Honestly people who believed the initial @wsj.com lies about the bullets just failed a basic media literacy test. The WSJ is just printing white wing press releases and if you don’t know that by now I don’t know what to tell you.
Lawyer, she/her, Director of Nominations & Democracy at National Women's Law Center
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Honestly people who believed the initial @wsj.com lies about the bullets just failed a basic media literacy test. The WSJ is just printing white wing press releases and if you don’t know that by now I don’t know what to tell you.
NEW: A group of appeals court judges openly struggled with — and in some cases criticized — the Supreme Court's terse and vague shadow docket rulings. One said they've left lower courts "in limbo," forcing them to interpret "signals" w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/09...
It is wildly unusual for lower-court judges to so publicly express frustration with the Supreme Court’s *behavior* (versus, say, a confusing ruling in a specific case). But the number of *different* examples is completely unprecedented—and pretty powerful evidence that something is seriously wrong.
"Ban racially based targeting of Latinos by ICE" is a simple demand. It can be explained in a single sentence. Every Democrat can agree to it. It supports a key constituency that is drifting from Trump. It is a trivial piece of legislation. It reverses a very recent, outrageous SCOTUS decision.
The MSNBC commentator saying that most political violence has historically come from the left just once again showed how we suffer from failing to learn history. Lynching, pogroms, race riots, the political violence that ended Reconstruction, and against the Civil Rights Movement. Come on.
On the blog, I critique Justice Kavanaugh's attempt to justify Monday's emergency docket ruling greenlighting racial profiling in Los Angeles. He's wrong about everything: standing; the 4th Amendment; the balance of harms; and his suggestion that damages lawsuits are available. 👇
A professor who was actually canceled - fired - and crickets from the hysterical “anti-cancel culture” crowd.
A construction site is not probable cause. Speaking with an accent is not a crime. And racial profiling is un-American.
There is a thorny history of which persons living in the U.S. have been counted, and by how much, in census numbers that form the bedrock of U.S. democracy. But since the first U.S. census in 1790, this has been an unwavering truth: No resident has ever been left out because of immigration status.
A top 50 US university yesterday fired an instructor, a department chair, and a dean because a course made some reference to transgender people without the brief official course description in the catalog saying “trigger warning: gender.” In conclusion, those intolerant lefty kids, cancel culture.
Texas A&M University System orders audit of all courses after gender identity lesson goes viral Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ
The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.
Governor announces New Mexico will now provide free universal child care
BREAKING: @lambdalegal.org strongly criticizes the federal indictment of one of its lawyers in Alabama, calling it "an outrageous act of governmental overreach" that followed "unprecedented and abusive judicial proceedings." "We unequivocally stand behind Carl and all of our attorneys ...."
The Atlantic and NYT lost their minds if there was so much as a trigger warning in classes. Now, professors and Deans are being fired for a class that discussed the existence of trans people and those same publications are quiet. It was never about free speech. www.texastribune.org/2025/09/08/t...
SCOTUS allowing ICE to racially profile will embolden Trump to use ICE & military against his political opponents, potentially demanding citizenship checks at polls & intimidating Dem voters in 2026. Already seeing such tactics with occupation of LA, DC & Chicago www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Kavanaugh doubles down on (& misapplies) the most shameful standing decision in the Court’s modern history, Los Angeles vs. Lyons (1983). In Lyons a Black man who was victim of a chokehold by LAPD sought to enjoin its use. SCOTUS said no standing b/c….how do you know it will happen to you again?
I am usually more sanguine than some others when the Supreme Court hands down nasty opinions, but y'all, I am really stuck on Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo. Presidential immunity was dangerous but unsurprising. Many other shadow docket rulings have been dumbfounding. Today was nakedly invidious.
I don't know exactly how and when we'll get there, but there will come a time when the Roberts Court era and especially from ~2024 onward becomes treated as an irredeemably tainted anti-canon, when citing them as a favorable precedent joins the ranks of invoking Dred Scott, Plessey, or Korematsu.
I mean what on earth are district court judges supposed to do at this point other than get the message from SCOTUS to let Trump do whatever he wants to no matter what the law says.
BREAKING: By an apparent 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court halts an injunction that had prevented immigration agents from racially profiling Latinos in central California. Sotomayor, dissenting, says the decision is "unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation's constitutional guarantees."
#SCOTUS all-but overruled a unanimous, 90-year-old precedent through an unexplained "administrative" stay this morning, and that's only the second-most-problematic thing it did before lunchtime.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court — over the objection of Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson — allows the Trump administration’s racial profiling of people working certain types of jobs in its immigration raids during litigation.
![SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES - No. 25A169 - KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, ET AL. U. PEDRO VASQUEZ PERDOMO, ET AL. ON APPLICATION FOR STAY [September 8, 2025] The application for stay presented to JUSTICE KAGAN and by her referred to the Court is granted. The July 11, 2025 order entered by the United States District Court for the Central District of California, case No. 2:25-cv-5605, is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreibxmw7us44keftyrwzd2w3ycrn2gd5pb24kqw3syazwrqjmkq2mym@jpeg "Click to view full size")
no surprised that brett ”almost certainly flunked his remedial classes” kavanaugh thinks the constitution authorizes a race-based federal “papers please” regime. quick, someone ask him what he thinks of the fugitive slave act.
Supreme Court Rules 6-3 That Fundamental Interests Of United States Of America Would Be Irreparably Harmed If It Race-Based Harassment And Detention By Masked Thugs Were Even Temporarily Halted
It's not the most important part of the issue but Kavanaugh saying "well they should just sue if they're the victims of excessive force from ICE" when he himself has previously voted to bar lawsuits against federal officers for violations of the 4th Amendment in immigration cases takes chutzpah.
Justice Kavanaugh's attempt to re-brand how the Supreme Court handles emergency applications is belied by how the Supreme Court is actually handling emergency applications. That, and a bunch of other #SCOTUS news, in this week’s “One First”: www.stevevladeck.com/p/177-the-no...
SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool
From Justice Jackson's dissent to the opinion allowing the NIH to end grants, 8/21: "This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins.”
Florida moves to end all school vaccine mandates, first in nation to do so: Given Florida's wide-open exemptions, this is more symbolic than anything else - Dr. Ladapo is embracing anti-vaccine ideology and inviting disease to come get their kids. wapo.st/4g8Ytn4
oh this is straightforward white nationalist agitprop
Pritzker: "When did we become a country where it's ok for the US president to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for anything? Especially something we don't want. Have we truly lost all sense of sanity in this nation that we treat this as normal?"
#BREAKING: Judge Breyer has held that the Trump admin. *violated* the Posse Comitatus Act in its military deployments in and around Los Angeles, and has enjoined further use of those troops for law enforcement tasks. The order is stayed through 12 PDT on 9/12: georgetown.app.box.com/file/1973361...
I had serious doubts about CDC Director Monarez’s willingness to stand up against RFK Jr.’s personal mission to destroy public health in America—I’m glad that I was wrong. If there are any adults left in the White House: we cannot let RFK Jr. burn what's left of CDC. FIRE HIM.
Just tried watching Ezra Klein’s latest NYT podcast episode on how the U.S. got to this point where vaccines are so politicized. It’s pretty clear that Klein and his guests—David Wallace Wells and Rachael Bedard—really do not understand why/how the political right turned on vaccines.
New: In 7 months, Kennedy has broken the CDC, perhaps irreparably. For all he’s done with mass firings, gutting expertise, and attacking vaccines, Wednesday’s loss of its most senior and competent leaders—truly the CDC’s backbone—is the most consequential attack yet. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/c...
Ashley Babbit dishonored her service by committing insurrection against her country. While her death is absolutely tragic and I wish it hadn’t happened, the Air Force giving her honors is in itself a dishonor.
"The top story of the moment is the one story that our most influential newsrooms won’t touch: That the United State has become an authoritarian state." — Dan Froomkin @froomkin.bsky.social presswatchers.org/2025/08/we-h...
Qualified immunity is awesome; the more you know about it, the harder it is to communicate the specifics to others. Even the start of it—judges made it up, it has no constitutional or statutory basis—is difficult to a mind not yet broken by travel along qualified immunity's Escher-esque contours.
Great article on Women's Equality Day and the need to fight for our voting rights! www.forbes.com/sites/hollyc...
Its not failure of self-awareness. They are mocking people who care about the rule of law.
🚨1000 authoritarian actions. 7 months🚨 I've been tracking Trump's authoritarian actions. From dismantling democratic institutions to militarising immigration enforcement, Trump is reshaping America. In my new post I highlight key authoriarian attacks christinapagel.substack.com/p/grand-desi... 1/2
The practical upshot is that justice delayed is justice denied; or to be more precise, a lab which had to fire all of its researchers and halt work on groundbreaking research isn't going to be able to ever restore itself to the same position it would have been without a multi-year pause in funding.
1/ Judge in Habba ruling "Manipulation of official appointments had long been one of the American revolutionary generation’s greatest grievances against executive power, because the power of appointment to offices was deemed 'the most insidious and powerful weapon of eighteenth century despotism'"
Just now…
incredible that three overpaid consultants in a trench coat can get media play by urging democrats not to use words that literally no one in mainstream politics uses
The Supreme Court hands down some incomprehensible gobbledygook about canceled federal grants www.vox.com/scotus/45886...
ICE lied to courts about its use of illegal profiling. We can't trust the government to tell us the truth about what it's doing because it is controlled by liars from the top down. www.cato.org/blog/anti-pr...
While Trump has no actual power to do this, it's telling that he wants to take the advice of a dictator to harm the integrity of our elections. Even though the courts will likely block this order, we should be horrified that he is attempting this at all. This is a direct attack on democracy.
The Supreme Court just ruled in favor of the Trump administration’s unprecedented and dangerous rampage to slash critical NIH research on health disparities impacting marginalized communities, Black women, and LGBTQ+ people. Read our full statement: https://on.nwlc.org/4fPspEn
This ruling is so much worse than you described. As Justice Jackson laid out, it functionally prevents any meaningful remedy when the government violates the law to cancel contracts. And Barrett's opinion calls into question whether she would even rule against the admin -- your silver lining.
You know that it's a rough day at #SCOTUS when it hands down a ruling from which *eight* justices dissent (albeit in different parts).
NEWS: Federal judge finds that Alina Habba is NOT lawfully performing functions and duties of U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. Judge Matthew Brann disqualifies Habba from prosecution of two criminal defendants who challenged her appointment
This (the man exercising the powers of the presidency personally directing persecution of political enemies using the full power of the state) is the immediate consequence of unitary executive theory. Not an eventuality or a slippery slope, but immediate.
Do you know how insane and infuriating it is to live in a country where one party claims, with media and public support, the mantle of being the ‘tough on crime’ party while its leader openly calls for convicted criminals to be released from prison ‘or else’?
In which Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh harshly upbraid a lower court for concluding that a recent "stay/injunction docket" decision was distinguishable ... even though the Chief Justice and three other Justices likewise believe it's distinguishable. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
The only thing I can say about this paragraph is read it. Sit with it. Read it again. @michaelharriot.bsky.social
Alina Habba says the federal judges should "just be doing their job -- respecting the president"
Illinois is launching a first-of-its-kind legal hotline for LGBTQ+ individuals — Illinois Pride Connect. As the only state in the nation that will provide free legal advice to protect the LGBTQ+ community, we'll help fight ignorance with information and cruelty with compassion.
Because nothing says “you should feel free to come visit Washington” like standing in front of dozens of armed soldiers next to a guy who thinks women shouldn’t be able to vote 🙃
ICYMI: Arkansas is threatening two websites for simply telling people where they can find abortion pills, which raises First Amendment concerns, as @maryrziegler.bsky.social told @autonomynews.co. She said the point might be to create a chilling effect
To my 10th grade English teacher, who said, “Make the conclusion count.”
Ed Martin’s latest stunt: pressuring someone he is criminally investigating to resign from public office “as an act of good faith.”
How does solar destroy farmers? Does he think it uses up the sunlight?
ah, you see, history and tradition does not apply to a settled, 90-year-old arrangement
NEW: McCarthyism returns to immigration law, as @USCIS announces that it will begin screening applicants for immigration benefits for "Anti-America ideologies or activities." The term has no prior precedent in immigration law and its definition is entirely up to the Trump admin.
Mail voting is a secure way to cast a ballot that dates back to the Civil War. Election officials in every state use tested and multi-layered checks to ensure that mail voting is safe. 1/
If you want to put back statues and memorials and names of Confederate traitors while tearing down museum exhibitions on slavery because they don't show the greatness of the nation... the nation whose history you're celebrating is whiteness. The kind of nationalist you are is a white nationalist.
The 5th Circuit just struck down West Texas A&M's drag ban—with Judge Ho penning a rancid dissent to whine about discrimination against Christians, criticize drag, slander trans people, and plug Allie Beth Stuckey's new book. His SCOTUS campaign continues. A taste: www.thefire.org/sites/defaul...
Trump barred using a practice called disparate impact that uses statistical analysis to prove racial discrimination. But his administration is effectively using the same approach to accuse Harvard of reverse discrimination. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/18/m...
Disparate impact would be exceptionally hard to do here. You’d have to identify a neutral rule or device that is the cause of the uneven outcome. If you attempted to do a pattern or practice kind of analysis, identifying the labor pool across different departments and schools would be challenging.
Heads up: Trump now says he's going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots. He makes several inaccurate statements about those ballots as he attacks them.
HAPPENING NOW: Temporary restraining order hearing in DC v. Trump, a suit filed this morning over Trump's effort to takeover the DC police. Judge Ana Reyes just took the bench. I'm listening in for @lawfaremedia.org Follow along ⬇️
This is unconscionable. And illegal.
I'm going to publish the entirety of an exchange I just had with the press office of the DOJ. I want you to see how they are talking about truth.
New ICE data show that the court order banning profiling reduced ICE arrests in LA by 66%! In other words, ICE is effectively admitting that TWO THIRDS of LA arrests were unconstitutional profiling. Did they admit this to the court? NO! They lied to the courts...
#SCOTUS *denies* emergency application from NetChoice seeking to put Mississippi's age-verification-for-social-media law back on hold. Kavanaugh concurs, noting that NetChoice is likely to prevail on the merits, but that he's denying relief anyway because of the equities (which he doesn't address):
bookriot.com/penguin-rand...
Not great!
Democracy is about participation. And yet, in every federal election millions of eligible voters cite work hours as the key reason they did not vote. That’s why I’m proud to lead a bill to expand voter access by ensuring workers get paid time off to vote. www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-r...
And here you go. I honestly do not understand the moral cowardice that leads some of our fellow citizens to not speak out against what's going on.
every attempted explanation this guy gives for his decisions is total nonsense. just gobbledygook. www.scrippsnews.com/health/rfk-j...
DOJ Civil Rights Division Chief Harmeet Dhillon is now going after GW, asking them if they want to settle: www.justice.gov/crt/media/14...
New York AG Letitia James did her job & won a fraud case against Trump & his companies. Now, he's weaponizing the Department of Justice to seek revenge against her. This is what fascists do. Congress MUST demand oversight over Trump's personal use of the DOJ. This abuse of power cannot be ignored.
With the glasses, it kind of does! I guess the ridiculous yellow hair is a giveaway though.
Supreme Court Fast-Tracks Potential Demolition of Section 2 of Voting Rights Act by Setting Argument October 15 in Louisiana Case, Possibly in Time to Affect 2026 Midterm Elections electionlawblog.org?p=151533
Repost if you think Hegseth shouldn't be allowed to vote. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
After a bit of a delay, the Supreme Court has finally issued its argument calendars for October and November. Challenge to LGBTQ conversion therapy bans on Oct. 7. Assault against the Voting Rights Act on Oct. 15. www.supremecourt.gov/oral_argumen... www.supremecourt.gov/oral_argumen...
BREAKING: Full federal appeals court upholds Arkansas's ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Skrmetti, the Eighth Circuit's en banc decision reverses the trial court — and former circuit court precedent. It also goes further than Skrmetti.
HUGE. The first major court victory involving conditions of confinement at ICE field offices. The judge bars detention in any cell which isn't: - Restricted by capacity - Has mats for people to sleep on overnight - Is cleaned 3 times a day - Provides hygiene supplies - Offers free legal calls
Challenge: post your last photo taken in DC to show what a hell-hole it is.
Rep. Adam Smith: "Look, it's pretty clear the president wants his own domestic police force and step by step he's trying to create it. We should be deeply alarmed by that regardless of how you feel about crime in DC or any other city ... it's a huge step toward an autocratic government."
DHS is recruiting using a not-so-subtle reference to a 1978 book from white nationalist William Gayley Simpson, Which Way Western Man? Simpson's book was released under an imprint associated with the National Alliance, founded by Turner Diaries author William Luther Pierce.
🚨BREAKING: Supreme Court will hear oral argument in critical rehearing in Louisiana redistricting case on October 15. This timing raises the threat that the Court could be looking to limit or strike down VRA Section 2 in advance of 2026 midterm elections. www.democracydocket.com/cases/louisi...
Today marks 60 years since the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965—ending many discriminatory voting practices targeted towards Black voters. But in the last decade, dangerous changes have endangered the future of voting rights and fair elections. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Pillars of Eternity 2
You may be right, but it likely won't be this case.
Bowser: "I think I speak for all Americans -- we don't believe it's legal to use the American military against American citizens on American soil."
7 Aug 25 -- Erin Reed makes sensible suggestion that blue states suing Trump over anti-care policies isn't enough: they must also sue their hospitals that are voluntarily closing their gender clinics and enforce state laws that protect trans kids. @rikiwilchins.bsky.social