🧵❗

“In a secret deportation arrangement, the Trump administration flew nine people, nearly all of whom had been granted U.S. court protections from being sent back to their home countries, to the African nation of Cameroon in January… The United States has not made any public deal with Cameroon.”

📣 Our judicial election guide for the March 2026 primary is here! We spent months researching each candidate’s background, legal experience, political connections, conduct, and more — all so you can make informed decisions about who should be a Cook County judge. buff.ly/O4cRnL6

“I’ve lost everything. I’m old. I don’t want to be hiding anything,” he said. “So I speak up. If I die, I die.” Mr. Perez is precious and represents the best of humanity, take a moment and read what he wants to tell you.

It is unsurprising to anyone from Massachusetts that elements of our state government fight basic transparency.

Massachusetts has spent months delaying & denying @boltsmag.org’s public records requests on how many people it has transferred ICE during Trump as part of its formal contract with ICE. A supervisor of records ruled last week that the state’s denials are improper; we hope to get records soon.

I'm gonna throw this on the flaming mountain of reasons to never set foot in the US ever again. "Plead guilty or we'll financially ruin you." What a perfect distillation of the modern American cesspool.

That is fucking grotesque.

Massachusetts is also the bluest state (and, alongside Michigan, one of two states north of Kentucky) to have a criminal sodomy law on their books, so I’m not surprised by this.

Imagine if even a fraction of what this administration plans to spend on cages went toward housing people.

🔥 work in @boltsmag.org this week, and I don’t want you to miss any of it 1️⃣ Massachusetts is BY FAR the bluest state where a state agency has joined ICE’s 287(g) program. @burness.bsky.social spent a while reporting on what’s going on & fighting MA for denying him records—I hope you read.

I've slept a bit on this other than a few posts, but one of the most brazen things happening in state governments right now is that the Kentucky GOP is trying to impeach a liberal justice (and the first/only Black woman to join the court) because of a vote she took last year they don't like.

This year, the Iowa Supreme Court ended the practice of making defendants pay fees even when charges get dismissed. Public defense advocates cheered the decision, but some prosecutors and defense lawyers are supporting a bill to undo the court’s ruling.

“I’ve never seen federal agents so out of control and acting in such a malicious manner,” a former federal prosecutor and federal judge said. “They said they were going after ‘the worst of the worst,’ then they became the problem. Read this by @jonschuppe.bsky.social & @natashakorecki.bsky.social

Every day it becomes clearer that capitulation (Columbia, Perkins Coie, etc) was the wrong strategy

"Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, [..] has defended and preserved the 287(g) agreement." "[T]hey played a role." "I've lost everything. I'm old. I don't want to be hiding anything. So I speak up. If I die, I die." #Massachusetts #USA #Incarceration #Policing #Deportation #EthnicCleansing

Surely this makes a mockery of the law. How utterly ridiculous.

This is why local elections matter more than ever. It’s really the last bulwark protecting us from a corrupt federal government. Get involved in your community. Support local news organizations. Follow @taniel.bsky.social and @boltsmag.org and other outlets that are focusing on local news.

Important news out of California today, where a DA was prosecuting pro-Palestinian protesters:

Update: the judge in the Stanford case has declared a mistrial, with jurors "hopelessly deadlocked" on both felony counts – a big embarrassment for the Santa Clara DA, who has already said he'll retry the case.

NEW in Bolts: Iowa's high court recently ended the practice of making defendants pay fees for charges that get dismissed. Prosecutors are backing a bill to undo that ruling so they can keep using fees as leverage for plea deals. Our new story with The Marshall Project:

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed two Arkansas supreme court justices in 2024. State law prohibits them from running for their own positions this year, so the justices are running for each other’s seats instead.

Good reporting. Iowa House Judiciary Committee chair Steven Holt introduced the bill that would (in effect) undo this Iowa Supreme Court ruling by clarifying that such deals are allowed.

Louisville Metro Council voted to block revisiting a proposed ban on federal agents wearing masks during operations. The ordinance sponsor says he’ll try again in a couple weeks. www.lpm.org/news/2026-02...

"People are reluctant to run because you can be ahead and still have your election canceled. Imagine putting your families through that, taking time off, being on track to winning, and the governor can just stop you whenever he feels like it.” Via @boltsmag.org in 2022: boltsmag.org/dystopian-lo...

i was just sharing this thread with somebody to illustrate how state supreme courts can act -- and i realized it's from before the time bluesky really blew up. so re-upping it years later! the situation remains very much the same.

one of these is my birthday but i won't jinkx it in case SCOTUS takes that as an invitation to release Callais on that day

this got a little complicated, but basically— the April 21 referendum that could deliver a 10-1 delegation in Virginia *is* happening

checking in on the upcoming GOP primary for attorney general in Texas www.texastribune.org/2026/02/12/t...

The Virginia supreme court just: (1) agreed to take the case pertaining to Dems' gerrymander maneuver; (2) scheduled deadlines for briefs on April 13; (3) says the April 21 referendum can go forward in the meantime. [So it'll rule after, presumably only if the 'yes' wins.]

NEW: In Iowa, when someone's charges are *dismissed,* they still had to pay court fees. So prosecutors pressured ppl into pleading guilty: 'plead guilty, you'll have no fees. (If you win, you'll owe $$.)' Iowa's Supreme Court struck that down in January... but prosecutors want to bring it all back:

I was a prosecutor. I negotiated pleas. I believed my ability to threaten economic harm was key to my power. Never stopping to ask why I had that power. Iowa courts ended these fees. Prosecutors want them back. For the 2.3% collection rate? No. Just to cudgel people. #EndJusticeFees @boltsmag.org👇🏽

The Arkansas constitution forbids officials who were appointed to a position from running to keep it when it next appears on the ballot. Next month, two state supreme court justices are working around that – by running for each other’s seats.

Holy moly: Seattle’s millionaire tax, passed last year, is expected to bring in $115 million in its 1st year, way more than the $50 million anticipated. The funds will go to the city’s new social housing developer publicola.com/2026/02/11/t... (Is NY Gov Hochul paying attention?)

I keep seeing lists of countries with mail voting tonight that include France. Those are incorrect, there’s no mail voting in France. How it works there: boltsmag.org/how-voting-w...

O’Neil Burke was pointedly absent from the coalition of prosecutors who announced they’d start talks on how to prosecute ICE.

😃 Check out two House special elections on 2/24 and the other local elections forthcoming. 👇

American Samoans occupy a strange in-between as U.S. nationals but not citizens. They pay taxes, have Social Security numbers, and can join the military—but they can’t vote. A voter fraud case in Alaska highlights their unusual predicament.

BREAKING: The Trump administraiton has committed a mass violation of ICE detainees' constitutional rights in MN, effectively blocking their acess to attorneys in the Whipple building, a judge ruled tonight. The judge: Trump appointeee Nancy Brasel storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Wild.

There's only one state in the country that voted for Kamala Harris, & voted for a Dem governor, and where a state agency has any sort of contract with ICE's infamous 287(g) program. Massachusetts. The MA Gov says she supports it (even days after Spanberger ended Youngkin's same agreement in VA).

How Trump's withdrawal from Minneapolis is being covered abroad. In Le Monde, the lead French daily, the homepage article starts with: "Two people dead, thousands arrested, two cities shaken, and Donald Trump defeated." www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

Massachusetts, you've got some explaining to do boltsmag.org/massachusett...

Big AZ news: Karrin Taylor Robson, the more-establishment GOP candidate for governor of Arizona, just dropped out of the race. This seems to seal the deal for Andy Biggs, a far-right member of Congress who chaired the Freedom Caucus, to get the GOP nod against Dem Governor Katie Hobbs.

WSJ reports: Whistleblower complaint that has stalled under Gabbard pertains to Jared Kushner. About an intercepted call that "at least in part concerned issues related to Iran" in which 2 people talk about Kusher with allegations that "would be significant if verified." www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Watson will give us more data on where Judge Oldham would slot in on this #SCOTUS, but there’s already reason to think he’d be on far right, having been reversed on ghost guns, vape products, and the FCC’s Universal Service Fund.

Beth Rubin, 67, said she attended because she sees ICE on a path toward what her family fled in the 1930s. "What is happening today to immigrants, to citizens, to innocent people...to the undocumented and the documented is very similar to what happened then." www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

BREAKING: Judge blocks Hegseth effort to punish Sen. Kelly. "This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly's First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees." Background: www.lawdork.com/p/breaking-k...

Leqaa Kordia, who was arrested during a pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University in 2024, and then detained by ICE a year ago and has been held in Texas since, suffered a seizure and hit her head: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/n...

I just realized Bolts had interviewed Analilia Mejia, @analiliafornj.bsky.social, in the past... just not in connection to New Jersey, so I didn't connect the dots. It was about her national work that made her part of organizing against Cop City in Atlanta. See below. boltsmag.org/cop-city-ref...