The FBI's raid of a Washington Post reporter's home comes amid a broader pattern of attacks on the media, including lawsuits, funding cuts, and increasing media and technology consolidation.

Inbox: New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an amicus brief today in support the NYT lawsuit against the Pentagon over press access

Leavitt: “Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?” Reporter: “Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably.” Leavitt: “So you're a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion…You are not a reporter…You shouldn't even be sitting in that seat.”

The import of this ruling: Foreign citizens in the United States—including green card holders—can be arrested for political speech and imprisoned for months or even years before being given a meaningful opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of their arrest and imprisonment.

I wrote about Iran's protests for @theatlantic.com: how AI manipulation and the suspicion of it is being weaponised to dismiss real footage of protests. This piece draws on work from my stellar team at WITNESS and years of studying information controls in Iran and beyond.

California to investigate Elon Musk's Grok over sexualized images

Yes, immigration agents not only took Arnoldo's phone, the 10th grader had to use Find My Phone to locate it — in a vending machine for used electronics, close to an ICE detention center. Read the full story here: www.propublica.org/article/vide...

DHS Releases Watchlist Of Mothers Driving Cars https://theonion.com/dhs-releases-watchlist-of-mothers-driving-cars/

For those attending AALS, I'll be moderating a panel on "Lawfare, Leverage, & Freedom of the Press" at 9:30 am Friday with some fantastic speakers - @randersenjones.bsky.social, Ashley Heilprin, @katiefallow.bsky.social, & @seth-stern.bsky.social. Looking forward to an excellent discussion!

There’s an argument that this is unconstitutional under Wooley v. Maynard (1977), in which SCOTUS held that New Hampshire couldn’t forbid someone from covering up the state’s motto on his license plate. The motto, ironically, was “Live Free or Die.”

Department of Interior says if you put a sticker over Trump's face on your national park entrance pass, the pass will be invalidated. Meanwhile Trump's decision to put his face on the passes is being challenged in court

With all that is going on in the world, it might be easy to overlook that the D.C. Circuit appears to have changed its Special Panel (aka Motions Panel) so that it's no longer in place for a month. I think this change is both really important and really good. (A quick courts 🧵 . . . )

Big Law isn’t just sitting out the fight against DOJ lawsuits. They have virtually disappeared from the fight for voting rights and free and fair elections altogether. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/big-...

The US State Department is now going to be deporting people and/or revoking visas over Benz, Taibbi, and Shellenberger’s “censorship industrial complex” hoax. Let that sink in. This is what the Twitter Files pretext was actually about. Water boys for authoritarians. www.state.gov/releases/off...

BREAKING: Judge James Boasberg rules for those deported under the Alien Enemies Act on March 15 — certifying a class, finding the U.S. maintained constructive custody over them at CECOT, finding they were not given due process, and ordering return or that such process be given by Jan. 5, 2026.

A reminder that Bari Weiss was hired to do exactly this: strangle news coverage that is critical of Donald Trump and MAGA. Here she's got the gall to suggest that a journalist with 30 years of hard news experience made some basic reporting mistakes. Come on. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

Oh I see. First-person video interviews are not newsworthy because their stories of torture and abuse have already been reported by the Times - what’s newsworthy is getting more hateful spin from Stephen Miller.

💰Trump’s wealth increased by about $2.5B since his reelection, to $6.9B 💰 Eric’s increased 10x, to $400M. 💰 Don Jr.’s 6x, to $300M. 💰 Barron, a college sophomore, is worth $150M.

CBS really Bari'd the story huh.

My colleagues @katiefallow.bsky.social & Jake Carr on the Trump admin's heavyhanded efforts to control the White House and Pentagon press corps. riponsociety.org/article/jame...

Trump consolidating his influence over TikTok, a platform used by 170m Americans. If you doubt that this outcome serves American democracy or security, take it up with SCOTUS. www.axios.com/2025/12/18/t...

(2/2) President Kennedy proudly stood for justice, peace, equality, dignity, diversity, and compassion for those who suffer. President Trump stands in opposition to these values, and his name should not be placed alongside President Kennedy's.

A bribe masquerading as a movie.

🚨 THE FINAL EIGHT 🚨 We’ve made it to the quarter finals — only two days away from crowning a winner for Worst Person in Tech 2025. Don’t miss your chance to vote! 🗳️ Cast your ballot: twsu.forms.app/wpit2025-qf

Student journalism is journalism. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/15/m...

this is not behavior becoming of a FIFA Peace Prize recipient.

NEW: This year, @pressfreedomtracker.us documented 32 arrests, detention of journalists in the U.S. - Nearly 90% of the incidents occurred while journalists were covering demonstrations. - They all also centered around a single issue: immigration. Read full report by @stephaniesugars.bsky.social⬇️

Excellent op-ed on the Supreme Court's terrible decision in the TikTok case.

From “shining city on a hill” to “pariah Putin apologist checking your social media history at the door.”

Requiring temporary visitors to surrender five years of social media to the U.S. sends the message that the American commitment to free speech is pretense. This simply is not the behavior of a country confident in its freedoms. It's a threat to free speech around the world and must be opposed.

How can scientists make a difference when democratic norms, institutions, & rights are under threat? Weds @ 12:30 ET join me, Jon Penney, Sarah Brayne, & @katygb.bsky.social for a @knightcolumbia.org panel on science, the courts, & chilling effects. WE NEED YOU 🫵🏽 knightcolumbia.org/events/the-s...

2025 was one of the most difficult years for press freedom in the U.S. Journalists faced escalating harassment, censorship, legal threats, and violence — and FPF was there every step of the way to do something about it. Read what we accomplished in 2025.

Every legal story now is either Ancient Circuit Judge Delivers Crystal Clear 100 Page Rebuke To Trumpist Overreach or In Unsigned Shadow Docket Decision, 6-3 Majority Declares Trump Can Hunt People For Sport

Next Wednesday 12/10, 12:30 ET: Join our @knightcolumbia.org webinar to hear @natematias.bsky.social @penney.bsky.social @sarahbrayne.bsky.social talk about using social science to study chilling effects, and how courts use this kind of evidence: knightcolumbia.org/events/the-s...

This regressive move will literally kill people. It's making kids' liver cancer great again. And it's a sign of more harm to come. CDC panel recommends delaying birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine www.statnews.com/2025/12/05/c... via @statnews.com

In the case of the Babson College freshman detained at BOS on her way home to TX for Thxgiving, the govt's own timeline, as laid out by a judge, shows she was removed to Honduras, where she hasn't lived since she was 7, more than 17 hrs AFTER a court order barring her deportation had been issued.

A 6-year-old boy is missing after ICE arrested him and his dad in NYC last week and shipped them off to separate facilities. www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/i... @thecity.nyc @gwynnefitz.bsky.social

Just when you thought that Elon Musk couldn't get any more contemptible. Most years his $14B "charitable" foundation doesn't even give away the legal minimum and most of what it gives goes to an elementary school near his company town. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/u...

Nayra Guzmán was 15 days post C-section — going to see her baby in the NICU — when she was taken to Broadview and held in custody for about 34 hours. She slept on a bench and barely got food. She couldn't pump. Her story is a rare window into the growing detention of pregnant & postpartum people.

I thought I was having a stroke when I saw this. But, nope, it’s real www.bergdorfgoodman.com/p/marc-jacob...

BREAKING: 11th Cir. upholds $1M penalty on Trump & Habba for frivolous suit v. Hillary Clinton, Comey, DNC, etc. over Russia claims. 'Trump & his attorneys committed sanctionable conduct,' per Judge W. Pryor (GWB) w/Brasher (Trump) Kidd (Biden) Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW data I've received: Just 5% of people detained by ICE since October 1 have had violent criminal convictions, 3/4 had no criminal convictions at all. Most "criminals" had immigration, traffic, and vice offenses. Not the "worst of the worst"...

NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rutgerbregman.com's speech. It called Trump "the most openly corrupt president in US history." BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2036...

Florida’s DOGE team has asked state universities to turn over data on every undergraduate course offered at the 12 schools, including the syllabus and names of faculty members who are instructing it in the next two academic years.

Jamal Khashoggi's widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi: "Try as much as you can to save democracy and freedom of the press and speech in America. Do not be a copy of a Middle East dictatorship. We look to you as a role model of Western civilization—please maintain it."

It says something about the partisan capture of the DOJ that I was surprised to see that the DOJ is actually looking into possible wrongdoing by Trump's favored officials.

"potentially divisive"

This is a huge threat to free speech and democracy.

Trump allied billionaire (and new owned of CBS) Larry Ellison is also trying to buy Warner Brothers and CNN, and has held discussions at the White House about firing CNN journalists the President doesn't like