As promised, here is my post critiquing today's badly flawed Supreme Court ruling upholding Trump's withdrawal of TPS status from Haitian and other migrants. There is irony that majority's reasoning also allows future presidents to grant TPS without limit: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

"The Trump administration is cracking down on waste in low-income welfare programs, but the GAO finds that the highest improper payment rate is in the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)—a subsidy program that mainly benefits high-income farmers." [Dominik Lett and Chris Edwards, @cato.org]

More from Alex Tabarrok and Kevin Bryan on the Trump administration's enormous power grab over the rules governing all federal grants.

"The new rules will be sold as getting rid of DEI but that is an excuse to bring in the commissars. The new rules don’t depoliticize science they create even more politicization with the sign flipped, and the drafters admit it." marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...

Alex Tabarrok is correct: this is a bad stuff. As has happened before, the Trump people have fingered something that needs improvement--the scientific funding process--and are trying to implement measures, including political loyalty tests, that will make the situation vastly worse.

This is an authoritarian nightmare. It is how the Soviet Union would handle science funding: a top-down control with distribution being made on the authoritarian basis of the political preferences of a central planner. This will chill academic freedom and kill American science.

“But it’s not enough for ICE to disagree; they need to stamp out dissent,” [David J. Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute] said. “I know they monitor my social media. You should know that they’re monitoring yours too.”

The Cato Institute, hardly "woke" and much respected among conservatives, have 2 great articles about how well Haitians do in America. They outperform American citizens - reach higher education, earn more & commit less crime on average. www.cato.org/blog/haitian... www.cato.org/news-release...

It takes balls to brag about election interference: Trump says he asked US attorney for California election probe: ‘Do me a favor’

My latest: Good riddance to "Alligator Alcatraz," a sort of Fyre Festival for incipient fascism reason.com/2026/06/26/g...

How much common ground can libertarians find with abundance liberals? Cato’s Ryan Bourne talks with Ilya Somin and Jeremiah Johnson about whether shared views on housing, permitting, trade, and immigration mask unbridgeable differences on the role and size of government.

“D.C. Police Agree To Compensate District Resident Handcuffed for Playing Star Wars 'Imperial March' Theme Near National Guard Troops” [@popville.bsky.social]

Elon Musk’s Race War Hobby ||

God speed Ann Blyth www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Trump wants more control. thedispatch.com/article/offi...

Lots of bad stuff here, including a trend toward criminalizing “promotion” of gays.

Enjoy this article from a Minnesota newspaper in 1882 noting that Scandinavians love their home countries so much that it will take them generations to assimilate into America. www.loc.gov/resource/sn8...

Why don't they just assimilate?

Ground-beef-bulgur-walnut kibbeh, tahini sauce with pomegranate arils, sautéed zucchini with mint and vinegar #CookSky #FoodSky #BlueskySupperClub

Laura Loomer's engagement has dropped by 28% after she started challenging pro-Kremlin propaganda.

“a growing number of conservative leaders are starting to argue that the only way to stop women from ending their pregnancies could be to arrest them.”

Abortion rights hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the campaign yet That could change, for reasons @lauren-egan.bsky.social lays out here www.thebulwark.com/p/abortion-i...

I am one of few who think Court was very right in today's 2nd Amendment ruling, but badly wrong on Haitian TPS. This post deals with 2nd Amend case and explains why government can't require property owners to allow guns on their land, but also can't presumptively bar them: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

Love the Cato institute. And they’re right. The judiciary has been performing admirably everywhere in defense of the rule of law except for at SCOTUS. Which is a big except. Trump has lost momentum and court has caught up. The people have their say in Nov.

Federal judges around the country in recent weeks have been slapping down Trump administration decrees, demands and other schemes to interfere with this fall's elections. I collect some of the highlights in my new election roundup at Cato.

"In one of the great lines from Game of Thrones, Lord Varis says about Petyr Baelish that “he’d burn this country to the ground if it meant he could be King of the Ashes.” That’s Donald Trump." [Gary Winslett on Trump's sudden refusal to sign the housing bill his own WH touted as a "promise kept"]

Have I got news for you. (But only in the Plaintiff States.) bsky.app/profile/gabr...

That was yesterday. Anyone that participates will be violating the law bsky.app/profile/r5-t...

Lawless. The courts need to come down on this like a ton of bricks.

Supreme Court should make clear that FOIA’s law enforcement exemption applies only to documents "compiled *for* a legitimate law enforcement purpose, not just *by* a law enforcement agency." [@thomasberry.bsky.social on Cato cert amicus brief in Buckley v. U.S. Department of Justice]

Two ICE agents tracked down a woman *inside a polling place* yesterday. Why? They demanded that she take down an Instagram post in which she named Jonathan Ross as the man who shot & killed Renee Good (after the Star Tribune identified Ross). www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06...

CATO: “.. the administration is inserting the federal government into another company’s boardroom—not because it’s primarily concerned about supply chains or taxpayer ‘upside,’ but because Trump wanted a government investment portfolio he could control ..” www.cato.org/blog/trump-a...

"From Harford to Frederick, sheriffs who backed ICE and sued Maryland won big on primary night" The test isn't really whether they win their Republican primary, though, is it?

The republic has endured Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, and I predict it will endure Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez.

can’t believe a narcissist is being so publicly humiliated by a reflecting pool

"No one gives a shit about housing." Only ballrooms.

Not just repressive, but downright odd: wave of anti-gay legislation in Africa now includes one country's punitive ban on committing or attempting to commit "asexual... acts." [Liberty Unyielding]

The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Never, so far as I'm aware But those other judges were not Reed O'Connor, who is less "judging" and more "auditioning for Alito's future vacancy"

I am hearing reports that Bill Pulte is investigating whether the algae have fraudulently claimed on their mortgage application that the Reflecting Pool is their primary residence.

"The 29-page ruling pulled no punches regarding the ethics of using federal law enforcement as a political tool." @foxmike90.bsky.social on chief judge Patrick Schiltz's scathing arraignment of the Trump administration's bid to prosecute its biggest enemies among Minnesota politicians.

Another excellent piece by @cjciaramella.bsky.social

I wrote up today's Alien Tort Statute case, Cisco Systems v. Doe: "...These issues are all basically statutory, and a new Congress could, if it chose, craft new federal law creating or expanding rights to sue in this area [as it has done in the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991]."

My critique of today's terrible Supreme Court Takings Clause/tax foreclosure decision. It gets principles and precedent wrong, and is likely to have awful consequences: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

I know nothing is a scandal for more than a day anymore, but it seems like it ought to be a huge story that a federal judge found “overwhelming” evidence that DOJ targeted a sitting governor via a bogus pretextual investigation for the purpose of political retaliation.

"The trouble with the Bank Secrecy Act is not limited to regulatory burdens, ineffective reporting, and expansionary surveillance. There’s also the problem with how this system is abused by people in power: namely, authoritarians." [Nicholas Anthony, @cato.org]

Alt Hed: How do you solve a problem like subpoena?

Bob Bauer at @execfunctions.bsky.social explains how AG nominee Todd Blanche was up to his neck in the unethical and unprofessional conduct that drew such a strong rebuke from Chief Judge Schiltz in the Minnesota case.