this is absolutely wild. where does roberts think these agencies come from?!? who invested them with authority to act? whose mandate are they designed to execute? the president is the chief EXECUTive. his job is executing the will of Congress as it spells out in its duly-passed laws!

This is so utterly fucking stupid. Basically we have a monarchy except when the king tries to fuck with the money, then the bankers get to say no. Unprincipled garbage by a bunch of robed imbeciles

Government surveillance is a greater danger than so-called surveillance capitalism (aka cookies). Government is not your privacy protector. ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Thank you to the @oif.bsky.social for the most amazing Law for Librarians symposium yesterday! It was so encouraging to be in the room with so many engaged on topics related to intellectual freedom in libraries and the right to read.

One guy talking to himself

No one assimilates less into what America is in 2026 than white men like the one below. These are the ones who won’t eat food originating in nonwhite cultures, whine if whites aren’t the leads in a film or nonwhites appear in commercials, and use terms like “assimilation” without understanding them.

There's so much tension these days, for one who tries to be evidence-based and whose default temperament is moderate, between simply stating things as you see them and holding back because calling it like it is SOUNDS INSANE.

TL;DR of the Supreme Court's 6-3 majority today: Guns and poisonous chemicals - OK! Immigration - NOT OK!

Nothing will ever count as racist to this court except affirmative action.

Supreme Court coup rolls on - consolidating dictatorial presidential power.

John Roberts' Constitution forbids any attempt to proactively ameliorate racial discrimination and racial inequality, but permits open racial discrimination as long as there is a facially neutral explanation available, even if it isn't remotely plausible. This, my friends, is "Colorblindness."

AI models are not dangerous because they can think— they cannot— but deeply worrying because poor thinkers posing as historians and legal experts can flood the field and get LLMs to spit out their distortions, provided they’re just loud enough and persistent enough.

Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts

Blanche v. Lau is devastating for green card holders. It means that if they leave the U.S. then return, a border officer can claim they committed a crime at some point, revoke their lawful status, and confiscate their green card without meaningful evidence of wrongdoing. It's really, really bad.

The Trump regime has killed at least 210 people by bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since last September. Remember: no judge or jury has found these boats were trafficking drugs. We're simply taking Trump's word for it. This is a danger to us all.

We have a deal. It’s very strong. But you don’t know it. I met it at summer camp. It goes to a different school.

Good morning. This is your daily reminder that the President has lost total control of the Iran War and thus has lost interest. He now only obsesses over his ballroom and schemes to profit off the presidency while gas and grocery prices soar.

🚨Trump is going to deport Iranian women who PROVED to an immigration court that they would be persecuted in Iran to the Central African Republic, a country so dangerous to others the U.S. recommends no American travel there. Trump is destroying this country's legacy of freedom!

White House Wants More Doctors But Its Immigration Policies Block Them www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

Pope Leo: "Every boat that arrives does not bring only migrants; it brings with it a question: what world have we built, if so many brothers must risk death to seek life?"

The US is hosting the World Cup and just turned away Africa’s top referee at the airport 3 days before kickoff because of where he was born. Omar Artan had a valid visa. He had a historic assignment. They didn’t care. Disgraceful. #USDemocracy #Pinks newrepublic.com/post/211508/...

exactly the right response

Louisiana v. Callais is a neo-Confederate ruling and easily the most anti-democratic decision of my lifetime, several times over. The people who wrote our foundational law would be horrified at how the Supreme Court has mangled it, all in service of the lie that the Constitution is colorblind.

Excellent point, Ken.

This is the destruction of federal funding for scientific research & universities as we know it. A total, comprehensive politicization of the process & an end run around Congress.

Library budgets at R1s are built on overhead from research grants. Because the Trump administration has cut the number of research grants, library budgets cannot absorb the shock. It was only a matter of time. thetech.com/2025/12/04/m...

In the end we were just his latest casino and whatnot.

A university that does not understand the value of physical libraries staffed with real librarians is a university that does not understand how knowledge is kept.

Yesterday I said DJT’s $1.8 billion to pay J6ers and other Trumpists might be the most corrupt act in US gov’t history & also one of the most dangerous. I’ve had a day to think it over. On sober consideration: it might be the most corrupt act in US gov’t history & also one of the most dangerous.

One thing about my colleagues in legal academia: If even 5 years ago you described the U.S. today--where the president conjures a lawless $1.8 billion slush fund to pay off people who did violence on his behalf--95%+ of legal academics would have scoffed that such a thing was not possible. 1/

Not enough news coverage of how the insurrectionist reparations fund is a clear violation of the 14th Amendment. We need to enforce the Constitution in its original meaning and plain text. You can't imagine away parts of the Constitution just because it is politically inconvenient.

I love a research project that takes me to the library stacks to discover treasures that probably haven’t been checked out in many, many years. Book research still brings me joy.

So you CAN get reparations you just have to be a reactionary white person who tries to overthrow the government because black votes shouldn’t count

A bedrock principle of America’s founding was religious freedom, not a national religion. Theocracy is the stuff of ISIS. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/u...

All the partisan gerrymandering was always (in part) racial gerrymandering, because the parties' politics were always (in part—but large part) about race. So when you tell Southern legislatures "you can do partisan gerrymandering, but no racial gerrymandering," they know it means they can do both.

Pretty good way to pay and incentivize foot soldiers to do your bidding, even if it crosses lines. This is basically how warlords control territory in the absence of a functioning law and order state.

this truly is the thing that makes the united states exceptional, and right wingers hate it so much they want to destroy it

This is really great to see and exactly what @arunyon.bsky.social and I wrote about; we need to keep these vital components of the legislative branch independent from executive branch interference!

This is critically important for people to realize. This is not a fantasy or some wild conspiracy theory. Connect the dots and you will see this picture emerging. Elevating private and parochial education over public, controlling the curriculum feeds into this.

My new one @slate.com: Why is John Roberts in a Rush All of a Sudden? slate.com/news-and-pol...

Calais was permission from the Supreme Court for racists to be outwardly racist again.

The DOJ is reportedly considering dropping any audits of Trump, his family, or his businesses as part of a potential settlement of his bogus lawsuit against the IRS. That’s on top of the $10 billion in damages he wants. This is corruption on steroids — and taxpayers will pay the price.

The rule appears to be that redistricting is always legal when it benefits Republicans and never legal when it benefits Democrats.

It's almost as if the conservative justices want to help the Republicans retain power through racist gerrymandering.

two things. 1. when the trump administration says that something is “illegal DEI” they are saying “you don’t deserve this” 2. the practical effect of destroying the VRA is to make it nearly futile for these americans to get relief from congress

Funding for the Library of Congress and the Capitol Police is down over 23%, when adjusted for inflation. Let’s contrast the protection afforded Congress with President Trump’s insane request for a 1 billion dollar ballroom security upgrade. I would rather for an office of legislative council.

Over at “One First,” I wrote about how the redistricting chaos we’re seeing in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia is something #SCOTUS *chose,* and how it belies both the entire purpose of the “Purcell principle” and the Court’s claim that it’s staying out of the political process:

this is the closest I've ever come to actually suggesting a "one neat trick" suggestion for anything, but I'm so serious here. the Virginia Constitution gives the legislature the power to set retirement ages for judges "REGARDLESS OF THE TERM TO WHICH ELECTED OR APPOINTED." make it 54 right now.

If the concept of "the banality of evil" were capable of writing an editorial... wapo.st/4cXJ88X

A solid blue state with a state supreme court that has the politics of a deep red state. Our dEmoCRacy on 2026.