LOVE this conversation about chaos muppets and order muppets but with great respect I continue to believe @dahlialithwick.bsky.social misdiagnoses me! youtu.be/cY0JR6jxB18

You’re Either a Chaos Muppet or an Order Muppet

YouTube video by Slate

youtu.be

What fresh hell of a framing is this?? "alleges the groups are advocating for the long-debated practice of jury nullification" Long-debated?! It's literally part of the our founding origin story: the Zenger trial in 1735! It's not "debated"! It's a fundamental core REASON FOR THE JURY AT ALL.

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · 5d ago

GOP launches investigation into the 1st, 5th, and 6th amendments

GOP launches investigation into the 1st, 5th, and 6th amendments

Martin Austermuhle@maustermuhle.bsky.social · 5d ago

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into alleged jury nullification initiatives led by @freedcproject.bsky.social and @harrietsdreams.bsky.social, reports my @washingtonsun.com colleague Jenny Gathright: www.washingtonsun.com/metro/house-...

However good you think this is going to be, it’s better. Steve just has Alito dead to rights.

Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · 2w ago

Justice Alito devotes an entire chapter of his new book to the emergency docket—and to responding to people like me (“the most prolific academic critic of the emergency docket”). As I explain over at “One First,” it … didn’t go well: www.stevevladeck.com/p/256-so-une...

On the insanity of the "medicalized" facade of the death penalty with @corinnabarrettlain.bsky.social and SCOTUS versus all environmental protections, ever, with @whitehouse.senate.gov. Another non-curtainraiser show.

Cruel and Unusual, Bought and Paid For

Podcast Episode · Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts · October 3 · 1h 12m

podcasts.apple.com

GOP ads right now are all about attacking trans people. Over, and over, and over. I was a gay teen in 2004 watching the Bush campaign try to win on attacking gay marriage, but the resort to this hate drive in campaign ads feels so dialed up now. I can’t imagine being an lgbt kid watching tv today.

"Whether he is watching too much Fox News or acting for other reasons, Justice Alito seems to be emotionally unable to rationally examine the actual evidence in the cases before him to see if they support his voter fraud arguments." democracyproject.org/posts/exorci...

Exorcising Justice Alito’s Voter Fraud Boogeyman

A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.

democracyproject.org

A programming note: I’m going to be working more frequently with my buds at Slate over the next few months while @mjsdc.bsky.social is out on parental leave and, God willing, not consuming Supreme Court-related content. Please remember to be an ally and click on BOTH versions of these posts, tysm.

Trump’s New Effort to Mess With Student Visas Was Shot Down in Humiliating Fashion

The change was set to take effect on Tuesday.

slate.com

My new one @slate.com Let’s Celebrate the Supreme Court Not Outright Rigging the 2026 Election slate.com/news-and-pol...

Let’s Celebrate the Supreme Court Not Outright Rigging the 2026 Election (Gift Article)

For the time being, let’s celebrate that the center of the court did hold, even as dangers remain ahead in both 2026 and 2028.

slate.com

Rick Hasen@rickhasen.bsky.social · last mo.

Breaking: Supreme Court, with Justices Thomas and Alito Publicly Dissenting, Continue Block on USPS Rule Through the Midterm Elections [Now updated with Analysis] electionlawblog.org/2026/breakin...

My read is that there aren’t five votes to let Trump literally rig elections. Roberts and Barrett won’t greenlight overt election subversion or chaotic, illegal interference with voting. Kavanaugh and Gorsuch aren’t reliable but don’t love the chaos either. Thomas and Alito want to end democracy.

Gabriel Malor@gabrielmalor.bsky.social · last mo.

In upside-down world, Justice Alito blames "the plaintiff States and the courts" for causing the late timing of USPS' attempt to interfere in mail voting by suing to stop it. Unmentioned by Alito: USPS issued the rule in violation of an injunction. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

I LOVED @skyeperryman.bsky.social’s new book. It’s energizing and hopeful, and my favorite chapter is a vital antidote to SCOTUS doom-and-gloom. Skye is one of the key players in the legal battle against Trump 2.0 and she has a lot to teach us about how to fight and win when all feels lost.

🫤

NEWS: After Yaakov Roth defended many of the worst actions of the Trump administration over the past year and a half at DOJ, Jones Day took Roth back as a partner when he wanted to cash in on the friends he made when working to undermine the rule of law in America.

KBJ has them cold:

Programming note: I’m out on parental leave for a while! I may still post occasionally, but please don’t expect breaking SCOTUS news from me. Actually, if you see me reporting SCOTUS news, please shame me off of Bluesky and back to my parenting duties.

Likely en banc decisions from the 5th Circuit soon: 1. Trump can use the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelans 2. A $1.7 trillion bill enacted in 2022 is invalid in its entirety because of proxy voting 3. The whole federal statute barring criminals from owning guns is unconstitutional

This is just an absurdly stupid, deeply unserious thing to put in a judicial opinion. But it is absolutely real, image and all, courtesy of Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Why did they make him look so cool though

At the park with my toddler and ATF is demonstrating its robot dog while Beyoncé plays as part of a violence intervention event

For Slate's summer series By the People, I wrote about how D.C. v. Heller is both a paragon of popular constitutionalism and its own dark mirror. Progressives can learn real lessons from how it was won—if they ignore its bogus originalism and look at what really went down. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Conservatives Perfected the Ideal Legal Tactic. It’s Time for Liberals to Use It.

While Heller was built on phony history, it reflected a genuine, hard-fought shift in public understanding.

slate.com

The Trump administration sued Yale for its admissions policies (alleging too much diversity). Yale is negotiating with DOJ, whereas Harvard fought Trump. The former dean of Yale Law School thinks he knows the real reason why. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Harvard Fought Trump’s Abuses. Yale May Fold. I Think I Know Why.

Seeking to set a new course for the conservative movement, J.D. Vance in 2021 declared war on institutions of American higher education.

slate.com

Great news; yet another court finds that ICE and the DOJ were wrong to declare that Congress secretly mandated detention of millions of noncitizens in 1996 (specifically, anyone who entered unlawfully at some point in the past, no matter how long ago), and that no one had noticed until now.

Gabriel Malor@gabrielmalor.bsky.social · 3mo ago

9th Cir., 2-1, joins the 2d, 6th, 10th, and 11th Cirs. in holding that DHS cannot detain unadmitted noncitizens found living inside the United States without the possibility of bond while their removal proceedings are pending. Circuits split with 5th and 8th. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

The Supreme Court invited exactly this when it held that the president's attempt to conduct "sham" "investigations" was a core executive power immune from all regulation, including criminal prosecution, in Trump v. United States.

Deborah Pearlstein@debpearlstein.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"Secret Service agents who questioned the former FBI director James B. Comey were told to send details of the interview to Air Force One so President Trump could review them....One government document said that 'POTUS was requesting a copy of the interview notes to use in his 6pm press conference.'"

This NYT article is just awful. We should judge Fauci based on his work, not his innermost musings to a diary he never intended to become public. Who cares that he enjoyed the admiration of celebrities? There's zero evidence here that it interfered with his job! www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...

The Doctor and His Diary: What Fauci’s Innermost Musings Reveal

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci seemed to be the life of the party, even in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

nytimes.com

Agree with @jamellebouie.net that it's pretty clear Elon Musk wanted to eviscerate USAID *for the purpose of killing as many African people as possible.* Mass death wasn't an accidental byproduct of his "deep state" paranoia; it was a key mission of DOGE. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...

"His for-profit company is seeking to wrap itself in the mantle of voting rights to make the case for a gambling activity that states have ample reasons to choose to discourage, while no one’s constitutional rights are being infringed. Freeman is not John Lewis."

Rick Hasen@rickhasen.bsky.social · 3mo ago

My new one @slate.com: Kalshi Says It’s “Voter Suppression” to Ban Betting on Elections. LOL. gift link: slate.com/news-and-pol...

SCOTUSBlog as profit center is not pretty

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The sigh I let out when Jay sent me this notice. I looked them up. Because I like punishing myself.

DoorDash, in damage control mode, now claims it supports D.C. home rule and denies lobbying against it. Here’s the letter their lobbyist wrote to Rep. Comer supporting his bill to ban D.C. from ever imposing or increasing a tax or fee without congressional approval. hillheat.com/files/492/DD...

In a footnote in a labor case, a senior Republican-appointed judge on the D.C. Circuit blasts the Supreme Court about an embarrassing error in its landmark ruling overturning the Chevron case, which unsettled four decades of administrative law precedent. media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/doc...