WOW. 19 people, all who were imprisoned and mistreated in a foreign prison at the direct command of the United States, are brave enough to say “We are innocent, and we will endure more time imprisoned to prove that.” I can only admire the enormous courage such a move takes.

Once again, the founders foresaw Trump perfectly, what they failed to foresee was this supine Congress.

Strongly recommend this excellent piece. It actually understates the US failure: Brazil and S. Korea aren’t outliers. Quite the opposite. Since 2010, 31 democracies have convicted or banned leaders from office. Accountability is the democratic norm. America is the sole outlier.

Any copy editor worth their hourly rate would’ve stopped them from using a word that begins with Ep-.

Be alarmed

How to understand war with Iran? We must get away from propaganda. Facts suggest two interpretive frameworks: a foreign war as a mechanism to destroy democracy at home; and a foreign war as an element of personal corruption by the president of the United States. snyder.substack.com/p/why-attack...

The judges in WV have seen enough. They say that if the ICE continues detaining people in ways they have unanimously deemed illegal they will start issuing civil fines and contempt findings — including against state officials who help them carry it out. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

A purpose as narrow and self-indulgent as any for which American men and women have ever been ordered to fight and die for. Obscene.

The transformation into shit of the pardons process.

Old enough to remember when civil appellate filed competent stuff

Everything is terrible, yes, but at least we have a new season of Drive to Survive.

The pettiest part of me feels that at least this would be what John G. Roberts Jr. deserves.

Yesterday, NJ District Judge Zahid Quraishi issued a blistering opinion calling out ICE and DOJ for ignoring the hundreds of court ruling against mandatory detentions of immigrants residing in the U.S. "It ends today," he wrote. It didn't. Five new release petitions were filed in NJ today.

JUST IN: A federal judge says the Trump administration has been “terrorizing” refugees — violating the promise America made to them when they fled persecution at home — by locking them up illegally. He blocked the policy for those in MN storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The Republican Party, from nominating McCain and Romney to here, in under 20 years.

I want Democratic candidates for office to understand just how much voters do not like the Supreme Court, and are dying to elect representatives who are actually committed to doing something about it

🚨BREAKING: Democracy Docket has obtained a draft of the executive order being circulated with the White House that would allow Trump to take unprecedented control over voting. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Strongmen, like Trump, live in constant fear of being held accountable — which is why all of us should be concerned about what they might do to the upcoming midterms. The best thing we can all do is pay attention, call them out for what they’re doing, & turn out in huge numbers in November.

He thought he was emailing Alito

“They can just say that! We cannot govern with them because they’re not trustworthy. Give us a president who doesn't lie all the fucking time and we can talk about electoral reforms-but not until then.”

Start at 8 minutes, and be heartened. We will outlast the bastards.

I'm not a lawyer I adore him

Judge Luttig is one of the most interesting people to watch talk and answer questions. He's mastered the art of thinking before responding during the interview. The pauses are weird at first, but his masterful responses wash that away quickly. His speeches are no less impressive

worth a watch (and potentially sharing the YT link with conservative friends & colleagues...)

There is no person alive today who I admire more than I admire Judge Luttig. I wish everyone would watch this video of his recent remarks accepting honorary NY bar membership. "The danger from within has arrived my friends, and America's time of testing has come." www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDK...

HulkSmash.gif

🚨 Republican Attorneys General sued Vanguard—in reality the world’s biggest holder of coal equity—for supposedly conspiring to drive the coal industry out of business And RAGA won. Vanguard has signed an agreement that “blocks [it] from supporting efforts to fight climate change.” WTAF

Nearly half the lawyers at the U.S. Attorney's Office have left since President Trump’s return, leading to dismissed criminal cases, stalled fraud prosecutions and a rare contempt citation against a Justice Department attorney.

Interesting indeed. For courts people, the remarkable thing here is a CA11 ruling that state law means X, then on remand the district court certifying to the state court whether the state law means X. If I were 1 of the circuit judges, my clerks would have been researching “sua sponte mandamus.”

I do think we’ve got a responsibility to really sit with the truth that some Trump administration things we’re horrified by were Obama administration things too, and we just didn’t listen.

I’m admittedly biased, but I found this amicus brief compelling. “If birthright citizenship was constrained by tests of political loyalty or a parent’s domicile, World War II would have been the moment for that rule to assert itself.”

The Reichstag Fire, only stupider and biweekly

There are millions of people who have that stomach. We just need to get them into public office.

One can admire the terrific briefs being filed in the birthright citizenship case while still feeling glum that taking out this stinking trash is where they have to spend their energy today.

The Washington Post's description of the bodycam video of his arrest last year, and the translation of Mr. Shah Alam's comments, is gutting. Remember, he was entirely blind in one eye and could only see three feet in the other, and he spoke virtually no English. He spent a year in jail for this.

Again, the ongoing claim that the 2026/8 elections are going to be just fine, because the authoritarians don't have the power to stop the actual voting, overlooks all the ways that competitive authoritarian regimes put their thumbs on the scales of democracy short of outright cancelling elections.

Wowza

BREAKING: Judge Patrick Schiltz in Minnesota threatens criminal contempt, if necessary, to address ICE noncompliance in an order calling out U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen's response to Schiltz's earlier questions about noncompliance with court orders. "ICE will comply with this Court's orders."

This is what you do if you really want misconduct to end. Everyone responsible must file a response explaining why they should not be held in contempt.

Interesting that DOJ failed to mention in their press release that they are already 0 for 3 in these cases. These states were wise to protect their citizens’ sensitive info from a fed’l gov’t that has already had to admit they’ve already released this data. www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...

Judge Bryan issues order to show cause why respondents should not be held in civil or *criminal* contempt for violating orders in these 28 cases. Wants US Atty Dan Rosen before him person on Tuesday.

The lawmakers’ questions come after a ProPublica investigation found that corrections officers are leaving BOP jobs in large numbers for better-paying roles at ICE: www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

AP: “McDonald didn’t directly answer when pressed during his confirmation hearing Wednesday whether he would follow an order from the president to open a certain investigation.”

You gotta be kidding me

Posted about this late last night but wanted to follow up a little. I found Miller's comments thoughtful, and I agreed with many of them. He talking, from a conservative's perspective, about how to build broad-enough-to-win opposition to Trump. The transcript is fairly long, but I recommend it.

New in PN: Trump targets SCOTUS for stochastic terror "The rule seems to be that Trump can direct his violent minions at absolutely anyone & there will be no consequences and barely any comment. The grim takeaway is that even justices, w/ all their power & prestige, no longer live in a democracy."

You could do a lot worse than deciding that the legal people you’re going to give your attention to now are the ones who supported court expansion by January 2021. Whether you’re a person on bluesky, or the next Democratic president.

Fact check: true

It’s hard to describe what it feels like when your government seems to want nothing more than to make your community suffer in every way possible. www.startribune.com/white-house-...

Wow. +7 majority support for court expansion—an eye popping +37 among Dems—is the BEFORE number, with little to no national messaging.