From @schwartzesque.bsky.social : U.S. District of Rhode Island judges have appointed special counsel to investigate possible misconduct by AUSA Kevin Bolan. He allegedly failed to tell Judge DuBose that a noncitizen had a murder warrant; DHS then trashed her as "activist Biden judge." 1/2

To sum up: the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were passed to remedy a century of attempts to disenfranchise and unperson African-Americans by any possible, often through voting-related tricks and tests and barriers. They worked -- for a while. But then..../1

Excellent article about this administration's outrageous attacks on Rep. McIver and Black women leaders. www.marieclaire.com/politics/con...

At this point, I think he is just trolling us.

Clarence Thomas is set to become the second-longest-serving justice on the Supreme Court. His legacy is marred by ethics scandals that highlight the lack of accountability for justices. It's past time to reform the Court. bit.ly/42Ql6qg

Trevor Project released its annual LGBTQ youth mental health report. The results are shocking. 40% of trans youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. Trans youth who wanted hormones but couldn’t access them were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who could.

Jesus. The fact that they tipped off Fox News seems like a red flag that this is bullshit.

President Obama to Stephen Colbert: "The White House shouldn't be able to direct the attorney general to go around prosecuting whoever the president wants to prosecute." "The norm is — the idea is that the attorney general is the people's lawyer. It's not the president's consiglieri."

This is exactly why we need DOJ reform to be *codified in law,* as I argued in this piece, and as Adam Schiff and others told me in interviews. The old post-Watergate norms-based approach is dead. newrepublic.com/article/2099...

This is staggering. DOJ must be totally overhauled.

Status of GOP plans to gerrymander Dem VRA congressional seats: FL: Already targeted 1 VRA seat & 3 non-VRA AL, LA: Planning 1-2 each in 2026 TN: Planning 1 in 2026 GA: Reportedly doing 2028—could target 2 MS: Could target 1—unclear whether for 2026 or 2028 SC: Unclear TX: Could do it in 2028

For Black and Brown Americans, voting rights have always had to be fought for and defended. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was one of the most powerful civil rights protections in U.S. history. Since 2013, SCOTUS has been systematically weakening the VRA.

Two different technical, procedural moves from #SCOTUS yesterday have one thing in common: The Court is behaving differently in otherwise similar cases based upon the ideological/partisan valence of the dispute. Via "One First," me on why, results aside, that's a serious indictment of the Court:

May 4 2026 Associated Press Continuing the pattern of attacking trans people in all areas of life, Trump's education department announced an investigation into Smith College, a women's college, for accepting trans women. apnews.com/article/smit...

WATCH: Last night I had the chance to sit down for an extended conversation with Jon Stewart to talk about the state of voting rights & democracy in this country. Class was very much in session! Thank you @thedailyshow youtu.be/SCse1FFEKLM

WATCH: Judicial nominee John Marck doesn't know what the 22nd Amendment says & won't say if Trump can run again. When all 4 nominees are asked if any are "brave enough to say that the Constitution of the United States prevents President Trump from seeking a third term," NONE would give a response.

Warnock on SCOTUS: No one elected this Court—to decide what kind of remedies we need in this moment. It’s really not up to the Supreme Court to say, “Well, we have reached the threshold where this issue around race and inclusion is no longer necessary.” That is not the job of the Court.

Impossible to understand the Suprme Court's Voting Rights Act case without the context that John Roberts has spent his entire career working to gut the VRA. As a Reagan DOJ staffer, he made the *same arguments* the Court just embraced. He lost then; he won today. ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/john-...

The court has simply recreated the pre-Brown world in allowing racial discrimination across a broad number fields as long as it is “facially neutral,” gutting the Reconstruction Amendments in the process.

Jeffries says everything is on the table legislatively to deal with the Supreme Court: In the new Congress, we’re going to have to do something about this Supreme Court, and let me be very clear: everything is on the table.

as long as john roberts has his majority, there is simply no pro democracy reform that will survive the supreme court. none.

I'm on parental leave this week and next, so of course Callais came down today. Just a few top-line thoughts: 1. Don't believe Alito's claim that the majority is merely tinkering with precedent. In effect, this decision pretty much eliminates what remained of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

the domino meme starting with a Scalia dissent saying all executive power is vested in the president leading to DOJ calling Trump "a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t, especially those who assume the Office of President” ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

An unbelievably frivolous indictment, even by the standards of this DOJ

JUST IN: Sixth straight loss for DOJ in lawsuits to obtain states’ voter rolls. This one in Arizona from Trump-appointed judge Susan Brnovich. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

"Small wonder that Clarence Thomas prefers the Gilded Age over the Progressive Era," writes @rbreich.bsky.social. "He’s the living embodiment of the Gilded Age’s public-be-damned excesses."

I talked to Jamie Raskin about his explosive exchange with CNN's Dana Bash. "The media should understand that the survival of the free press is at stake right now," he tells me. "There is only one party in America trying to censor and control the press.” New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2095...

If you ask a normal person ,"Is it constitutional for a state to require every public school to display the Ten Commandments," their answer is, "No?? Is this a trick question?" But if you ask an "originalist," they'll explain why this totally fine, and you're an idiot for thinking otherwise.

NEW: The Supreme Court has summarily reversed the 3-judge trial court's decision striking down Texas' mid-decade congressional map (the court had previously stayed the decision). The three liberal justices dissent.

This move by SCOTUS is deeply insulting. The district court gathered a massive amount of evidence in record time, and District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote a careful 160-page opinion. Now a majority of justices have dispensed with it without even providing a full written opinion.

The Roberts 'Court' does not traffic in law, but arbitrary power. Its persistence with its present composition is an ongoing negation of the rule of law & an attack on constitutionalism as such.

BREAKING: Florida judge questions whether she has jurisdiction to hear Trump's case against the IRS, orders briefing on the question by May 20 and arguments to follow May 27. Judge Kathleen Williams: "[I]t is unclear to this Court whether the Parties are sufficiently adverse to each other ...."

I understand the sophisticated academic argument that there’s been a partisan/ideological “realignment” on standing, but can we maybe indulge the possibility that the courts are just being inconsistent?

Texas Republicans passed a law that requires *every classroom in every public school in the state* to display the Ten Commandments. According to Kyle Duncan and the Fifth Circuit, this is perfectly constitutional, and actually, you're stupid if you think anything different.

"The practice the EPA order inaugurated has dramatically affected the entire country in the ten years since, often without the public fully appreciating the stakes." https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/the-umpire-was-taking-sides

This is expert trolling from Jamie Raskin. If Republicans are suddenly angry about losing in the gerrymandering wars, then they're welcome to join him and Dems in passing bans on gerrymandering in the next Congress, he tells me: newrepublic.com/article/2093...

ICE has violated almost 100 court orders. Let me say that another way. 100 times ICE was caught brazenly ignoring the law. 100 times a court told them to immediately stop. And 100 times they ignored the order. That's an out-of-control agency that shouldn't get another dime.

Here is a more serious take: confidentiality is one of those norms that is respected within systems in which everyone agrees on the rules of the game and trusts that others are following the rules in good faith.

Pronatalism is a force in the conservative far right and Christian Nationalist movements. Learn more about the "pro-birth" ideology with @nwlc's Emily Martin. She explains the history of racism, sexism, and eugenics, the alarming support it has, and what true pro-family policy looks like.

Fox News is suggesting that young women want to ditch their careers and submit to their husbands. The data says otherwise. In this episode of #StandingRoomOnly, @amandamarcotte.bsky.social#StandingRoomOnlydebunks a Fox News segment promoting the “tradwife” myth and explain what Gen Z women actually want.

NEW: Trump's lawyer and 8th Circuit nominee Justin Smith just had his hearing and was asked about his election denial, legal representation of Trump, connections to Leonard Leo, and far-right extremism. Democrats were not pleased with his responses. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/trump-lawy...

UPDATE: in this long-running case, the Montana Supreme Court holds that the state constitution provides more equal protection and nondiscrimination protection than the federal Constitution. Upholds the PI. juddocumentservice.mt.gov/getDocByCTra...

“My understanding is that there were students in my section who, through Fed Soc, had clerkships lined up the fall of 1L,” Kaufman said. “There is no liberal student for whom that’s the case.”

This has been an open secret for years among everyone at Harvard Law but we're not supposed to acknowledge it officially. It's completely perverting the entire profession and ensuring ideological capture.

Genuinely funny to watch Justin Smith, Trump's Eighth Circuit nominee, solemnly promise to decide all cases "fairly and impartially" when he STILL hasn't scrubbed the part of his LinkedIn page where he describes himself as an "attorney and strategist who fights for conservative values"

"Scratch-paper musings” is SUCH a good burn of the shadow docket, nobody is doing it like KBJ www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

"I want to tell my fellow trans people that the Constitution’s promises protect them as much as anyone else. But when the Court won’t afford them the decency of acknowledging that bigotry against trans people is real, I can only tell them to give the Court the amount of respect it deserves."

NOTE: We have the merits panel for the May 14 arguments in the law firm (and Zaid security clearance revocation) cases at the DC Circuit: Judges Srinivasan (Obama), Pillard (Obama), and Rao (Trump).

BREAKING: We're suing federal immigration agents on behalf of Juan Sebastián Carvajal-Muñoz, a legal U.S. resident who was racially profiled and violently abducted in Maine in January. Agents violated his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and must be held accountable.

IMPORTANT: Under federal law, it's very hard, at times near-impossible, to sue federal law enforcement officers for civil rights violations. But legal theorists have said for decades that there is a possible way to sue under state law instead. This is a VERY big test case.