This is the thing elected dems seem unable to swallow. There is no realistic modus vivendi where somehow remain a functioning liberal democracy after 3 years of Trump. He is removed or we become Azerbaijan. Removal is ultimately the only goal that matters.

University presidents it’s time for a united front. I mean, it’s past time. What are you going to do.

You don't need a First Amendment law professor to tell you that the govt demanding control over a university's viewpoints or else is patently unconstitutional. But it obviously is.

As I read this "compact," it provides that if School X *expressly* "agrees" to do everything listed--and complies to DOJ's satisfaction--then the Trump Administration *implicitly* agrees that it won't *unlawfully* withhold funding or deny grants. www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

A series of short posts from leading scholars about the constraints the First Amendment imposes on the government's authority to impose conditions on federal funding. Seems relevant! This is a @knightcolumbia.org series from earlier this year. knightcolumbia.org/research/fed...

I don‘t know how else to say it: If they want you to sign something, do not do it.

Because nothing says academic freedom like special protections for "conservative ideas" (would critiquing unitary executive theory constitute "belittling?" -- asking for a friend) and government measurement of viewpoints. (Enforcement language, including DOJ monitoring, below)

Today, Oct.2nd, is the anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by Saudi agents.

But the “compact” the admin is asking universities to sign demands that they change how they regulate speech on campus—including by abolishing departments that “belittle… conservative ideas” ????? in order to continue to receive federal funds

The admin’s efforts to get universities to agree to a list of demands in exchange for preferential access to federal funding isn’t just “troubling” as Ted Mitchell, prez of the @aceducation.bsky.social says in this article; it looks blatantly unconstitutional.🧵 www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’” It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.

“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Watson. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.”

This is the administration's go to move: to paint any criticism of them as incitement to violence. Even criticism made by a federal judge in a judicial opinion. But make no mistake, the right to criticize those who govern us is essential to democracy and the rule of law.

The legendary Jane Fonda “has relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment, the McCarthy-era initiative started by her father, Henry Fonda ...” www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later. harpers.org/archive/1941...

Yom Kippur is a day of reflection, of forgiveness, of restoration. This year, may we all pray for a better, kinder, more peaceful future. Wishing all who observe across the five boroughs and the world a meaningful, easy fast. G’mar chatimah tovah.

Apart from the fact that nobody "deserves" to possess this much of the world's resources, this type of unrestricted wealth is a huge problem for democracy.

Cut to Stephen Miller shrieking that such questions = terroristic threats that should result in prison time.

Defend one guy doing Nazi salutes, and one president pardoning the "Camp Auschwitz" criminal, and one administration that places antisemites in influential government positions, and this is the thanks you get? I wonder if there's a lesson there.

Still shocked (not surprised, but shocked) at the way this administration's members lie constantly. Lies and conspiracy theories, 24/7. No shame.

ER doc here! This is a lie. Wait times are up because the American healthcare system is an unsustainable business model and a for-profit national healthcare system just doesn’t work. These problems will continue to get worse until we change that system. It literally has nothing to do with immigrants

It just cannot be emphasized enough, as the differential treatment of Slaughter and Cook illustrate yet again, the Roberts Court’s vision of separation of powers is not the Founders’, nor the Constitution’s, but just their own. This isn’t necessarily bad; it’s just disingenuous. (1/2)

what does an "unconstitutional DEI principle" mean in the context of a tunnel project? what, a black person is going to use it?

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

I see a lot of people saying "stop the fascists." I don't see anyone saying "kill the fascists," though presumably a few online randos have said something like that. So Miller is just making shit up to equate criticism with threat.

We are now in the domain of not just illegal impoundments, but targeted illegal impoundments to punish liberal spaces. Not different from what Trump is doing to to universities.

“If you call us fascists, we’re going to put you behind bars.”

Right wingers in 2017: Dumb libs think words are violence Right wingers in 2025: Words are violence and we're going to throw you in jail for saying the wrong ones, which is terrorism bsky.app/profile/atru...

She's a civil servant whose job kept her too busy for a personal life until a government shutdown brought it to a screeching halt. He's a single dad whose small D.C. holiday shop is threatened by tariffs. This Christmas, they are ... Red, White & You.

This should be a bigger deal.

Oh, man. I can still hear that dial-up connection.

“If the gov't can punish professors and universities for viewpoints it dislikes, then no field of research, no classroom discussion, & no scholar’s speech is safe. That is precisely what the First Amendment forbids.” Cato joins ACLU, other groups in amicus supporting AAUP's Columbia suit. @cato.org

Today was my last day as a federal employee, but tomorrow I and my new partner, Ginger Quintero-McCall, open a new law practice, the Free Information Group. We are both FOIA lawyers, and we are very good at suing the government. 1/

Very proud of my colleagues right now--especially @ramyakrishnan.bsky.social and @alexabdo.bsky.social. But we could not have got this far without the superb trial lawyers at Sher Tremonte. Grateful to them for all of the time and energy they put into this case. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/u...

Judge Young, a Ronald Reagan appointee, is engaged in a legal enterprise. Read his remarkable, 161 page ruling here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

To Donald Trump: Stop using military troops and ICE to invade and disrupt American cities. Stop calling your political opponents “enemies” of the US. Stop attacking the 1st Amendment. Our troops and our nation deserve better than you acting as a petty tyrant.

Reading the opinion in AAUP v Rubio & getting angry all over again about the way that the Trump administration has used Jews as scapegoats to justify its rabid attacks on higher education and immigration.

BREAKING: Judge William Young finds that Noem, Rubio, DHS, and State "deliberately" sought to restrict non-citizens' First Amendment rights. "'No law' means 'no law.' The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction ...." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher. Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.

(Battle Hymn of the Republic plays in the background)

An enormous congrats to @knightcolumbia.org, @aaup.org, Sher Tremonte LLP, and Zimmer, Citron, & Clarke for their incredible work on this case.

BREAKING: Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, delivers the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era, ruling that Trump and his cabinet illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation to "strike fear" into First Amendment protesters. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

AAUP v. Rubio is out, and look at how it starts. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I’m struggling to find an analogue in US history wherein a president (at least rhetorically) declares war on the country’s great cities, in front of its uniformed military leadership—because there isn’t. That this isn’t universally condemned shows just how despotic much of US politics has become.

How have we become so inured to it all, so timid and/or so comfortable that we can shrug this off as a nation?

If George Washington himself had done this as President, he would have been impeached, removed, prosecuted, and imprisoned. This was one of the greatest fears of the Framers.

the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!

Defence Secretary: "We don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our war fighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill" President: "We should use some [American] cities as training grounds for our military"

You don’t have to read between the lines. Trump is literally saying, publicly and out loud, that he is at war — actual, military-involved war — with Americans and American cities he personally dislikes. That impeachment is politically off the table is a national scandal.