First Significant USDC Ruling, Down In Nashville: The Govt. Cannot Meet Its Burden Of Proof -- To Keep Detaining Mr. Abrego Garcia; Govt. Appealed Already. YAWN.

The Bail Reform Act plainly applies to Mr. Abrego Garcia. As the able USDC Judge just ruled overnight, he cannot be detained unless the government can prove one of several categories apply to his case. None of them do. So he is to appear this Wednesday, in court, where the judge may well hold that federal statutory commands about due process -- and the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment itself. . . "trump" (hah!) any admin. law argument Miller and Noem and Rubio are making. We shall see.

In any event, here is the 51 page overnight opinion (which the Noemites have already appealed). And here is the order for the next hearing -- in Music City, on this Wednesday:

. . .For the reasons discussed in the memorandum opinion entered separately, the United States’ motion for detention (Docket No. 8) is DENIED. A hearing will be held on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. (CDT) in Courtroom 3D, Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse, 719 Church Street, Nashville, Tennessee, to review conditions of release and otherwise address any necessary issues.

The United States Marshal is DIRECTED to produce the defendant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia for this hearing.

It is SO ORDERED. . . .

[And from the overnight opinion, at pages 23-25, now:]

. . .[T]he Court finds that the origination of the roster and the circumstances surrounding its creation are so remote and attenuated from Special Agent Joseph’s testimony that it cannot be given the conclusive weight for which it is offered by the government. The exhibit on which the government relies is a photograph taken by THP Trooper Foster, not by Special Agent Joseph -- first layer of hearsay – of a document prepared at the request of THP Trooper Foster -- second layer of hearsay -- by the occupants of the vehicle driven by Abrego – third layer of hearsay. While the body camera footage -- which is itself hearsay -- includes the passing around of a piece of paper among the vehicle occupants at the direction of a THP trooper on the scene, the detail of the roster is visible only briefly in the body camera footage. A still shot of the roster detail from the body camera footage was also admitted as a government exhibit. . . .

Additionally, defense counsel argued at the detention hearing that the 7 in the written birth year of 2007 appears to have been modified from a 1. That is not entirely without foundation, as there does appear to be some overwriting of the 7. Further, there is a question about whether the 7, even if not edited, is a number seven (7) or a number one (1). If a number one (1), then the individual with that birth date was born in 2001, not 2007. The number one (1) and the number seven (7) are among the letters, symbols, and numbers sometimes described as visually ambiguous characters because they can be indistinguishable in many types of print and especially in handwriting. See, e.g., Leslie Proctor, Misidentification of Alphanumeric Symbols, Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (Inst. for Safe Med. Prac.) (Aug. 11, 2014) (collecting references). . . . A careful review of the entire roster reveals that another birthdate, 04 April 1998 or 1999, includes a handwritten 1 that also resembles a 7. If the individual was born in 2001, rather than 2007, he was not a minor at the time of the November 30, 2022 traffic stop. . . .

Yes. Sanity is making a come-back. Grin. Stay cool. . . .

नमस्ते