"Somewhere in America, a little girl is hiding in an attic, writing about ICE" hyperallergic.com/artists-stre...

Here's something I wrote: on how Spitzer tried to sell driver's licenses for undocumented people -- and the weird fact that the law never prohibited them to begin with. nycpolicyforum.substack.com/p/when-not-t...

Texas A&M actually tells a philosophy professor he may not teach Plato.

Oh yes, everyone remembers all those times the Evening News did in-depth segments about the social-science research on the topic they were covering.

The trailer for Steven Spielberg's new alien-arrival movie looks interesting, but also looks like it, ahem, shares a lot of themes with the beautiful Moroccan movie "Animalia," which I can't recommend highly enough. Every frame is stunning. tubitv.com/movies/10003...

Another great book: "Expelling the Poor" by Hidetaka Hirota. Extremely useful history of state and local exclusions and deportations in early America, and how they led to the federalization of exclusion and deportation in the late 19th century.

Reason-giving is a tax on fascism, because fascism 1) requires speed and 2) is an assault on reason

Abraham Lincoln, 1855. www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...

New from me: Kash Patel is engaged in purges, removal of real accountability, and impunity for loyalists at the FBI. Researchers told me that these are the exact patterns that create abusive national security organizations under authoritarianism. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-fb...

NEW: I wrote for @statecourtreport.org about the important role *state* law plays in immigration enforcement, and some ongoing litigation in WI, NY, and CA that will shape the relationship between ICE and the states and localities in which it operates. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

On this Trans Day of Remembrance, we remember the bright and courageous trans people whose lives were stolen by hatred. Their absence is felt across our city. We will honor them by building a New York where every trans person can live safely, fully and freely.

Appellate judges at oral argument:

Is it bad if a sitting federal judge was (allegedly) part of a conspiracy to commit murder? It seems bad ....

hyphenating phrasal adjectives

Lisa Moore: "like the medieval monks and nuns who buried precious manuscripts to hide them from the kings who burned their abbeys, we will preserve this knowledge and progress for another time in the future."

I suppose I'll make these a chain. Another great book: "The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams," by Jonathan Ned Katz." Bio of a queer activist in the 1920s, with heartbreaking excerpts from her deportation proceedings, and the sweetly beautiful text of her short book "Lesbian Love."

What's a book by a transfemme author that you've NEVER seen anyone discuss? And I do mean never. Nobody. I want the books that you're convinced you are the only person who's ever read it.

I'm delighted to report that the scifi writer James Blish (whose game I was not familiar with) pluralized "footnote" as "feetnote."

Brilliant book: Camille Walsh, "Schools, Segregation, and Taxpayer Citizenship, 1869-1973." Fantastic exploration of the history of rhetoric about "citizens who pay taxes" and its role in protecting white supremacy. Will change the way you hear arguments about what government owes "the taxpayers."

Brilliant book: "Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics" by Kim Phillips-Fein. How the mid-70s crisis let financial elites use their status as debt-holders to force NYC to end social services. Explains a lot about inequality in today's NYC and austerity everywhere.

I just saw a message in my spam filter whose subject line ended with "I want employed clothed attorneys!" and I feel like someone should try aiming a little higher

I can

Highly recommended: Linda Bosniak's "The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership." Probably if you're interested in citizenship you've already read this, but if not: no matter how you think about citizenship, the first two chapters will likely make you think differently.

It's 2025 and Microsoft Windows still can't change the name of a file while it's open

Highly recommended: "On Community" by ‪@caseyplett.com‬. Works both as an essay, carrying you through thoughts and experiences, and as a work of political philosophy that should be important to people studying things like membership, citizenship, and, obviously, community.

Here's my new post on how CIS, the federal agency, has ousted the League of Women Voters and other nonprofit civic groups from their longstanding role in offering voter registration to new Americans at naturalization ceremonies.

Highly recommended: "The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship," ed. Shachar, Bauböck, Bloemraad, and Vink. Amazing job of covering a huge number of perspectives in concise, accessible articles. An excellent place to start.

I’m happy to have played a small part in renaming DC’s Swann St after William Dorsey Swann, a former slave, arguably 1st drag queen, & early fighter for queer liberation. Check out new plaque @ Swann St & New Hampshire. Read Channing Joseph’s history of Swann: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

If you cannot go to the bathroom at work, you cannot go to work. If you cannot go to the bathroom at school, you cannot go to school. This effectively bans transgender people from a broad swath of public life in the UK

Places to get killed in Fargo, North Dakota, a thread. #1: The Hotel Graver. "If you're staying there, your situation can't get any graver!" (A favorite joke of Fargo wits.)

Genuinely confused about "passenger attendants." That's like flight attendants, right? How is ChatGPT supposed to do that job?

Has anyone ever said "My rights are a distraction?" It's always someone else's rights, right?

What this means is that every time I use a bathroom I'm braced for a confrontation, even when 98% of the time it never happens. And I'm pretty sure every other marginally gender-noncomforming person will tell you the same story. It's gotten worse in the last few years than when I was in college.

It is 2025 and you are the former mayor of San Francisco. If you think the "trans issue" is "so novel," possibly some alien species has abducted you and wiped your brain?

Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O’Rourke Tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York www.timeout.com/newyork/news...

As I suspect all of #AppellateSky can attest, talking to a mirror is in fact one of the most important ways to prepare for an argument or presentation. It helps get your thoughts ready!

. @michaelgkagan.bsky.social : "This bill adds so much money to ICE that it’s hard to fathom." behindtheborder.substack.com/p/the-end-of...

The entire Latino population in the U.S. is 65 million. She means all of us.

Wow: ICE Has Deported at Least 70 U.S. Citizens

Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on. slate.com/technology/2...

Lawyers, even when they're not representing clients, are not allowed to engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.

"You're not man enough to watch 2 idiots typing passive-aggressive insults at each other." Never been sorry I walked out on this gender, I have no idea what's going on in there.

“They’re Ruining People’s Lives”: Bans on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth in the US

In San Antonio today, plainclothes ICE officers (not masked this time) arrested, handcuffed, and zip-tied a family of five (yes, ALL of them, including the little children) coming out of their immigration court hearing — which ICE had just had dismissed. www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/a...

Existing options are bad ("citation modified," ick), but "cleaned up" is a weird metaphor. What's "dirty"? Only the alterations the writer themself made to the quote. Weird to say you "cleaned" those--they were your mess in the first place. Anyway you're erasing them, not "cleaning" them.

Not much surprises anymore me but I am still moderately surprised that Trump seems to think that the U.S. government doesn’t know who foreign students attending Harvard are, which is a truly idiotic thing to believe.

There's a whole set of stereotypical masculine traits, like having courage, adhering to core moral principles and decency towards others, being loyal to and protective of your friends and family, especially your spouse and children, that you rarely hear on Fox because it would so indict Trump.

Glad I gave up on this gender. Don’t think I could have passed the pop quizzes

Republicans in Utah commissioned an investigation into gender-affirming care for trans youth after banning it in 2023. They're now rejecting the findings of that investigation which showed access to care reduced suicides and improved "positive mental health and psychosocial functioning outcomes."

Oh look, another cis lesbian assaulted for using the women’s bathroom. I’d like to send a gigantic fuck you to every lesbian TERF who helped create this situation www.outsports.com/2025/5/21/24...