Ben Heath
@jbentonheath.bsky.social
Associate Professor, Temple University School of Law. I post about things that interest me, some of which are about law.
We got married here In 2011. It truly is the happiest government building I’ve ever visited. I love this.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 6mo agoEveryone in the world comes to get married at the NYC Marriage Bureau. Last week, the Mayor stopped by to officiate a few of those ceremonies. Thank you to all the couples who shared their joy with us. Happy Valentine's Day, New York. Watch the full video at Youtube.com/nycmayorsoffice
In 1854, after watching the federal government deploy 2000 federal troops and spend $40,000 sending Anthony Burns back into slavery, Boston's Amos Adams Lawrence said “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.”
Cooper River Indivisible@crindivisible.bsky.social · 6mo agoYesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
This is really beautiful and sad. A great read for all the Trekkies on LawSky. You know who you are.
Aftermath@aftermath.site · 6mo agoI can say goodbye to Star Trek because Star Trek raised me: aftermath.site/star-trek-skyd...
New Foreword up on SSRN, previewing new projects on the history of constitutional history and what it can teach about legal frameworks at the heart of our "constitutional crisis"-federal Indian law, territorial law, expansion, immigration, and executive power. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
This a good piece. Among other things, the first part of Catherine's paper on the civil service is a very readable restatement of the conventional wisdom <positive> on the rise of the nonpartisan civil service. I taught from it this year and will do so again. 1/3
Jotwell@jotwell.bsky.social · 6mo agoJotwell Worklaw: Joseph Slater, Defending Civil Service Rules from Existential Attacks, JOTWELL (February 13, 2026) (reviewing Catherine L. Fisk, Democracy and a Nonpartisan Civil Service, 67 Ariz. L. Rev. 629 (2025)), worklaw.jotwell.com/defending-ci....
“They've overstayed a visa. They've missed an appointment with an immigration judge. Alright, that warrants a slap on the wrist, a wagging disapproving finger, and perhaps a small fine for the bureaucratic burden. These are administrative violations” www.liberalcurrents.com/abolition-am...
Abolition, Amnesty, Decriminalization, Open Borders
You may not believe immigration restrictions are racist, but racists believe immigration restrictions are racist.
liberalcurrents.com
This action "is a ringing alarm bell warning all of us of the extent to which this administration has succeeded in degrading our governing institutions in such a short period of time." My statement progressivereform.org/cpr-blog/epa...
Statement on the EPA’s Final Rescission of the ‘Endangerment Finding’ - Center for Progressive Reform
Over the course of more than a century, serious statespeople came together to build the modern administrative state out of a shared commitment to redeeming their constitutional duty to form a more per...
progressivereform.org
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6mo agoTrump: "We are officially terminating the so-called 'endangerment finding'"
Well, teaching Massachusetts v. EPA just got more fun.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6mo agoTrump: "We are officially terminating the so-called 'endangerment finding'"
"Here, too, law and order are being produced, not by courts that rapidly retreat from confrontation under a presumption of regularity, or agencies that disclaim responsibility for their own violence, but by collective practice that emerges when formal guarantees prove selectively unreliable."
Whistling at the Edge of Law
The whistle is sounding in Minneapolis. The question before the legal profession is whether we will hear it, amplify it, and act accordingly, or instead insist that the ground eroding beneath our feet...
lpeproject.org
Radley Balko@radleybalko.bsky.social · 6mo agoEvery photo from Minneapolis looks like this. Cops decked out with guns and full tac gear facing off against people in bathrobes, parkas, and sweatpants armed only with whistles and cell phones. Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
This feels like a @msmith750.bsky.social article.
WyoFile@wyofile.com · 6mo agoA bill introduced Wednesday proposes language that would end an era of recreationally running over foxes, coyotes, wolves and other animals on public land. "We should all be able to support this," an animal rights activist said.
Starting to think the whole thing where we give people any kind of authority at all over other people was a mistake.
Michael Smith@msmith750.bsky.social · 6mo agoA dire situation, but don't worry: "[Corrections Dept. Director] Farris is hoping AI can help the Corrections Department better match cellmates. 'When we do that, that is going to be a game changer,' Farris said. "We're going to be first in the country to do it." www.oklahoman.com/story/news/c...
He literally says in this clip that ICE will keep in Minnesota “quick reaction forces” — a military term — to go after “agitators.” Remember that those on the ground in MPLS have spent more than a week trying to tell everyone that Trump’s prior “deescalation” was a ruse and ICE is still operational
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6mo agoHoman: "Operation Metro Surge is ending. In the next week, we're going to deploy the officers here on detail back to their home stations or to other areas of the country where they're needed."
I’ll believe this when the Minnesotans on here confirm it has happened. But if this is real, then they are retreating again. Did Homan announce the next target? Usually they frame it as “we won here, now we move on,” but did they not even do that?
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6mo agoHoman in Minnesota: "I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude. A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue."
"The Internal Revenue Service improperly shared confidential tax information of thousands of individuals with immigration enforcement officials, according to three people familiar with the situation, appearing to breach a legal fire wall intended to protect taxpayer data."
IRS improperly disclosed confidential immigrant tax data to DHS
The tax agency only recently discovered it improperly disclosed tax information on thousands of the wrong people to immigration enforcement.
washingtonpost.com
Now in print and available from HILJ: From Business Plans to International Rights, my job talk paper! Infinite thanks to the patient editors at HILJ and to so many others.
journals.law.harvard.edu
Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude
There's a hot new move going around popular fronts where a near-contender in a contested primary endorses the leftier winner as a bulwark against the forces that ran the reactionary spoiler. It's called "Landering" and it kicks ass.
The closest modern historical parallel is the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay for intercepted Cubans and Haitians during the HW Bush and Clinton administrations, where at maximum capacity roughly 12,000 migrants were detained. But those migrants were never in the physical US.
It's great this is getting more attention. Immigration attorneys have long complained about this interstate shell game. It's a feature endemic to the U.S. system of detention and deportation, even if it has accelerated or worsened under Trump 2.
Deborah Pearlstein@debpearlstein.bsky.social · 6mo ago"ICE has raced detainees across state lines in ways judges say are designed to thwart legal proceedings...; [held] people for days or weeks after judges have ordered them released...; ignored other arms of the fed govt trying to ensure compliance...; given judges bad or incomplete information."
We are murdering people and it is basically just background noise at this point. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...
U.S. Boat Strike Kills 2 in Pacific, With One Survivor
nytimes.com
The lawless killing spree at sea continues. As usual, the "designated terrorist organization" supposedly operating the vessel is unidentified. And based on recent history, the likelihood that the USG successfully rescues the survivor seems low. Real killing in a make believe armed conflict.
BREAKING: On February 2, Sec. Noem issued a memo asserting the lapse in appropriations for DHS meant there is no Sec. 527 — the provision protecting congressional oversight visits to immigration detention facilities — and she was issuing a new (third) policy requiring seven-day notice for visits.
I'm at the point where every US news story makes me want to write a 10,000 word essay connecting all the political and legal developments of the past 20 years—just to conclude that everything is the same as it used to be but stupider now. Is this a Piaget stage?
Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 6mo ago"TikTok’s Terms of Service now explicitly include tracking of location and citizenship status (among other identity markers, such as sex)." newrepublic.com/article/2059...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
“Behind each beautiful painting is a child longing to be free”: Deep visual listening and children’s art during times of crisis - Yolanda Chávez Leyva, 2021
“Deep visual listening and children’s art during times of crisis” explores a way to understand children’s art created amidst crisis as well as the meanings we c...
journals.sagepub.com
ProPublica@propublica.org · 6mo ago1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
So uh Ring just up and said they've got a huge centralized private surveillance network they can leverage all at once huh
