Of course, he knew what he was doing. He didn't have the backbone to do what he knew was right.

Trump promised MAGA Epstein transparency and not to start wars. It’s staggering how far he’ll go in breaking the second promise to avoid keeping the first.

Remember when Secretary of State Cyrus Vance felt compelled to resign from the Carter Administration because he disagreed with the decision to try invading Iran to recapture the U.S. and Canadian hostages? Any word on DNI Gabbard's plans?

I'm old enough to remember when presidents had to at least pretend that unlawful military adventurism was necessary to defend democracy or relieve a humanitarian crisis.

My July Washington Monthly essay on the bipartisan embrace of presidential unilateralism in deploying military force explains how political practice has eviscerated the Framers' emphasis on interbranch deliberation as a constitutional precondition for warmaking. washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/03/t...

Maduro may have enough cash to buy a pardon.

Too often forgotten that, with regard to federal office, the pre-Bill of Rights Constitution provided: "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." The NY Const. also prohibits any test other than the oath to hold public office.

A modest proposal for how the justices can do the right thing and be true to themselves as they decide the fate of independent agencies. From @petermshane.bsky.social: washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/02/s...

Not that I'm expecting it, but I explain in Washington Monthly why upholding Congress's power to create independent multimember agencies could coexist with the Roberts Court's other holdings on POTUS removal power and would enhance the Court's legitimacy. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/02/s...

Next Dem POTUS to-do list: 1. Abolish ICE 2. Redesign East Wing and de-brothel-ize White House decor 3. So much else

Congress’s first appropriation to run the government in 1789 was $639,000 — between $23-24 million in current dollars. Lest those resources be used to support tyranny, the people had erected a complex system of checks and balances. A 2025 billionaire controls over 42 times those resources unchecked.

SCOTUS has let stand the bar to Trump's use of the National Guard for law enforcement in Illinois. As I mentioned recently in Washington Monthly, the Court has an easier time policing Trump's overreading of statutes than his simply disobeying or ignoring them. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Who knew this was a cognitive test??

Searching for Trump yields 0 items. Searching for Clinton: 109.

DOJ Epstein Library says: "Due to technical limitations and the format of certain materials (e.g., handwritten text), portions of these documents may not be electronically searchable or may produce unreliable search results." Searches for "Trump" or "Wexner" yield 0 results. www.justice.gov/epstein

Would Caroline Kennedy or some sponsor of the Center have standing to challenge this abomination? Trump Administration Live Updates: Kennedy Center Adds Trump’s Name to Facade www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...

I’ve seen originalist analyses less persuasive than this one!

Perhaps fitting this season of year-end wrap-ups, I published an essay in Washington Monthly trying to sum up how the Roberts Court throughout 2025 has been enabling Trump’s assault on the constitutionally intended distribution of powers among Congress, the executive, and the courts.

I will be so proud to call him my mayor.

Not to be outdone in the font wars, the Department of Education will be switching to Nineteenth Century Schoolbook.

Right-wing GOPers will unite with Democrats when their interests converge. Indiana GOP legislators are aware how Democrats are overperforming in solidly pro-Trump districts and don't want to gerrymander their "safe" districts into somewhat less safe districts. Good for them, but not Mandela-level.

1/3 In its untiring effort to kill the U.S. tourism industry, HHS has formally asked OMB to approve to expanding the info collected when tourists from visa-waiver countries, a/k/a, allies, seek tourist visas for the U.S. Public comment is urgent. public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-22461.pdf

"It really doesn't make sense" to have Trump be president either, but there we are.

All the more nuts because, textually, Scalia is obviously wrong. Article II explicitly gives the Senate a share in executive appointment and treaty-making power. So the vesting clause cannot possibly encompass all executive power. There was much to be said at yesterday’s argument that just wasn’t.

1/2 There is no stupider objection to upholding agency independence than it will open the floodgates to converting cabinet level departments to independent agencies. No such flood rose in the last 90 years! If we're looking for trickles, the functions of the independent Civil Aeronautics Board were

Better than a unanimous, philosophically diverse court with some of the heaviest-weight Justices ever, and packaged in a “history” of the Founding that is willfully fictitious.

The Internet just fed me this joke: A Jewish teen is at his uncle's funeral. As the rabbi is about to begin a eulogy, the teen walks up and asks, "Rabbi, do you know the wi-fi password for the cemetery?" Aghast, the Rabbi shouts: "SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR THE DEAD!" The teen replies: "So, all caps?"

Calling the lethal strike on men clinging to the capsized remains of a boat a “war crime” implicitly accepts the framing that the U.S. is legitimately engaged in war. We are not. It was murder.

I could not have put Marty's two-part thread any more eloquently or politely.

2 of the 3 judges on the unanimous panel holding Alina Habba's appointment as Acting U.S. Attorney unlawful, including the writing judge, were George W. Bush appointees. (The third was a Biden appointee.) The opinion is a careful exercise in statutory interpretation. cases.justia.com/federal/appe...

But we get to vote against him at the next election . . . oh, wait . . . #MythOfElectoralAccountability

She is incompetent and a disgrace.

We asked participants at our national convention what made them come, from all over Israel, to our 10th anniversary event in Haifa. This is what they said. We’re humbled by our amazing community of Jews and Palestinians who believe in this fight and believe in the work we do together.

I'm pretty sure "Contract with America" did matter in 1994.

I once had a client via my law school’s post-conviction legal clinic who asked me to get him “a forthwith.” When I asked for specifics, he told me a buddy of his got out of Danbury with a judicial order that he be released “forthwith.” “I want one of those,” he said. Sane level of understanding.

Equally to the point, Richard Nixon on a bad day and under the influence of alcohol, was not as deranged as this.

Let’s face it. Hegseth won’t give up until he has inadvertently made Kelly the leading presidential contender for 2028.

“Without prejudice” inconsequential in context because statute of limitations has passed for the acts with which Comey was charged.

FBI Director releasing info without authority on eve of 2016 Election say what?

Now that post-breakfast brain has kicked in, I remember that, although The Harder They Come had a long run during my Harvard undergrad years, the movie that ran *forever* was King of Hearts with Alan Bates.

This is a sad note on which to start the week. Central Square Theater ran The Harder They Come for years, as I recall, during my time in college. His voice is unforgettable. Jimmy Cliff, Reggae Icon, Dies at 81 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/a...

Now, do “Imagine.”

These seditious words are from the '24 DoD Manual for Courts-Martial: "It is a defense to any offense that the accused was acting pursuant to orders unless the accused knew the orders to be unlawful or a person of ordinary sense and understanding would have known the orders to be unlawful." (II-136)

AFAIK, no law bars the release of files relevant to open law enforcement investigation. It’s a norm DOJ has usually tried to follow but not always, e.g., the release of EPA investigation files that led to the firing of Rita Lavelle. Another norm is not shielding exec branch wrongdoing from Congress.

If Trump now supports a House vote to release all Epstein files, why not just release them?

Siri, what’s a four-word euphemism for ‘corruption?’”

I am mystified by the fierceness of Trump's behavior on the Epstein files. So many Trump misdeeds have produced only yawns or disbelief from his base. Sic-cing Pam Bondi on Democrats will only keep the story in the news. Stonewalling just reinforces speculation there is something terrible to hide.

And we thought the snowflakes were in DC

If you think it was a Dem victory to prevent a Trump evisceration of the Government Accountability Office, a reminder: The 15-year term of the current head of GAO, the Comptroller General, ends in December. Not holding my breath for any Trump-appointed successor to hold Trump to account.

When Hakeem Jeffries was asked if Mamdani would be the face of the party, the competent answer would have been, "The Democratic Party has and will continue to have many 'faces.' Our vision for the future will be pluralist, accommodating different policy agendas in different parts of the country."