"A kind of semantic inflation has meant that I love pizza has become a reasonable expression. This use of the word would’ve confused Shakespeare, along with the pizza."

Please read this long but important thread from an immigration defense attorney. If this administration is permitted to scale its current abuse, neglect, and inhumane treatment of immigrants to the breadth and scope for which they’re currently planning, we’ll all be witness to mass atrocities.

To everyone thanking me, much appreciated but not why I posted! Pls support your local immigrant defense group like: The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota: www.ilcm.org/donate/ Or my hometown LUCE: www.lucemass.org/donate Or Google your city/state & “immigrant defense” to find your local heroes!

Hi attorneys! Want to not be able to get to sleep tonight? Here's Judge Rakoff (probably the single most well-respected judge in SDNY) saying that the use of AI destroys both attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege.

This will likely get lost in the shuffle of the submission season, so highlighting it for people to put on their calendars now: app.scholasticahq.com/conversation... Montana Symposium! Criminal Procedure, with room for state con law! June 30 deadline!

As someone who has written a lot about the Commerce Clause in criminal law (arguing that the federal government should have less power in criminal law), if I were Don Lemon's lawyer, I wouldn't want hang my hopes on the CC. The modern doctrine is inconsistently applied through a partisan lens.

I had a great time taking part in this conversation on originalism in the lower courts with my excellent colleagues, @orinkerr.bsky.social and Jud Campbell. Thanks to Short Circuit for putting together such a terrific event.

I really enjoyed this podcast conversation about originalism in the lower courts, with experts on originalism @jgienapp.bsky.social and Jud Campbell. Thanks to the Short Circuit crowd for having us.

So this was a pretty interesting conversation. (I can say that because I wasn't there. It was an Anya B production.)

A combination of litigation and political action helped force Trump to back down in Minnesota. This result adds to already extensive evidence that exploiting synergy between the two can be effective strategy for curbing abuses of government power. See linked post for more: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

Very excited I'll be in Austin, TX on Wed., March 4 to help celebrate America's 250th. Will be speaking on "1776, Judicial Review, & Becoming 'Top Nation'". If you're in the area I hope you can make it! fedsoc.org/events/1776-...

At the time I "was sharply critical of the then-ruling Democrats’ omnibus For the People Act (H.R. 1) for some parallel reasons: the faulty factual assumptions on which it was based, its gathering of centralized power in Washington, and its heaping of impossible burdens on local administrators." /6

More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...

If this gets to SCOTUS my prediction is all the "liberals" will find the Act constitutional under the CC. Might be 5 votes, tho, among the rest? Alito least likely. Unfortunately CC is one area where "liberals" give no quarter even if the case is left-coded. See Raich (med marijuana).

Great piece from Brennan's @kasiawolfkot.bsky.social about the important revival of litigation in state courts and under state constitutions.

Great chart from Prof Helmholz on no. of cases that invoke "natural law" over decades. He also addresses how the denominator of cases fluctuates not just b/c of more litigation but b/c of publishing changes (especially rise of West) & unpub. opinions. 1/ journals.law.harvard.edu/jlpp/wp-cont...

In the lead up to @ij.org's & Scalia Law's Law & Liberty Center’s conference on “The Other Declarations of 1776” on April 10 we’re running blog posts on the various declarations of rights of 1776. Today the granddaddy of them all, Virginia’s! 1/ ij.org/cje-post/vir...

But it should be obvious (is it not obvious these days?) that the accompanying responsibility that comes with that is that we, the public historians, have a responsibility to *actually read* the texts we are claiming the privilege to interpret for others

the statute that Jeanine Pirro reportedly tried to indict congressional Dems under, 18 USC 2387, was originally passed as part of the 1947 Smith Act, a notorious law used to clamp down on free speech during the Red Scare

...In this case, the city of Whitefish was continuing to include an Architectural Review Committee in its development approval process. A strongly worded letter from the Frontier Institute has resulted in the committee being disbanded 💪

"OH that PI motion? Yeah I'll grt around to it next week. Or maybe the week after. I mean, we're good because it's a First Amendment case, right?"

I've found many libertarians have misjudged the last decade because their usual ideological tools were insufficient in analyzing the current moment. They also needed to understand narcissistic sociopathy. Without that things don't make any sense.

I feel like I'm losing my goddamnned mind. This op-ed was written by Kathrine Mangu-Ward. Katherine is editor-in-chief of Reason magazine. Reason fired @shikhadalmia.bsky.social for being too anti-Trump.

Things have not improved. The government won't comply with court orders. Agents are behaving more aggressively. Schools are offering remote learning into April. The tapering of national media coverage has emboldened DHS. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0... www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

My favorite part of this episode was Dan and I obliquely reminisced at using Napster (while doing a bit of pleading the Fifth) and I said something like "Sophia, you're probably too young to remember Napster?" And she said "I think I remember my dad using it." Oh boy.

Holy founding era constitutionalism, this looks AMAZING. Anyone into originalism, state constitutions, or just the early Republic generally should check it out!

‘One officer told me that I "had no chance of returning to Minnesota" and that "the best thing for (me] is self-deportation." … She offered me $2600 to self-deport. I refused. I wanted to talk to my attorney. They didn't tell me the judge had already ordered my release and return to Minnesota.’

#WITAOD IS SO BACK, BABY!!!

It's very clear in reading the transcript that DOJ has no process or procedure for handling this volume of cases. Communication with DHS has clearly broken down. At one point, the Judge invokes unitary executive theory to explain why poor communication between the agencies isn't an excuse.

The idea that an administrative document signed by some not-neutral law enforcement agent could even remotely be considered a "warrant" for 4th Amendment purposes just because someone wrote the word "warrant" on the top is just exceptionally silly.

My New One at Slate: “I Wrote a Book in Support of Nationalizing Elections. Trump Changed My Mind.” electionlawblog.org?p=154119

Reminder: We're still hiring legal associates at @cato.org for the upcoming Term, to start in August or September. You'll work with our legal team to draft amicus briefs in the most interesting and important cases of the year. Link to application in reply.

It's the latest episode of Unpublished Opinions, our roundtable (or is it a triangle?) podcast. With Kirby Thomas West, Josh Windham & John Wrench! ij.org/podcasts/unp...

The number of detainees getting put on ICE flights at MSP has been relatively low the last few days. I believe this is not on account of ICE pulling back - they still outnumber local police in many towns - but on account of vulnerable people staying home, observer pressure, and lawyer organization.

Converse 1983s FTW!

Want to know more about proposed Minnesota legislation that would make it easier to sue federal agents for federal constitutional violations? I spoke with @kare11.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-L5...

Negative reactions to Noam Chomsky’s friendly correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein are warranted, and if this is prompting anyone to reexamine, maybe consider the merits of Chomsky’s arguments that the Khmer Rouge’s mass murder wasn’t their fault, or that Russia’s aggressive war isn’t Russia’s fault.

Judge Reyes’s conclusion: “There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table. … Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, [Noem] pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).”

There's so much about so many states in here. Check it out!

Yeah, all those Somalis who work at my local Walmart. Totally, the staff parking lot is full of Mercedes.

3d Cir. holds that habeas corpus petitions challenging immigration detention are "civil actions," so prevailing noncitizens may be entitled to attorneys' fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act. Gonna be a loooooooooot of these. www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/242...

This phraseology reminds me of history writing in the manner of "it is said by some that, as a baby, Oliver Cromwell was kidnapped by a monkey."

If you're a lawyer currently thinking of applying for a DOJ job you need to: 1: Write down your "red lines." Such as, assist with cases to seize ballot boxes or mail-in ballots, incarcerate peaceful protestors, etc. 2: Don't apply. A job where you need to do Step 1 is a bad job.

Important new piece in @theunpopulist.net "Congress and our courts have made it virtually impossible for Americans to hold federal officials and agencies legally responsible for harms they cause through negligence or abuse of power."

some Public Service Journalism: I took that Minnesota judge's pdf list of court orders that ICE violated, found all the cases on CourtListener and linked to the dockets reason.com/2026/01/30/j...

Our Latest Newsletter: Modest markups, shotgun pleadings, and the Kansas Two-Step ij.org/sc_newslette...

I laughed. I was about to say that if it went the other way the middle box would say "the state must seize the means of production" but that's pretty much what the Administration's policy is anyway.

NEW: Kelo may be settled, but courts continue to grapple w/ limits on eminent domain. Drawing on debates from 19th century state conventions, @maureenebrady.com shows how necessity historically structured private-use takings, offering a framework for thinking about public use today & going forward.

In the run up to our conference on April 10, I'll be blogging about some of the declarations of rights that the new states adopted in 1776. First, an overall backgrounder on what these declarations were and where they came from. #1776AndAllThat. ij.org/cje-post/the...

The full schedule for “The Other Declarations of 1776” is up! Sponsored by @ij.org & @georgemasonu.bsky.social 's Liberty & Law Center it explores the Declarations of Rights new states proclaimed in that fateful year. It’s on April 10, 2026 in Arlington, VA. Register today! #1776AndAllThat 1/