With his deft touch, Donald j Trump once more persuades courts and people

Food chat: I’m finally trying the social media famous Golden Diner here in NYC. Thoughts to come! First, it’s *small.* No surprise that large groups end up waiting for hours (No restaurant is worth waiting for hours, except for Lucali)

I’d heard this but should’ve shared a bit sooner, sorry: Aonishiki has a fractured left little toe fracture that he sustained during the last rope run basho. Explains a lot.. www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZ...

You can’t even escape outlook in SPACE?

My favourite of the courtroom sketches: Trump leaving to the sound of constitutional text, history, and tradition eviscerating his executive order.

What in the world did they imagine he’d say? Iran has agreed to bury its nuclear material in the ballroom?

Random note: on the merits the tariffs case was closer than this case. (The statute there is genuinely a little vague)

Awaiting Chris’s full report

Of course

7-2 to block the executive order; maybe 8-1. This wasn't (and won't be) close. I'll have more thoughts on why (and what that means) in tomorrow's newsletter: www.stevevladeck.com

No change.

Well, that went badly for Sauer. Don’t expect the birthright citizenship side to get by without any hard questions, non-law-folks. But I have a hard time seeing Trump winning or even getting close after the questions i saw on here

Especially where there’s a perfectly obvious set of historical reasons why we’d have birthright and they wouldn’t

Why indeed As a certified judge translator, “puzzled” is bad

Here’s K. Like I said, he usually puts his cards on the table

Let’s put that right in the opinion

Disdainful Gorsuch is fun when he’s on your side.

Gorsuch to the SG (federal government): I wouldn't rely on Wong Kim Ark (case recognizing birthright citizenship) if I were you. There are at least 5 votes against the federal government. (Whew.) Question if there's more than 1 for them. (Even 1 is appalling.)

Important to hear from ACB

What I'd say about the argument is to listen for Kavanaugh. He does not play devil's advocate. He usually just says what he thinks about the case.

I'm live-posting about the #SCOTUS birthright citizenship argument with my CNN colleagues over at CNN.com: www.cnn.com/2026/04/01/p...

I am not listening to the arguments, partly because I'm busy and partly because I will boil like a kettle, but I'm going to repost a few people you should follow on this.

"Unrestricted birthright citizenship contradicts the practice of the overwhelming majority of modern nations." Chat, I am old enough to remember when citation of other Nation's laws to interpret ours was a high crime or misdemeanor among Republicans.

A sort of minor Balrog

I’m in New York again visiting our clients. Such a great place and so much more a delight when you don’t have to figure out how to practice law here!

I guess Alito reads substacks. (Unikowsky has written that claude produces good judicial decisions and has tested that claim by asking it to resolve scotus cases)

According to this there’s a special announcement of the President at SCOTUS (at least at investiture, which I take to be a regular sitting in form).

Some SCOTUS drama that is not about birthright citizenship: the very important Monsanto case is coming up. Basically, can you sue about Roundup? /1

Make him wait in line.

Fun fact: If you ever find yourself thinking, "wow there sure are a lot of federal court rulings today," the odds are decent that the day is March 31 or September 30 www.uscourts.gov/data-news/re...

BREAKING: Judge Richard Leon enjoins Trump ballroom construction in suit by National Trust for Historic Preservations. Order stayed for 14 days to allow for appeal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Not spicy, but very important for lawyers. CA5 holds (again) that the failure to file Rule 50(a) and Rule 50(b) motions bars *all* appellate review of evidentiary sufficiency, including under the plain error standard. www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...

Man fantastic news for Houston good people - Adrian Torres from Maximo gets an emerging chef nomination from James Beard You might remember me mentioning his espagueti verde & Milanesa a few months ago

Man, SCOTUS denied cert in Wilson v. Midland?? Blurgh. That's the IJ case where a criminal defendant sued a lawyer who acted as both the prosecutor and the judge's law clerk int he same case. Yes, you read that right. He was on both sides of the case. Secretly.

Yesterday, CA5 vacated, en banc, a series of remedial orders intended to improve Louisiana's (appalling) prison health system. Judge Jones called the district court's orders "atavistic" by which I think she means "outdated" rulings 1/ www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...

I’m so tired of these people I can’t even think through who is leaking this. Is it people who want him to get mad and deploy troops? Is it a weird signal to Iran? Is it just general dum dum parade? Is it literally Trump seeing what people will say? Who knows.

This is embarrassing writing and position taking by DOJ

It was announced today that this year’s Third Circuit conference will have Chief Justice Roberts as a featured speaker. I don’t know if it’s his first-ever CA3 conference, but he has not been to any since I started attending them in 2014. web.cvent.com/event/335665...

An announcement: professional tennis players are good at tennis. {fwiw, the Houston Clay Court championship is a fun afternoon}

Court of appeal says it cannot rule on which identical twin fathered a child

Here’s an original McDonald’s individual-sized pizza box from 1992. This is the Canadian version with the sideways arches used as the Zs.

The Supreme Court has granted one new case, Yonge v. Fulton Judicial Circuit District Attorney (Docket No. 25-352), about pleading requirements relating to affirmative defenses. Here are today’s Supreme Court orders: www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

This notion that you can just call Trump up boggles the mind.

Miss Belinda Blurb

Pizza time!

The communist takeover we were solemnly warned about has taken some surprising turns.

Winning a lawsuit for money is often pointless.

I confess I had not thought about the band A Flock of Seagulls for approximately 30 years - if I even knew it was them in the 80s - until tonight, but they were good!

These are words but I don’t understand them in this order and to this audience

I have long thought that the use of acquitted conduct to sentence is unjust.* I was really happy to see Chief Judge Elrod note the looming issue (even while denying rehearing, which she must). www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...