Aloha Friday

March 13, 2026 — Aloha Friday the 13th

Mar 13, 2026

0313AM Aloha TT·0313 March Aloha News Update daily AM YT

Institute for Applied Ecology v. Burgum · 25-cv-02364

The Interior Department canceled contracts with environmental groups because of how they hired their own unrelated internal staff — and a judge said that looks a lot like punishing a business for its protected choices.

Several environmental conservation organizations that provided services to the Department of the Interior had their contracts canceled after a determination that they used DEI practices in their internal hiring. The problem: the DEI-related hiring was for employees whose jobs had no connection to the government work being performed. By every government performance metric, the organizations were doing their contracted work well. The court granted a preliminary injunction, finding that using a company's internal, unrelated business practices as a basis for contract cancellation looked likely to succeed as a First Amendment retaliation claim. Bryan also noted the historical context: DEI practices began in the 70s-80s as business decisions by corporations that had stagnated by homogenizing their workforce — a business judgment problem, not a PR problem — which makes government interference with those decisions more legally fraught.

Constitutional question: Whether the government may condition federal contracts on a company's internal hiring practices unrelated to the contract's subject matter — and whether canceling contracts as punishment for those practices constitutes unconstitutional compelled speech or retaliation.

In Re Martin · 25-D047

The administration's pardon attorney sent private letters directly to the judges deciding his own disciplinary case, told them to meet with him face-to-face, and then had to be taught what "ex parte" means.

Ed Martin — former January 6th defender, former interim D.C. U.S. Attorney, and current administration pardon attorney — was charged by the D.C. Bar on two counts. Count one: Martin sent a letter to Georgetown Law canceling DOJ hiring of Georgetown students because of unspecified "DEI" violations, a likely First Amendment violation he had sworn an oath to uphold. Count two: After learning he was under investigation, Martin sent direct letters to the judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals (who hear disbarment cases) demanding face-to-face meetings to resolve his case and dismiss the charges — without including D.C. Bar lawyers on the communications. He cc'd the White House to remind the judges who they were dealing with. This is ex parte communication (one-sided contact with a judge without the opposing party present) — a fundamental rule lawyers know on day one. The judges repeatedly told him to stop. Bryan: "It has a lot of let-me-speak-to-your-manager vibes."

Constitutional question: Whether a sitting government official's use of government authority and political leverage in the context of his own professional misconduct proceedings constitutes conduct unbefitting of a licensed attorney.

Anthropic PBC v. Department of War (DoD) · 26-cv-01996

The judge asked the government's lawyer to guarantee nothing would happen to Anthropic before the next hearing — and he wouldn't, so she moved the hearing up two weeks.

At the March 10 TRO hearing, Judge Lin proposed skipping the TRO (which would only last two weeks) and going straight to the preliminary injunction. Anthropic agreed but expressed concern about what the government might do in the interim. The government's lawyer said he didn't think anything would happen before April 3 — but when pressed to guarantee it, he declined. The judge: "I think we all know exactly what that means." She immediately moved the preliminary injunction hearing to March 24. The government lawyer raised his hand to say he was busy that day; the judge told him he had plenty of lawyers and to figure it out.

Constitutional question: See 0310_PM_Anthropic.md.

Harris v. Lee · (Tennessee state court)

[See 0306_ALOHA.md — state appellate court case about governor's National Guard deployment to Memphis; this episode referenced it as ongoing.]

No new substantive update in this episode; case continues in Tennessee appellate proceedings. See 0306_ALOHA.md for full entry.

See 0306_ALOHA.md.

Constitutional question: See 0306_ALOHA.md.

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