January 14, 2026 — Morning Report (SCOTUS Day 3, January Quackdown)

Mr. Nino Moncada was shot by federal agents in Portland, Oregon. Federal agents alleged he was ordered out of his vehicle but instead drove in reverse into an unoccupied Border Patrol car, then attempted to do so again when they opened fire. No body cam footage exists of the incident. The charging document — aggravated assault — rested on written and spoken statements from officers. Bryan drew an explicit contrast with a Minneapolis case the same week, where extensive footage raised questions about the government's version of events, noting the evidentiary asymmetry when no footage exists.

Congressmen Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), co-sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, petitioned to appear as amicus curiae in Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal case in the Southern District of New York, asking the court to appoint a special master to oversee DOJ's compliance with the Act. The judge denied the motion on two grounds: first, amicus curiae are not parties and cannot file motions or raise new issues — their role is to assist the court on a question the court has, not to bring new demands; second, and more fundamentally, the court's criminal jurisdiction is limited to adjudicating guilt and punishment. Enforcing a transparency law is a civil matter, not within the power granted to criminal courts. The judge denied without prejudice, suggesting they refile in a different court. Bryan flagged that victims' rights in this context — whether crime victims have standing to move for file release under the new Act — remained unaddressed.

Cedric Galette was struck by a New Jersey Transit bus while riding as a passenger in a car in Philadelphia and sued NJ Transit in Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Colt was struck by an NJ Transit bus in a Manhattan crosswalk and sued in New York. NJ Transit asserted state sovereign immunity as a defense in both courts — arguing that as a government-owned corporation, it shares the state of New Jersey's immunity from suit in other states. New York rejected the defense, holding NJ Transit was not an arm of the state. Pennsylvania accepted it, looking to the enabling legislation which called the transit corporation an "instrumentality of the state" and required its board to be appointed by elected officials. The Supreme Court took the consolidated cases to resolve the circuit split on how to determine when a state-owned corporation qualifies as an "arm of the state" for Eleventh Amendment immunity purposes.