SCOTUS Hears Guam Munitions Fight; Judge Halts DHS Biometrics Block; Press Ban Hearing: Oct 8

Better Call Claude Briefing — Oct 8, 2026

The Supreme Court spent Wednesday on whether the Air Force must clear NEPA before renewing a hazardous-waste permit in Guam, a D.C. federal judge set aside a DHS policy that blocked biometrics for detained immigration applicants, the White House press-ban fight returned to court on Thursday, and AT&T's in-house legal team teamed up with OpenAI on AI workflows. General news roundup only — not legal advice.

SCOTUS wrestles with Air Force munitions detonations in Guam

On Wednesday, October 7, the Supreme Court heard roughly 75 minutes of argument in Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guåhan, a suit by a Guam environmental and cultural group over the Air Force's decades-old practice of detonating and burning hazardous munitions at Tarague Beach next to Andersen Air Force Base. In 2021 the Air Force applied to Guam's EPA to renew its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit; Prutehi Guåhan sued, saying the Air Force violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by skipping a detailed Environmental Impact Statement. A Guam district judge dismissed the case as premature and held NEPA did not apply; a divided Ninth Circuit revived it and said NEPA review was required with the renewal. At the Court, Assistant to the Solicitor General Sopan Joshi argued a permit application is not "final agency action" under the Administrative Procedure Act and that RCRA's own review scheme should control the timing. Earthjustice's Caroline Flynn countered that NEPA is an "umbrella" law meant to run early and can be harmonized with RCRA. Several justices, including Clarence Thomas, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan, voiced doubt that an application still being rewritten by Guam EPA is final; Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch pressed the government on why the Air Force could not simply comply with both statutes if they do not irreconcilably conflict. Amy Coney Barrett worried that treating applications as final could open floodgates of permitting suits. A decision is expected next year, and the outcome could reshape when environmental groups may sue federal agencies that seek state or territorial hazardous-waste permits.

Sources: SCOTUSblog, Bloomberg Law

D.C. judge sets aside DHS policy blocking biometrics for detained applicants

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington on Wednesday ordered the Department of Homeland Security to halt a December 2025 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy under which immigration authorities "generally will not take biometrics of detained aliens," except in narrow cases. Detainees with pending applications for statuses such as permanent residency, special immigrant juvenile status, or trafficking survivor visas argued the policy effectively blocks background checks and acts as a de facto denial, risking continued detention and deportation even when a grant of status would stop those outcomes. Ali found the challengers likely to succeed under the Administrative Procedure Act, rejected the government's claim that detained people can simply attend their own biometrics appointments or ask ICE to help as making "little sense," and held the publicly announced, manual-updated policy is final agency action. He set aside the policy and gave the administration until October 21 to show compliance. The ruling matters for anyone whose lawful-status path depends on fingerprints and photos while they are held by ICE, and it tests how far agencies can slow benefits processing as an immigration-control tool.

Sources: Yahoo / Law & Crime

Judge extends White House press-ban TRO; presses DOJ on shifting justifications

On Thursday, October 8, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly heard argument on whether CNN, MS NOW, and Politico should get a preliminary injunction after President Trump banned their White House-credentialed reporters over coverage he labeled "fake news." Kelly's temporary restraining order, issued last month and set to expire Thursday, will stay in force through Tuesday while he decides the longer-term request; about 78 credentialed journalists across the three outlets remain covered. Ted Boutrous for the outlets argued the ban is retaliation for disliked reporting and denied due process. Justice Department counsel Michael Velchik defended it as enforcing professional standards and protecting national security. Kelly, a Trump appointee, repeatedly noted the mismatch between the president's public statements about "bad stories" and the government's in-court national-security framing, calling that fact pattern "a hard one to find" and due process "probably the biggest hurdle" for DOJ. He also flagged a 2020 D.C. Circuit decision requiring fair notice and meaningful standards before suspending press credentials. Even after the TRO, the White House has still kept CNN and Politico out of the Oval Office and Air Force One press pool. The case sits at the intersection of First Amendment retaliation claims and how much process the White House must give before cutting off access.

Sources: CBS News

AT&T LegalEdge partners with OpenAI on enterprise legal AI workflows

On October 8, Artificial Lawyer reported that AT&T's LegalEdge unit — a lean, AI-first in-house team of remote attorneys, paralegals, technologists, and e-discovery specialists launched in January and said to have handled nearly 100 matters in its first six months — is partnering with OpenAI to build department-wide AI-enabled legal workflows. AT&T general counsel David McAtee framed the project as rethink how legal work and institutional knowledge move through the company, with "legal judgment remain[ing] human." OpenAI's Jason Boehmig, GM for Legal Industry and Ironclad co-founder, said the goal is to put AT&T's expertise to work across the business while keeping lawyers' judgment at the center. The tie-up follows OpenAI's Astra for Law launch and a wave of legal-tech plugins, and it is one more signal that large corporates are building structured AI capacity in-house rather than only buying point tools — with possible knock-on effects for how much routine work goes to outside counsel.

Sources: Artificial Lawyer

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This Briefing is general news for Better Call Claude readers. It is not legal advice, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. Check primary sources and talk to a licensed lawyer about your situation.