This is a brilliant and much-needed legal coalition: The Fight Against Federal Overreach (FAFO) is a national coalition of District Attorneys collaborating to ensure federal officials are held accountable when they exceed their lawful authority. www.federaloverreach.org

For those suing federal officers, here are two useful primers about the FCTA-one quite comprehensive & focused on Minnesota by @nora-engstrom.bsky.social and the other, more concise & focused on California by Jim DeSimone. law.stanford.edu/wp-content/u... www.advocatemagazine.com/article/2026...

I was thrilled to be on “Strict Scrutiny” to talk about what local DAs are doing to hold federal agents accountable. In an earlier segment, Leah and Kate do a dramatic reenactment of an exchange between a grand juror and a federal prosecutor. Let’s just say you don’t want to miss it.

Egregious constitutional violations without meaningful accountability are a hallmark of this Trump administration but, of course, are nothing new. Fred Smith & I wrote about civil rights deserts in Mississippi & strategies to address them wherever they exist. harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...

Earlier this year, we found that spending on policing has skyrocketed by 40% in less than 10 years. Keep that in mind the next time someone tries to scapegoat calls to “defund the police.”

GEO Group, a private prison company, signed a contract to give ICE use of Delaney Hall and “support services” like security, maintenance, food services, etc. in exchange for over $60 mil/yr But it is the detainees—not GEO Group—who actually do that work, for free ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

Am I missing something or is this suicide for SSRN? It won't accept already published articles. And authors submitting drafts must agree to the commercial CC license, which means no outlet will publish an article posted on SSRN (because they won't have exclusivity - anyone else can publish it).

So we have to give our articles to AI for free if we want to post on SSRN?!? www.stephenbainbridge.com/p/the-social...

Breaking: The Supreme Court, Over the Dissent of the 3 Liberal Justices, Allows Alabama to Use Maps that a Lower Court Found to Be Intentionally Discriminating Against Black Voters (Now Updated with Analysis–This is a Significant and Very Bad Ruling) electionlawblog.org?p=156541

It gets a little more wild each time they say it. So if every single Black person votes one way, and every single white person votes the opposite way, every election, that's not even RELEVANT to whether voting is "racially polarized"—as long as this durable disagreement is organized into 'parties.'

After a grueling 9 months on the academic job market, I’m thrilled to announce that on July 1, I will start as an Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School! I’m so excited to bring Native American law and legal history to HLS, and I cannot wait to join the incredible faculty there!

@ij.org just put together a fun(?) little flowchart that goes through all the steps someone must take to sue when a federal official violates their rights. It shouldn't be this difficult. ij.org/issues/proje...

I read this book called "Shielded" by a prof at UCLA that talks about all the problems with holding police officers accountable and aligning their incentives with the public. Really fucking infuriating and frustrating to read, but informative. The officers don't even pay these fines. Taxpayers do.

This is terrific resource for lawyers contemplating whether and how to sue the feds - a comprehensive and clear guide to Federal Tort Claims Act claims 👇🏻👇🏻

“When you pass the bar exam, you will take a solemn oath to defend the Constitution. I’m asking all of you, are you going to take that oath seriously? If the answer is yes, you cannot be complacent. This is more than just doing pro bono work. So I ask, what are you going to do about this dilemma?”

ICE Agent Charged in Shooting of a Venezuelan Immigrant in Minnesota www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/u...

This Mother’s Day, nearly 150,000 mothers will spend the day apart from their children. 58% of all women in U.S. prisons are mothers. 80% of women in jails, including many who are incarcerated awaiting trial simply bc they can’t afford bail. Read: www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2023/03...

The latest claim that campus left-wing radicals are silencing right-wing speakers concerns a Fed Soc-hosted talk by the Homeland Security General Counsel at UCLA Law School. Unsurprisingly, the facts don't support the accusation, as UCLA Law Prof David Marcus details in a guest post on the blog. 👇

SCOTUS voting rights decision “will usher in a bleaching of the nation’s legislative bodies unlike anything this country has seen since the “Redemption” of 1873–1877 ended Reconstruction and returned white supremacists to power throughout the South“ www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

Connecticut enacts state law allowing individuals to sue govt officials, including *federal* officials, for violating U.S. Constitution. www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabills...

Vermont enacts state law allowing individuals to sue govt officials, including *federal* officials, for violating U.S. Constitution. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/28/m...

The Trump administration is closing the office responsible for investigating misconduct and abuse in the immigration detention system, per an email obtained by HuffPost

the two-year anniversary of The Originalism Trap is now one month away and I have sold 5,970 books! that smooth 6,000 mark looks so close and achievable! if you haven't gotten a copy yet or told your people to do so, please let this be a nudge 😅 🙏🏾 bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

Police shoots & kills driver. Iowa SCT: Although qualified immunity applies to federal Sec 1983 claims alleging excessive force under the 4A, Iowa's state equivalent statute does not have a QI defense for common law torts including assault and battery. www.iowacourts.gov/courtcases/2...

By gutting the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court is killing the Second Reconstruction. The first Reconstruction shows how Congress should respond. Me and Daphna Renan in the NYT on the tools we have to save democracy from a hostile Court.

I want every one of my Dem friends to read this piece. The Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act and done so much other damage. The justices want to insist that they get the last word. But don't take for granted that they do. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/02/o...

ICYMI: We recently hosted Joanna Schwartz, the Hon. Harry Pregerson Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. She spoke about "The Tenacious Power of Constitutional Torts" for the Paul M. Van Arsdell, Jr. Memorial Lecture on Litigation and the Legal Profession. ▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfyg...

My New One at Slate: Justice Alito is a Coward (and Possibly a Liar) slate.com/news-and-pol...

An absolute (justified) ethering by Rick Hasen of today's VRA decision: slate.com/news-and-pol...

My New One at Slate: “The Supreme Court’s Conservatives Just Issued the Worst Ruling in a Century; This evisceration of the Voting Rights Act requires us to take SCOTUS reform more seriously.” @slate.com slate.com/news-and-pol...

introducing a new section for my Substack: abemarquez.substack.com/p/introducin...

The former chief federal judge who leads an Illinois accountability panel called Tuesday on the Cook County state's attorney to prosecute federal agents for misconduct during Operation Midway Blitz. @kwashburn.bsky.social reports: chicago.suntimes.com/politics/202...

Vermont joins a handful of states that have passed “converse 1983” laws allowing suits against federal officers. I applaud them stepping up to create some manner of federal officer accountability—while Congress and the Supremes have retreated or stood idly by. www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2...

When people talk about self-censorship, they often focus on campus events or classroom discussions. But self-censorship of research is different and more impt. Big difference btw "I don't want to offend others" to "I don't want to speak truth to power" www.chronicle.com/article/near...

Hearing from Trumpists and their fellow travelers today, I've come to realize that if we build a huge, gilded ballroom at every elementary and secondary school in America, our schoolchildren will be so much safer from the scourge of constant gun violence.

something that broke me about this case is how much Roy Anthony Scott was trying to do The Right Thing--the reason why he called the cops in the first place was because he was scared and wanted help the cops said they were there to help, too then they killed him ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/smith...

WOW: Jodi Kantor & Adam Liptak have the memos that describe the origins of SCOTUS shadow docket - the 2016 order halting Obama’s Clean Power Plan @jodikantor.bsky.social @adamliptak.bsky.social @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

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

Dear god. Very, very serious allegations of mass civil rights violations at the State of Florida's Everglades immigration detention center (officially known as "Alligator Alcatraz").

MONTANA SUPREME COURT: “Transgender discrimination is, by its very nature, sex discrimination,” and is subject to strict scrutiny under the Montana Constitution.

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.

BLUE POWER is out on Tuesday! Still time to preorder from @basicbooksgroup.bsky.social with discount code BLUE20: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/stuar...

At the mass deportation hub in Minneapolis, where Good and Pretti were murdered, they're handing out these "challenge coins" to commemorate their work. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/staff-a...

Scoop: City of L.A. Facing Over 120 Claims For Damages Related To Anti-ICE Protests Amid Financial Crisis @lataco.bsky.social lataco.com/claims-for-d...

Our Prof. Ann Carlson's "Smog & Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up its Air" comes out TODAY and is the subject of a book talk at UCLA on Friday, April 10. legal-planet.org/2026/04/07/s...

Constitutional lawyer here. I don't think it would violate the Constitution for the VP/Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, but the intended constitutional remedy for this behavior is impeachment & removal. The fact that that remedy is politically impossible is a scandal and a crisis.