Many top legal experts believe a full-blown constitutional showdown between President Trump and the courts is already here. Others are confident there's still room to avoid one, Axios court watcher Sam Baker writes.

• But most agree that the administration's battle with U.S. District Judge James "Jeb" Boasberg — who last weekend ordered a temporary halt to the administration's deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members — is a significant escalation.

Conservative lawyer John Yoo — a Trump ally who has advanced one of the most sweeping theories of presidential power — told Fox News Digital: "I worry that there might be some people in the administration who would actually like to defy a judicial order. Which I think would be a terrible mistake."

• "If the courts can't render reliable decisions, then our legal system doesn't function," Yoo added.

⚡ State of play: Senior members of the Trump administration and the MAGAverse have been talking for months about simply ignoring court orders they don't like. Now, the talk is being tested.

• A senior White House official told Axios' Marc Caputo of the deportation fight: "It's the showdown that was always going to happen between the two branches of government."
• Trump lawyers have made narrow arguments in court that the administration didn't intentionally violate the order by Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to halt the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

🥊 Over the past week, the administration's legal tactics also grew more aggressive. Lawyers refused to turn over information Boasberg requested, and petitioned a higher court to remove him from the case.

• The Justice Department asked that Boasberg and another federal judge, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, be removed from pending cases — requests that are almost never granted. Trump said the Senate should impeach Boasberg, which drew a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
• Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island said the administration's stance on freezing federal funding undermines "the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government." Last month, McConnell wrote that the administration was violating "the plain text" of a temporary restraining order.
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing Monday that in the deportation case, the administration "acted within the confines of the law ... within the president's constitutional authority, and under the authority granted to him under the Alien Enemies Act [of 1798]."

🔮 What's next: The fact that administration lawyers are arguing they haven't defied judges' ruling is important, legal experts tell Axios. That leaves off-ramps before a full-blown constitutional upheaval.

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It's true, as the White House claims, that the courts have blocked President Trump's executive orders at a particularly high rate, Axios' Sam Baker writes.

• It's also true, as White House critics argue, that simply ignoring those rulings would undermine checks and balances established by the Constitution.

The big picture: Trump and his White House aren't alone in their frustration with district-court judges blocking major parts of their agenda.

• Presidents Obama and Biden also had major policies blocked by the same type of rulings. Legal scholars from both sides of the aisle have criticized the rapid rise of such sweeping orders.

👀 How it works: Lawsuits against the federal government start in a district court — there are more than 600 district-court judges — then can move to an appeals court, then the Supreme Court.

• In the old days, district courts' rulings only applied to the parties before them. But since the beginning of the Obama administration, those judges have become increasingly willing to say their rulings apply nationwide — the same scope a Supreme Court decision has.

🧮 By the numbers: District courts issued 64 rulings freezing Trump administration policies during the president's first term, according to a Harvard Law Review tally.

• At least 15 universal (nationwide) injunctions have been issued against Trump's second-term policies.

🛒 Between the lines: Critics argue the rise of universal injunctions has also fueled a rise in venue shopping.

• When you only need to convince one district judge to halt an entire federal program, you'll quickly figure out the best place to file your lawsuit — and keep filing them there.

Trump, White House officials and MAGA leaders are decrying "out-of-control" district courts — but celebrated their rulings against Biden.

• Few Democrats who decried those rulings against Obama or Biden are complaining about them now.

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After weeks of negotiations, the IRS is nearing an agreement allowing immigration officials to use confidential tax data to confirm names and addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants who have final removal orders, The Washington Post's Jacob Bogage and Jeff Stein report.

• Why it matters: "The IRS has for years reassured undocumented workers that their tax information is confidential and that it is safe for them to file income tax returns without fear of being deported," The Post notes.

Between the lines: The IRS website says undocumented workers "are subject to U.S. taxes in spite of their illegal status." Many immigrants "file tax returns and save them in hopes that a record of paying taxes will one day help them make a case to apply for legal residency," The Post reports.

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Carter Starocci of Penn State shook hands with President Trump last night after winning his unprecedented fifth title at the NCAA Men's Wrestling Championship in Philadelphia.

• Trump arrived at Philly's Wells Fargo Center to loud cheers and a standing ovation, and pumped his fists amid chants of "U-S-A!"

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A new digital divide is growing between people who trust AI for emotional support and those who don't, Axios' Megan Morrone reports.

• Why it matters: AI startups are pushing their tools not just as enterprise productivity enhancers, but also as therapists, companions and life coaches.

🔎 Two new studies from OpenAI, in partnership with MIT Media Lab, found that users are turning to bots to help cope with difficult situations because they say that the AI is able to "display human-like sensitivity."

• The studies found that ChatGPT "power users" are likely to consider the bot a "friend" and find those chats more comfortable than face-to-face human interactions.

🧠 The big picture: More than half (55%) of 18-to-29-year-old Americans feel comfortable chatting with AI about mental health concerns, according to a 2024 YouGov survey.

• But AI can't effectively substitute for a human therapist because "a therapeutic relationship is about ... forming a relationship with another human being who understands the complexity of life," argues sociologist Sherry Turkle, who has been studying digital culture for decades.

Keep reading.

Days without a shower. Sleeping on floors. Two hundred people confined in a space meant for 85.

• Some immigration detention units are so crowded that non-citizens arrested in President Trump's crackdown are living in inhumane conditions, attorneys for detainees tell Axios' Brittany Gibson.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's goal of deporting "millions" of people has led officials to jam more than 46,000 detainees into a system designed to hold no more than about 40,000, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records.

Conditions in detention have been so poor that some immigrants prefer deportation to spending more time in the facilities, said Paul Chavez, director of the litigation program at Americans for Immigrant Justice.

• "A lot of people are just signing orders to be removed, because the conditions are so horrible," he said.

The crowding is just one sign of a system under stress:

• Officials are scrambling to arrange more detention space across the U.S. and abroad.
• They're sending detainees they've deemed as dangerous on controversial — and legally questionable — flights to foreign prisons without giving them court hearings.
• And they're monitoring other unauthorized immigrants who've been arrested and released after agreeing to return for their court dates.

Nestor Yglesias, an ICE spokesperson in its Miami office, said in a statement that "some ICE facilities are experiencing temporary overcrowding due to recent increases in detention populations."

• Yglesias said the agency is doing several things to alleviate crowding, including transferring detainees and "expedited case processing where appropriate."

Read on for case studies.

Pope Francis arrived back home to the Vatican after a 38-day stay at Rome's Gemelli hospital, where he battled a life-threatening bout of pneumonia.

• Before his release, His Holiness appeared today on the hospital's balcony and gave the hundreds of people gathered to see him a thumbs-up.

What's next: The pope's doctors recommend two months of rest and rehabilitation, when he'll be discouraged from meeting in big groups or exerting himself.

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Today is the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry's legendary "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech.

• The backstory: Many of the men who would become the nation's Founding Fathers gathered in Richmond in March 1775 for an "extralegal" week-long convention. They picked Richmond instead of Williamsburg (Virginia's then-state capital) to be away from British-controlled state officials, Axios Richmond's Karri Peifer reports.

Midway through the convention, Henry stood and gave his famous speech.

• Less than a month later, the Revolutionary War began, and "liberty or death" became the war's rallying cry.

🎥 Today at 1:30 p.m., the same day and time as the original speech, Richmond's St. John's Church — where Henry delivered the address — will host a reenactment.

• Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns will open the event in his first public appearance for his new series, "The American Revolution," which airs on PBS in November.

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