Help an innocent man rebuild his life: www.gofundme.com/f/help-an-in...

The shadow docket is how this Supreme Court steals judicial power from the rest of the federal courts. I’ve been banging this lonely drum for years now. One day people will realize this is true and important.

It's telling that the entire premise of the shadow docket is that lower courts are incompetent. Not wrong, not the normal judges-can-disagree stuff. SCOTUS is certain the Appellate and District courts are all so truly incompetent that they cannot properly decide injunctions, forcing SCOTUS to act.🙄

Obvious point: If you’re a real “institutionalist” you need to be ready to reform —sometimes to radically reform—failing or corrupt institutions. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

it is, among other things, incredibly striking to see that roberts was so solicitous of the burden the clean power plan might put on fossil fuel executives, when, a decade later, he is indifferent to the way trump’s moves have thrown hundreds of thousands of lives into turmoil.

We have a serious problem with appellate courts not having district courts' backs on things like fact-intensive injunctions. The Trump administration literally lied about the need for ballroom construction, and the appeals court is saying we like to be lied to.

This NY Times piece offers interesting look into the birth of the shadow docket. It reinforces my sense that the liberal justices are going to be viewed by history as disastrous mediocrities.

Another data point in “originalism is a fraud.” So much for the law is the law we can’t think about the impact. They rail against “results oriented judging” in public but when their corporate clients make requests they know exactly what to do. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

A small, bitter man

Extravagant, flamboyant corruption.

Disbarring Eastman is *under*reach. He should be in prison.

Someone who used every tool at his disposal to overthrow our democratically elected government is most emphatically not a "good man," and most emphatically does deserve to have his career destroyed.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty: "Are we concerned as to whether there would be federal blowback? Not a concern of ours. Our role is to hold people accountable if they violate the laws of Minnesota. We feel strongly that this ICE agent committed 2nd degree assault."

If the actual criticism of Vladeck boils down to the fact that he hasn’t embraced an idea that’s very far outside our legal tradition, one that to me sounds intriguing but hare-brained as described here, then I think it’s less a criticism of Vladeck than a clever way to get attention for the idea.

A nationwide warrant has been issued in the first criminal charges against an ICE agent for on-duty actions during the enforcement surge in Minnesota.

“I adamantly reject any effort to normalize a process whereby the Supreme Court actively superintends matters that are pending in the lower courts. There is no such thing as an interim docket,’ she said.”

🧵

“When prosecuting cases, my colleagues and I treated harsh prison sentences as common sense. We believed people who committed serious crimes would remain dangerous for decades. … Long sentences felt not only justified, but necessary. We were wrong.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/o...

Books are cool.

Trump's last 10 judicial nominees are named Justin, Tony, Tony, Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Rob, John, Mike, Ben, and Matt.

The article notes, albeit not prominently, that Trump-appointed Judges Rao and Walker constituted the split panel’s majority, and ACLU already has declared its intention to seek en banc rehearing. <gift link> www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04...

Hungarians showing how to win big in an unfair election: organize AND protest AND vote AND demand profound change.

On a more serious note, this does show the necessity of a big-tent single-issue pro-democracy coalition. Autocrats lose when anti-authoritarianism is the opposition-uniting priority, and win when they can play divide and conquer on lesser issues.

Really looking forward to reading this, I just ordered it. Her previous book, Prisoners of Politics, is excellent. The universe of books with “mass incarceration” in the title or subtitle is fairly exclusive, and it includes both of Professor Barkow’s.

Another possibly-maybe tea leaf is that Alito isn’t scheduled to speak at next month’s Third Circuit conference, which he normally has. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/u...

When moving into a new office, how many file boxes full of books can one bring and still be regarded as altogether mentally sound? Definitely at least 7, right?

Trials.

It’s good to be back.

This is the lead in a news story in a major American newspaper: “President Trump threatened to wipe out the entirety of Iranian civilization if Tehran doesn’t cede to his demands by 8 p.m. Tuesday.” www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

That second paragraph’s topic sentence takes really quite a lot longer to get to the sentence’s subject than is considered optimal.

Congratulations, friends. You’d be a better Attorney General of the United States than at least 1 of the finalists. All of you. Many of you, than all 3. You bigshots you.

What does it look like when the government violates court orders in 300 separate immigration habeas cases? @katherinepomps.bsky.social and @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org announce a new database which tracks government non-compliance with court orders around the country.

It's already impossible to get a judicial nomination from Trump unless you think January 6 was okay, and deny that he lost the 2020 election. Birthright citizenship will be his next litmus test, and there are plenty of conservative lawyers who can pass it. ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...

Raise a glass

The tone is mild, but the substance is alarming. “But the main source of stress on Ms. Bondi appears to be Mr. Trump himself. He has relentlessly pressured Ms. Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, to go after targets of his choosing.” “Ms. Bondi and Mr. Blanche have gotten the president’s message.”

Mahmoud Kahlil asks Judge Emil Bove to recuse from considering his motion for rehearing en banc. Cites his high-level positions at DOJ at initiation of his detention & reported targeting of Columbia protesters. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Raging Trump showed up at the court to watch most of his arguments in this case fall flat before the conservative justices. As @stevevladeck.bsky.social tells me, this underscores "how likely he is to lose it." newrepublic.com/article/2084...

Sauer arguing birthright citizenship would be legacy-staining like John W. Davis arguing Brown v. Board, except Davis had a legacy to stain.

Trump popping by to menace the Republican justices is a degradation they brought upon themselves. Richly deserved.

In all this, I continue to be shocked, daily, at how unserious our political opposition leadership has behaved in the face of an actual attempted fascist takeover of the United States

Look, I realize nobody gives a flip anymore, and yet: imagine if Obama

Albert Podrasky, Chief Justice Roberts’ grandfather, born in the U.S. to parents who were not citizens, was an American citizen. Why not the U.S.-born child today of a migrant from Africa? Or El Salvador? Or Honduras?

Hopefully the Third Circuit reverses.

While I agree, I would have said the same about presidential immunity.

In an administration that posts Nazi iconography online and is full of people with ties to white supremacist groups, what could possibly go wrong? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/u...

Insane. Under Bondi, the DOJ declined cases at a historic rate - dropping investigations into terrorism, white collar crime, union corruption, drugs, and more. All to focus on immigration enforcement. www.propublica.org/article/trum...

BREAKING: Judge Richard Leon enjoins Trump ballroom construction in suit by National Trust for Historic Preservations. Order stayed for 14 days to allow for appeal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

💀

I don’t relish this. But, if law profs try to sell the Supreme Court a historical fantasy and change a constitutional rule for 340 million people, which if adopted, destroys the entire constitutional order. Honesty must yield to niceties. We have a higher calling. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

It was announced today that this year’s Third Circuit conference will have Chief Justice Roberts as a featured speaker. I don’t know if it’s his first-ever CA3 conference, but he has not been to any since I started attending them in 2014. web.cvent.com/event/335665...