This Court is a national shame. It practices neither constraint nor consistency. It is anti-Constitutional in its impact. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/u...

where is john roberts to tell us that this is just one of those apolitical, unpopular decisions the court has to make sometimes?

The Court can earn the power to make unpopular decisions without losing legitimacy by acting consistently and with constraint. The Roberts Court does neither.

Judicial legitimacy rests in part on the assumption it is not a partisan political actor. That’s why Coney Barrett and others are so insistent that the Court is not political - though all courts fundamentally are. But people aren’t stupid. When the Court acts as a partisan, they can see it.

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 love you. Even if I don’t know you, that’s what I like to say. Because that’s the kind of world I believe we should create.” -Jon Batiste on PBS’s Austin City Limits www.pbs.org/video/jon-ba...

Judge Biery signed the order with a photo of Liam and two bible verses: The first is "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." The second is simply "Jesus wept." Astonishing thing for a judge to do.

Entering our Too Lazy to Manufacture Consent era

He legit just pardoned the president of Honduras for drug trafficking but now Maduro is going to stand trial for “narco terrorism.” This all makes a lot of sense and definitely isn’t about oil.

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

"In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world's poorest children to sickness and death."

Trump v. US is increasingly looking like a historically catastrophic Supreme Court ruling Dred Scott, Plessy, Lochner, Korematsu-level bad except on this one there may be no lever to with which to pull back

Brian Eno on the police raiding a Quaker Meeting House.

Researchers have found there have been more protests more frequently than in 2017, along with a new emphasis on economic action.

During the 2023-24 school year: - 36% of banned books feature characters/people of color - 25% include LGBTQ+ people/characters. - 73% of all graphic/illustrated titles feature LGBTQ+ representation, people or characters of color, or discuss race or racism pen.org/report/cover... #bannedbooks

Section 504 would not even exist if not for the brave efforts of disability rights activists. I think there’s a lesson there. We need to fight with every lever of power we have as regular folks to protect these guarantees. They should be expanded, not dusmantled.

Not only is this re-segregation by euphemism, it’s also an outright attack on 1A freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

DEIA in education is one expression of legal mandates in civil rights legislation. The dystopian effort to brand this as the core of all things wrong with the world should be rejected and called what it is: anti-civil rights. These are efforts to re-segregate society by race, gender, and disability.

Utter failure to grasp what we are facing www.nytimes.com/2025/02/15/u... 1. People lack the framework to recognize an attempt to overthrow the constitutional order 2. The lack of elites *acting* like point 1 is true makes it illegible. Without Ds behaving as if it's a crisis, it's not a crisis.

The ABA supports the rule of law. Read full message: www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...

They are seeking to criminalize integration efforts across public life. We must be clear eyed and direct about what’s happening here. We have not witnessed this blatant of a comprehensive governmental attack on integration since the Civil Rights Movement. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Heartbreaking 💔

We are in the midst of an authoritarian takeover and it is unfolding at a very rapid pace.

One thing about me is that I will fight Nazis until I’m six feet in the ground.

“Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.” T.Snyder.

“I had a feeling that there were people watching what was happening and wondering, Was anyone going to say anything?” Bishop Mariann Budde explained. “Was anyone going to say anything about the turn the country’s taking?” So, she took a breath, and spoke.

BREAKING: In a new executive order sent out by the White House, Donald Trump has revoked the federal contractor nondiscrimination executive order, EO 11246, that was signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and has protected employees of businesses seeking federal contracts from discrimination ever since.

there is nothing remotely resembling a federal question in this case and Trump still got four votes

I told you what I thought abt #January6 when it happened 4 yrs ago, and nothing since then has changed my view. Storming the Capitol was about maintaining white power in the US. You can read it here: fivethirtyeight.com/features/sto... An interview with @democracynow.org: youtu.be/JcYVVpKG7nk?...

"The violent riot in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitutional process." Message to the Joint Force from Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and the rest of the Joint Chiefs. January 12, 2021.

New, from me: Four years ago we lived through a pivot point. History could have gone one way, but went another. Why was Jan. 6 not the end of Trump? At key moments, key Republicans who knew better protected or resurrected Trump. 🧵 open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

NEW: What might the new administration do to censor higher ed in 2025? Jeffrey Adam Sachs and I break it down for @penamerica.bsky.social. Lots of scary stuff coming -- and more reason than ever for higher ed to defend and promote itself effectively, we argue at the end. pen.org/for-federal-...

"With illiberal forces ascendant across the West, countermajoritarian protections of individual liberties and the democratic process remain as vital as ever. But outside of these critical realms, a good case can be made for unfettering majorities."

With my @nytimes.com colleagues showing the start drop in Black students at Harvard’s law school, I’m re-upping my cover story on the colorblindness trap and how colleges should create special programs based on lineage to slavery and not race. www.nytimes.com/2024/03/13/m...

Before the war, 56,000 people in Gaza were registered as living with disabilities, according to the Palestinian Authority. Experts believe the conflict between Israel and Hamas has disabled thousands more. “Gaza wasn’t built for people like me before the war, but now it isn’t built at all for us.”

New paper published @ajpseditor.bsky.social Showing that reduced access to public services fuelled far right support in 🇮🇹 Existing work on far right highlights globalization & migration grievances, what about people’s experiences with the state? We use 🇮🇹 reform to find out shorturl.at/zQ8bJ

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions declared in front of the National Assembly that they will go on an indefinite general strike until President Yoon Suk Yeol resigns. Talk about union power.

UW grad students: Apply for the UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons Community Fellowship Workshop Series. Paid fellowship for grad students underrepresented in the field of open scholarship. Deadline 12/2/24. Learn more: lib.uw.edu/openscholars...

I did this in my freshman dorm as a prank and nobody gave me millions of dollars.

More than 10,000 New Zealanders on Friday joined a 660-mile protest march heading toward Parliament in Wellington, amid growing opposition to proposed legislation that would strip Maori people of special rights accorded to them under an 1840 treaty.