To quote Admiral James T. Kirk, this is damn peculiar www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

The “problem” with vaccines? They so effective at preventing deaths that they create generations of people that question whether disease was a problem in the first place because they have never experienced the horrors of a world without vaccines.

Trump attempt to rename DOD the Department of War clearly illegal. See 10 USC 111. And by my count: - 505 refs to DOD in 2025 NDAA - 917 refs in 2020 NDAA - 76 annual defense policy laws - 76 " spending laws - dozens of other policy & $$ laws ...since 1949 law changed Nat Mil Estab to DOD.

I really need to know if the sandwich was a ham sandwich

Corporate statism, to quote the WSJ editorial page

UPDATE: Hours after Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release in Tennessee, Fox News reports that the Trump administration may deport him to Uganda as early as next week.

Full post from Jacqui Heinrich at Fox News of the next stage of military deployments for domestic law enforcement assistance. I will leave her reporting of the application of the Posse Comitatus Act to others who have analyzed the relevant statute. I need to go read up on it again.

Honored to join Judge Robert Lasnik & other excellent colleagues on ethics panel at Federal Bar Association in Anchorage last week. Judge & his kids got death threats after he did his job and issued ruling govt didn't like. They refuse to be intimidated. Profiles in courage.

Bottom line: FBI is lowering standards, cutting capacity, purging leaders, reducing priority on terrorism and espionage and other national security threats that are its mission, and prioritizing everyday violent crime that under our constitutional structure is for states/localities. Why?

Off to Alaska to speak on ethics at Fed Bar Assoc conf. I will be present my essay (link in comments) arguing that courage & integrity are not optional as legal & civic commitments. Entire legal ethical regime & rule of law hang in balance today. Cool that Trump & Putin coming to Anchorage too.

Trump’s $75 billion & very violent ICE force will only be used vs non-citizens, right? New DC deployment of ICE vs street crime = strong reason to think again. Sincerely interested in hearing why ICE legally cannot become a paramilitary army the President can deploy domestically at will.

1st announced SSBN nuclear deterrence patrol by China checks another box on index of leading nuclear indicators I proposed for eval of PRC nukes in a book chapter I wrote for @csis.org when I was a fellow. PRC going for parity. Chapter link in comments. armyrecognition.com/news/navy-ne...

In Italy I looked for evidence for claim that Musk & Bannon did “Roman salute” when they did straight-arm flat-palm fascist salutes. I saw 100s of ancient Roman statues, mosaics, frescoes. Not 1 had distinctive salute of Mussolini & Hitler regimes. My analysis of the salutes is in comments.

Well here is some good news - Trump seems to want a new nuclear arms control agreement to replace New START (2010), which expires in Feb next year. Will be hard. But it's something. www.reuters.com/business/aer...

“I’m done engaging the substance of the lie….the truth remains: Russia interfered in the 2016 election….The only way I know how to respond to the barrage of lies emanating from the highest levels of America’s intelligence apparatus is to go meta—to explain how the lies work”

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

Autocratic populism produces poverty and decline

Ancient Roman tablets I encountered in Italy reflect a central menace the Framers drafted US Constitution to prevent: concentration of powers in the Chief Executive, rather than separated, co-equal, checking powers. Founding Fathers wanted us to avoid Rome’s fate. Pics: Trajan tablet + analysis

Guide: Do any of you know much about Roman history? My wife: My husband is a professor and knows a lot of Roman history! Guide [face buried in her hands]: Oh God, this is my worst day.

skateboarding is not a crime

If your group of 6 is gender balanced, at this point add 1 red dude.

Watch every second of this video: what is happening in USA. Armed ICE agents tried to interrogate kids of color -- all of them U.S. citizens -- who were at baseball practice in NYC. ICE agents then harass coach but he knew his and the kids' constitutional rights. (h/t @jonfavs.bsky.social)

Sanctions ought to be much more severe for lawyers for citing fake cases. Such categorical ethical failure. Suspension at the least. AI use no excuse. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/u...

When the military is deployed for the express purpose of intimidating the domestic population, something has gone badly awry.

It’s so much crazier than that. A woman appealed a lower court ruling for her ex-husband, pointing out the court’s order relied on 4 hallucinated or real-but-irrelevant cases. Ex-husband’s lawyer then files a reply to the appeals court with ELEVEN hallucinated or irrelevant case citations!

Waking up this Freedom Day to celebrate Opal Lee and her relentless activism.

Great to analyze legal issues with Trump’s National Guard & Marines deployments to Los Angeles today on WOSU. www.wosu.org/show/all-sid... Local reaction to Trump administration's policies | WOSU Public Media

reason, skepticism, and militant pragmatism - that's how a colleague described my contributions. Any academic or lawyer would have to smile.

Re-up: my @lawfaremedia.org analysis - bad look in a democracy to have military parade for national leader. Happening on June 14. Even worse to march for leader b-day. Honor Army b-day Yes, leader b-day No. My rec: Congress should ban Red Square-style parades www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trum...

Just the latest government officials who assess they have been asked to do illegal things, resign, & explain in public. All three steps in integrity. Awful situation but admirable.

"blame lies with their leaders, who demonstrated a stunning lack of situational awareness and careless disregard for one of their institution’s guiding professional norms. They failed to prepare their soldiers to act like professionals.” From the great @heidiurben.bsky.social

From @justsecurity.org today, w/ Bill Banks Thanks to @rgoodlaw.bsky.social "The U.S.has been widely respected for its tradition of entrusting law enforcement to civilians - the uniformed military fights wars and keeps Americans safe from foreign adversaries." www.justsecurity.org/114395/the-m...

Trump has federalized at least 2,000 National Guard forces and reportedly plans to deploy troops to Los Angeles over Governor Newsom’s objections. If that happens, it will be the first time since 1965 that a president has sent troops into a state without a state request. 1/19

A worrisome amount of evidence that Steve Dycus here is right. Now, as always, reject violence and freely exercise your constitutional rights. Speech, assembly, protest, petition, all of them. Do not be afraid or intimidated. Under the constitution We the People are sovereign. Govt works for us.

Grossly escalatory and illegal Sunday Noem letter to Hegseth requested DoD give "direction to DoD forces to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them."

Marines deploying to LA, here are toplines: - Posse Comitatus Act restrictions STILL APPLY - Mission is Defense *Support* to Law Enforcement - Rules for Use of Force apply (not combat ROE) - Different Chain of command to Northern Command - Indirect support OK, Direct support (detain, arrest) not OK

Two other problems with Trump memo: wrongly implies non-violent protests can be rebellion (false; 1A speech & assemb protected by Fed law), and cites zero authority for deploying fed regular troops. None in 12406.

I was off social media for a few yrs, but decided that it's time to come back after last night. I'm an asst. prof. at Uni of Houston Law Center and before that was an attorney at DoD OGC, where my portfolio included domestic military deployments. This continues to be a core part of my research.

Re-up: my @lawfaremedia.org analysis - bad look in a democracy to have military parade for national leader. Happening on June 14. Even worse to march for leader b-day. Honor Army b-day Yes, leader b-day No. My rec: Congress should ban Red Square-style parades www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trum...

At refugee camps bordering South Sudan, food aid has been cut so severely that people are getting less than 30% of the calories they need. “It is not enough to survive on, and that has caused skyrocketing levels of severe malnutrition and deaths associated with it” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

Interesting substack.com/app-link/pos...

From @dakotarudesill.bsky.social: "Extremist Militias on Federal Duty: Courts and Congress Can and Should Reject Potential Mobilization of "'Unorganized Militia'" www.cnas.org/publications...

Just posted: my analysis of whether the President could legally put extremist militias in the "unorganized militia" on duty as "militia" under the Insurrection Act. In short: No. @marknevitt.bsky.social @lizagoitein.bsky.social @cnas.bsky.social www.cnas.org/publications...

ICE explains that it "generally" (not even always) gives an accused AEA detainee 12 hours to express an intent to file a habeas petition--after receiving a notice that doesn't mention the right to habeas--before removing him to El Salvador. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

1/2: The end of Justice Jackson's #SCOTUS concurrence in Youngstown: "With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law, and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations. . . ."

Excellent piece on Miller on habeas. Far superior to the surprisingly both-sides-ish coverage by some media. What Miller is claiming the power to do isn’t questionable or dubious. It would be anti-constitutional usurpation. www.stevevladeck.com/p/148-suspen...

Re-up of this piece on Sgt. Peter Granlund here on the 80th anniversary of #WWII #VE Day. A profile in a non-lawyer's ethical courage and fidelity to law. Forthcoming this month in Granlund's home state bar journal.

Read this. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202... @washingtonpost.com

The U.S. DOGE Service is racing to build a centralized system with unprecedented access to data about Social Security, taxes, medical diagnoses and other private information. The goal would create a multitude of vulnerabilities, experts say.