The defendant successfully proved that part of his punishment was unlawful and thereby acquired the privilege of having the lawful parts reconsidered. The law enjoys finality almost as much as it enjoys discovering exceptions to finality.

Michael Karlik@michaelkarlik.bsky.social · 4h ago

When the Court of Appeals tells a trial judge to vacate a conviction and adjust the sentencing document accordingly, does that mean the judge gets to resentence the defendant on all remaining convictions? The Colorado Supreme Court seemed lukewarm on that: www.coloradopolitics.com/2026/09/22/c...

Nothing moves faster through the federal courts than an expedited request for permission not to move.

Katie Phang@katiephang.bsky.social · yesterday

UPDATE: Judge Sullivan has DENIED Todd Blanche's Motion for Partial Stay (of the foreign-language documents). He has instead entered a temporary stay so Blanche can try, on an expedited basis, to get the appeals court to enter a stay pending appeal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Happy Constitution Day and Citizenship Day! Read up about our Republic and liberties from the source today!

Thou shalt not let AI companies regulate themselves. That’s insane. You wouldn’t let criminals make laws, would you? You know what, never mind.

Tyranny has many causes. One of the less dramatic ones is forgetting to update your address. Self-government begins, rather unromantically, with a form. Register. Caesar counts on your procrastination.

CAP Action@americanprogressaction.org · last wk.

Happy National Voter Registration Day! Check and update your registration and find local resources to ensure that you can cast your vote on Nov. 3rd. #GetReadyToVote https://bit.ly/2I3aNoE

He found the “comply” button.

Democracy Docket@democracydocket.com · 2w ago

NEW: Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has issued a statement confirming that he will comply with orders blocking a gerrymandered GOP map for the midterms. His statement comes as the state Supreme Court considered the extraordinary move of holding him in contempt.

Gloria was such a wonderful person, although I must admit I thought she died toward the end of June 2022. Perhaps she continued so long after Dobbs in showing that it was not the end for women's rights.

PBS News@pbsnews.org · 3w ago

Gloria Steinem, the celebrated author and activist who became one of the most visible symbols and potent voices of the U.S. women's movement and a fierce advocate for feminist causes throughout her life, has died. https://to.pbs.org/4zYGZTW

Inflation has one political advantage over propaganda: it reaches people who have stopped watching the news.

Patriotism is easiest to advertise when it costs nothing; remembrance is measured by what one is willing to postpone. Some absences require no explanation; they are the explanation.

Brian Tyler Cohen@briantylercohen.bsky.social · 3w ago

Every living US president will be attending the 25th anniversary of 9/11 memorial in New York City this month, except for Trump. Trump will instead be preparing to head to his golf course in Ireland.

There are few experiences more American than reporting under compulsion to exercise sovereign civic authority, waiting three hours, being dismissed without explanation, and leaving delighted because the parking was free.

I observe that modern politicians are wonderfully attached to ordinary life, provided they may experience it briefly between flights. The candidate who sells simplicity to the voter often submits luxury to the donor.

Public certainty is not a substitute for legal proof, no matter how many times accusations are televised.

Bunkunin@bunkunin.bsky.social · last mo.

Trump admin celebrated the prosecution of accused MS-13 ringleaders. Then the case fell apart twice www.yahoo.com/news/us/arti... Interesting article--shows jurors aren't just rubber-stamping whatever the US prosecutors want.

Religious liberty becomes a curious thing when Government grants the exemption, then punishes a Church for declining to use it. Some men defend freedom of religion chiefly until a religion freely chooses the wrong answer.

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis@kendrawrites.com · last mo.

This is the funniest shit. Florida allows religious exemptions for vaccines. Catholic schools in Florida: we require vaccines. Florida's attorney general, who is Catholic, is threatening to pull vouchers if they don't allow for religious exemptions The Bishops: separation of church & state

A statesman who can move markets should take pains not to resemble a man selling tickets to the movement.

Ron Filipkowski@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · last mo.

Subscribers to Trump’s insider trading app may be paying $100,000 a month for market moving info. Or they don’t even want the info and are just paying him a monthly bribe or protection racket payoff to be left alone. Either way, it’s all just blatant corruption every single day.

The newspaper that spends day after day inflaming the crowd cannot afterwards claim merely to have reported the temperature.

Gerry Hassan@gerryhassan.bsky.social · last mo.

The right-wing media hounding of Jason Arday: 188 articles in the space of a few days. 158 articles in The Daily Mail, Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express & Spectator. Maybe like cigarettes the r/w media should carry a health warning: these papers can kill.

Even kings were sometimes content with portraits.

Norm Eisen@normeisen.bsky.social · last mo.

BREAKING: What just happened at the Kennedy Center board meeting is a slap in the face to the rule of law. We will see the president and his corrupt cronies in court. This will not stand. Official statements @repbeatty.bsky.social @democracydefendersaction.org & WLG👇

We built a Machine capable of detecting a Lie, explaining the Lie, and inventing a better one. The Machine is blamed for inventing falsehoods, though it learned the art by reading us. Thus has human ingenuity finally automated both the Fire Brigade and the Arsonist.

Governments are the last to admit a crisis and the first to generate résumés because of one. There are departures requiring no explanation, and those whose explanations become less convincing with every additional departure of the very people employed to explain that they are in perfect order.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · last mo.

Karoline Leavitt to step down as White House press secretary ft.trib.al/JANMyDy

“We don’t act on allegations” is a noble rule—provided it was also the rule yesterday, and will remain the rule when the accused wears the other jersey.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

Mike Johnson defends Max Miller despite horrible abuse allegations: "We don't take disciplinary action against members for allegations. It's in his own words 'a nasty divorce proceeding' ... he thinks it's a hit job on him."

When the public well is poisoned, water, unlike party, refuses to distinguish between factions.

Alt National Park Service@altnps.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This is a serious issue, even though Trump is attempting to turn it into a political game by blaming Minnesota. Cyberattacks targeting municipal water and wastewater systems have now been reported in at least seven states this week.

The true excellence of the law consists not in its power to punish, but in its wisdom to distinguish. Where a six-pack forfeits an aeroplane, the distinction has plainly been misplaced.

Adam Bonin@adambonin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

SCOTUS has granted cert today on an Institute for Justice test case seeking to put more teeth into the Excessive Fines clause of the 8th Amdt by focusing on the gravity of the actual wrongdoing this defendant committed. (Case had been in the hopper all year.) www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?...

There are politicians who campaign for office, and others who campaign against the very notion of defeat. The latter are the greater danger to a republic.

Piracy was once condemned for taxing ships under threat of force. Modern statecraft has corrected the defect by issuing the pirate a title, a seal, and a press release. It seems that when tribute is collected by an enemy, it is extortion; when collected by ourselves, “fairness” in capital letters.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

Trump: "The USA will be, from this point forward, known as 'THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,' but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security ... "

Nature occasionally settles what politics cannot. The Constitution, however, still demands that the people's business proceed.

This—even more than the polls—is an indication that Donald Trump has lost his rizz.

huck mason@tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 3mo ago

my god

SCOTUS announces today that, if born in the U.S., you're a citizen. The Court also announces today that some citizens are more citizen than others.

I am heartened that the Court has agreed to hear the matter. In a republic, the people ought to choose their representatives. Whenever representatives become overly interested in choosing their people, mischief is seldom far behind.

A government ceases to be self-correcting when every mechanism of oversight depends on the consent of the people being overseen. Liberty survives on an inconvenient principle: every ruler must answer questions they would rather ignore.

Every attack on research funding is a decision to make the future smaller than it could have been. You cannot sabotage science, hollow out universities, intimidate researchers, and still expect to dominate the century technologically or economically.