In any event, here's the latest, from the associated NASA blog:

. . .Commissioning is well underway for Katalyst’s robotic servicing spacecraft LINK, which is designed to boost the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. . . .

[The team] stabilized the spacecraft after an initial period of excess momentum and enabled autonomous momentum management. Katalyst is now checking out LINK’s subsystems, including its electric propulsion system, which involves firing the spacecraft’s three xenon-fueled thrusters. . . .

The commissioning process is anticipated to take a few weeks, with flexibility built in to allow the team to pause, assess data, and adjust as needed. After the commissioning phase, LINK will begin its journey to meet and rendezvous with Swift. . . .

Now you know -- close up cabaret magic again, tonight -- downtown. Smile. . . after hearing Tchaikovsky's Fifth, live last night in the park -- with fireworks, after.

नमस्ते

Harrowing Models Suggest The Actual Ebola Figures In Ituri Province, DRC Are Double- To Quadruple-... The Confirmed Number Of Cases -- And Deaths.

As we'd said over eight weeks ago, the numbers are certainly much worse than the tested, official case counts.

Here's the latest -- but especially in Ituri, the rates of new cases -- with no traced contact to any other -- suggests this will be a very long-tail outbreak. Yikes:

. . .Four out of every five new Ebola ​cases in parts of Democratic Republic of Congo have no known link to existing patients, a ‌senior World Health Organization official said, warning that the true scale of the outbreak could be two to four times larger than official data suggest.

The figures underscore the challenges facing health workers as they battle to contain the outbreak in the country's northeast, which has so far [by confirmed, tested cases] infected 1,792 people and killed 625, according to government data released on Thursday. . . .

WHO estimates based on modelling and test positivity rates suggest the outbreak, which was declared in mid-May, may be between two and four times larger than the number ​of confirmed cases, he said.

About 90% of all reported cases remain concentrated in Ituri province, particularly in the ​health zones of Bunia, Rwampara, Mongbwalu and Nyakunde, where transmission remains intense. . . .

And as we previously said. . . this is a Musk/Trumpian legacy, too. They gutted USAID, when it was most needed.

नमस्ते

At the 11^th hour, Tangerine 2.0 forces filed an again largely non-responsive answer, in the Second Circuit.

I won't quote it -- but simply note that it makes multiple misstatements as to the record, ignores the government's own nearly two years of delay now -- and then offers legal arguments that have already been rejected in both Nashville and Maryland. Damn.

It will fail.

And -- most of all -- we must mention that overnight in Houston, yet another likely innocent (non-deportable) man lies dead -- shot down by what appears to be overly-aggressive ICE/DHS agent lawlessness. [Witnesses report that at least one of the ICE agents involved exited his vehicle and immediately started shooting.] Damn.

The indictments ought to come from state prosecutors, but this is MAGA Greg Abbott's Texas. So, we will have to wait -- and see.

Separately, I am off to the Rockies for all of next week, so blogging is forecast to be light to non-existent. Smile. . . .

नमस्ते

New Horizons Is Back Online, Some 6 Billion Miles Off, And Now Into The Deep Kuiper Belt...

You may recall that we've covered this mission since 2015. It is truly an ongoing wonder -- but its signature feat, was the sharpest ever color images -- of tiny Pluto -- revealing a heart-shaped formation, back then -- covering almost a third of the face of that icy orbiter.

Here's the latest on all that, from the Johns-Hopkins APL | NASA teams:

. . .On June 23, flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, confirmed New Horizons, acting on stored commands uplinked to its main computer last July, had safely awakened from a 321‑day hibernation period that began Aug. 7. With the spacecraft now approximately 5.9 billion miles (9.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, the radio signals carrying that confirmation took about 8 hours and 52 minutes to reach the APL Mission Operations Center via NASA's Deep Space Network station near Madrid, Spain. . . .

The mission team typically places New Horizons in resource‑saving hibernation mode during long cruise periods. While the spacecraft is hibernating, operators do not send commands or retrieve data, but the spacecraft continues gathering and storing data around the clock from its heliospheric plasma sensors, Solar Wind at Pluto and the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation, as well as its space dust detector, the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter. . . .

As New Horizons resumes active operations, Bowman noted, the team will begin downlinking spacecraft health and safety data, followed by data from the three scientific instruments.

In about three weeks, the spacecraft’s onboard Alice ultraviolet spectrograph will look at the hydrogen gas distribution in the outer heliosphere, while the Solar Wind at Pluto, the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation, and the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter instruments continue their measurements, and the ground team conducts a series of spacecraft and instrument checkouts. . . .

Smiling into a warm sunny mid-summer's Friday,now. . . .

नमस्ते

We're Overdue -- For An Update, On Amazon [& Mr. Bezos'] Abuse Of The US Workers' Rights To Organize -- Under The NLRA...

We had frankly (albeit inadvertently) let this narrative arc fall off the radar-screen, in the prior four months. That was our bad. [Here is one of about of my 30 prior posts, on Amazon labor tactics, over the last eight or so years.]

But once again, it seems that Mr. Bezos'stock-in-trade is to skirt the law, at best -- and abuse the rights of his labor forces, to organize collectively -- at worst. Here's the latest, from the NLRB.Edge blog:

. . .The Board [of the NLRB] has affirmed an administrative law judge’s findings that Amazon committed a series of violations of the NLRA during the Amazon Labor Union’s 2021 organizing campaign at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, while dismissing one allegation involving the discharge of an employee at a nearby delivery station.

The Board upheld findings that contracted security guards acted as Amazon’s agents when they told an employee he needed permission to distribute union literature, confiscated the literature, and photographed his badge to report him to human resources. In a separate incident about a week later, another security guard created the impression that employees’ union activities were under surveillance by pointing a phone at organizers and workers during a union event. The Board also affirmed that Amazon violated the law in June 2021 when a manager and a human resources employee separately told employees they could not hand out union literature on their own time in nonwork areas and confiscated the literature, and when another human resources employee did the same later that day. . . .

Now you know -- with close-up cabaret magic shows -- like the 1920s (post-war) in the Loop, on tap, for tomorrow night. Grin. . . .

नमस्ते

Tangent Pt. II: An Interesting (Expert’s) Perspective, On Mr. Nolan’s Casting Decision(s)…

This is now the second time we've mentioned this particular -- largely imaginary -- but MAGA agitprop propelled "controversy". Folks, most serious scholars of ancient / classic Greek literature will immediately point out that the Helen of Troy in these tales is certainly. . . mostly mythical, not in any sense a historical / flesh and blood woman.

So -- it seems both silly, and racist -- to complain here about skin color.

That continues to be my view, but I commend to the readership this opinion piece -- from a bona fide scholar -- on the subject of Greek lit & mythology. This essay appears in the coming morning's NYT -- and should be read closely, word for word. . . but the below resonated deeply, for me [when thinking of Mr. Nolan's decision(s), here]:

. . .[T]he woman whom we associate with great beauty was, at least for the Greeks, all talk. Both a skilled orator and the object of skillful oratory, the “real” Helen of Troy, you could argue, was a figure associated above all with profound debates about the nature of reality and the power of words, the seductiveness of falsehood and the fragility of truth.

In that sense, at least, the controversy about the new “Odyssey” movie, like so many of the arguments being conducted today, connects us to the Greeks’ Helen in a far more authentic way than the choice of this or that actress could. . . .

Indeed. I will certainly favor the movie -- by actually purchasing a ticket -- even if I already know Matt Damon chews up every scene he's in (in the way the official trailer makes plain).

So, as irony would have it, perhaps it is the aging whyte guy. . . who's been poorly cast. Heh. Imagine that!

नमस्ते

ESA's Euclid Spies Oldest Quasars In The Known Universe: New YouTube Video...

The universe as we know it was only about six per cent of its present age.

A mere baby -- with very chaotic quasars generating unimaginably vast light blasts, which helped form the later generations of stars and galaxies. . . and yes, planetary systems -- like our own. Here's the story -- and video, of Euclid's latest ground-breaking learnings:

. . .Quasars represent a brief phase in a galaxy’s life during which large amounts of material spiral into the central supermassive black hole, releasing enormous amounts of energy. In this phase, the galaxy’s nucleus shines more brightly than anything else in the Universe, often outshining the rest of its host galaxy by hundreds to thousands of times.

We’ve been hunting for the Universe’s very first quasars for decades. These objects reveal what was happening during the earliest days of the cosmos, including how the first supermassive black holes and galaxies took shape. However, quasars from this time are difficult to find. They’re rare, as few galaxies had yet had time to grow big enough, and their primordial light is both faint and easy to confuse with that from stars lying closer to us.

Euclid, launched in 2023, is digging deeper into this mystifying part of ancient cosmic history – with exciting results. The telescope has now discovered an unprecedented number of 31 new quasars in the early Universe, pushing back to a time when the cosmos was just about 6% of its current age. . . .

13 billion light years away. . . that's quite a separation -- in both space, and time. Smile.

नमस्ते

Wow! JP Morgan Sees Lilly As A $1,400 NYSE Stock, And Soon, Too…

Sure -- the GLP-1 boom is in high dungeon, but a nearly 20% upside from here, in about a year?

That's a pretty bold prediction.

But so it goes -- with the market increasingly looking for high cash flow, and steady business prospects -- in defensive industries like human health care / drugs / weight loss delivery mechanisms (clearly, much of the US 25 to 65 adult population is borderline overweight, or actually overweight). Tangerine 2.0 chaos has run its course -- the market wants. . . predictability.

In any event, here's the latest, via The Street:

. . .On Tuesday, one of JPMorgan’s most closely watched healthcare stock analysts, Chris Schott, who frequently covers Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Eli Lilly, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA), gave investors something to pay attention to.

He set a new price target for Lilly that’s well above that of other Wall Street analysts. That says a lot about how far the obesity drug boom still has to run. For anyone holding the stock or thinking about it before the August earnings, Schott's call is worth a closer look.

JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott lifted his price target on Eli Lilly to $1,400 from $1,300, keeping an Overweight rating on the shares, Yahoo Finance reported. . . .

Now you know. Onward to live magic shows -- at the vintage Chi-theater -- this weekend. . . smile.

नमस्ते

Again, Abrego Has The Better Argument: In Maryland Federal Court, He May Depose DHS And ICE Agents, Now... Why Exactly Was He Grabbed?!

We all know where this one is headed. We have told you repeatedly: Mr. Abrego Garcia will win damages from Tangerine 2.0, and his feckless agencies' heads. And he will choose where he will live, as a free man, with his family -- next.

He will soon be a millionaire, due to Trumpian malfeasance. But it will come from taxpayer coffers. Charming. Here is a bit of the latest clearly correct -- and powerful -- argument:

. . .In opposing Petitioner Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s request to conduct limited discovery, the Government continues to pursue arguments that this Court has rejected time and again. To accept the Government’s arguments, one must disregard nearly all of the Court’s prior rulings here and in Abrego Garcia v. Noem, No. 25-cv-00951 (“Abrego Garcia I”). Although doing so allows the Government to feign ignorance of its prior conduct, it does not rewrite the record or Abrego Garcia’s showing of good cause that warrants limited discovery here. The Court should grant Abrego Garcia’s motion.

As the Court recognized at the May 12 hearing, three claims are ripe for resolution: Count One (that the Government’s disregard of Abrego Garcia’s designation of Costa Rica violates 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(2)), Count Three (that the Government’s efforts to remove Abrego Garcia elsewhere violates due process), and Count Four (that the Government’s efforts to remove Abrego Garcia elsewhere violates § 1231(b)(3) and 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16). ECF No. 176 at 8:8–9:4. . . .

[T]he Government [argues again] that Abrego Garcia’s claims are jurisdictionally barred by U.S.C. § 1252(a)(5), (b)(9) and (g). The Government first raised these arguments back in April 2025. This Court, and the Fourth Circuit, have repeatedly rejected them because he is not challenging the Attorney General’s exercise of lawful discretion to commence proceedings, adjudicate cases, or execute removal orders. See ECF No. 110 at 15–17; Abrego Garcia I, ECF No. 31 at 7–16; Abrego Garcia I, ECF No. 238 at 12–14; Abrego Garcia v. Noem, 2025 WL 1021113, at *2–3 (4th Cir. Apr. 7, 2025) (Thacker, J., concurring). The Government has persisted in advancing this position, including at ECF Nos. 28, 72, 115, 142, 159, 160, 170, 184. Here, again, Abrego Garcia respectfully requests that the Court deem his prior responses, including at ECF Nos. 32, 88, 118, 144, incorporated here by reference. . . .

The Government also argues that habeas corpus is not the proper vehicle for Counts One, Three, and Four. See ECF 181 (“Opp.”) 7–8, 11–12. That is wrong. These claims challenge unlawful non-discretionary actions by the Government—such as its disregard of § 1231 and due process -- in its pursuit of Abrego Garcia’s immigration confinement and removal. Such claims sound in habeas because they necessarily imply the invalidity of the Government’s efforts to place Abrego Garcia in immigration detention and remove him to Liberia or other third countries. See Trump v. J.G.G., 604 U.S. 670, 671–73 (2025) (holding that challenges to removal under the Alien Enemies Act must be brought in habeas because they necessarily imply the invalidity of confinement and removal under that Act); see also id. at 674 (Kavanaugh, J., concurring) (“[G]oing back to the English Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, if not earlier, habeas corpus has been the proper vehicle for detainees to bring claims seeking to bar their transfers.”).

Abrego Garcia may therefore take discovery on a showing of “good cause” -- i.e., “a specific allegation that shows reason to believe that [he] may be able to demonstrate that he is entitled to relief.” Quesinberry v. Taylor, 162 F.3d 273, 279 (4th Cir. 1998); see Bracy v. Gramley, 520 U.S. 899, 904 (1997); Juniper v. Zook, 876 F.3d 551, 572 n.9 (4th Cir. 2017); Habeas Rule 6(a). . . .

Onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते