A federal judge has questioned the Trump administration's authority and need to maintain command of California National Guard troops it first deployed to Los Angeles in June following violent protests. At a hearing in San Francisco on Friday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer suggested conditions in Los Angeles had changed since the initial deployment, and he questioned whether the administration could control state Guard troops forever. California officials have asked Breyer to issue a preliminary injunction returning control of remaining California National Guard troops in Los Angeles to the state. Breyer did not immediately rule. Justice Department Attorney Eric Hamilton said the remaining troops in Los Angeles were allowing immigration agents to continue their mission.

A federal judge in San Francisco has indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the government shutdown. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction that bars the firings while a lawsuit challenging them plays out. She had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the job cuts that was set to expire Wednesday. The Republican administration has been slashing jobs in education, health and other areas it says are favored by Democrats. Lawyers for the government argued personnel issues should be heard in a separate venue.

A federal judge says Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding. The judged ruled Monday as the nation's largest abortion provider fights President Donald Trump's administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation. The new order replaces a previous edict that initially granted a preliminary injunction. That injunction specifically blocked the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn't provide abortion care or didn't meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.

Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that "Alligator Alcatraz" detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys. They also say that the detainees are being held without any charges and that federal immigration courts have canceled bond hearings. A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was held Monday over the lawsuit. Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to detainees, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Judges in Texas and New York said they would temporarily bar the U.S. government from deporting Venezuelans jailed in parts of those two states while their lawyers challenge the Trump administration's use of a rarely-invoked law letting presidents imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war. The judges took actions Wednesday after civil rights lawyers sought to protect five men identified by the government as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, a claim their lawyers dispute. But the judges said some others in their judicial districts similarly situated would also be protected from the Alien Enemies Act-driven deportations.