ICYMI: Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats can ask Trump's judicial nominees written questions for the record — but many aren't engaging in the process as much as they should be. Booker has asked 1,500+ questions. Welch has only asked 19. My analysis: nominationnotes.substack.com/p/senate-jud...

New: Another judge has rejected a DOJ subpoena served on a hospital providing gender-affirming care, calling it a "pretext" to end the practice. "The Government seeks to fulfill its policy agenda through compliance born of fear," Judge Julie Rubin in Maryland wrote. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

It just got harder for LGBTQ+ people to address harassment at work 19thnews.org/2026/01/eeoc... via @19thnews.org

I wrote on the shameful situation re: the recession of a deanship to Emily Suski at the University of Arkansas Law. What was the reason? Prof. Suski signed an amicus brief supporting trans rights. The Arkansas legislators admitted that was it! Horrible outcome. ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...

1. ICE has STOPPED PAYING for medical treatment for its 73,000 detainees ICE has not paid its bills to 3rd party providers since OCTOBER and the situation will likely persist for MONTHS, a Popular Information investigation reveals Meanwhile, critically ill ICE detainees are not receiving care 🧵

A federal judge issued a nationwide (technically a national class) “declaratory” judgment that the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy is unlawful. The Trump administration’s response has been to say that it is not bound by the ruling and the judge can go pound sand.

The Insurrection Act is not "martial law." It doesn't displace civilian law, it doesn't suspend habeas corpus, it doesn't alter or suspend state and local government, and it doesn't make anything newly illegal. It allows using the military to enforce existing law, it doesn't change what the law is.

This is incredible: 81% of working class and 83% of young voters have seen video of Renee Good's killing, per new data I've obtained. Majority of working class disapproves of ICE enforcement. ICE brutality is breaking through big time. Some thoughts on this here: newrepublic.com/article/2052...

DOJ just filed for en banc review of Alina Habba's disqualification. Which is where we get confirmation that Emil Bove won't recuse from a case where he clearly has a conflict. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

As the Supreme Court Considers the Rights of Transgender People, Trump Continues to Nominate Anti-Trans Judges open.substack.com/pub/nominati...

McKenzie Scott donates $45 million to the Trevor Project. The LGBTQ-supporting organization that works to prevent teen suicides lost $25 million in federal last year due to Trump. abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory...

Tomorrow lawyers for Lindsay Hecox and Becky Pepper-Jackson will argue that their rights were violated when they were banned from competition. It’s possible the cases will have big implications for transgender athletes and trans people. https://bit.ly/3LHlwdJ

The Trump regime’s absurd smear of Renee Good as a “domestic terrorist” isn’t just rhetorical. It’s part of a plan (NSPM-7) to suppress opposition to their authoritarian policies by using the government’s power against “domestic terrorism.” We broke it down here: open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

once again shoutout to every dipshit who insisted it was hysterical to talk about trump and white supremacy in the same breath www.rawstory.com/trump-267487...

JUST IN: Fed judge in Seattle strikes down several provisions in Trump executive order on election integrity. Judge John Chun (Biden) says the Constitution assigns the president no role in election administration. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

🚨 NEW VIDEO 👇🏽This puts an end to all the lies. Horrific. They were having a calm exchange seconds before he murdered Renee Good, and she was barely moving and clearly avoiding him. Stop the lies.

Expect to see a surge of proud ignorance and proplawganda about what you can say about ICE agent Jonathan Ross, identified by local media as the person who shot and killed Renee Good. In particular, expect a repeat of Rittenhouse-era “accusing him of murder is defamation” rhetoric. It’s not. /1

I think it is probably a bad idea to put clearly unhinged, angry psychopaths in federal law enforcement positions.

I am trying to write a newsletter about James Ho's latest desperate, sweaty law review article, but this thing is so weird and incoherent I'm having trouble pinning it down. It's like reading a Tumblr written by Antonin Scala on quaaludes journals.law.harvard.edu/jlpp/wp-cont...

92% of ICE Detention Growth in FY 2026 Driven by Immigrants with No Criminal Convictions ICE published new detention data today that brings the current population to a record-high of 68,990. ICE records first detention death of 2026. austinkocher.substack.com/p/92-of-ice-...

Naming a police officer is not doxxing. We aren’t supposed to have secret police in America.

The New York Times released a forensic analysis of the ICE shooting in Minneapolis. The video completely refutes the Trump administration’s BS.

Judge to Lindsey Halligan: Explain yourself. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jan 7 LemkinInstute: Genocide scholars of Intl Assoc of Genocide Scholars warn US may in early stages of genocide under intl law which covers religious, ethnic & racial groups. Genocide against socially-defined "gender groups" not well understood but may qualify.

I don't think I would have ever put "war with Denmark" on my bingo card of Trump abuses back in 2024. We are so far off the rails.

Never forget.

Five Years After January 6, Trump’s Judicial Nominees Won’t Talk About It open.substack.com/pub/nominati...

yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.

Trump Could Appoint More White Men to the Federal Bench Than Women of Color Who’ve Ever Served open.substack.com/pub/nominati...

“As we move into 2026, we will continue to fight to hold Trump’s nominees accountable and ensure that the courts are a place for law, not loyalty tests.” @alisonmgill.bsky.social ICYMI, my piece on judicial nominations in 2025 — and what lies ahead. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/civil-righ...

Terrific piece by @patrickryne.bsky.social looking at Trump's terrible judicial nominations in 2025 and setting the stage for the fight for fair courts in 2026. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/civil-righ...

We're proud to announce that Cecillia Wang, our National Legal Director, will argue our landmark birthright citizenship case before the Supreme Court. Cecillia is a daughter of immigrants and battle-tested lawyer who has fought to protect civil liberties with the ACLU for over 2 decades.

To all the young people in New York and across our country who count on gender-affirming care: I won't let this administration come for you, your doctors, or your lifesaving health care.  Your health care is still legal and protected.  I'll always fight for you.

What this will mean, in practice, that if you are deemed an enemy of the administration, they will pore through your citizenship application paperwork looking for some reason to retroactively disqualify you. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/u...

In their introductions of Brian Lea this morning, Senators Hagerty and Blackburn did not mention any legal experience that Lea has in Tennessee, where he's been nominated to the federal bench. That's because he has none, as I reported yesterday. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/trump-nomi...

They developed the "high school girl's sports" angle as a wedge issue, to lever their way up to full society-wide discrimination. What's endlessly stunning to me is how many purported liberals a) helped them when it started & b) are still helping them even after the larger purpose has become clear!

One year ago, Third Circuit nominee Adeel Mangi wrote to Biden — calling out the smear campaign against him and recognizing that there was no longer a pathway to his confirmation as the first Muslim federal appellate judge. Now we have Emil Bove instead. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/before-emi...

Birthright citizenship under the common law, a thread: I have done this many times on social media, in print, and in media interviews, but not to be accused of taking others’ not seriously enough, by plainly stating the law and history of birthright citizenship, I’m taking the time here:

it is also just hilarious to insist that eight months of rush job “scholarship” outweighs decades of settled history and 140 years of settled law

Their closing message to Indiana: change your maps to artificially benefit the President's political party or 'roads will not be paved' as punishment. They are openly saying this. Who would want to live in a country that works like that?

Unlike Supreme Court Justices, the rest of the fed’l judiciary is governed by canons of ethics. Among other things, they’re not supposed to attend political events & should avoid even an appearance of impropriety. joycevance.substack.com/p/judicial-e...

The first paragraph of Judge Breyer‘s opinion granting an injunction in the California National Guard case is a banger.

it is actually kind of bananas how unitary executive theorists have taken a straightforward clause requiring the president to "faithfully execute the laws" and transformed it into a grant for the exercise of limitless unenumerated power.

I am not live posting the whole argument here because I want to listen closely to Trump v. Slaughter. But the solicitor general for Trump just said the point here in killing the independence of agencies like the FTC is that executive branch officers must “fear and obey” the president. Wow. #SCOTUS

hey a fun thing is that if congress is delegating authority to an independent agency then by definition that agency is not "unaccountable." it is still accountable to congress. and it is interesting (read: extremely frustrating) to me that these people just write congress out of existence here.

Landmark case up for argument at SCOTUS at 10am on the power of presidents to fire independent agency heads. Here’s my quick preview in Espresso, @economist.com’s daily app. I’ll be posting live analysis during the oral argument in this thread

The Supreme Court, Presidency, Senate and two party system are all quite anti-democratic institutions as presently constructed. Our institutions are not only incapable of preventing tyranny—they’re currently enabling it. When democracy returns, we need to reform our political system.

If you want a read about the recent anti-constituonal attempt to denaturalize American children from their claim to birthright citizenship using bad history, @evanbernick.bsky.social, @gowder.io, I wrote about it in the Cornell Law Review Online. publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawreview/wp...

Rep. Grijalva says she was pepper-sprayed by ICE

District court judges are engaged in a bipartisan project of [forgive me] actually calling balls and strikes. Republican circuit judges are largely going full-tilt partisan. Stats as of last month: courtaccountability.substack.com/p/where-law-...