So….read the piece. Whether one agrees or disagrees, or whether it’s another case of “stuck in the middle with you” (apologies to Gerry Rafferty), the authors provide a useful framing. Just as an example, if law can be thought of as architecture, what the hell kind of house has SCOTUS built?

Beau Baumann 🍎@beaubaumann.bsky.social · 2d ago

Every now and then, I read something and think, "well shit, that's amazing." Usually, that piece in question will already have a built-in fanbase. But every now and then, I do some digging and see that it's flown under the radar. Such is the case with an article that's prompted me to ask . . .

I’m reminded of D.H. LAwrence’s short story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner, and the phrase “filthy lucre” used so tellingly. Filthy lucre, indeed! www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/u...

How a Top Law Firm Went From Standing Up to Trump to Bending the Knee (Gift Article)

Paul Weiss was a progressive stalwart for decades and led the legal resistance against President Trump in his first term. Then it surrendered without a fight. This is the inside story of its transform...

nytimes.com

Read my colleague Jeff Gordon on how the Twenty Second Amendment (presidential term limits) should have informed the Supreme Court's views on presidential accountability in Trump v. Slaughter. balkin.blogspot.com/2026/07/trum...

It’s such an odd feeling to experience the ruination of one’s country in real time, a feeling closest to bemused dread, a bit like the recently upbraided school bully who knows he’ll have to open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Is China Going In For The Kill?

Trump Has Left The US More Vulnerable Than It Has Been Since 1861

open.substack.com

As a NYCer, I’ll admit to a certain amount of trepidation. We’re a prime target

Lindsay Beyerstein@beyerstein.bsky.social · 5d ago

I can't stress enough what a crisis this is. Trump's own intelligence agencies concluded that Iran attacked Minnesota's critical infrastructure and Trump is saying that it's Minnesota's own fault and denying it was Iran. The federal government won't defend blue states in a literal war.

The stupidity, not to mention the cupidity, should roil the strongest stomach. We’ve already noted Iranian cyber attacks on Minnesota water supplies. Should our government break all the rules and commit war crimes, Iran will respond without constraint.

Yashar Ali 🐘@yasharali.bsky.social · 5d ago

BREAKING The US and Israel are planning what could be their harshest bombing campaign yet against targets in Iran. The targets include energy infrastructure. There is also discussion of cutting electricity in Tehran. If this moves forward, it would mark the Israeli military’s return to the war.

Native Son here. Born here, raised here, my wife of 56 years a NYCer down to her toes, my kids born and raised here. This is our city. FAFO.

Soraya Nadia McDonald@soraya.press · 5d ago

"WE THE FUCKING JUDGE SON" New York, I love you. I love you so fucking much. Via wali_talks on IG

Erun Kissane’s the sole reason I’ve come across this piece…..which scares the hell outta me. Kissane, for that matter, scares the hell outta me because she’s so much smarter than I am, she sees things I wouldn’t ever pay attention to (that’s a compliment, not a slur).

Nicely done by Klonick

Kate Klonick@klonick.bsky.social · 7d ago

Probably won't get nearly as much engagement as my XKCD-inspired flowchart, but here is the article I wrote for @lawfaremedia.org on the three media narratives of the Hugging Face/Open AI scandal & how lhey shape the regulatory response www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

Shock-a-Runio!!! Who could have predicted this? Let’s ask Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. They’ll know what to do! I know! Let’s donate to the DNC!!!

Bill Kristol@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · last wk.

🚨🚨🚨 With the confirmation of Clayton, Trump has loyalists in place at the power agencies who will work to enable his election subversion schemes for 2026 and 2028. They're not incompetent, and they're putting loyalists in beneath them. The threat is far greater than in 2020.

1) Some of us have been saying this since Trump took the oath of office. we’ve been Pooh-poohed since inception. “States run the elections,“ sage ones said. “doomsayer,” said others. The astounding ability not to believe one’s eyes and ears showed up everywhere, despite a clear understanding

Anna O. Law@unlawfulentries.bsky.social · last wk.

The document below is a smart, thoughtful, multi-pronged local approach to keep the 2026 midterm elections safe, because we can't pretend that it's going to be a normal election.

1) Bunch is a trustworthy source. I’m with him significant change has to happen, and he’s unfortunately correct right now isn’t the time to do it. OTOH, that may happen regardless. Dems are bankrupt in every way

Will Bunch@willbunch.bsky.social · last wk.

No, seriously, Dems in disarray We really need to pull an 1850s Whig maneuver and replace the Dems with something better, but I really don't think you can do that when fascism is up in your face www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/u...

Just breath-taking.....and not in a good way. Incomprehensible bad faith, a legal analogue to "ready, fire!, aim."

Inner City Press@innercitypress.bsky.social · 2w ago

OK - now hearing on SDNY's subpoenas for reporting about the non-use of the Qatar-gifted jet as Air Force One coming back from Turkey - hearing before Judge Subramanian, who also has Live Nations (and Inner City Press' FOIA case www.courtlistener.com/docket/73400... ) - will live skeet, thread below

1) On the heels of @doctorow.pluralistic.net 's unsettling thread yesterday comes this anguished scream from Prof. Steve Vladek, Georgetown University Law Center. Undoing the damage wrought by the radicalized Right can't be the task of establishment politicians open.substack.com/pub/stevevla...

Bonus 239: The Fifth Circuit's "Precedential Stay" in Sosnava Rodriguez

The Fifth Circuit once again did the government's bidding on immigration detention—this time through an unexplained procedural move I've never seen before.

open.substack.com

👏👏👏👏👏👏 Yellow Dog Democrat that I am, it's a weird feeling to realize my party's deracinated in the extreme. Calls for Cash have replaced statements of principle, and, far more telling, no evidence of life on the streets.

Julian Sanchez@normative.bsky.social · 2w ago

This feels grimly accurate. I think for most people, engagement with the party feels like getting on Temu’s mailing list: Just a neverending stream of spam asking for cash and no other meaningful call to be part of anything that might generate any sense of identity or community.

1) Few of us have internalized how much damage has been inflicted on the Federal Government, and, therefore, on all of us. Research is much like learning a language. It depends on a solid foundation of grammar, conjugations, declensions,

Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · 2w ago

If the American system after 2026 and 2028 elections finds itself unable to repair the damage to research that the Trump administration has inflicted then, however much academics might feel sympathy for US colleagues, the rest of the world will ruthlessly view this as a competitive opportunity

This is as dispiriting a thread as one could imagine because it's insightful and accurate. The failure of everyone - our institutions, our political parties, our economy, and our citizens in aggregate (but not, miraculously, in some locales where the resistance has been ferocious) - is manifest.

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 2w ago

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: pluralistic.net/2026/07/22/t... 2/

Ha!

Steve Peers@stevepeers.bsky.social · 2w ago

Judge rules Trump must hand over financial records sought by BBC in discovery, in defamation case Trump brought against BBC - www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... There's a basic leverage issue here: Trump's cronies run the FCC & FTC, so he can threaten broadcast licenses and mergers in the US, but not UK

I'd asked earlier what was Mamdani's purpose in again denouncing Netanyahu. After Feds announced Bibi couldn't be arrested, Mamdani used the occasion to proclaim NYC government would abide by Fed decision while at the same time blasting the Israeli PM.

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 2w ago

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani says that the city will not be able to arrest Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu under a warrant issued by the world's top war-crimes court.

1) Trump's been about redirecting every single dollar within the Federal government to his own personal gain. Employing DOGE to eviscerate most of the government freed money to use for personal gain. The Iran War reflects the same phenomena. He's conducting the war to enhance his personal

Phillips OBrien@phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 2w ago

New Midweek Update Out (mostly free). The US is weakening itself every day with this war against Iran. It is running down weapons stocks, degrading US institutions, alienating allies and strengthening China. Iranian strategy is proving itself superior. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Jackson hitting 49 after the handoff is phenomenal, the number of Platner diehards who are going to abstain is negligible. We're back to a race where Susan Collins' vulnerabilities determine the outcome.

Polling USA@usapolling.bsky.social · 2w ago

Maine - Senate Polling: 🔵 Jackson: 49% 🔴 Collins: 46%* UNH / July 20, 2026

I’m bewildered Mamdani would go here. I don’t understand the politics. He’s the NYC mayor, not Secretary of State. The city he runs has the largest population of Jews anywhere in the world, many, if not most, supporters of Israel. Someone explain this to me as If I were 5……

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 2w ago

Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.

A federal appeals court has upheld the criminal conviction of Trump aide Peter Navarro for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 Committee.

Been going on forever. NYT is famous for it. Every one of the center-right guys would write something like this when they were desperate for ideas under deadline. Kirchick is simply amplifying the GOP wail communists have taken over the Democratic Party. if only!.........

The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 2w ago

“Democrats appear slow to recognize that ideologues on the left are attempting a hostile takeover of the party,” James Kirchick writes. In looking for a way to reclaim control, he argues, they could find inspiration in British history:

I'm deliberately not quote-posting others who've also run this image because I don't want an avalanche of the usual "anti-zionism is anti-semitism" comments. I may get them anyway, of course. I've no idea what Abdul El-Sayed thinks about Jews, only what

1) The bewilderment pondering one's own captured government and the total lack of political opposition that might matter is despairing. Confession: I'm bleaker than most, so have little hope elections will matter. Even assuming Dems win, given the state

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2w ago

RAPIDAN: We “no longer assume a near-term return to freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, we expect ongoing military risks to constrain vessel transits .. well into next year ..” 👀

As comments by lawyers point out, this leads to a direct attack on the Commerce Clause, the route virtually all Post-FDR legislation took. It opens the door to repealing the Wagner Act, the law that makes union organizing possible, and severely curtails Congressional power Everything's under attack

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · 2w ago

The 5th Circuit, sitting en banc, will decide whether §922(g)—the entire federal statute that prohibits violent offenders from possessing firearms—violates the Constitution's commerce clause. A vehicle to increase gun deaths while gutting congressional power. www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...

So...Spain wins 1-0. Thank God someone scored. I'm sure it was tactical genius, and immense skill. Only excitement was imagining Spain losing in a shootout despite dominating. Was kinda interesting watch Spain players form triangles to maintain possession, but the game lagged, at least to me.

Looks like Jackson's the man to challenge Collins. I was expecting Bellows to make a better showing, but she's seen the handwriting on the wall. Let's hope this is all for the best mainemorningstar.com/2026/07/19/b...

Bellows drops out as Jackson takes commanding delegate lead in race to replace Platner • Maine Morning Star

Troy Jackson is gaining momentum in the race to replace a U.S. Senate nominee, while one of his best-known competitors has dropped out.

mainemorningstar.com

This is just going to become worse and worse. This is the Federal Government loosing ICE upon a civilian population without any possibility of accountability for illegal/uncalled for violence. The Administration is declaring war on its own citizens.

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2w ago

BREAKING NYT: Federal agents around the country were told in recent days that the FBI would no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents — cases that sometimes yield evidence that could be used to prosecute DHS agents implicated in violent encounters.