Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"

Melissa is an incredible conference host, and it’s been so lovely to hang out with so many kind, brilliant friends - if you’re a junior international law scholar, I truly can’t recommend JILSA highly enough.

kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life

❤️❤️❤️

Im seeing discussions about consultations with congress, authorizations of force etc. I have to say this transcends any of what I would call sub constitutional technicalities. The president has gone to war with a foreign power and, it seems, kidnapped a foreign head of state on the basis of nothing.

I don’t say happy new year anymore because I don’t want to be humiliated by the morning of January 3.

Whatever you might think of Maduro, the seizure and kidnapping of a head of state takes us to a very dark place. Vast, arbitrary, extra-legal power, which could be exercised almost anywhere, regardless of the character of the target government.

Well, those of us at the Junior International Law Scholars Association meeting will have lots to talk about this week, including the demise of our subject matter.

E: “I want a pink dog someday!” Me: “Have you ever seen a pink dog!?” E: “No, dogs aren’t pink!” Me: “Oh, okay.” E: <very calmly> “We’re going to paint him.”

Kind of perfect in that without immigrants our country will be spinning our wheels in imagined nostalgia as we ignore our impending doom.

Judge To Texas: You Can’t Age-Gate The Entire Internet Without Evidence Over the summer, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority upended decades of traditional First Amendment standards to say that Texas could put in place an age verification law if that law was intended to keep kids away from…

It’s a little too cold for our usual NYE at the zoo and I am racked with guilt so here we are.

A little-noticed provision in the TRUMP AI Act would ban big tech platforms, including ostensibly Google, from distributing "sexual material harmful to minors" — a phrase routinely used by conservatives to ban not only porn, but sex ed, LGBTQ literature and repro rights resources.

A voting rights advocate says Ohio's new ban on grace periods for mail ballots could cause major problems for voters. “Where is the sense that our lawmakers are protecting our right to vote?”

I don’t know about everybody else but I *completely* forgot about Tulsi Gabbard.

There's a question on my final exam involving an intoxicated driver named DJ, who I refer to as "she" or "her" three times in the prompt, and I've been fascinated that more than half of my students have referred to DJ as a man in their answers.

DOJ Removes All Mentions Of Justice From Website theonion.com/doj-removes-all-mentions-of-justice-from-website/

So proud of my anal-retentive two year old. 🥲

Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.

I have seen DOJ do some strange redactions before, but this is up there:

Jonathan Mitchell is bringing us two of the most cherished gifts of the holiday season: hate and intolerance! www.texastribune.org/2025/12/19/t...

The Shape of Water (2017)

And we haven’t even gotten to the inevitable TruthSocial post where the president publicly praises Bari Weiss for censoring criticism of the government.

I don’t know what we did to deserve a child who enthusiastically enjoys every part of air travel.

2024: Make America Great Again 2025: Only God Can Save Us Now

The first time I tried binding it was in a public bathroom stall with a roll of duct tape before my 8-hour shift. Removing after was agony. They're trying to take away our safer options.

I call this haiku “Virgina”: Lindsey Halligan United States Attorney Eastern District of

what it feels like to be the only one in the all-staff zoom meeting with pronouns turned on

In other bad news, Egypt just successfully rallied states at the UN General Assembly to strip acknowledgment of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination from a disability rights resolution that acknowledges other forms of intersectional discrimination.

Crazy how Trump is flailing, Epstein files are coming out, the economy is going to shit, and Republicans are defecting and the first thing his admin does is pivot to attacking trans people. It's all they know. Just distract everyone from what's important by attacking a vulnerable minority group.

Guy really gives away the game here that this isn't about "children" when he straight up says that trans adults aren't real.

Under the proposed rule issued by the Trump Administration today, any Medicare- or Medicaid-participating hospital would be barred from providing gender-affirming care to *any child*, even if the care is not paid for by Medicare or Medicaid. public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-23465.pdf

I’m at HHS headquarters where RFK Jr. is announcing new restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors by spouting pseudoscience and political misinformation that goes against every major medical association.

Note also that today HHS is proposing rules (a) to bar the use of federal Medicaid/CHIP funds to cover gender-affirming care for those under 18 (public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-23464.pdf) and

I spent all day feeling like I was going insane because "Dentist" was on my calendar at two slightly different times today, which then made sense when I looked up in the waiting room and saw my husband.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules that there are no 4th Amendment rights in your Google search terms. When you search on Google, you tell them your search terms; the government can get those queries without a warrant. The third-party doctrine applies. www.pacourts.us/assets/opini...

HUMANS. HUMANS ARE IDEA MACHINES.

BREAKING: The Eleventh Circuit grants Florida’s request to limit the injunction against the anti-drag law to cover only Hamburger Mary’s of Orlando. The preliminary injunction blocking all enforcement had been in place for nearly two-and-a-half years at this point. www.lawdork.com/p/florida-an...

People still responding this way are simply in denial about what’s happening nationwide.

BREAKING: Hong Kong court convicts Jimmy Lai, founder of former pro-democracy newspaper, in landmark national security trial.

A deeply sad morning, with heartbreaking mass killings in Providence & Sydney. Innocent students killed in a classroom. At least 11 people by gunmen at a Hanukkah celebration. Too many guns here. Frightening levels of antisemitism globally. So much senseless violence & hate.

FROM THE ROOFTOPS

It's not a question of politics or party. Congress has a constitutional obligation to impeach and to remove a president who commits high crimes and misdemeanors and forsakes his solemn oath. And there has never been a president who has committed as many impeachable offenses than this one.

Ah yes, the Edward Scissorhands explanation, that clears things right up.

This is really incredible. The government's battle to deport Abrego Garcia has apparently been based on a lie from the start. Not even the "gang affiliation" lie or the "human smuggling" lie, but the more basic assertion that he was ordered to be deported in the first place.

The FDA's expert panel on testosterone replacement therapy for men — specifically cis men — takes place today. I'm sure it will be very different from their other panels about gender-affirming care 😅

It's Human Rights Day! If you'd like to celebrate by browsing Human Rights Quarterly, here are some of our most downloaded articles in 2025 and some favorite selections from the archives from the editorial staff: www.press.jhu.edu/newsroom/hrq...

Oh sorry is this better

NEW: A gay Houston immigrant was arrested by ICE when he showed up to his asylum interview on Nov. 4th despite having no criminal history. He's been in ICE detention since then. His husband, a U.S. citizen, says ICE laid "a trap," and is now working for his release. www.chron.com/culture/arti...