Because housing assistance is drastically underfunded, only 1 in 4 eligible low-income households receive it. Providing it to all who qualify would cost $118 billion a year—a tiny fraction of the proposed $1.5 *trillion* defense budget for 2027. Poverty would fall 13% overall and 23% for children.

Neguse demolishes Noem (2/2)

The State of Illinois has eliminated over $1.1 billion in medical debt for our people as of this month. Combined with our partners in Cook County, we’ve delivered nearly $2 billion in relief to over a million Illinoisans in all 102 counties – with an average of $1,200 per patient.

Looking forward to reading this!

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

This is tremendous. Take the time to watch it.

The California Senate has passed SB 747, which creates a mechanism to sue federal officers in CA state court. Now the bill moves on to the Assembly. More details here: www.kcra.com/article/cali...

A small community newspaper from a rural area with traditionally conservative leanings lets them have it.

Under Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, people with felony convictions who lost their right to vote had to appeal to him in the hopes he would restore it. “It’s been so arbitrary,” says a voting rights advocate who was disenfranchised for 17 years.

This is so deeply shameful. www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

When the Supreme Court blithely licenses racial profiling in immigration stops—especially with this administration in charge—this is what you get: citizens and even police officers being asked for their papers for no other reason than their race.

Its not that the media is not covering what is happening, but it does feel like the military occupation of an American city should be treated as a national crisis.

I’m have a new piece out: “Of Guilty Property and Civil/Remedial Punishment: The Implications and Perils of ‘History’ for the Excessive Fines Clause and Beyond.” It is a deep dive into how SCOTUS misconstrued the historical use of early customs forfeitures. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This looks amazing — congrats on and thank you for your work.

Yay!!!

Survey respondents are connecting the dots between Trump's ruinous fixation on tariffs/deportations and their own dissatisfaction with economic disruption and cost increases. wapo.st/4n4W7ru

Before folks join ICE they might want to read the literature on immigration, which contradicts many of their assumptions about how immigrants affect the United States. Or they could just watch this "recruitment" video which might help: youtu.be/OjGHf7OvglM wapo.st/3VrzEJg

This firefighter arrived in the US at age 4, has been here for 19 years, was on track to legal status, and was on a crew trying to contain a major blaze (in Washington state, vs Oregon, fwiw.) h/t @joshuajfriedman.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT: *ME Constitution provides greater protection against self-incrimination than U.S. Constitution. *Any waiver of that protection must be "clear and unequivocal." *Officers must "stop to clarify" ambiguous waivers. www.courts.maine.gov/courts/sjc/l...

This is well worth a listen.

🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...

Check out this new database of tens of thousands of California police misconduct and use-of-force records. It is an amazing and unparalleled resource - congratulations to all who helped bring it to fruition.

I've been thinking a lot about the role litigation plays in the protection of constitutional rights because of, well, obvious reasons. So I wrote this article. It's critically important-now more than ever-to articulate & appreciate what suing the government can do. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Really interesting new article hot off the presses in the family law space by @kaipomatsumura.bsky.social — be sure to check it out!

The @law.ucla.edu Behind Bars Data Project is hiring a combined public records analyst and staff writer to help us collect and disseminate data on mortality and morbidity in prisons and jails. This work has become even more pressing of late. Please share and apply! jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8221

Today, Los Angeles received its first honor of three Michelin Stars. The head chef of Somni, which received three, removed his jacket to reveal a t-shirt which read “immigrants feed America.”

This is so deeply shameful.

via Benedicto.Uribe on TikTok

Excited to announce that my article on different state approaches to confession law is now published. You can find it in Northwestern Law's Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology here: jclc.law.northwestern.edu/issues/

This article is terrific—it shows the ways in which the desire to generate revenue through fines & fees can undermine efforts to reduce recidivism and how to use that to push for bipartisan (albeit incomplete) reform.

Exciting opportunity at UCLA!

a small Texas county found a way to make money off migrants: arrest them for trespassing, make them post bail to get out of jail, turn them over to ICE, collect forfeited bail money. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/u...

This is Linda Martin. A few years ago, the FBI seized her life savings: $40,200. The kicker: She was never charged with a crime—and the government couldn’t tell her why it took her money. Martin is far from the first. But she is trying to make sure she is the last. A thread.

Tomorrow's SCOTUS arguments address whether the Constitution allows church-run charter schools and whether states can refuse them. The Court may also answer a vital Indian law question:whether it will use the US's treatment of Natives as "history and tradition" to set constitutional rules elsewhere.

This report from @radleybalko.bsky.social is deeply disturbing and well worth the read: radleybalko.substack.com/p/the-courag...

Really looking forward to this.

Huge thanks to all of the law firms that signed onto a brief defending clients and the legal profession, including a few courageous large law firms like Covington and Arnold & Porter! It's hard not to be disappointed in the many large firms that are not on the list... www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/b...

Heartened to see so many of my UCLA Law colleagues join with the Harvard Law faculty and many others on this issue that is so critical to American democracy.

Rachel Rothschild, featured in this NYT article, has been targeted by the fossil fuel industry and some of the same groups who came after our Ann Carlson at UCLA and at NHTSA. Carlson shares her experience in the Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/c...

As always, a must-read from @sifill.bsky.social on Trump’s continued attack on lawyers.

Our first post is a big one...Statement from Keker, Van Nest & Peters on Trump’s Latest Executive Order “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court.”

Happy Gideon Day! Thank you to all of the public defenders in the trenches who fight every day to bend the arc of the law a little more toward justice.

Aiming at nothing less than the erasure of people of color from American history? www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Lex Porter, a WWII Ojibwe Code Talker (and my grandmother's cousin) received a congressional medal of honor in 2008 for his service to the US--a nation that had spent decades trying to drive Native languages to extinction. He and his fellow Code Talkers have been removed by the DoD as "DEI."

Tariffs have been everywhere in the headlines, but what's their real impact? UCLA Law's @kclausing.bsky.social reveals who actually pays the price and why they might be more costly than you think. youtube.com/shorts/0udrR... #Tariffs #Tax #TradePolicy

For decades, Amber Smith was told by New Mexico that she couldn’t vote due to a past conviction. The problem: She was eligible to vote all along. Her story, Bolts reported in the fall, revealed how a trail of state errors blocked people from the polls. boltsmag.org/voting-...

Maine has joined MA, MO, & CA9 in providing remedies for systemic denials of counsel! Check out the court's ruling requiring state to comply with its 6A obligation and providing habeas relief to defendants held w/o counsel: www.aclumaine.org/en/robbinsvm...

Colorado last year *required* jails to set up voting stations so people behind bars could vote — a first for any state ever. And how'd it go? Fantastic. In 2022, 231 people in CO jails voted. But in 2024, 2,300+ in CO jails voted. That's a nearly tenfold jump. boltsmag.org/jail-voting-...

New #DataforDefenders motion argues statements like "I think I want a lawyer" should be understood as clear invocations of Miranda right to counsel based on empirical research about what reasonable people understand. Also argues that officers should have a duty to clarify. www.datafordefenders.org