Too much legal news.
Legal journalist and beachgoer. I write about courts, the law, and the politics shaping them for @vanityfair.com and others. Host of The Bully's Pulpit from @knightcolumbia.org. Hablo y pienso en español. Signal: cristianfarias.33
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Too much legal news.
A horrifying thought: the Supreme Court major-questions-doctrining the Sherman Act.
From Judge Pillard’s dissent: media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/doc...
Another power grab by two Trump judges on the D.C. Circuit that the full court would be wise and well advised to wipe out as soon as possible. Don’t give them an inch.
The judge here did nothing wrong, and it’s a shame that he had to do this in response to two justices throwing a fit about Supreme Court orders without jurisprudential value.
Live shot of Gov. J.B. Pritzker right now:
BREAKING: Judge Breyer rules that President Trump's deployment of the military to Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act, says Trump is using military as a "national police force with the president as its chief." Injunction granted. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: Drew Ensign, on behalf of DOJ, reports that all of the migrant children have been returned to ORR custody.
Or covering their “record earnings” while omitting their “deals” with the government. *shudders*
I understood everything you just wrote, and I hate it.
The paralegal should put on her CV that Pam Bondi personally fired her.
To be clear, the “official” here is a paralegal. The attorney general of the United States fired a paralegal. She also concedes that disrespecting the National Guard is disrespecting “law enforcement,” which … the military cannot do under federal law. Happy Labor Day, Pam Bondi!
I cackled. Top-notch analysis.
Fútbol analyst Sherrilyn is my favorite Sherrilyn.
Reminder: the apparent plan was to spirit these children away in the middle of the night without them ever seeing the inside of a courtroom to challenge their deportation. Children.
Here’s @ahilantoolong.bsky.social on this ruling: “There are now two comprehensive decisions carefully explaining why the Venezuelan vacatur is illegal but neither has any effect because of the two paragraph unreasoned U.S. Supreme Court order. This is not how a rational legal system should work.”
Looks like my small parcel of Brazilian goods will be stranded until further notice. No end-of-summer beachwear for me. Thank you, errant trade policy!
Nah, it’s fairly strongly pro-Congress, he can’t do this without a statute. We’ll see what happens.
Don’t ruin your weekend by reading this mammoth ruling. Read me instead where I break it all down in a few short sentences. www.newyorker.com/newsletter/t...
Federal courts remain undefeated in late Friday news dumps: On a vote of 7-to-4, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rules the vast majority of Donald Trump’s worldwide tariffs unlawful because the emergency powers statute he invoked doesn’t allow them. TL;dr: President can’t set taxes!
John, Brett, and Amy won’t let Donald Trump tank their retirement portfolios. That’s just the reality.
I wrote a piece about this in May 2020, when MAGA was calling for the firing of Anthony Fauci in the middle of a global pandemic. Nobody read it. And the Supreme Court ultimately didn’t care, making the CFPB head fireable for no reason, which has led to other troubles. nymag.com/intelligence...
The order amending the opinion is 🫨🫠🙃. media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/doc...
ACLU seeks rehearing en banc in the DC Circuit seeking to revive Judge Boasberg contempt proceeding against Trump officials in deportations case:
Payasos de verdad.
TENTH AMENDMENT
Don’t mean to make everything about the Supreme Court, but: There’s an undecided petition AT THIS VERY MOMENT, sitting on the shadow docket, asking the nine to allow ICE to racially profile people who look Latino, speak Spanish, are day laborers, or else work in low-wage service jobs. This one:
Source: “Would you want to do the interview over the phone or via Zoom?” Me: “Whatever your preference, I’m on deadline. Just let me know if Zoom, I need to throw a shirt on.” 💀
🚨ICE agents are racially profiling and arresting Hispanic drivers in the DC area today, targeting work vehicles like trucks and vans. A friend who was targeted sent me video today. Here’s a picture that shows one of two agents before he pulled on his mask. Unmarked black Ford truck, plate: NTV9211.
i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.
No, it’s still not linked. (I subscribe to Bloomberg fwiw.)
Politico comes through: bsky.app/profile/josh...
Thank you!
I’ve clicked on seven news stories about Lisa Cook suing Donald Trump—from The New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, NBC News, Guardian, Axios, and Forbes. Number of stories linking to the lawsuit: Zero.
This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Grand juries are and will continue to be rubber stamps unless and until serious political education occurs. This could well be a turning point. Also: Misdemeanors, or anything that could result in any prison time, should require a grand jury. But that’s a whole discussion people aren’t ready for.
Absolutely bonkers personalist regime stuff www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
(But mostly die.)
It’s outrageous that Sec. Kennedy is trying to fire the CDC Director — after only a few weeks on the job — for her commitment to public health & vaccines. The Sen. HELP Committee must hold a hearing with Kennedy & the CDC Director as soon as possible. Vaccines save lives. Period.
Live by the unitary executive, die by the unitary executive.
Here's what the third day of elementary school looked like in Mount Pleasant, Washington DC.
None of this is consistent with John Roberts' slow and methodical destruction of independent agencies. But I do hope that Governor Lisa Cook's upcoming legal challenge at least exposes how unprincipled and lawless that whole campaign has been.
And some of them are openly maligning them and rubbing in their faces who's boss and don't defy me or else. Gangster behavior.
Lower federal judges are doing far more to protect each other and their power to decide cases without fear or favor than John Roberts is.
This is the same standing order that implicates Kilmar Ábrego García—which judges adopted to prevent people filing habeas petitions from being needlessly deported without process during those crucial, early moments after their detention. Indeed, the judge cites the Ábrego García case in closing.
Adam Raine, 16, died from suicide in April after months on ChatGPT discussing plans to end his life. His parents have filed the first known case against OpenAI for wrongful death. Overwhelming at times to work on this story, but here it is. My latest on AI chatbots: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...
New video of Kilmar Ábrego García, released by @casaforall.bsky.social, shows the brief moments he spent reunified with his wife and family. He uplifts others: “Let’s continue fighting. Not just for me—for all the families that have been separated. And for justice to be done.”
Don't take it from me. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/t...
Spoken like someone who knows what it means to be illegally fired. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/t...
For the people in the back: This is a former FTC commissioner who was illegally fired:
Dear journalists: The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her. Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.
Normalize calling Kilmar Ábrego García a political prisoner. His criminalization, rearrest, and campaign to deport him to a third country aren’t legitimate by any stretch.
In which @newyorker.com asked me for my thoughts on the rearrest of Kilmar Ábrego García, which I boiled down to a few sentences: link.newyorker.com/view/5bda429...
Pritzker: To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story.
NEW: Florida and Texas asked Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to join the ongoing lawsuit against the FDA over the abortion drug mifepristone. They say they seek to challenge the drug's APPROVAL from 2000—going way farther than wanting to end telemed prescriptions storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
This EO is meant to encourage prosecutors to bring cases under the very laws SCOTUS declared unconstitutional in 1989. Those were both 5-4 votes. And the current SCOTUS may be even more lopsided if anything actually ever comes from this performative nonsense from Trump's addled permalate1980s mind.
The Supreme Court's early intervention aside, here's a great post putting today's arrest of Kilmar Ábrego García in the context of other lawlessness the justices have enabled in the intervening months: bsky.app/profile/leah...
This became clear after the Supreme Court told the Trump administration to facilitate his return, and the government refused and criminalized him instead: Kilmar Ábrego García is a political prisoner of the U.S. government. After today's arrest, it's well past time to normalize calling him that.
I expect Judge Xinis will do just that. This is a result of a standing order, applying to all habeas petitions in Maryland, which effectively prevents all such stealth removals out of the district, which would deprive its judges of jurisdiction. Trump administration is challenging that order.
Case has been assigned to Judge Paula Xinis. And as is the custom with cases filed in the District of Maryland: The government cannot remove Kilmar Ábrego García for a brief period (usually until 4 p.m. on the second business day since case filed) or until assigned judge extends restriction.
Here's the new case, which is styled as a petition for habeas corpus—which means filings aren't public. District of Maryland. I imagine Kilmar's lawyers will move to mark it as "related" to his previous lawsuit, which is being handled by Judge Paula Xinis. (The one that started it all in March.)
Happening right now: Kilmar Ábrego García has been taken into custody by ICE in Baltimore, Maryland. His wife Jennifer García just emerged from the building by herself. Hundreds of organizers and supporters outside the building. Lawyer just announced a new lawsuit in federal court to block removal.
William Orrick strikes again. Since Donald Trump's first term, he's one of the biggest Tenth Amendment stans in the entire federal judiciary. I gave him a shout-out in my National Guard piece, which remains as relevant as ever: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
I’m too old for ball pits.
Congratulations, John Roberts. You did this.
This is so moving. Community organizers from @ndlon.bsky.social, @casaforall.bsky.social, and @tnimmigrant.bsky.social have posted a video of Kilmar Ábrego García reuniting with his family. He shares a message of gratitude to God and everyone who supported him. www.instagram.com/reel/DNrjPQH...
Gonna keep this thread going: bsky.app/profile/kyle...
That’s in my follow-up post. Personally, I find that so powerful.
Religion aside: note the sign on the bed as Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrives, which features a cross. In Spanish, it cites Jeremiah 29:11: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
In closing: The Trump administration is bringing the full force of the U.S. government against a unionized immigrant worker who, by its own admission, should never have been detained and separated from his family, but now is simply being criminalized to save face after the courts forced his return.
And I’d like to note the Bible verse written on the sign laying on the bed, Jeremiah 29:11, in Spanish. That reads: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
A few things to note about Kilmar’s message: He says nothing about the current regime or the political prosecution against him. He notes he was disappeared and imprisoned for more than 160 days. He thanks the churches, pastors, and community organizations, including Smart Local 100, his union shop.
This is so moving. Community organizers from @ndlon.bsky.social, @casaforall.bsky.social, and @tnimmigrant.bsky.social have posted a video of Kilmar Ábrego García reuniting with his family. He shares a message of gratitude to God and everyone who supported him. www.instagram.com/reel/DNrjPQH...
Love the world John Roberts created.
They rally around the family with a pocket full of shells.
this is little more than a vendetta being pursued by the federal government against a man it unlawfully removed from the country and was forced to bring back
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in April: Kilmar Abrego García “will never live in the United States again.” Today:
Lost in the Cracker Barrel discourse: This beloved restaurant chain, deeply rooted in our history and traditions, is one of the greatest purveyors of trinkets and other nonessentials made in China. MAGA should be up in arms about how the president is hurting it far more than a brand refresh.
Yeah, no—we ain’t doing this.
Didn’t see much or any commentary on this footnote from Ketanji Brown Jackson. But as far as these things go, it’s as extraordinary a judicial dress-down as I’ve ever seen Brett Kavanaugh endure. (Usually Elena Kagan is the one clowning him.) www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
Nobody: Me, at 6:45 am, while lifting weights: Does the so-called ‘Marks’ rule apply to orders from the shadow docket where a single justice completely made up a rule out of whole cloth, and no one else agreed with her? (Sorry, I’m not well.)
Big news out of Florida tonight! An environmental challenge has brought the use of the Everglades detention camp to a halt.
It's the Mariah deep cut for me.
If you had told me 30 years ago that Michael Luttig and Bill Kristol would have a clearer understanding about what's going on than a lot of Democratic leaders, I'd have wondered whether you tried the brown acid.
As today’s ruling makes clear, the Supreme Court is a clear and present danger to life-saving biomedical research, scientific innovation, and the grant funding that sustains it all. Thinking of all the researchers that will now will see their projects shut down altogether as a result of this order.
I just want to note that Ketanji Brown Jackson is basically saying: “This is worse than Calvinball.”
I just want to note that this judge here is “reviewing several issues of first impression”—which is judgespeak for “everything about Alina Habbas appointment as U.S. attorney and the Trump administration’s behavior is batshit crazy and lawless.”
JUST IN: 9th Circuit panel refuses Trump administration bid to lift order requiring it to reinstate University of California grants canceled under Trump DEI orders. 3-0. Judges Paez (Clinton), Christen (Obama), Desai (Biden). Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
now we’re talking
Millennial to the bone!
And in jorts? I mean, c’mon.
I feel a little attacked by Swin here. But in my defense, my #content is actually inspirational insofar as not everyone can get into a headstand or beautiful backbend as a middle-aged father of two.
Ouch. In my defense, my vids are at least inspirational/aspirational in that not everyone can stand on their head or fold their body in half into a perfect pancake.
Thank you for being a better court reporter than me.
Lawgeeks, this is the Texas Ten Commandments PI. -->
Mass clemency used to be a routine, regular part of any governor’s job. Its a proud and bipartisan American tradition and one that @governor.ny.gov should go back to www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2025/...
Gonna start signing all my hottest takes like this federal judge: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
I don’t think the nation has fully reckoned with how incredibly funny it is that a federal judge, in a written judicial opinion, called the thing that the president of the United States is trying really hard to bury “the Epstein files.”
"How bad slavery was" is worse. Much worse. Much worse than you think, much worse than you're taught, much worse than museums depict. Worse.
Just getting around to this. Good Lord, I’ve never seen a federal judge call bullshit on a pretextual and politically motivated motion to unseal grand jury materials like this: “The Government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury material.”