Judges are blocking Donald Trump’s attempts to dismantle American democracy left and right, but there may be more fires than hoses. Meanwhile, the administration is abandoning attempts to enforce the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), and its nominee for the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signalled that the agency may return to requiring patients to visit a health-care professional in person before accessing abortion pills. Here’s what you may have missed from this week.

Reproductive rights

• The Trump administration dropped a Biden-era Justice Department case that aimed to force Idaho to provide emergency abortion care under EMTALA.
• During a Senate confirmation hearing, FDA Commissioner nominee Dr. Marty Makary said he would revisit a Biden-era rule that undid a requirement for patients to visit a health-care provider to receive mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions, NBC News reported.

Anti-democratic actions

• The Trump administration is planning to lay off more than 80,000 people from the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the Associated Press. Trump adviser Alina Habba said veterans who are being fired are perhaps “not fit to have a job at this moment.”
• More than 700 U.S. diplomats reportedly signed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio protesting the Trump administration’s decimation of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
• A federal judge extended a freeze on the Trump administration’s attempt to block billions of dollars of Congressionally-appropriated funding to nearly two dozen states and Washington, D.C.
• The Japanese American Citizens League, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists filed a lawsuit aiming to block Elon Musk from being able to fire federal employees.
• Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the country does not need a Department of Education.
• A judge ruled that Trump’s attempt to fire National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat, was unlawful and reinstated her to the agency.

Health and science

• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Thomas Corry quit two weeks into the job after reportedly clashing with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over agency management, POLITICO reported.
• A federal judge extended a temporary block on cuts to federal National Institutes of Health funding.
• The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to get out of paying nearly $2 billion in foreign aid reimbursements, SCOTUSblog reported.

Immigration

• NBC News reported the Trump administration is reconsidering its plan to detain immigrants at Guantanamo Bay.
• Trump announced an expedited citizenship pathway for South African farmers. The New York Times reported that a previous executive order specifically applied to Afrikaners, the white descendants of European colonizers, but the new announcement does not make clear whether the plan will also apply to Black South African farmers.

LGBTQ+ rights

• A federal judge extended a preliminary injunction against an executive order targeting federal funding for gender-affirming care for patients under the age of 19.
• The American Civil Liberties Union sued the National Endowment for the Arts over its policy to no longer fund projects that “promote gender ideology” in accordance with a recent executive order.