Two exceedingly interesting articles from Sai Prakash (U.Va. Law) on founding-era legal interpretation. In the first, he argues that "the Founders were not textualists," frequently elevating the "spirit" of the law above its letter in ways modern textualists resist. /1

New: Records obtained by the @aclum.bsky.social show police across the state are conducting dragnet surveillance of motorists and sharing their location information with cops in states that have banned abortion and gender affirming care, and those that work w/ICE data.aclum.org/2025/10/07/f...

"They pull a federal agency, you pull an executive order limiting federal access to city property. He sends posts on Truth Social, you send legal filings citing the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."

"Court judge Diane Goodstein... had reportedly received death threats for weeks related to her work". "[A]t least three members of her family, including her husband... and their son, have been hospitalized with serious injuries." time.com/7323442/sout...

federalizing some state supreme court justices so they can assist SCOTUS, which is clearly struggling to muster an adequate response to this situation

I’m thinking about this again on my walk to work this morning, which goes by the site of the Boston Tea Party and ends up a few blocks down from the Boston Massacre. We have delineated rights in the Constitution because those arguing about it and its passage had those rights violated.

This is jawdropping. The idea that a state about to be invaded by out-of-state soldiers that Trump is moving around the nation like chess pieces has no standing to object to the invasion!

I often tell my students that I’ve litigated nearly all the amendments but they should call me if they have a Third Amendment case so I can collect the whole set. It is supposed to be a joke. 🫠

Whether you're in Chicago or any other U.S. city, remember federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution. Know your rights if you're approached by federal forces. aclu.org/deployment_kyr

Judge observes that Trump administration is not operating in good faith.

Another big month for state supreme court oral arguments. Is there a constitutional right to record law enforcement? Can Texas seek information about PFLAG's membership? Can Michigan deny workers comp to undocumented immigrants? And much more... statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

Just spitballing here but maybe the Chief Justice of the United States should respond? Or is that too much to ask?

Tomorrow: "DHS said the raid, in which they arrested every attendee at the Phillies/ Dodgers game, resulted in the capture of 8 people with outstanding warrants"

DHS says an operation last week in which agents raided a Chicago apartment building, rappelled in from helicopters, broke down doors and detained numerous residents, resulted in the arrest of two suspected gang members. www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

To the extent I have a "teaching philosophy," it is this: www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025...

Just amazing that, as things worsen week after week, the nation’s most powerful court keeps proceeding as though the gravest threat to our democracy is district courts failing to get out of the President’s way.

it's almost like all this eating away at 𝘉𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘴 has left no real accountability for federal law enforcement.

A gift link to Chemerinsky’s NYT op-ed on the compact

One weird thing about teaching conlaw on Friday mornings is that on Friday afternoons the White House will inevitably say something that is contrary to everything that the textbook says about executive power.

so to state the obvious - leaving aside everything else, this is why the shadow docket is bad, this is why grabbing cases from the trial level is bad. fact finding matters! it's important to establish a record before you reach a decision. there's a reason that order exists, and SCt is upending it

This raid is disgusting, abominable behavior, traumatizing children and families in their homes. abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

If you see people saying we need "Bivens legislation," they mean that we need a law to give you the same right to sue federal officials as you already have to sue state officials.

Happy to be in Montana this morning for this important case.

Out of curiosity, I went to a federal website just now (hud.gov) and this is what it shows.

the postcard cited in judge young's ruling isn't just at the top, it's a framing device. the whole opinion is a letter to the postcard writer. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Young’s opinion, which rules that the Trump admin illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation, is absolutely scathing. “In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police…ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it.”

Judge Young begins the meat of his opinion by praising the officers he had on the stand testifying about what they were ordered to do. He calls them "True patriots who, in order to do their duty, have been weaponized by their highest superiors to reach foregone conclusions for most ignoble ends."

Judge Young is one of a kind.

Several federal circuit courts have recognized a constitutional right to record law enforcement performing their duties in public. The Seventh Circuit, containing Illinois, is one of them.

This is a hell of a footnote.

“In this day and age where federal constitutional rights are being eviscerated or evaporated, it’s important that state supreme courts protect people’s rights,” says the legal director of the ACLU of Hawaii.

This is precisely the kind of footnote these articles were designed to fill.

What we might refer to as a "Kavanaugh Stop"

EXCLUSIVE: The number of people charged with breaking federal drug laws dropped to the lowest level in decades this year after the Trump administration ordered enforcement agencies to focus on deporting immigrants, a @reuters.com review of court dockets found. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Whoopsie. AI hallucination in a recent fed court opinion from last week?

18 days later, Justice Kavanaugh would write: “If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

Thanks to the wisdom of the Supreme Court, all presidents can make weighty decisions on behalf of the American people — like whether to prosecute enemies or send troops into U.S. cities — without having to worry that they will be held accountable for anything ever.

The Posse Comitatus Act makes if a crime for federal military to participate in domestic law enforcement activities, absent certain exceptions that don't apply currently.

Fortunately there were no foreseeable or actual down sides of SCOTUS's holding, in Trump v. US, that the president has immunity for using the DOJ as an instrument of crime.

Kagan: The so-called irreparable harm that the Trump administration says it suffers is merely "the price of living under a Constitution that gives Congress the power to make spending decisions through the enactment of appropriations laws...a frustration any President must bear."

As the judge noted, the CJA attorneys have put many hours into this case and have not been paid since July. If there's a shutdown, that delay will last even longer. The system can't work without CJA lawyers, and many are having a hard time getting by and will have to stop taking appointments.

I keep saying the Supreme Court majority is stealing judicial power from the lower federal courts. The second paragraph of Kagan's dissent today illustrates precisely what I mean.

Another Friday. Or, as it is known in legal circles, Executive Power Day.

I think more people on both sides of the political spectrum should grapple with the very real possibility that SCOTUS is actually trying to do a good job but just… not succeeding.

I would normally be horrified about someone releasing a video to talk about being indicted but this is pretty disciplined.

The circumstances of Mr. Escobar's arrest are even worse than the brief summary above. He repeatedly tried to tell the immigration officials that he had papers while they were arresting him. In response, a federal agent said "No you don't. You are illegal," and "Shut up, bitch! You're illegal."

JUST IN: A new class action lawsuit challenges ICE's warrantless immigration arrests in Washington, D.C., which they say are occuring without probable cause and based largely on perceived ethnicity. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

My latest for @boltsmag.org: the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court continues to knock it out of the park with groundbreaking criminal procedure rulings. Here, it interprets its own state constitution's guarantee of due process to require that law enforcement record custodial interrogations.

In Trump v. Anderson & Trump v. US the Court created doctrines w/ minimal textual support, because it thought they were needed to preserve our institutions. What stops SCOTUS from doing more to preserve our democracy isn't the quality of our Constitution. It's the quality of SCOTUS's judgment.

NEW: We filed a class action lawsuit to challenge the widespread denial of bond hearings to people detained by ICE in New England. All people in the United States are entitled to due process — no matter what the Trump administration says. www.aclum.org/en/press-rel...