By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sequence of events is familiar: A lower court judge blocks a part of President Donald Trump’s agenda, an appellate panel refuses to put the order on hold while the case continues, and the Justice Department turns to the Supreme Court.

Trump administration lawyers have filed emergency appeals with the nation’s highest court a little less than once a week on average since Trump began his second term.

The court is not being asked to render a final decision but rather to set the rules of the road while the case makes its way through the courts.

The justices have issued orders in 13 cases so far. The Trump administration has won more than it has lost, including in two cases Friday in which the high court blocked lower court orders involving the Department of Government Efficiency.

Among the administration’s other victories was an order allowing it to enforce the Republican president’s ban on transgender military service members. Among its losses was a prohibition on using an 18th century wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans alleged to be gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Two arrived this week, including one on Friday.

The Education Department has laid off nearly 1,400 employees

A federal judge in Boston has ordered the employees reinstated and also blocked action on Trump’s plan to dismantle the department, one of his top campaign pledges.

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In his order last month, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun wrote that the layoffs “will likely cripple the department.” The federal appeals court in Boston rejected the administration’s emergency request to put Joun’s order on hold.

On Friday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court that Joun’s overstepped his authority and was substituting his policy preferences for those of the Trump administration.

The layoffs help put in the place the “policy of streamlining the department and eliminating discretionary functions that, in the administration’s view, are better left to the states,” Sauer wrote.

The Massachusetts school districts, education groups and Democratic-led states that sued over Trump’s plan have a week to respond.

Another judge blocked plans to downsize the federal workforce

On Monday, Sauer renewed the administration’s request for the high court to the way for downsizing plans, while a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities proceeds.

The high court filing came after an appeals court refused to freeze a California-based judge’s order halting the cuts, which have been led by the Department of Government Efficiency. The appeals court found that the downsizing could have broader effects, including on the nation’s food-safety system and health care for veterans.

In her ruling last month, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston found that Trump’s administration needs congressional approval to make sizable reductions to the federal workforce.

The administration initially asked the justices to step in last month, but withdrew its appeal for technical, legal reasons.

The plaintiffs have a Monday deadline to respond.

A judge rebuked the administration over deportations to South Sudan

The Trump administration’s latest appeal asks the high court to halt an order by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston. The White House violated his earlier order, Murphy found, with a deportation flight bound for the African nation carrying people from other countries who had been convicted of crimes in the U.S.

Those immigrants must get a real chance to raise any fears that being sent there could put them in danger, Murphy wrote.

Trump’s top Supreme Court lawyer, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, asked for an immediate high court order that would allow the third-country deportations to resume.

Murphy has stalled efforts to carry out deportations of migrants who can’t be returned to their home countries, Sauer wrote. Finding countries willing to take them is “a delicate diplomatic endeavor” and the court requirements are a major setback, he said.

The court could act at any time.

Trump wants to change citizenship rules in place for more than 125 years

Several judges quickly blocked an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office that would deny citizenship to children who are born to people who are in the country illegally or temporarily.

The administration appealed three court orders that prohibit the changes from taking effect anywhere in the country.

Earlier in May, the justices took the rare step of hearing arguments in an emergency appeal. It’s unclear how the case will come out, but the court seemed intent on keeping the changes on hold while looking for a way to scale back nationwide court orders.

One possibility advanced by some justices was to find a different legal mechanism, perhaps a class action, to accomplish essentially the same thing as the nationwide injunctions blocking Trump’s citizenship order.

Nationwide injunctions have emerged as an important check on Trump’s efforts to remake the government and a source of mounting frustration to the Republican president and his allies.

Judges have issued 40 nationwide injunctions since Trump began his second term in January, Sauer told the court during the arguments.

The court could act anytime, but almost certainly no later than early summer.

“By listening to residents and responding to their needs, we can ensure that East New York’s growth creates opportunity while preserving its identity.”

The intersection of Atlantic and East new York avenues, pictured here in 2019. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

East New York has long been a neighborhood defined by resilience. It’s where families have built their lives, small businesses have kept communities connected, and neighbors have had each other’s backs.

Yet, while other Brooklyn neighborhoods have seen new resources and investments transform their streets, East New York has been left waiting. Despite being home to one of New York City’s busiest transit hubs, Broadway Junction lacks deeply needed public spaces, job opportunities, and affordable housing. Our community wants to see commonsense quality-of-life investments, but we have been kept waiting.

Recently, officials have started taking action, investing to uplift the people who call this neighborhood home. The city and MTA’s $500 million commitment to improve Broadway Junction is a step in the right direction, promising better public spaces and station upgrades to make it more accessible and welcoming. Soon, NYC EDC’s improvements outside the station and the new Human Resources Administration offices at 2440 Fulton will bring jobs and resources to the heart of our neighborhood.

These changes are encouraging, but they come with understandable concerns. Too often, investment has meant disruption, displacement, and broken promises. That’s why it’s critical that East New York’s future is shaped by and for the people who live here. True progress means centering the voices of longtime residents and ensuring their needs—more housing, safer streets, stronger local businesses—guide the path forward.

As a longtime resident of East New York who has worked in the Broadway Junction area for 25 years, I am acutely aware of the challenges our community faces. East New York is rich with history, culture, and spirit. It’s where neighbors know one another, local businesses anchor our streets, and families have built their lives for generations. But too often, when new development comes to neighborhoods like ours, it ignores what makes these communities special.

But there’s a better way, one that strengthens communities rather than displacing them. That means thoughtful development to create local jobs, invest in shared spaces, and prioritize deeply affordable housing to ensure stability.

We’ve seen signs of this approach taking shape. The Herkimer-Williams project, which aims to transform the concrete lots around Broadway Junction, has taken steps in the right direction. Totem, the development team, analyzed past studies of Broadway Junction and held over 100 touchpoints with the local community to incorporate such feedback into a proposal. 

While the initial design already reflected years of community visioning, Totem then spent another two years engaging directly with residents, community leaders and local stakeholders to shape a revised plan, one that reflects the local evolving desires for permanently affordable housing, expanded job opportunities and increased public space.

Totem’s blueprint includes affordable housing, retail, supportive services, community spaces, and room for local businesses—a holistic mix aimed at boosting social connections, stimulating the economy, and meeting long-neglected needs. It’s a practical and grassroots approach that speaks to the hopes of those who’ve lived and worked here for generations.

While we still have work ahead, this kind of engagement shows how developers can, and should, build with the community rather than for it. By listening to residents and responding to their needs, we can ensure that East New York’s growth creates opportunity while preserving its identity.

Our future depends on development that reflects our voices. In choosing negotiation over confrontation, we’re that much more likely to achieve a collective vision for Broadway Junction. Our community’s strength has always come from its people, and together, we can make sure that strength guides East New York’s future.

Bill Wilkins is the executive director of the Local Development Corporation of East New York.

The post Opinion: East New York, It’s Our Time To Level Up appeared first on City Limits.

Treadle Yard Goods, a fabric shop with a nearly half-century-long history on Grand Avenue, has closed as its owner undergoes cancer treatment.

Michele Hoaglund, who bought the store about a decade ago from its founding owners, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer around Christmas, she wrote on the store’s social media page. The shop’s final day was June 1.

“My focus must be on my health and getting well,” she wrote in the store’s farewell message on its website. “I have enjoyed getting to know so many of you over the years and loved seeing and hearing about your sewing projects.”

Hoaglund could not be reached for comment this week.

Hoaglund, a longtime employee who had initiated the store’s class program, took over the store in 2015 from Mary Daley, who had founded it in 1976 with her late husband, Paul.

The shop was known not just for its wide fabric selection but also for its employees’ skill at supporting and advising customers’ projects, and for its community outreach efforts. In 2020, the store provided free kits for sewists to make their own Covid-19 face masks. Then, in 2022, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Hoaglund organized community sewing sessions to produce more than 200 handmade baby blankets for Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

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Each Friday, City Limits rounds up the latest news on housing, land use and homelessness. Catch up on what you might have missed here.

Advocates putting up a sign in Foley Square Tuesday morning, ahead of a rally for social housing bills under consideration in the City Council. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

Welcome to “What Happened This Week in NYC Housing?” where we compile the latest local news about housing, land use and homelessness.

Know of a story we should include in next week’s roundup? Email us.

ICYMI, from City Limits:

The Trump administration released more details on the president’s 2026 budget proposal, which local experts say would be “disastrous” for New York City’s housing agencies. If it comes to pass, it could cut city housing programs by up to 42 percent, with the biggest impact on low income renters, including NYCHA tenants.

Advocates and City Council members are making a renewed push to pass a package of “social housing” bills aimed at de-privatizing residential properties across the five boroughs, creating more opportunities for community land trusts and nonprofit ownership.

Want to know if a building has rent-stabilized apartments? A new law will require city landlords to post signs in their properties’ common areas disclosing as much—an effort to help tenants challenge overcharges and illegal rent hikes.

The debate over who should get to make land use and development decisions continues. “I suggest the creation of a new city position, the Zoning Administrator, who would be entrusted with approvals expected to result in few real-world adverse effects,” Manhattan Institute’s Eric Kober argues in an oped.

City Limits just welcomed two new housing reporters! Patrick Spauster (patrick@citylimits.org) joins as our new housing and homelessness reporter, while CUNY Newmark intern Tareq Saghie (Tareq@citylimits.org) will spend the summer reporting on tenant issues. Send them story tips!

ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he’s been endorsed by several NYCHA tenant leaders in the race for mayor—but at least seven of those public housing residents said that’s not the case, according to reporting by The City.

City Councilmember and Land Use Chair Rafael Salamanca Jr., who is running for Bronx Borough President, has raked in significant campaign money from the city’s developers, some of whom have given both to his current election bid and to another campaign committee for an unpaid position in the Bronx Democratic Party, New York Focus reports.

Brooklyn leaders are slamming the state for not enforcing pricey penalties against the developers behind the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project, who’ve failed to deliver on promised affordable housing by a May 31 deadline, according to Gothamist.

Here’s what the Democratic candidates for mayor pay for their housing, per Politico.

A pastor in East New York is looking to help slow the exodus of Black New Yorkers priced out of the city by building affordable apartments, the New York Times reports.

The post What Happened This Week in NYC Housing? June 6, 2025 appeared first on City Limits.