BREAKING: Trans Troops Crush Trump in Court

Republicans held a moment of silence for George Floyd's murderer, ICE detainees are suing after three deaths in their camp, and Trump gutted heat safety rules just in time for summer

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

A federal appeals court ruled Trump’s ban on transgender troops is unconstitutional and “soaked in animus.” The Minnesota Republican Party opened its convention with a moment of silence for a convicted murderer. Detainees at a Texas ICE camp say guards beat one man so badly he needed a wheelchair, then locked him in solitary for 15 days. And the Trump administration quietly gutted federal heat-safety inspections just in time for the hottest summer of your life. So far.

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Now, let’s dive in.

Judge Shreds Trump’s Trans Troop Ban as ‘Soaked in Animus’

It turns out you can’t write down exactly why you’re discriminating against people and then ask a court to pretend you’re unbiased.

A divided federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Monday blocked the Trump administration from removing transgender service members from the U.S. military. The 2-1 ruling called the policy “arbitrary” and fueled by the administration’s “animus” toward trans people.

Judge Robert Wilkins, writing for the court, said some of the disqualifications were “completely unexplained” and had “no reasonable justification.” The policy, he wrote, was driven by a “bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group.”

The decision largely upholds a March 2025 ruling from District Judge Ana Reyes, who found the policy “unabashedly demeaning.” More than two dozen active-duty members and recruits had argued the orders violated their 14th Amendment right to equal protection.

The judges noted they could not “ignore the disparaging statements repeatedly made by the decisionmakers.” The administration had filed memo after memo defending the policy as neutral. The same officials had spent months saying the quiet part out loud.

Minnesota Republicans Held a Moment of Silence for Derek Chauvin

There are a lot of ways to open a political convention. The Minnesota GOP chose to honor a man currently serving 22.5 years for murder.

The Minnesota Republican Party reportedly held a 10-second moment of silence for convicted murderer Derek Chauvin at its endorsement convention Saturday. It came just days after the sixth anniversary of George Floyd’s death.

Chauvin, a former Minneapolis officer, was convicted of murdering Floyd in 2021. He is serving a 21-year federal sentence and a 22.5-year state sentence concurrently. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes.

Reformer reporter Max Nesterak captured the moment with the kind of detail that writes itself: Republicans held a moment of silence for Chauvin while Democrats at their convention confiscated glow sticks over a potential risk to a small subset of epileptics.

State Rep. Jamie Long called the gesture “disgusting.” Not for victims of gun violence, he wrote, not for soldiers killed overseas, but “to a literal convicted murderer.”

Floyd’s video sparked nationwide protests and forced lawmakers at every level to examine racial injustice in policing. Six years later, one party held a moment of silence for the injustice.

What happens at a state party convention doesn’t stay there. It reflects something real about the direction of a national movement. Subscribe to make sure you never miss a moment like this one.

Beatings, Measles, and a Homicide at the Largest ICE Camp in America

DHS says its detention standards are “higher than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.” The detainees describe wearing the same underwear for three weeks.

Four people held at Camp East Montana, the largest ICE detention center in the country, filed a federal lawsuit Saturday alleging human rights abuses, “horrific” conditions, and “severe medical neglect.” The suit, filed in the Western District of Texas, describes beatings, sexual harassment, spoiled food, and disease outbreaks at the tent camp on Fort Bliss.

Named plaintiff Gerald Akari Angye says guards beat him so severely he was hospitalized and put in a wheelchair, then locked in solitary for 15 days. Another detainee, identified only as Navdeep, described dirty toilet water flowing into his sleeping area and breathing problems from desert dust. He wore the same clothes for three weeks.

The lawsuit says detainees with HIV, cancer, and diabetes don’t get timely medication. Three meals a day reportedly consist of two pieces of bread, a slice of ham or bologna, a slice of cheese, and a cookie. In February, the facility closed to visitors over a measles outbreak.

At least three people have died at the camp. The El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled the death of Cuban national Gerald Lunas Campos a homicide. No one has been charged.

Trump Quietly Weakened Heat Rules Before a Record-Breaking Summer

Heat is the deadliest weather hazard in the country, and someone just took dozens of industries off the inspection list for it.

As Western Europe sweltered through a heat dome that killed seven people in France, and at least 19 died in India’s Telangana state, OSHA has instead issued a vague National Emphasis Program on heat hazards. The new version makes no reference to specific numerical inspection goals.

When the program launched in 2022, OSHA set a goal of doubling heat inspections in every region. It worked. Before the program, OSHA performed just 200 heat-related inspections. Between April 2022 and December 2024, it conducted more than 7,000, producing 60 citations and 1,392 hazard alert letters.

The Trump-era replacement removed 46 designated “high-risk” industries while adding 23. Among those no longer considered to involve heat hazards: support activities for mining, waste treatment and disposal, motor vehicle manufacturing, and basic chemical manufacturing.

Data released by Senator Elizabeth Warren showed overall inspections fell about 20 percent in the first half of 2025. Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget requested a 7.5 percent cut for OSHA.

The Biden administration had proposed the country’s first nationwide workplace heat standard in 2024, mandating water and shade breaks once temperatures crossed dangerous thresholds. The Trump administration hasn’t withdrawn it. It just hasn’t moved it forward.

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Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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