Between 2025 and 2026, the number of people detained by ICE on any given day grew by nearly 60%. Thanks to Trump's deportation agenda, expanded immigration detention accounts for almost all of the growth in mass incarceration since last year.

My Ides of March fun fact is that the place where Caesar was stabbed is now a cat sanctuary, and I think it’s beautiful that creatures with tiny knives on their feet live there

V. pleased that my latest article, "Eugenics and the Carceral State: Progressive-Era Reform & the Creation of the Modern American Criminal Justice System," is finally in print. Wondering why the criminal system is the way it is? I have some thoughts! scholarship.law.missouri.edu/cgi/viewcont...

Want to understand why dozens of groups are working to shine a light on Citizens Bank's ties to ICE detention companies? Read this piece out today in the Philadelphia @inquirer.com.

Judge Michael Simon: "In a well-functioning constitutional democratic republic, free speech, courageous newsgathering, & nonviolent protest are all permitted, respected, & even celebrated... Indeed, a democracy is only as strong as its tolerance for dissent.” www.opb.org/article/2026...

To be clear, a Haitian asylum seeker held in an ICE detention center run by a FOR-PROFIT corrections corporation, CoreCivic. Blood money.

The Supreme Court in 2022: Women do not have a right to make important decisions about their health The Supreme Court in 2026: Parents obviously have a right to make important decisions about their children’s health

The DA in Minneapolis is investigating Bovino and others.

Read this amazing, brave, truth-telling letter to the NYT while it's hot!!

When academia's stars mistreat people, they're "punished" with relief from teaching, mentoring, and service responsibilities. This frees them to spend more time on the more valued work of research. And dumps less valued responsibilities onto colleagues, making it harder for them to become stars.

And it is a very old point (1916 version)

The eugenics is the point.

Sunday night poetry: "Wait" by Galway Kinnell.

Go away, 2026

Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame. -W. H. Auden

Run by a private, for-profit corrections company, Acquisition Logistics LLC. Awarded a 1.3 billion contract, paid for in torture, abuse, violence & death. I am tracking all these bloody profiteers--a critical part of the ICE detention & deportation story.

And remember, the majority of detention centers are run by private corrections corporations FOR PROFIT. Untold horrors surely abound.

My latest article for the Federal Sentencing Reporter is now live--let me know what you think about my predictions! read.dukeupress.edu/fsr/article/...

My dad had polio as a four year old and is currently suffering from post polio syndrome in his old age. This is madness, literal Mengele stuff. At their core, MAHA is about eugenics and who they view as deserving to live and who they view as unworthy.

Welcome to our new eugenic hellscape.

I spy my dear friend @lawandlitprof.bsky.social explaining about what the concept of eugenics does here in Vanity Fair. It's terrifying!

Vanity Fair has a truly frightening write-up on RFK, Eugenics, and survival of the fittest (tied, of course, to white Americans with heritage, gag) www.vanityfair.com/news/story/r...

It's the privatized correctional services playbook--all about the money.

What if he invades Minnesota

More folks should watch Raoul Peck's Exterminate All the Brutes, especially right now. It's on HBO & Max. It's brilliant, and especially good at connecting slavery in the Americas with Native American genocide, and back further to European antisemitism and Islamophobia. www.hbo.com/exterminate-...

With commentary from @plombardo2024.bsky.social and myself. Eugenics has come to be a defining feature of the Trump administration...

It could not be more clear.

Eugenics: not a bug but a feature of this administration.

History rhymes.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order to open jury service to roughly 350,000 people who were banned for life. “It’s monumental,” says Dameon Stackhouse, a formerly incarcerated advocate who spent years pushing for this change.

To be fair, it sounded better in the original German.

In Minneapolis this afternoon— Hundreds are streaming across the snow and ice into Powderhorn Park for a rally and march demanding ICE leave Minnesota. It is bitterly cold. There are hardcore Midwesterners out here making their way in with trekking poles.

No more, no more.

Fun Fact: ALL less lethal deployment is supposed to be aimed BELOW THE KNEES. Some are specifically meant to be bounced off the ground in front of the target. This is a requirement when getting certified to use them.

Bringing back Manifest Destiny.

New Year's Poem by Seamus Heaney (1/1/87).

"History is the nightmare from which I am trying to awake."

Thanks again, @akalhan.bsky.social , for the perfect phrasing! The fact that this got under Kavanaugh's skin is just chef's kiss.

Just a reminder: These eugenic vibes are not about genetics or health or fitness but wealth — the people born on third base do not care if the people born on second base die.

What a horrifying weekend of news. Too much.

Oregon, here we goooooooo!

Utterly unsurprising in every way.

Third unvaccinated Kentucky baby dies of whooping cough. Pertussis, best prevented with a vaccine, has killed three Kentucky babies in the last 12 months. kentuckylantern.com/2025/11/25/t...

"The high-income admissions advantage at Ivy-Plus colleges is driven by....(1) preferences for children of alumni, (2) weight placed on non-academic credentials, and (3) athletic recruitment" which are "uncorrelated or negatively correlated with post-college outcomes" unlike SAT/ACT scores

Things that will get you kicked out of academia forever: - taking maternity leave at the wrong time - spending too much time with your kids - reporting harassment - not moving every 2-3 years - taking a partner's job/preferences into account - mouthing off before tenure

Brilliant, cogent, and very important response by @martylederman.bsky.social on the SG's new reply brief in the Chicago/Nat'l guard case currently pending in the S.Ct.'s shadow docket. Marty explains it all!

Transformative work of the day, that's some pig edition

JUST IN: Trump admin asks 9th Circuit for emergency stay of Judge Immergut's ruling that Trump's federalization and deployment of national guard in Portland is unlawful. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...