An appeals court Tuesday sided with a lower court judge who determined President Trump colluded with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in bringing and later dismissing a case seeking $10 billion in damages from the IRS. Florida-based U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in July found that the lawsuit that served as the hook for the...
Page B1From§Eachthe early bird edition — 30 September 2026
Appeals court affirms Trump directed both sides of his own $10 billion lawsuit
As it ran on the front
On September 10, a federal appeals court upheld a block on the administration's mail-in voting restrictions, calling the order "likely unlawful" while the Supreme Court weighs the case. The same day, a divided appeals court rejected the administration's policy of holding immigrants without bond hearings, the majority invoking Japanese internment as the warning the ruling was built to prevent. Two weeks later, on September 24, the same court system dissolved a stay that had protected the government's framework for rapid third-country deportations, and the attorney general said he'd take it to the Supreme Court.
Three rulings, three losses, one month, one government. That's the frame before you get to Tuesday.…
…(cont) On Tuesday, an appeals court did something different. It didn't just rule against the administration. It sided with a district judge, Kathleen Williams, who found in July that the government had colluded with itself.
This is not two branches disagreeing. This is one government occupying both chairs at the table, bringing the claim and killing the claim, with no one in the room positioned to say no to either. Every other loss this month came from a court finding the administration overstepped some outside line — a voting rule, a detention policy, a deportation order. This one found the administration didn't need an outside line at all. It filed a case against a federal agency it also runs, and controlled both outcomes, because nothing in the structure stopped it.
Here's what connects the four rulings. A government that can lose to itself in a $10 billion suit and still choose the ending doesn't need to win the cases that actually restrain it, because those rulings only hold until the next matter arrives where it's arguing alone against itself again.
That's not a legal system checking a president. That's a president checking himself, on the record, for practice.
“They sued themselves for ten billion dollars and then settled with themselves, and the paper wants you to call that a lawsuit. This is the same month courts told them no on mail ballots, no on locking people up without a bond hearing, no on the deportation flights — and this is the one case where they proved they don't even need the court to lose, they just need the other chair empty. That's not checks and balances, that's one hand writing the check and the other hand cashing it.”
“Look, the administration has every right to bring a claim and decide later it's not worth pursuing, that's litigation discretion, that's — wait, the same department argued both sides? Okay, that's actually efficient, you're not paying two sets of lawyers to fight each other over nothing. Did I just call suing yourself efficient? That's not — let's move on.”
Earlier in this story
- DOJ spied on Minnesota activists after the ICE killings, then charged its judges, voters and a violence interrupter. By Sal · the matinee edition, 30 September 2026
- The renovation Trump used to oust Powell clears him, no referral; his own war chest gets one. By Ruth · the matinee edition, 30 September 2026
- Facing firing calls and impeachment papers, Hegseth strips tenure from professors, cuts a fifth of the military's generals. By Mort · the milkman edition, 30 September 2026
- Administration doubles own tariff-cut figure to $60 billion in two days, no new deal required By Ruth · the late evening edition, 29 September 2026
- Watchdog calls administration's $810 million rescission unlawful, then calls it unlawful again four days later. By Ruth · the supper edition, 29 September 2026
- Trump bans Canadian imports and calls Canada 'one of the worst countries'; both nations call the ban wrong. By Ruth · the noon edition, 29 September 2026
The receipts
· Appeals court denies Trump administration's mail ballot restrictions from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Appeals Court Rejects 'Likely Unlawful' Trump Push to Undermine Mail-In Voting as Supreme Court Looms from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Todd Blanche vows Supreme Court appeal after court blocks third-country deportations from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Appeals court rejects ICE detention policy as judge invokes Japanese internment camps from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.