There is going to be a lot of malfeasance in this brief, but this QP framing is conduct unbecoming the Solicitor General.

fun fact that while trump v. us says that the president cannot be held criminally liable for using his core powers, this does not extend to his officers

“To prove that Communism is a terrible, failed ideology, I will personally use arbitrary, highly centralized state power to direct massive government resources away from my political foes and toward political friends.”

While we should absolutely take their authoritarian actions and rhetoric seriously, face-to-face, we should be laughing at what they do and say. Any parent or teacher knows there’s nothing more subversive than a kid cracking up while you’re trying to be very serious and enforce the rules.

I mean yes this is funny, but the fact that these unconstitutional stormtroopers are so directionless that they literally stand around waiting for random nonwhite delivery guys to bike past them is just pathetic. No mandate, no mission, no clue. Just racism.

Just got back from the Central States #LegalWriting Conference, hosted this year by the Northwestern Law School team. Feeling inspired after a great time in beautiful downtown Chicago w brilliant colleagues. LRW profs are really just the best community.

Ladies and gentlemen, the meritocracy

Donald Trump is using federal agents to stoke fear and violate constitutional rights — all with the aims of expanding his control and sending military troops to our cities. It’s unlawful and un-American. We must all stand up and speak out against fanning the flames of violence.

There is no conceivable reason to be deploying anything to Portland. This is pure personal retribution by Trump against people he doesn’t like.

There is nothing “war ravaged” in Portland. Just to be totally clear. It’s a normal American city. /1

So many of us came so very unwillingly to this place of viewing the Supreme Court as unworthy of being viewed as a judicial body. Unworthy of veneration, unworthy of respect. So profoundly reluctantly. But, good lord have they earned it.

This is a legal operation, please understand.

As of this afternoon, not a single career DOJ attorney has entered an appearance in the case against former FBI Director James Comey. Only the newly-appointed U.S. attorney is listed. That's extremely unusual.

Over the past few years in my #legalwriting courses, I've increasingly had students refer to "headings" (as in, the numbered things you use to sub-divide a piece of writing) as "headers". Has anyone else noticed this? And any idea why it seems to be proliferating?

Anyone who takes a high-stakes government position needs to have in the back of their mind the orders they would sooner resign than comply with. A directive from the president to prosecute a political enemy should be one of them. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...

Trump is absolutely cratering in new Quinnipiac poll: Overall approval: 38-54 Approval on economy: 39-56 Approval on trade: 39-54 On National Guard into cities: 42-55 On immigration, his "best" issue: 41-55 Trump is weak, unpopular, and failing. Treat him that way:

Really need leadership at universities, media companies, law firms, &c. to internalize this point.

"Courts depend on lawyers’ honesty. Lies, misrepresentations, even half-truths corrode the rule of law. So courts may sanction lawyers who violate their duty of candor." So begins a new CA3 opinion upholding attorney sanctions for an odd debt-dispute stunt. www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/242...

These are bold predictions about what a grand jury is willing to go along with.

Gotta imagine there’s at least some risk of a no true bill in that jurisdiction, especially with the US Attorney being loudly fired for objecting to political prosecutions last week.

Now’s probably a good time for a periodic reminder to watch HBO’s The Leftovers—an all-time-great series that too many people missed (including me for a long time). If you’re still around later this week, it’s worth a watch (or re-watch).

Six Republican justices are speed-running our collapse into a dictatorship and they don’t even have the integrity to explain why. (But we all know why.) slate.com/news-and-pol...

It's really something that the conservative justices can, with a straight face, chastise lower courts for "defying" shadow docket rulings & at the same time let the Administration literally defy centuries old unanimous Supreme Court precedent, all before bothering to overrule it.

genuinely crazy to me how unitary executive advocates read the vesting clause as granting a huge scope of essentially royal "inherent" powers. one would think that if the framers intended to give the president royal authority, they would have just said so.

Only 62% of 18-29 year olds and 65% of Millennials know the words to the Happy Birthday song?

Remember, Zelensky didn't wear a suit, which was an insult to the seriousness of the White House...

There is no world in which it is normal for the president to publicly call upon his attorney general to hurry up and prosecute his political foes. It’s like the Watergate tapes but posted on social media. Let’s get a grip on what’s happening here.

The FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration. Trump DOJ officials dropped the case. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

EXCLUSIVE: Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.

Here is the order from Judge Steven Merryday, a George H.W. Bush appointee: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

OMG - the judge in Florida just sua sponte struck the complaint in the Trump v NYT case for -wait for it - violating Rule 8. Lawyers, tell the folks at home how hard it is to get the complaint struck outright for something like that in fed eral court. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Multiple Second Circuit judges sign on to a concurrence that says another judge is making up quotes. "Sure enough, add some words, and the meaning will change" is a withering line.

Reminder: before you go full-on defeatist about the rule of law, keep in mind it remains often effective on a micro-level. It’s on the macro- that the FedSoc types have killed it. Hard work and good lawyering can make a difference for regular people — though not always, and not all of them.

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.

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

JUST IN: Judge Alsup has some thoughts about the Supreme Court’s shadow docket as he grants summary judgment for probationary employees mass terminated by the Trump administration. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Two key things to point out re: Trump sending National Guard troops to Memphis: 1) Unlike in blue states, there’s just no need for this; even if circumstances warranted, Governor Lee, who still commands the TN National Guard, could’ve just sent them in himself; and 2) Chicago (and Illinois) won.

David Lat reports: “On average, Am Law 100 firms saw modest attrition of just -15 lawyers or -1.7% [since March 1]. By contrast, several of the firms that chose to settle [e.g. A&O Shearman (-10%) and Cadwalader (-11%)] experienced some of the steepest declines.” www.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw...

Literal cancel culture.

The Roberts Court is overtly devoted, as a matter of judicial and political philosophy, to supporting the policy agenda of Donald Trump. These are DISCRETIONARY rulings - the Court is ruling, repeatedly and usually without explanation, that EQUITY requires that Trump’s agenda advance.

I (naively) thought the Chief might at least (a la Dobbs) try to show some humility or feign ambivalence when abandoning precedent--like Brad Pitt in The Big Short, going along but chastising the young guys for celebrating the economic fallout: "Just don't f***ing dance." Nah. He's dancing, too.

A real gut-punch to us #legalwriting profs and other law faculty who impress upon our students the importance of carefully analyzing the law and then explaining that to your audience with precedent and thorough reasoning. But who needs CREAC when you’ve got the votes?

Exactly. 90-year-old precedent, directly on point (FTC removal!), applied faithfully by the District Court to Trump's illegal action. Then Roberts leaps in, before the Circuit Court can consider the appeal, to nullify it by himself without deigning to justify why, not one word of explanation.

The crazy thing is that the justices had a couple of chances last term to grant review of the century-old precedent protecting federal agency heads but didn't take them. Now it is effectively disregarding that precedent on the shadow docket, without even full briefing on a stay.

Law students: Before interviewing or accepting a summer job, you should absolutely consider which law firms align with your professional values—and which ones don’t.

9 Surrender Firms. - Paul, Weiss - Kirkland & Ellis - Latham - Skadden - Simpson Thacher - Sullivan & Cromwell - Milbank - Willkie - A&O Shearman Never forget.

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.

I know this is quaint but it's still important to say: This post alone violates his oath and is an impeachable offense.

Can we talk about the fact that he's trying to do this at the same time as he's trying to send troops to American cities? That's a pretty blatant and direct confession that he's waging war on the American people.