Speaking of autocrats & their enablers, here is Professor Judith Butler's email to @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social's Legal Offices: "Let us not sacrifice our integrity as an institution to legalistic forms of state bullying and extortion." www.thenation.com/article/soci...

🦘 SCOTUS latest news... As the former Dean of Law School wrote on @verfassungsblog.de recently, the Roberts Court is doing "its best to facilitate Trump’s lawlessness" and as such, it should be treated with all the contempt it deserves

In December 2023, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked SCOTUS to grant cert before judgement to hear Trump’s immunity appeal. The court rejected that request and didn’t issue its immunity decision until July 2024. Trump’s federal cases never made it to trial before the November 2024 election.

No one should be surrendered to Orban’s Hungary, let alone a member of an EU institution which has triggered the exceptional procedure of Article 7(1) TEU before subsequently holding Hungary to be the EU’s first electoral autocracy www.politico.eu/article/ital...

The last time @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu bought off Orbàn's veto, @europarl.europa.eu did much huffing and puffing and took her to court in a purely symbolic and meaningless move. #EUCO could have solved the problem years ago by stripping Orbàn of his veto, but the government leaders refuse to do so

This is indeed outrageous and makes a mockery of the EU's rule of law conditionality toolbox. In essence, the EU plans to *bribe* Orban to the tune of €550mn to secure Russian energy sanctions & it is not the 1st time the EU Commission and Council have done so... verfassungsblog.de/the-eus-faus...

💥🗣️In Budapest, thousands protested Viktor Orbán’s state-funded propaganda, hate campaigns and vilification of rivals. One tragic case: a police chief in an opposition-run city died by suicide after being targeted in a vile smear campaign by a pro-government outlet. 📸: @telexhu.bsky.social

Viktor Orban has made Hungary one of the poorest countries in the EU www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

J.D. Vance in 2025: EU Kommissars are suppressing free speech 🇺🇸 in 2026 thanks i.a. to Kommissar J.D. Vance according to leading authority on free speech law: "Authoritarianism, with its trademark suppression of free political discussion, looms on our horizon."

"Today’s [MAGA captured SCOTUS] often rules not because the Constitution says so. But because partisan preferences and personal values say so ... As it often does, the [Roberts 🦘] Court repackaged and whitewashed facts to achieve a desired outcome"

I am pleased to report that Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Todd Eddins has dropped another total evisceration of the Supreme Court. He says originalism is a fraud—and the Republican justices are shamelessly making up facts and history to impose radical Christian nationalism: slate.com/news-and-pol...

The Trump regime is seeking "regime change in Europe" former Chatham House director Robin Niblet tells the New York Times. This American-led global far right movement is turning into the Comintern of our times, warns Dutch historian @luukvmiddelaar.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/w...

Folks look at you like you’re crazy when you say we’re in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & then, well 👇🤷‍♂️

We need all journalists to reflect on this.

Giving a bully your lunch money is only a temporary downpayment for future bullying. We ALL need to step up for the first amendment. By-the-way, for the record, this ex-Disney employee finds Jimmy Kimmel very talented and funny. mh

I have taught in 5 countries for more than 25 years and I had never before been warned for being set-up and reported by my own students by university administrators… until this semester.

"First, using hiring and firing powers to purge career civil servants from key agencies, like the Justice Department, and erode the traditional barriers preventing undue political influence on law enforcement and regulatory decisions" www.vox.com/politics/462...

Modern autocrats "do not openly declare their intention to kill democracy, but they erode it stealthily, day by day, week by week, dismantling what they pretend to protect. It is a coup d’état, but in slow motion" foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/18/d...

"The law firms that capitulated to Trump are finally having to make good on their deal with the devil ... By entering into these deals, these law firms have helped Trump to chip away at [the rule of law] and become complicit in his attack on our legal system." www.publicnotice.co/p/law-firms-...

"We can now see how American Orbánism could take full root before the 2028 elections. We now know what a Trump-led authoritarian state in America would look like — and how we would get there from here." Spot-on piece #RoadtoAutocracy

"As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary. A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally ..."

Straight out of the MAGA playbook - but you're in great company! I'm proud to have held such a chair and proud that UCD is among the highest recipients of JM Chairs in Europe. Terrific programme and one I'd encourage early and mid career colleagues to apply to. Peer reviewed and high quality.

Headlines matter. Framing matters. AP: it’s about democracy NYT: it’s about a political fight

The @europarl.europa.eu should use its political powers to hold the Commission to account, not outsource its responsibilities to the court.

🇪🇺⚖️💶🇵🇱🇭🇺 Fully agreed. The credibility of the Commission on this front has already been severely damaged by unlocking the entire (much larger) trove of RRF/cohesion fund wonders for Poland over rule of law repair promises that the Tusk govt will likely be unable to fulfil.

If true, we might as well bury the concept of rule of law conditionality. The EU cannot keep letting itself be blackmailed by Orbán into unfreezing funds withheld over rule of law violations in exchange for lifting his veto, unless it truly wants to lose all credibility as a guardian of EU values

Commission and Council/EUMS appear not to care much about - once again and illegally - undermining the EU's rule of law toolbox for reasons of political expediency... If they do so, let's hope the European Parliament will - again - sue them for misuse of powers (see Case C-225/24 against Comm)

Almost forgot ECJ hearing in infringement case re Orban’s Soviet style “sovereignty office” earlier this week. While Orban’s minions write “reports” about academic freedom allegedly threatened by the EU, critics incl. academics are harassed and threatened in 🇭🇺 verfassungsblog.de/hungary-tran...

At which point does a constitutional crisis become a constitutional breakdown? At this stage, lawlessness appears to be the Trump administration’s default decision-making mode with unconstitutional/illegal actions occurring daily

I know it's frustrating when lawyers point out when something the administration is doing is not legal. But responding with "the law doesn't matter anymore" is really unhelpful and defeatist. Clarifying the law is important because it reminds us not to comply in advance and to resist and take action

This is the playbook, folks. If you're not paying attention now and doing something about it, then you're going to have to sit down the rest of your life because democracy is being taken away. Do not be quiet in this moment.

In Turkey, this is called "havuz medyası" ("pool media"). It is achieved via: 1) Vertical dissemination of narratives from the government 2) Political economy ties that incentivize private channels' compliance PLUS 3) Intimidation that combine to produce (often anticipatory) compliance

JD Vance in Europe last year: EU "commissars" are suppressing free speech Meanwhile, here are the latest "free speech" developments in the 🇺🇸 ...

If only there were an example of an academic institution that had been forced to leave Hungary because the regime didn't like what its scholars were writing.

Viktor Orbán's propaganda machine released a pseudo-report dismissing all Jean Monnet professors as "propagandists." 1. We're funded to study EU integration, not promote it 2. Many Jean Monnet scholars are among the EU's sharpest critics - including myself 3. Funding goes to universities not us

Thomas Fazi, a pro-Brexit, covid denialist, contributor of right-wing Unherd and Compact and (former?) darling of the nationalist left, has published a “research” paper attacking the Jean Monnet Programme as a vehicle of EU propaganda … on behalf of Orban’s propaganda machine! 1/

Its becoming worryingly fashionable to suggest academics are all out to get you with their facts about authoritarianism

"I never imagined I would see fear spread so far and fast in the US." This from the writer who gave us definitive accounts of East Germany and other late state socialist societies in the 1980s.

It takes an extraordinary mind to criticise Jean Monnet professors for "propagandising" when you're taking money from an institution set up with the specific goal of running propaganda for an electoral autocracy.

Speaking of Orban's mafia state, its propaganda mouthpiece in BXL has decided to attack professors in past/current receipt of EU Jean Monnet funding in manner reminiscent of Brexit-era attacks. Here is their evidence of bias in my case & source to back up claim: "Laurent Pech, X x.com". Impressive

After days of Sweden-bashing by Viktor Orban, its Prime Minister reacts to the Hungarian head of government The tone and gravity of the attack by @viktororban.bsky.social against another fellow member of #EUCO is unprecedented within the EU It’s not pretty

"the European Commission presented today its proposal to the Council to suspend certain trade-related provisions of the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel ... as well as its proposals for sanctions on Hamas, extremist ministers and violent settlers" ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

“Gaza is burning,” Israel’s Defense Minister Katz declared. As Israel’s ground offensive inside Gaza City begins, Israeli international law scholars continue to address grave violations of int’l law. We’ve updated our synopsis today, documenting their analyses: verfassungsblog.de/internationa...

Some good news (at last) on the rule of law backsliding front: CoE Committee on the Election of Judges to the ECtHR has recommended rejection of Orban's list of (pro-autocracy) candidates on procedural grounds (likely due to lack of proper selection procedure) pace.coe.int/en/files/34563

"When voters eventually wake up to the damage done (usually too late, as the new autocrat has by that time destroyed any channel through which alternative views may be expressed), they have few options to resist because their constitutional system has been captured verfassungsblog.de/what-is-rule...

An email headline from one of the news sources I subscribe to: "Vance's crackdown on left-wing groups" No- should be: "The unconstitutional actions of the VP of the United States" News orgs, do better.

Our School's tribute to Professor Conor Gearty can be read here: www.ucd.ie/law/news/con...

One reason why authoritarian regimes govern poorly is that they devalue rationality: they deny the existence of reality, and sooner or later, reality will catch up

Good post on latest ECJ judgment issued in relation to Poland's (still ongoing) rule of law crisis. While ruling is compelling, case law has become messy. Eg. unlawfully appointed 🇵🇱 Sup Ct "judges" cannot lawfully adjudicate or submit 267 TFEU requests but can adopt internal measures (eg transfer)

Better late than never. One may hope @eppgroup.bsky.social will follow suit with Aleksandar Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the key architect behind Serbia's descent into autocracy www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...