Abraham Gutman

One reason they’re ordering release of detainees — rather than bond hearings: Berger and Johnston say the hearings are increasingly a pre-cooked sham, resulting in detention without a genuine chance for bond. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

They are calling out violations of court orders, sloppy paperwork in detention cases, the destruction of families, the erosion of civil liberties and a climate of fear wrought by masked agents operating on WV’s roadways. Contempt is next, they say. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Judges in a Trump stronghold condemn ICE tactics “If the government may simply seize someone without due process, there is no check on its ability to seize anyone,” one judge wrote.

For weeks, Judges Joseph Goodwin (Clinton), Robert Chambers (Clinton), Thomas Johnston (GWB) and Irene Berger (Obama) have been ordering the release of dozens of detainees ICE and its WV partners have picked up since Jan 1. But they’re not stopping there

www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

NEW: Four federal judges have formed a firewall against ICE in West Virginia — and say they’ll punish state and federal officials of they continue detaining people in ways they have ruled illegal and unconstitutional.

www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

This war could be very, very long.

Unlike the war over the summer, the goal Trump and Netanyahu outlined are clear and publicly verifiable: regime change.

They won’t be able to declare victory based on alleged intelligence reports. The whole world will know the outcome.

There isn’t any real out.

I thought the Israeli and U.S. strikes over the summer destroyed the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile program programs, removing a threat.

Netanyahu said. Trump said. Words.

Listening to Netanyahu and I can’t believe he was first elected before I was 6 years old. I have nearly 8 year old.

Impossible to sleep.

Unprecedented is an overused word but… you know.

This isn't a NJ issue.

There have been thousands of petitions nationwide in the past 27 days.

Reminder: the issue is that ICE now treats all immigrants, even US residents for years, as if they just crossed the border.

As Fifth Circuit Judge Dana Douglass wrote: the border is now everywhere.

Five might not sound like a lot so lets put that in context.

Five *is* a slow day for immigrant detainees habeas petitions these days.

There have been 232 petitions filed in NJ *this month*.

There were a total of 63 petitions from 2021 through 2024.

That's 27 days v. 4 years.

Yesterday, NJ District Judge Zahid Quraishi issued a blistering opinion calling out ICE and DOJ for ignoring the hundreds of court ruling against mandatory detentions of immigrants residing in the U.S.

"It ends today," he wrote.

It didn't.

Five new release petitions were filed in NJ today.

A good reminder for me to check in on these!

Women in tight uniforms and maggots in the soft serve: Two ex-employees sue Trump’s N.J. golf club In separate lawsuits, former banquet server Maria Hadley and former clubhouse manager Justine Sacks describe Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster as hostile to female staffers.

"Women in tight uniforms and maggots in the soft serve: Two ex-employees sue Trump’s N.J. golf club"

Abraham Gutman for @inquirer.com

[How the heck did I miss this story from January?!]

If you look at the NJ District opinions from the last week, majority of orders are in response to release petitions by detained immigrants and all brought under mandatory detention are granted.

The reactions to ICE’s mandatory detention from judges in all districts, regardless to which president appointed them, is unlike anything I’ve seen before — and their responses are escalating.

In Trump’s Case for War, a Series of False or Unproven Claims

Iran is “within days” of having enough material to build a nuclear bomb, but also “Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated” less than a year ago. Totally adds up. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/u...

Justice Department Sues Five Additional States for Failure to Produce Voter Rolls Today, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced it has filed federal lawsuits against five states — Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New Jersey — for failure to produce the...

DOJ sued five more states — UT, OK, WV, NJ, KY — for their voter rolls.

“This brings the Justice Department’s nationwide total to 29 states and the District of Columbia.” www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...

Five Philly police officers sue over DEI, backed by a Trump-aligned legal team The police officers say they were passed over for promotions in favor of candidates with lower civil service exam scores because of a 2021 policy change to promote diversity.

A Trump-aligned legal team, which includes attorneys from Stephen Miller’s America First Legal, has been filing lawsuits against DEI efforts in Philly.

After challenging diversity in city contracting and school admissions, their latest is about police promotions. www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

Woof. A NJ District Judge has had it with the Trump admin's lack of compliance with court orders and legal defense of ICE's mandatory detention despite.

"The undersigned will not stand idly by and allow this intentional misconduct to go on. It ends today." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I’ll be done. Promise. I know this is niche but if editors are tired of their reporters hunting for big clips at the expense of dailies, the industry can do a lot to change its culture toward rewarding what we are all told is the journalism we need to be sustainable.

Most job applicants prefer candidate a, and that’s also the content messaging I hear. The same applications ask you to show work product of b. And if your gamble is that awards are the path to bigger gigs, you’re incentives to try to be b.

But then you get advice to stop fetishizing longform.

Who would you prefer to have as a beat reporter?
a) prolific writer who delivers a study diet of dailies, analysis, and occasional enterprise
b) reporter who every couple of years might land a huge story and spends their time searching for it

We all want both but most of us are mortal.

I just remembered that I railed about this on LinkedIn over the summer before the beat reporting Pulitzer was reintroduced. Even career development executives give advice that’s incongruent with application and award culture! And the two are related because awards also lead to opportunities.

Anyway I have a ton more to say on this. if any outlet covering journalism is interested, I have an idea for an empirical exercise to compare job postings to application materials.

I can’t say how many job postings I saw that boil down to “we want someone to do 5-6 stories a week and happy to break news and write dailies and be productive… also all you get to show us are 3 articles that can show strong journalism muscle.”

Beat work is about the day to day. It’s how we fill the paper and refresh the homepage — and hold people and institutions accountable. Because they know we are on it. And yes that work also leads to major scoops and investigations. But from hiring to awards, Journalism obsessed only on the latter.

The biggest impact of this category is going to be reduced collaboration and giving more “contribute” lines at end of stories to open the door for submissions at the end of the year. Want to reward best reporting? Ask for 25 pieces and a variety in format (daily, blog post, explainer, feature).

I’m sure that the work of the beat reporting Pulitzer finalists and winner will be very incredible journalism. But aside of the limit on bylines, what prevents it from becoming another enterprise award? The White House is a beat. The war in Gaza is a beat. And all submissions are thematic.

… the beat reporting Pulitzer is “intended to reward sustained reporting by up to two people assigned to a particular beat.”

But the submissions allows for up to 7 items, just like most reporting categories.

My guess of the result? It will be another investigative reporting category.

I have *so much* to say about this.

This is true and starts in hiring. It’s very hard for a reporter who grinds a beat, produces a ton, and contributes to live coverage (all things digital publications value) to show worth in 3-5 clips.

And the return of the beat reporting Pulitzer won’t help..