I think the thing that I fight for, more than this or that law is unconstitutional, is redemption. Not for me, or not just. The principle. We need it as surely as we need air. Otherwise our punishments become little more than poison that diminish us all.

Making allegedly questionable constitutional arguments is like, my whole job

It was the honor of a lifetime to represent these nine families at oral argument at the Eighth Circuit this week. My only hope is that I was enough of a lawyer to give their stories and the issues the consideration they deserve. www.courthousenews.com/families-sco...

Had an argument that, I’m not sure how it went, and was feeling negative about how I thought I did, when someone reminded me that the fact that I got to do it, by itself, is something to be grateful for. Indeed. Indeed it is.

I wonder if, in my lifetime, DOJ will ever recover the integrity that it once held, to whatever extent it held it.

Just . . . outstanding.

love preparing for an oral argument with the threat of *checks notes* nuclear warfare and genocide just being...right there

I still think it's funny, in a laugh or else you'll cry sense, that he bought twitter at least in part to make everyone look at his dog shit tweets. How can you be the world's richest person and still have this insatiable need for approval

"i have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working." The Astronauts truly representing us all up there.

news to the enslaved!

hard to believe I've been a lawyer for three years as of today. Also, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of my LexisNexis contract. Two good things.

its kind of like, Bluesky is as toxic as twitter, just runs in the other direction is all

The New Mexico Meta verdict is noteworthy, in part, because Meta has had a longstanding policy of permanently banning anyone ever convicted of a sex offense from its platforms. It highlights that policies like that are essentially window dressing that create a false sense of security.

Dad Suggests Arriving At Airport 14 Hours Early https://theonion.com/dad-suggests-arriving-at-airport-14-hours-early-1819573933/

This is a good segment, and validates, I think, one of my longstanding criticisms of chat room stings: that police deprioritize (and are often hostile to) actual victims of abuse and investigating those cases, because catfishing and ensnaring hypothetical criminals is easier, good PR, and lucrative

I think the risk in telling people that the only thing they can be is the worst thing that they have done is that they believe you.

now its fun to have an circuit court oral argument scheduled because I can be all like, this isn't my first rodeo I just hope no one asks if it's my second rodeo

Crab Just Happy To Be In Bucket With All His Friends https://theonion.com/crab-just-happy-to-be-in-bucket-with-all-his-friends/

my dad was born in Iran and yesterday he said he was an Iranian sleepy cell

WBAL in Baltimore helping viewers understand the difference between watches and warnings

in case you've never seen it, this is Roger Ebert on The Mummy

U.S. incarceration fact that I wish more progressive-types knew:

From hearing to vision-related disabilities, incarcerated people have much higher rates of disability compared to the general US adult population. #WorldHearingDay

It does seem a little concerning that in the media and on Bluesky the cancellation of anyone Epstein-adjacent is being justified on the basis of people being friendly to him after his conviction, that nothing more is needed to push people into resigning.

I'd say we're better than this, but

For at least the last 45 or so years, the United States has been in basically the same sex panic, with slightly different hats.

Love the glimpse into the beautiful mind that notated this used copy of Moby Dick I got

A significant portion of the homeless population is on the registry, due at least in part to laws making wide swaths of housing illegal. It's also illegal to be homeless (i.e., Grants Pass) and under this bill it's a felony for ppl on the registry to go to a shelter www.counton2.com/news/rep-nan...

it's really disheartening to see criminal justice reform advocates champion measures that are cloaked in the language of redemption and rehabilitation, but the fine print carves out wide swaths of people from relief for purely political reasons either you believe what you're saying, or you don't

This one hits hard.

My dad's 81 today. A year ago about this time he was in the hospital with sepsis but he was too stubborn to die. I'm thankful I got to have another year with him, just a little longer. He told me recently how proud he is of me, but I couldn't have done any of it without him. Happy birthday old man.

2026 basically

RIP Robert Duvall

Reason why I require an extension on my brief: I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future

Don't give anything an Emmy until it's as good as this.

“Mr. Beast Salesforce ad” - they’re calling it the least appealing phrase ever assembled in any language. They finally did it

The Epstein stuff does seem to have dampened the far-right's ability to launch an inquisitorial sex panic, something that seemed a real threat during Trump I

There's something about Epstein getting banned from Xbox because of NY's E-STOP law and it having absolutely no effect on his predation whatsoever because we're still operating on a pre 1990s understanding of how sexual violence happens

This is incredibly weak stuff. Recalling of course that they couldn't get a magistrate to sign off on an arrest warrant, so they managed to go for an indictment instead.

Well, it’s a privilege to get my ass kicked.

I'm, honestly, really surprised.

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

Kyle Rittenhouse was on Infowars the day after the Renee Good shooting saying he had heard on X that Renee was putting cigarettes out on her kids. This wasn't true. This is a government by and for school shooters and their apologists.

BREAKING: DOJ opposes release of Volume II of Jack Smith’s report in a Trump campaign speech-style filing unlike anything one should see from the Justice Department. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Reading the Court's MVRA opinion and...pretty much all of this is true about sex offense registries as well.

I’m 38 which means sometimes cops are younger than I am which is fucking lunacy; I’m not getting scolded by someone who doesn’t know what a floppy disk is

My hot take is one battle after another was just okay.

It’s weird to me that we don’t even know how many people are on sex offense registries in the United States because the government stopped collecting that data in 2019 or so. But it was close to a million when they stopped.

I wrote up some long thoughts about 2025's Predators substack.com/@gpadraic/no...