We found that Jeff Bezos paid *zero* taxes in 2007 and 2011. In fact, he reported making so little in 2011 that he even claimed and received a $4,000 tax credit for his children. This is how he did it (published 2021):

If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff. Democracy dies in oligarchy.

We gotta come up with a better system than “everything rests on whether these twelve billionnaires are nice”

If there was any question journalism is a public service and journalists are committed public servants, see Exhibit A--the news continues--and WaPo journos are still working to highlight our shared humanity--even after their ranks were callously and cravenly decimated today. www.washingtonpost.com

Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people on Earth, just eliminated hundreds of union jobs at the Washington Post. Solidarity with @postguild.bsky.social. Join them tomorrow, February 5 at 12:00 p.m. for a rally to #SaveThePost.

The Washington Post became famous for exposing corruption—and is now being destroyed by it.

Sick over this. It happens to impact my family. But truly it impacts all of us. The loss of all of these journalists at one still-powerful organization is a huge blow we cannot afford.

U.S. Failed to Alert Judge to Press Law in Application to Search Reporter’s Home The Justice Dept. did not address a 1980 law that generally bars warrants for reporting material when it sought to seize a Washington Post reporter’s devices, an unsealed filing shows. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...

With journalists being arrested for doing journalism, now is the moment to understand why we need a free press and to defend it. Yes, the press supports democracy. But it is also fundamental to the rule of law. Ty to the editors at Cardozo L. Rev! cardozolawreview.com/beyond-democ...

I can't recommend this highly enough. The work @brianwolfman.bsky.social and his Clinic do is second-to-none, and it's a great opportunity to collaborate with very fine, extremely wise (and very hard-working) attorneys.

In case you haven't seen it, here's the grand jury indictment of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort and others. d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2026/...

The co-author of "How Democracies Die" thinks Trump is going further in his crackdown on the press than strongmen around the world. Via @status.news (Almost everyone who studies these things is shocked not by what he's doing, but by how fast its moving.)

Sending my gratitude to the students, teachers, and journalists ensuring that this story is told. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...

Self-Portrait on the Border Line between Mexico and the United States, 1932, Frida Kahlo #womensart

Journalists: if you've been arrested or are facing an imminent threat of arrest, you can call @rcfp.org's hotline 24/7 at 1-800-336-4243. Write it on your arm in sharpie!

A characteristically thoughtful take by my colleague @dannywt.bsky.social on how the uninitiated might explore generative AI.

Re-reading Abrams v. United States for the gazillionth time to prep for class tomorrow and I had overlooked this before, or forgotten it: perhaps the most famous free speech opinion ever, the birth of the "marketplace of ideas" metaphor was... written about non-citizens.

THREAD: Last year, ProPublica started receiving tips from an unusual kind of source: flight attendants. They said they'd worked on deportation flights for ICE, and they could tell us what it was really like on board. 1/

“I live with that we didn’t struggle enough.” A lesson from a Russian journalist-in-exile Read this and more in our monthly newsletter by the Tracker’s Managing Editor @kamccudden.bsky.social.

Want to know why the Trump admin's efforts to exclude the AP from the WH press pool violates central 1A principles not only as of today but as of 1791? Then check out this brief, I wrote with @knightcolumbia.org and 11 other 1A scholars. Spoiler: bc it violates CORE DEMOCRATIC VALUES

Proud to be a signatory on this brief in support of the AP. Thanks to @genevievelakier.bsky.social and @knightcolumbia.org for all of their work.

The news is hideous, but I'm more grateful than ever for what's left of the free press & journalists reporting on the onslaught of inhumane dictates from politicians & their cronies. Amplify & $$support those outlets where you are getting info. They really are a bulwark for democracy & rule of law.

Just want to amplify. This work couldn’t be more important right now. And what a great place to do it.

There's a lot of work to do. We're hiring another Legal Fellow to start ASAP. Please send the best people our way. @knightcolumbia.org knightcolumbia.org/page/legal-f...

It's a busy time, and so we're hiring another legal fellow to start right away. I hope you'll consider joining us. knightcolumbia.org/page/legal-f...

INTERNSHIP ALERT: We're hiring for our Summer 2025 Research & Communications Internship. Seeking undergraduates to join us in the defense of the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age. Deadline: 3/30, 11:59 pm ET. Details & application instructions: knightcolumbia.org/page/summer-...

I regularly tell people that I have the best job there is. Want to try it out? Georgetown Law is looking for a visitor to teach Legal Practice this coming academic year (2025-26). More info here: lnkd.in/e3qNxFMh. Applications are due March 24. Happy to answer questions.

Knight Institute Says Threats to Deport Student Protesters Pose “Existential Threat” to Universities Statement from @jameeljaffer.bsky.social below and at link. knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...

With his permission, I'm sharing Dean Treanor's response to Ed Martin's letter:

A visual guide to spring flowers in East Asia. Clockwise from top right, in Japanese. I added English + Korean and Chinese Mandarin readings below 梅 plum (ume/maehwa/mei) 杏 apricot (anzu/salgu/xing) 李 plum (sumomo/jadu/li) 桃 peach (momo/boksung-a/tao) 櫻 cherry (sakura/beotkkeot/ying) 🎨 mojacookie

One would expect to hear from the publisher of the Times on this. And the Washington Post. And NPR. And all the rest.

Today’s news—Trump White House taking control of which journalists can cover the leader, a big step toward a Kremlin like press pool of handpicked media.

UPDATE: Following a wave of criticism from press freedom advocates, a Mississippi city dropped its libel lawsuit against The Clarksdale Press Register. The case had resulted in a judge ordering the paper to remove an editorial chiding city leaders. [via @apnews.com]

Earlier today, @knightcolumbia.org joined with @earthjustice.bsky.social to sue the USDA for unlawfully taking down webpages related to climate change. See the complaint here: knightcolumbia.org/cases/northe...

NEW: Meta decided to stop working with U.S. fact-checkers at the same time as it’s revamping a program to pay bonuses to creators with high engagement numbers, potentially pouring accelerant on the kind of false posts the company once policed.

This is disgraceful. Judge Bates, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, is a widely respected member of the judiciary. He and other judges deserve so much better.

People experiencing pregnancy loss in states with abortion bans told us they wished they had known what to expect and how to advocate for themselves. We created this guide for anyone who finds themselves in the same position.

AP could have been cowardly and rolled over for Trump. “We had to comply or we’d lose [funding/access/privileges]” like so many orgs are doing. It would have been easy for them to say “gulf of America” But it never stops there. They got the memo. Good job AP.

Watching what is happening at the LAT is heartbreaking and maddening. If there was ever any doubt, billionaires cannot be the solution to the press's economic crisis.

News: The Justice Department did not comply with internal policies restricting the agency's use of subpoenas and other tools to seize journalists’ records, an investigation by its inspector general found.

Dean Chemerinsky is correct. The TikTok decision has terrible implications for free speech... in part bc it suggests courts are not going to be reliable guardians of even basic free speech principles www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Despite the dark nature of the topic, I enjoyed talking to @anandwrites.bsky.social's The.Ink for this Q&A about the future of the press under a second Trump administration. the.ink/p/media-thre...

A December work schedule. "Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand." (I find its aspirations touching, given what we know of the actual contour of Henry Miller’s lived days) #everynightapoem #ofsorts

People are often surprised when I tell them this: both Twitter and Facebook/insta/threads are now specifically engineered to downgrade, hide, suppress real journalism. If this platform is different, that's a huge change

Extraordinary letter from my former professor, Archibald Cox.

ICYMI, here's my segment with @velshi.bsky.social about the First Amendment, the radical promise of free speech, and my new book www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/w...

Even being in the room for some of the conversation that informed this report was a huge honor. Excellent work on this @jschrinerbriggs.bsky.social.

New from Alexa Chew: The Fraternity of Legal Style. www.alwd.org/lcr-archives... Given the prevalence of women in the legal writing academy, you might have thought that women were well represented (or maybe just not as terribly underrepresented) as legal writing experts. You'd be wrong. 1/