From @theathletic.com: It’s time to admit the uncomfortable truth: The U.S. may never win a men’s World Cup. "This sport belongs to the world. We borrow it every few years," our columnist writes. "America is not built for the beautiful game."

Vile: Mike Johnson just said GOP might try to undo birthright citizenship with legislation, which is unconstitutional. I've noticed a pattern: He and Vance are using sleazy new language to sell this as a trivial reform. The threat is very much alive. 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2127...

The Supreme Court has ruled that states can prohibit trans student athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports teams. These bans are part of an “effort that we’re seeing escalate to push trans people out of public life,” says Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.

Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion in the trans sports ban case in West Virginia contains some of the ugliest transphobic stuff I have ever seen in a legal opinion. Straight-up gleeful. Vile man. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

You knew this weeks @strictscrutiny.bsky.social was goign to be dark when @kateshaw.bsky.social was droipping f-bombs 5 minutes in.

I have been focused mostly on litigation lately, but I took a moment to reflect on two things I love: sports and queerness. chasestrangio.substack.com/p/june-is-fo...

Some pertinent reading for anyone outraged by what happened to Pete Buttigieg and his family:

With seven decisions with the *same* 6-3 lineup over the last three days, I really can't wait for all of the hot takes from the folks who keep insisting that #SCOTUS *isn't* defined by its ideological division.

It's weird the way the Democratic alleged leadership (Jeffries too) think that the party is a club with rules rather than something the voters choose. It's....undemocratic. But also didn't the voters choose these people because of their policies, not just because of Mandani?

Today was an absolute blood bath at SCOTUS for the less powerful to enforce civil rights in the federal courts. TL;dr - SCOTUS rules 6-3 that only corporations have rights that are enforceable in federal court??

The young voters who elected Mayor Mamdani have lagged way behind in early voting counts this month. If you want to do the mayor a solid and replace the status quo in Congress with new progressive energy, Election Day is tomorrow from 6a-9p. Check your poll site at vote.nyc and remind your friends.

OK, so, we don't quite know what's up here — and it appears to have to do with the judge's availability and nothing to do with the case — but ... The TRO hearing that was supposed to be 2:30p Monday in the NYU Langone (and NYC) trans care grand jury subpoena case has been postposed.

Late last night the Supreme GOP Court made it virtually impossible to prove racial discrimination in redistricting in a shadow docket case from Alabama. Just beyond awful. Read this by @rickhasen.bsky.social electionlawblog.org?p=156541

Alabama Legislature is meeting on redistricting; we are under a tornado watch, and it’s flooding in the building. These metaphors are too on the nose.

Hmmmm, who do I trust more to look out for women, Smith College or a Trump appointee currently being sued for covering up years of sexual abuse?

A banner week for Louisiana winning court rulings that hurt its own people.

The ACLU is raising alarm over a facial recognition app loaded onto the smartphones of immigration agents to identify and arrest people. "It's being used on the street in ways that are dangerous, that are totally unprecedented in this country, and that are, frankly, blatantly illegal."

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

“We are a Minneapolis 2nd grade Brownie Troop of 12 including trans and neurodiverse youth and 75% BIPOC kids. We want to go to summer camp and try horseback riding! During the current ICE occupation we need your support more than ever...” And that’s how I ordered 4 boxes of thin mints.

Ossoff: "This is a seismic event. This should have people across the country absolutely shook. This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office ... This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020."

ICE activity has not noticeably tapered off yet here and in fact this week they seem to be focused on terrorizing kids at bus stops and schools.

Congrats to Kennedy and Trump—living the dream

"Those who were violent and those who were not have equal responsibility to be nonviolent" should lead to some pretty obvious conclusions. Unless you're NYT editorial in which case, "both the perpetrators and the victims had a responsibility not to do it but never mind who did it."

Good afternoon from downtown Chicago, where despite heavy snowfall, thousands have gathered for an anti-ICE/CBP demonstration in solidarity with the Twin Cities. More are still streaming in. Lt. Illinois Gov. Juliana Stratton just addressed the crowd, and called for ICE to be abolished.

For "One First," I wrote about DOJ's unprecedented attempt to secretly strong-arm a widely respected district judge in the Cities Church protest case—and why everyone, especially other federal judges, should read Chief Judge Schiltz's two letters in response: www.stevevladeck.com/p/205-chief-...

If I hear one more big name former prosecutor attorney call for better training of fascist military forces that are killing people, I am going to yeet my phone into the sun. As I said yest, there are legal commentators who are built for this moment, and PLENTY, including those on MSM, who ARE NOT.

A magistrate judge found no probable cause to support arrest warrants for 5 people involved in the St. Paul church protest. DOJ appealed to the 8th Cir. That appeal led to this remarkable letter from the Chief Judge of the Minnesota district court… storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

One of the best organizers I know in the Twin Cities has a great line, "We can't always take away the hurt, but we can take away the alone."

Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti. "Please get the truth out about our son."

One thing that irks me: people keep calling the folks on the streets in Minneapolis protestors. They are not generally there to protest, they are there to observe and document. This is the product of organizing and mutual aid. It is telling that these acts of citizenship are seen as protest!

All I see is federal agents getting violent with residents, over and over, while Democratic leaders repeatedly tell those residents to calm down and not do anything in response. This is not sustainable.

Woman tells Minnesota Public Radio that the man killed today was helping vehicle traffic get around the area where ICE agents and observers had started to gather and "next thing I knew, they shot him." www.mprnews.org/live-updates....

The people who'll tell you today's murder victim in Minnesota shouldn't have turned up to a protest carrying a gun are the same people who said Kyle Rittenhouse was perfectly entitled to do the same thing.

To put a finer point on it: Republicans have embraced the “insurrectionist theory” of the Second Amendment—the notion that you have a constitutional right to stage an armed rebellion against the government if it becomes tyrannical. Now they’re lining up to say ICE can shoot any armed protester?

It's so cold out here, I can't take pics or film for more than a minute because my fingertips hurt so much. Just looked, it's currently negative 8. And yet, look at everyone out here, going strong, fired up, so kind to each other. Some have been singing.

I wrote about Minneapolis. nymag.com/intelligence...

The clergy just keep coming to this anti-ICE protest. Genuinely unclear where they all will go — it’s packed outside on the sidewalk already.

I’ve been live-streaming the arrests of clergy in IG. www.instagram.com/reel/DT3HWiH...

Police have arrived. Arrests seem imminent. The crowd chants “let them pray” and “Minnesota nice means prosecute ICE”

As clergy pray, arrests begin

#SCOTUS is likely to do the right thing in the Lisa Cook case. But it's worth bearing in mind that this idea that the Fed is some bespoke exception to the unitary executive theory is utterly incoherent as a matter of both law and history—and is really just proof that the UET is itself bollocks:

The justices sound pretty irritated with Solicitor General Sauer; Chief Justice Roberts even told him to stop interrupting KBJ when he kept talking over her questions. He is ... not an effective oral advocate, especially in comparison to his predecessor Elizabeth Prelogar.

Immediate punishment for speaking out against the regime.

Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project, discusses the nonprofit's partnership with queer fashion designer Willy Chavarria in its More Than a Game campaign.

Newly available videos and existing footage synchronized and assessed by The New York Times provide a millisecond-by-millisecond look at the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Watch our visual investigation.

There are places where Trump, as president, has broad freedom of action. And there are places where Trump, as president, has been able to act unilaterally because the main point of opposition, Congress (and SCOTUS), support his program. (1/?)

Becky Pepper-Jackson, and every trans child deserves the opportunity to play sports. We're proud to fight for them at the Supreme Court.

Thank you CNN for pointing out that everyone opposed to this regime has normal, pro-social links to the organizations that make up a liveable society where you can do normal shit. Next article you can talk about how the vice president, by contrast, is in nazi groupchats with minors

Every kid deserves the chance to play sports with their friends. On or off the playing field, we all have the same right to equality and dignity. Our freedom is more than a game. Learn more about our fight for trans student athletes at aclu.org/morethanagame-bpj