What’s this old thing

☢️THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR LIFE—E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution. the EPA plans to calculate only the cost to industry when setting pollution limits, and not the monetary value of saving human lives. Gift🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...

if you put this in a script even erin brockovitch would be like “too on the nose, dial it back”

somebody needs to run up miscarriage and fertility statistics for cities that get hit in this way, would be not at all surprised to find it's an observable hit in the time series (tear gas is an abortifacient)

I admire these efforts to increase ICE officer accountability. But ending qualified immunity wont address a much bigger problem-there is essentially no right to sue federal officers for violating the Constitution. First codify Bivens. Then end QI.

Treaties ratified by the Senate have the same standing as federal laws btw. Invading Greenland is extremely illegal under *our own laws*

Apparently I have to keep saying this!!! eveningconstitutional.net/invading-gre...

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I don't know what her religious views were and of course that's not the point, but this is what actual Christian martyrdom looks like.

New blog post up, wherein I list how the new year started off with a bang (several): marzhang.wordpress.com/2026/01/09/d... I'll thread themes and summaries in replies below ⤵️ but click into the post to go deeper and find links to sources.

/4 Trump and ICE and the rest of the fascist scum can murder and lie and oppress, but they can’t kill that decency that some real Americans have. They don’t have it, they are inadequate without it, and it infuriates them. But they can’t kill it.

america: fuck yeah.

📢 "California’s policy showed increasingly strong associations with reduced deaths over time... the combined effect during the period 2010–20 was statistically significant. ...when properly designed and enforced, comprehensive heat standards can protect vulnerable workers as temperatures rise."

Trump is building a new wing of the federal judiciary that believes his conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election

“They want us to scatter in fear, to give up hope, and to give up on each other. But we will hold more tightly to one another, plan more strategically, and care even more deeply.” - @mskellymhayes.bsky.social organizingmythoughts.org/the-cost-of-...

Solidarity with all of my friends and comrades in MN. My deep condolences to the loved ones of the person who was murdered.

Remarkable statement from an elected official.

What's awful is that we all knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. And now that time has arrived.

“We are locked into a battle we did not seek and our timidity is keeping us on the defensive. It isn’t working. Our pessimism is self-fullfiling.” www.liberalcurrents.com/we-need-to-g...

Congress has ignored the federal law requiring hanging in the Capitol by 3/2023 the plaque promising never to forget the heroism of those who risked all to defend Congress’ members and the Constitution. This essay by the great Jamie Raskin makes good on that promise. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids? Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.

Great thread on that terrible Atlantic article on #disability #accommodations in #highered

NEW: More than 300 judges — including 33 appointed by Trump himself — have now rebuffed the Trump administration’s bid to dramatically expand efforts to lock people up while they fight deportation. www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-administration-immigrants-mandatory-detention-00709494

Two legal issues at work in Venezuela asTrump Admin uses criminal charges to obscure regime change. Maduro’s indictment and arrest may be upheld, but that does not negate violation of UN Charter, approved by Congress in 1945, and constitutional duty to take care that laws be faithfully executed.

"If we hadn’t already, we’ve unquestionably joined the league of ordinary nations—a league in which we’re acting as little more than a bully, and in circumstances in which no obvious principle of self-defense, human rights, or even humantarianism writ large justifies our bellicosity." Me on Maduro:

A big mob boss just took out a small mob boss

Whatever you might think of Maduro, the seizure and kidnapping of a head of state takes us to a very dark place. Vast, arbitrary, extra-legal power, which could be exercised almost anywhere, regardless of the character of the target government.

we have not "apprehended" the president of venezuela. we have invaded a foreign country and kidnapped its leader. what the fuck are we doing here, i am going to lose my mind

fwiw it’s been about six weeks since Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras who had been convicted of trafficking drugs into the US

Here's a dangerous effort to carve out a loophole in presidential war powers big enough to drive a tank through. If such an authority existed, the president could invade anywhere, anytime, without involving Congress—just by claiming, without proof, that an attack is "imminent."

[wakes up] “I’m sorry, what”

My final blog post for 2025, quickly rounding up key U.S. legal developments from the last week, is here: marzhang.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/d... The post has more links for you to dive deeper if you wish, but I will also thread the developments below because it's a short list. ⤵️

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/30/c... - an important read. (gift article)

📢📢📢 someone pls analyze civ pro ramifications for me and my students!!

Some stories are so hard to read these days.

Wild how so many problematic narratives in U.S. policymaking are bound up with each other. The boat strikes, deportations, and OBBA all prominently featured here. 😬

Ugh these are heartrenching stories, and there are probably many worse ones out there.

Refusing to faithfully execute an important law that passed Congress with only a single no vote should be an uncontroversial basis for impeachment and removal.

😭😭😭

One of the biggest stories most people aren’t paying enough attention to yet.

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NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

New blog post up! marzhang.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/d... Key narratives from the last week are summarized in thread form below ⤵️, but click into the post for links and more info to go deeper.

1 - the exec branch can't decline to spend $ Congress appropriated 2- the fed govt can't use federal $ to extort states over policy/political disagreements 3-the fed govt can't use federal $ to impose conditions unrelated to the funding program 4-the fed govt can't use federal $ to coerce states

Agreed

People have historically, and rightfully, seen the evil of Guantanamo, Abu Gharib, and now CECOT for what it is, but I wish more people would also see the evil in our domestic prisons too. How we treat our most vulnerable, including prisoners, really sets the tone for our whole society.