NEW: DOJ says the ongoing dispute over Alina Habba is one about titles, not authority. What does that mean? And why is their fallback position more frightening for the rule of law than their insistence on keeping her as Acting U.S. Attorney? Read here: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: In an email to her now-former colleagues today, veteran SDNY prosecutor Maurene Comey says she was “summarily fired” by “Main Justice” and urges that fear not “seep into the decisions of those who remain.” Read her whole email here: www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...

Democratic state AGs have filed dozens of lawsuits against the Trump admin. and are showing no signs of stopping. MSNBC's @lawofruby.bsky.social sits down with three of them to discuss their role in combating Trump 2.0 in a new episode of "Can They Do That?" WATCH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIz_...

Pete Hegseth's not the only Trump ally nor the only Trump nominee to express doubts that the executive branch should follow court orders, full stop. It's a disturbing trend, especially when the doubters are themselves federal judicial nominees. My latest for @msnbc.com: msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

TONIGHT: @lawofruby.bsky.social joins @lawrenceodonnell.msnbc.com on The #LastWord at 10pm ET.

The court battles between the Trump administration and Harvard are now so extensive and critical to Harvard that, as I just said on @msnbc.com, collectively, they remind me of this scene.

The Trump memo launching an investigation into the Biden White House’s use of the autopen allegedly to conceal his mental state is something else. Why is the White House Counsel in charge of this investigation? That is one indicator that something is awry. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

NEW: I watched today’s nomination hearing for the first of Trump’s judicial nominees, and spoiler alert: they are willing to go places unthinkable for legal conservatives even 4 years ago. My latest for MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: The first judicial nominees of Trump 2.0 get a Senate Judiciary hearing this morning starting in 2 min. Watch along with me? www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-ac...

NEW: Everyone's got a hot take on Trump's beef with the Federalist Society. Mine? Trump wants to eliminate both FedSoc and the ABA's influence over judicial nominations so he's the sole arbiter of nominees' qualifications & fitness. My latest for MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: Pam Bondi & Kash Patel are under increasing pressure to release more info about Jeffrey Epstein’s life and death. But putting aside our own curiosity, doesn’t federal law enforcement owe his victims a review of their own failure to act? My latest at MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: Are the courts holding in Trump 2.0? Well, that depends. No court can hold if its orders are flouted—and one immigration case highlights how willing the administration seems to disobey. My latest for MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: The audio of Biden's interview with Robert Hur matters less for what he said than how he said it--and underscores, like the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial, why there's often no replacement for actually hearing a witness's account. My latest for @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova has been charged criminally with smuggling goods -- e.g., frog embryos and samples thereof on slides, etc. -- into the United States on the same day the judge overseeing her habeas case questioned the government's authority to revoke her visa.

NEW: Beyond detailing the horrors she alleges she suffered at Sean Combs' hands, Cassie Ventura has dropped some other important details: the names of Combs' alleged enablers (aka co-conspirators). I break down why that matters in my latest for @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

I am struggling to understand why, when as the Deputy Attorney General acknowledged, it is not appropriate to comment on a pending criminal investigation, it is ok to disparage Newark’s mayor, who now faces charges under a federal criminal complaint, on national TV. 1/

So it’s Friday night and Rumeysa Ozturk is out on bail, Ras Baraka is in Homeland Security custody, and Stephen Miller is casually toying with suspending habeas corpus. Do I have that right?

NEW: News of the passing of retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter made me think immediately of . . . the Federalist Society. Why? Read my latest for @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

According to @washingtonpost.com, a deflated Justice Souter gave his law clerks the Robert Frost poem "The Oven Bird" on the day Bush v. Gore came down. I didn't know it, but it's lovely and worth sharing: 1/

NEW: On public reports that NY Attorney General Tish James is under federal investigation, her lawyer Abbe Lowell gave a statement to MSNBC: "These baseless and long-discredited allegations, put to rest by my April 24th letter to the Department of Justice, are suddenly back in the news . . . ." 1/

Judge James Boasberg has not ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the release and return of those non-citizens now imprisoned at CECOT. But if the discovery he has authorized through a new order backs up their lawyers' claims, it sounds like he's heading there. 1/

Trump has just nominated Joshua Divine to serve as a federal district court judge in two federal districts. There is a statute suggesting a judge's commission can cover more than one district, but as a practical matter, any legal historians know when this last happened?

OPINION by @lawofruby.bsky.social: Lisa raises the question why ex-ballerina Ksenia Karelina was released from a Russian prison, but Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova remains in ICE detention. READ MORE: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: Ksenia Karelina and Kseniia Petrova are young, Russian-born, and ran afoul of Russian authorities. But the Trump administration rescued one and has started deportation proceedings against the other. Why? My latest @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: D.C.-based law firm Perkins Coie wins its case against the Trump Administration with Judge Beryl Howell invalidating Trump's entire executive order punishing the firm. Her 102-page opinion holding the EO unconstitutional is here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: There’s hardly a major legal fight against the Trump administration that doesn’t involve the @aclu.org. So join me and the ACLU’s national legal director, Cecilia Wang, for the latest “Can They Do That?” with a focus on 3 of the biggest brewing legal clashes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BAX...

NEW: Plaintiffs fighting against Trump policies, executive orders, and firings have won roughly 100 injunctions in the first 100 days of his presidency. But is the relief all it's cracked up to be? And will it last? My latest for @maddowblog.msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

NEW: Is the Trump administration’s college crackdown legal? Find out on the latest episode of “Can They Do That?” with Columbia Law School professor @jamalgreene.bsky.social, one of the most thoughtful people I know. youtu.be/d-CWuO3KSpo?...

Even though I am not a Christian, much less a Catholic, I found Pope Francis’s generosity inspiring. As the world mourns him, this piece from the @nytimes.com captures why: www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/o...

Why is the Supreme Court granting oral argument in the birthright citizenship EO cases a big deal? Well, for one, it’s a case that came to SCOTUS on the so-called shadow docket, a loose collection of “emergency” applications that don’t go through the usual full appellate process. 1/

Context: The Trump administration is trying to use a procedural issue (the scope of the injunctions) to put the policy into effect across 99% of the country. It’s not formally asking the Court to *uphold* the executive order, but the relief it’s seeking would produce the same *practical* result.

A brand-new episode of “Can They Do That?” — focused on all things DOGE — is now up. Come for the Pirates of the Caribbean & Face Off references; stay for the legal nerd-off (spoiler: my guest Noah Rosenblum wins). youtu.be/aPM4IPCFcJM?...

It’s 11:47, and despite a deadline nearly 20 minutes ago and one already extended at its behest, the Trump administration has filed nothing to resolve Judge Xinis’s questions about their efforts to have Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the U.S.

NEW: Why have state attorneys general been behind so many — and some of the most effective — lawsuits pushing back against Trump’s policies, firings and immigration actions? Watch the newest episode of “Can They Do That?” with New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin. youtu.be/V1cwiIp3l3w

The President’s attacks on law firms are one part revenge tour, but more significantly, a bid to stop the sort of legal challenges to his policies that have largely succeeded to date before they can even get off the ground. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/b...

Not everyone at Skadden welcomed their preemptive deal with the White House. Meet now former partner Brenna Trout Frey, who refused to be complicit in the exploitation of her firm to settle scores and erode the rule of law.

As an alum of two BigLaw firms, I too am losing my mind. But there are some business dynamics here, that partially explain the difference between courage and cowardice. 1/

BREAKING: NY court blocks TX from filing a legal action against a doctor over abortion pills prescription. @lawofruby.bsky.social explains

Announcement: When a female journalist offers her Signal in order to obtain confidential information, it is not an invitation for nonsense like this. I have a partner and children and do not need more of either.

I can’t stop thinking about this: The Trump Administration invoked the state secrets privilege on the same day we learned cabinet secretaries discussed strike plans in detail by Signal and inexplicably copied a journalist.

NEW: After Paul Weiss came to a truce with Trump, he nonetheless doubled down on his war on law firms. But this isn't a swipe at millionnaire lawyers; it's another step in our slouching toward totalitarianism. Here's why: www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

And if you want to talk the future of law firms in the Trump era, or anything else, you can always find me on Signal:

Seeking: BigLaw associates, counsel, partners, etc. with thoughts on the Paul, Weiss deal and Trump’s latest salvo against firms. This former BigLaw girl is interested in how you’re experiencing it on the inside.

This morning, on air, this LA public school kid got some DC prep schools confused. While the judge overseeing the Alien Enemies Act indeed went to St. Albans School, Justice Kavanaugh did not. He (like Justice Gorsuch) is an alum of Georgetown Prep.

The world has lost a giant in former Rep. Nita Lowey. I was lucky enough to be on her staff for under 18 months in my pre-law life; she epitomized grace and grit alike. And mothering was always at the center of her public service. May her memory be a blessing. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...

Waiting for Trump to take the stage at Main Justice, where he’ll be making a speech today. And the music? You Don’t Own Me, which was the last song played before Taylor Swift opened every night of her Eras tour.

And DOJ has already filed its notice of appeal. Count on this to be the first of the presidential removal power cases to reach SCOTUS—and just as Trump’s DOJ likely wants it. 1/

News In a loss for Trump's DOJ, a federal judge issues a temporary restraining order restoring Hampton Dellinger as Special Counsel for OSC. Judge Amy Berman Jackson sets a hearing for a temporary restraining order on Feb. 26. Doc https://buff.ly/4jTCZvP

Remember when I said Trump would be looking to fire more members of multi-member commissions like the FEC or FTC? Well, according to the acting Solicitor General, a 1935 SCOTUS precedent should be overruled to clarify Trump’s authority to do just that. x.com/steve_vladec...

An interesting look at the longstanding conservative, accomplished woman widely heralded for her principles who now heads the Justice Department’s most prestigious office: SDNY. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/n...