February 20, 2026 — Aloha Friday

[NEEDS TRANSCRIPT REVIEW — L.R. v. Trump 24-1287 appears in the episode case registry story list for the 0220 Aloha episode but is not covered in the transcript available. This is a First Circuit docket. Likely a TPS (Temporary Protected Status) case — Bryan was previewing Monday SCOTUS arguments on TPS (Mullin v. Doe) and may have covered a related circuit case on the same episode. Alternatively, may have been listed on the opening graphic but not verbally discussed due to time constraints.]

Follow-up to the 0217 AM episode. The preliminary injunction ordering restoration of slavery-related signage at the President's House in Philadelphia was issued earlier in the week. Bryan expected the typical response: appeal, delay, stay. Instead, workers were reinstalling the signs as he broadcast. Bryan's editorial read: "This story gets me right in the right spot" — he's a history buff and the exhibit covers the nine enslaved people Washington brought to Philadelphia. The immediate compliance was the story.

The district court had issued a preliminary injunction restricting ICE agents in Operation Metro Surge from using force against protesters in Minneapolis. Noem appealed, and the Eighth Circuit stayed the injunction pending appeal. The wrinkle: Tom Homan ended Operation Metro Surge. So the injunction on appeal now governs zero active officers. The plaintiffs asked the Eighth Circuit to hold the appeal in abeyance and let them dissolve the original injunction, then file a fresh one covering current ICE operations. The government objected. The Eighth Circuit sided with plaintiffs: hold until March 6, let plaintiffs dissolve the old PI and seek a new one. If no district court decision by March 6, the appeal resumes.

The 2019 immigration judge who ordered Kilmar's removal forgot to write the second half of his order — the withholding of removal to El Salvador — creating a scrivener's error. In 2025, that judge issued a nunc pro tunc order (now for then) correcting the record. Neither party objected. The government then argued this correction reset the finality clock to January 2026, meaning Kilmar had only recently become removable, and six-month detention clock hadn't run. The Maryland judge rejected this: nunc pro tunc orders don't change what happened — they document what the court actually did. The immigration judge issued the full order in 2019. He just forgot to write it down. Resetting finality based on a clerical correction would mean no time limits in immigration law could ever be enforced — anyone could manufacture a "typo" to restart the clock. The judge then measured how long Kilmar had been detained, noted he was willing to go to a third country (Costa Rica) but the government kept proposing Africa, and found the government had no real removal plan. Result: permanent injunction. ICE cannot take Kilmar into immigration custody. Bryan: "Happy Friday, Kilmar."