Find something you love the way Archie loves a bully stick

You probably saw videos of a nighttime raid in Chicago. Agents rappelling from a helicopter, bursting down doors, questioning brown-skinned immigrants. We investigated -- and found little evidence to support the government’s claims about Tren de Aragua. www.propublica.org/article/chic...

Thread

My new one @slate.com: The Supreme Court Just Took a Scary Voting Case That Has Trump Salivating. He Might Be Disappointed. slate.com/news-and-pol...

The piece I’ve been waiting to read

What a joy to find that the geeat Sharon Begley had written an advace Watson obit. Her genius shines from beyond the grave in this lively, smart and unsparing piece. www.statnews.com/2025/11/07/j... via @statnews.com

“Within days of her arrival at a Texas prison camp in early August, Ghislaine Maxwell gushed in emails to her friends and family over the cleanliness and safety of her new surroundings… Maxwell was moved days after meeting with Deputy AG Todd Blanche in July.” www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

😍

Thank you to @jessicahorton.bsky.social and the dozens of clerks who helped me report this story. Couldn’t have done it without you.

Just left the latest hearing in Jim Comey's criminal case. It did not go well for DOJ The magistrate judge scolded them for an "indict first, investigate second" posture and ordered them to turn over reams of material — including all grand jury info — to Comey's team Details TK

Jury selection about to be underway in DC sandwich guy case, which judge says is the simplest in “the history of the world.” www.npr.org/2025/11/03/n...

Judge sentences former Jan. 6 defendant for hoax threat near Obama's home www.npr.org/2025/10/30/g...

Few amicus briefs move the needle. Kudos to @martylederman.bsky.social for being the exception. And in such an important case.

That’s what I’m talking about

NEW: In Rahimi, the Supreme Court said the 2nd Am lets govt disarm those found to be a credible threat, but left open whether other kinds of restraining orders permit disarmament under fed law. Yesterday, the 9th Cir said yes they do, at least on the facts here. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

As expected, DOJ moves to quash a subpoena for Todd Blanche to testify at Kilmar Abrego Garcia's vindictive prosecution hearing. In the conclusion, Nashville's top federal prosecutor Robert E. McGuire says he'll be taking the stand. Doc storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Tweedys

You want to read? Well I’ll show you.

BREAKING: A Ninth Circuit judge has sua sponte — on their own — already called for a vote on whether there should be an en banc rehearing (which means all active judges will vote on whether the matter should be reheard). Briefing is called for on that question, due by mid-week.

Federal judge in Chicago demands testimony on whether ICE immediately violated her order 🔽

JUST IN: Judge tosses libel suit 2 IRS agents filed against attorney Abbe Lowell over claims the agents illegally leaked confidential information about Hunter Biden tax probe. Judge Richard Leon (GWBush) says the statements were legal arguments. Doc: ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Party person

I was at Judge Bove and Mascott's debut argument this morning, where they sat on opposite ends of the dais. Bove didn't ask any questions but Mascott dove right in and pressed lawyers about conducting a history and tradition analysis over New Jersey gun/magazine restrictions.

People targeted by the Justice Department face steep costs, even if they win in court one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5574...

Oh how I adored Diane Keaton. Such an original and so bold in her choices. May she rest in peace.

A WGN-TV video editor and producer was roughly detained by two Border Patrol agents on Friday morning during a highly visible rush hour enforcement action in Lincoln Square.

Letitia James, who prosecuted Trump, indicted for alleged bank fraud www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

You wanted to sleep in? Well the joke’s on you, human.

“A more robust and effective damages regime obviously would not prevent unconstitutional conduct by government officers. But it sure would be an easy way to reduce its frequency—and it would also be a remarkably easy statute to write.” Me in today’s bonus issue of “One First”:

Many congratulations to @npr.org’s Anas Baba on this wonderful, hugely deserved recognition of his “steadfast and factual coverage of the war in Gaza [that] is making a singular contribution to public understanding of the conflict at great personal risk.” www.academyofdiplomacy.org/news/press-r...

The judge who granted this restraining order was appointed to the bench by Trump.

Wants to go out and eat street trash

Shutdown update: DOJ requests to delay/extend deadlines in court fights over Trump administration policies and actions have been hitting the docket all day -- a few are opposed, incl. in Kilmer Abrego Garcia's civil suit fighting deportation www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

We're asking the 11th Circuit to compel Judge Aileen Cannon to rule on a motion @knightcolumbia.org filed over 6 months ago seeking the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith's report about Trump’s mishandling of classified information at Mar-a-Lago. knightcolumbia.org/documents/uj...

Mood

Fed's Lisa Cook seems to have picked up a new superstar conservative lawyer since her case got to the Supreme Court:

Jack Smith breaks his silence: “Political opponents, critics, perceived enemies are targeted for investigation or arrest to silence them, and the prosecutors instead of investigating…cases, they're left to figure out a basis for charges after the fact.”

Former special counsel Jack Smith warns that rule of law is 'under attack' www.npr.org/2025/09/25/n...

JUST IN: Judge Reyes has *denied* the legal effort by fired inspectors general to reclaim their jobs. Trump may have broken the law by firing them, she says, but she has no authority to reinstate them — and Trump could remove them again in 30 days anyway. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

This sign wasn’t on my bingo card.

Cover the Justice Department, come home, get bitten by the puppy. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Justice Department unease grows as Trump's threats get more blunt www.npr.org/2025/09/22/n...

J. Kagan dissent: "Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars.Still more, it should not be used,as it also has been,to transfer government authority from Congress to the President, and thus to reshape the Nation’s separation of powers."

there is a point here i want to amplify. the free speech defenders of the mainstream seem to have no awareness that actual free speech is often more fractious and destabilizing than civil and respectful. a society where speech is genuinely free isn’t the deferential space they want it to be.

Cute alert

NEW: "I loved him." Bob Woodward remembers Robert Redford www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/b...

BREAKING: Two of the terrorism-related counts charged against Luigi Mangione are "legally insufficient," but the others stand, a Manhattan judge rules. Judge Carro announced his ruling at the start of the hearing. Full ruling www.nycourts.gov/legacypdfs/p...

This week has been a year. Here’s Archie in full puppy mode.

""These are people who are at the top of their field," Dehghani-Tafti said. "These are people who care about public service. Our whole job as prosecutors is to do justice and to do it without fear or favor.."

DOJ’s self-inflicted losses are the Arlington DA’s office’s gains. Heck yes. On the other hand, biglaw being too scared to hire people fired by Trump’s DOJ is shameful.