#127: We Wrote Angry. But You Shouldn’t Be.

Welcome to Court Watch #127. The U.S. Court system is where people end up when they get angry. Upset you didn't get a fair wage as a DHS security guard? Sue. Got laid off by DOGE? Go set an out-of-office message that says FOIA is dead, but know that the lawyers left behind will have to awkwardly explain to a federal judge why you did that. Mad that whales may stop you from drilling in the ocean? File that lawsuit, Louisiana. 

And then anger bubbles even more and manifests itself in increasingly insidious ways. Between three separate criminal cases involving threats to ICE agents, a woman spitting on (and cursing at) Ed Martin, and a death threat to Chuck Schumer, that version of anger was ever-present throughout the dockets this week. The mood music of political anger that justifies violence keeps hitting its chorus far too often. 

And that unchecked rage, the type that leads to the tragic antisemitic murder of two young professionals, only results in more heartbroken families and one very angry man in a D.C. courtroom.

We were reminded this week, courtesy of a Court Watch subscriber/CNN Anchor, that sin, be it original or recently acquired, is a human condition. But in our admittedly trying and chaotic times, we should all strive, as one grieving brother — who earned the right to be angry once reminded a crowd that we must tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

It’s incumbent on all of us to appeal, as Lincoln once said, to the better angels of our nature. So if you must rage, direct it towards the dying of the light, and away from a place that ends at the U.S. Courts. 

The Docket Roundup

• A D.C. woman was arrested for allegedly spitting on former acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin and telling him “f*** you”. According to the complaint, she allegedly replied to several tweets by Martin and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, writing, “ED, that was me that spit in your face today.”

• A shirtless, ripped Chinese student holding a gun in Texas triggered law enforcement and a prosecution. 

• A California man threatened an OnlyFans woman and her child. 

• Thanks for the shoutout, Just Security. Also read the piece, it’s quite good.

• “To the extent that Plaintiff received automated replies from CDC email addresses on April 1, 2025, these communications were not authorized by the Department. These automated replies were instead unauthorized communications that were presumably set up by former CDC-FOIA employees after they had received their Reduction In Force (RIF) notices,” says a DOJ filing. 

• DHS security guards at the department’s headquarters say they weren’t paid by their company for all their time.

• The material support to terrorism clause found its new favorite target twice this week.

• A Missouri man accused of making a series of threats to public officials reportedly said, “he would let the victim’s children live, but they would have to live with the guilt of watching their classmates die.”

• The Heritage Foundation would like to know if President Biden used an auto-pen. 

• Salt-N-Pepa say their record company, UMG, won’t let them out of their contract.

• The treasurer of a Catholic prep school in Northern Virginia was arrested for allegedly embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school.

• Life comes at you fast. 

• A man in Georgia was indicted for allegedly posting on Twitter/X “im gonna kill chuck schumer” on Election Day.

• A teacher in Oregon is suing the school board about anti-Israel lesson plans and allegedly having to use “woke kindergarten” resources. 

• The U.S. Copyright Office has entered the Humphrey’s Executor chat.

• This order starts with, “Plaintiff, a pro se litigant, brings this action against Eminem, Hollywood, and the St. Louis Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), seeking 15 million dollars in damages,” and goes just about how you’d expect it. We did appreciate that the judge still decided not to make the plaintiff pay any filing fees.

• A man was indicted in Massachusetts for the purported hack and cyber extortion of a major U.S.-based Telecom company and a software company for schools whose network serves 60 million students.

• This is by far the most interesting court filing all week.  

• We like a good play on words as much as anyone, so Jack Van Cleaf’s new track is our song of the week, but his whole new album is a bit of a banger. 

• A man in a ski mask allegedly purposely damaged an ICE vehicle. 

• Attention, Gray Ladies, we’re also available for any full-length profile piece about a quirky news site covering the courts. 

• Louisiana has a whale of a lawsuit and will be in a pretty bad place if Captain Kirk ever needs their help again with a plot hole.

• An activist wants a judge to say he can wage his “Just say AvelNO!” advertising campaign against Avelo over the airline’s reported contracts with ICE.

• Sigh. We’re disappointed to report there were allegations of AI hallucinations by the plaintiff’s legal team in a prison civil rights suit.

• The Administrator of Guam's Office of Civil Defense was arrested after a reported domestic violence incident in a D.C. hotel room earlier this year.

• This docket title sits on a throne of lies after a judge’s order to unseal.  

• ICE says a man called the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department and threatened to kill ICE agents in North Carolina for “snatching” people up.

• Maybe we should just get rid of the internet.

• An engineer is suing Amtrak with claims that he was racially targeted after an Amtrak police officer accused him of smoking pot in the parking lot at work.

• The family of Bryan Malinowski, the former executive director of Little Rock’s airport, who ATF agents fatally shot as they were executing a search warrant on his home, is suing the Bureau for wrongful death.

• The arbitration world seems like an absolute racket. 

• DOJ’s Civil Rights Division announced an investigation into the City of Chicago and Mayor Brandon Johnson following a speech in which the Mayor highlighted the race of those working in his administration.

• Texas judges dislike DC, example #1,0202,022: “For readers unfamiliar with the technical legal analysis to follow, the Court invokes the spirit of Thomas Paine: “[It] is something very absurd . . . to be . . . governed by an island.” Common Sense 90-91 (1776). Here, the governing island is a small venue called the District of Columbia, 1,600 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. From such island emanated the Government regulation of Plaintiffs’ businesses.”

• This case is a disturbing look into how child predators operate. The Tropic Thunder reference was off-putting, too.

• Another ICE-related threat case. This time in Maine, where the FBI arrested a woman after she reportedly phoned a local police department to threaten and call them “Nazis” for working with ICE.

• Someone stole almost 7 million dollars from the City of Portland.

• A suitcase filled with candy led TSA agents to find more than $165,000.

• We created a landing page for all the current and future court filings regarding Congresswoman McIver.

• One new lawsuit filed in California claims a research group had a data breach that included information on victims of sexual abuse being leaked.

• A group that represents itself as “an organization that advocates for fairness, safety, and equal opportunity for women and girls in sports” is suing Minnesota over sports.

• Please don’t pay to speed up the mail.

• A government contractor was arrested after a co-worker turned him in for purportedly messaging underage minors on Reddit while at work. The FBI says he seemingly used the photo of a deceased friend who died two years ago in a motorcycle accident to pose online.

• Back to our recurring segment: Diamonds Are Forever Fraudulent.

• Eleven people were indicted for allegedly participating in an online monkey torture ring.

• The feds want to seize a sizable amount of crypto from the family of an alleged cannabis farmer who passed away.

• Here’s the indictment against the man the Justice Department says helped plot the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul that killed thirteen U.S. military service members and the 2024 Moscow Night Club attack.

• The FBI and several local agencies have been on the hunt for a catalytic converter thief around the DMV.

• A case over the winning number for the DC lottery was our favorite pro se filing of the week.

• Judges can’t (rhetorically at least) stay away from Athens.

• The alleged fraud goes all the way down in a case involving a man already facing charges for $400,000 of Medicare fraud, federal agent impersonations, and a victim foreign exchange student at USC.

• A former assistant U.S. Attorney and current BigLaw lawyer got in trouble in Chicago for purportedly recording the government’s closing arguments at trial.

• A Georgia judge uses the most Georgia references to make his point, "The public interest, while not always vocalized the loudest, requires that we remember that that these constitutional protections do not exist only for those attending lunch at the local Rotary Club, enjoying war stories at the VFW hall or having a beer at the Moose Club lodge. These rights are not rationed based upon political views, and they do not belong solely to those who may be subjectively determined to be great Americans. They extend to those whom many may consider to be the most repugnant among us. This foundational principle is part of what has made, and will continue to make, America great. Consistent with the rule of law, it is the Court’s job to make sure, without fear or favor, that we adhere to these principles. Doing so certainly serves the public interest." 

• In true form, we wrote most of this week’s post while watching the Pacer(s) play in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals. With that in mind, we’d like to give a shout-out to our fellow Pacer (and Peter’s one-time high school classmate) Aaron Nesmith, who went off Wednesday night, shooting 8 of 9 from 3.

Thanks for reading. We hope this week’s roundup makes everyone a little bit less angry.