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NEW: The Supreme Court allows Hampton Dellinger to continue serving as Special Counsel, for now, but holds the case in abeyance until the restraining order expires on Feb. 26. A win for Dellinger and a loss for Trump. But this is not the end of the case. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Incredibly chilling and clear-eyed piece from @frank-bowman.bsky.social spelling out the implications of Trump’s latest executive orders—which, stripped of their muddled legalese, essentially anoint him as a monarch with absolute power. slate.com/news-and-pol...

submitted 1 day ago • 29 comments

Sounds like Trump’s DOJ wants some minimum standards for judicial conduct … basic requirements for how judges comport themselves to preserve the integrity of their office … enforceable rules against displays of bias and partisanship … you might even call it an ethics code. Quite a novel concept.

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

With @dahlialithwick.bsky.social on the Trump administration's first skirmish over contempt of court and some fundamental limitations on the judiciary's ability to save us from the worst: slate.com/news-and-pol...

submitted 1 day ago • 10 comments

NEW: Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, DISSOLVES the restraining order that was preventing the administration from placing thousands of USAID employees on leave and DENIES a preliminary injunction halting further purges. A painful blow to the agency. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 1 day ago • 23 comments

Judge Dale Ho invites Paul Clement, superstar conservative lawyer, to present arguments on the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the Eric Adams case. Clement will advise Ho about whether he can refuse to dismiss the charges. This is very funny. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 1 day ago • 10 comments

By a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court holds that states may NOT immunize state officials from certain federal civil rights lawsuits alleging unlawful delays in an administrative process (like the provision of welfare benefits). Kavanaugh and Roberts join the liberals. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

submitted 1 day ago • 11 comments

From @maryharris.bsky.social: The illegal mass purge of federal workers is one of the most grievous labor disasters of our time. It calls for nothing short of a general strike✊ slate.com/news-and-pol...

submitted 3 days ago • 8 comments

From @bennettcapers.bsky.social, former SDNY prosecutor, on why Judge Dale Ho should NOT grant the Justice Department's corrupt motion to dismiss the case against Eric Adams. Yes, it's within Judge Ho's power to refuse. slate.com/news-and-pol...

submitted 3 days ago • 9 comments

Absolutely devastating piece by @jeremystahl.bsky.social detailing the brutal harms inflicted on Americans by Trump/Musk's illegal shutdown of the CFPB. Including an 83-year-old woman with terminal cancer who may now die saddled with unfair debt. slate.com/news-and-pol...

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

The legislation they overturned was originally championed by DeSantis' own lieutenant governor, who had led a bipartisan coalition to provide in-state tuition to Dreamers roughly a decade ago. And now this. It shows how quickly the pendulum has swung towards cruelty.

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

Trump campaigned on making IVF free for everyone, either by having the government pay for it directly or forcing insurance companies to cover the full cost. The executive order he signed today doesn't do that. In fact, it doesn't make any policy changes. www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

submitted 4 days ago • 21 comments

Although Judge Chutkan declined to issue a temporary restraining order against DOGE for now, she made it pretty clear that she thinks Elon Musk is wielding executive power unconstitutionally—and may take action to stop him in the near future. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 4 days ago • 36 comments

Anti-abortion advocates’ furious reaction to Trump’s IVF order—which does not actually do anything!—is a good reminder of how extreme and bizarre their movement’s ideology truly is. They claim to speak for a majority, but most Americans don’t believe this stuff! It’s total fringe lunacy.

submitted 4 days ago • 31 comments

This is very bad. Expect many more improper probes in DC, where J6 fan Ed Martin is the interim U.S. Attorney and just got nominated for a full term. And expect it at the FBI level, nationwide, if Kash Patel is confirmed.

submitted 4 days ago • 20 comments

These guys are leading lights of the conservative legal movement. They tried to reverse-engineer an originalist argument against birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. And the BEST they could manage has a massive flaw that renders their whole theory demonstrably bogus!

submitted 6 days ago • 16 comments

“I could’ve written about any number of the important rule-of-law and ethics questions arising out of the Adams/Bove affair. But the real issue to which I’ll dedicate my time is that Danielle Sassoon invoked her Scalia clerkship in her letter to the Attorney General.” reason.com/volokh/2025/...

submitted 8 days ago • 151 comments

A huge decision from Judge Amir Ali, meticulously reasoned and utterly scathing, finding that Trump’s foreign aid freeze is almost certainly an illegal and arbitrary abuse of power. He orders the immediate restoration of all international assistance. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

submitted 8 days ago • 85 comments

How does Judge Ho not call Emil Bove into court tomorrow morning for a contempt hearing? This seems like a credible accusation of a corrupt bribe in a pending case, which Bove allegedly accepted (and then destroyed evidence).

submitted 9 days ago • 32 comments

Now that Trump has fired the Kennedy Center leadership and installed a bunch of cronies who made him the new chair, the theater is canceling programs with even a hint of LGBTQ themes and scrubbing them from its website. Dark stuff. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

submitted 8 days ago • 187 comments

"Mr. Bove, in accepting Ms. Sassoon’s resignation, informed her that the prosecutors who worked on the case were being placed on administrative leave, and would be investigated by the attorney general and the Justice Department’s internal investigative arm." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/n...

submitted 9 days ago • 19 comments

Republican lawyers and judges are rapidly moving this idea from “off the wall” to “on the wall.” We ignore or dismiss this at our own peril.

submitted 9 days ago • 15 comments

NEW: Tonight, dozens of Consumer Finance Protection Bureau employees were fired via a hastily written email. Some affected employees were addressed as “[EmployeeFirstName][EmployeeLastName], [Job Title], [Division].” W/ @makenakelly.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/dozens...

submitted 10 days ago • 81 comments

A chilling view from inside the CFPB right now. Musk’s goons are illegally paralyzing and dismantling the watchdog that protects Americans from financial scams and fraud. Very glad the author is brave enough to speak out with their job on the line. slate.com/news-and-pol...

submitted 11 days ago • 8 comments

A Republican judge in North Carolina is STILL trying to steal an election for the state Supreme Court that he lost, hoping robed partisans in the state judiciary will nullify enough valid ballots to push him over the finish line. Big updates with @maryharris.bsky.social: slate.com/news-and-pol...

submitted 11 days ago • 9 comments

Fed. judge grants a TRO in the doctors' suit against OPM for taking down webpages and datasets from HHS, CDC, FDA. By midnight, OPM is ordered to restore the specific assets identified in the complaint. By Feb. 14, OPM is ordered to restore other assets. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 11 days ago • 12 comments

Easy to miss this amidst all the chaos, but it's important and disturbing—not least of all because seizing control of the arts is a classic authoritarian tactic. This does not bode well for free expression.

submitted 11 days ago • 22 comments

Last month I caught flack for discussing likely strategies to extend Trump’s time in office. I hope, as I did then, that others are taking them seriously. I’ll continue to monitor and explain the legal pathways GOP lawyers may use to subvert democracy, however "lawyer-brained" they may seem ...

submitted 11 days ago • 9 comments

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Law is holding a hearing at 10 ET on “Reining in the Administrative State”: judiciary.house.gov/committee-ac... I’m the minority witness. My testimony offers some thoughts about reining in the real executive branch abuses we’re currently seeing.

submitted 11 days ago • 70 comments

I know there are a lot of bogeymen out there rn but in case you were wondering STOP THE STEAL continues apace (🙏 @mjsdc.bsky.social) slate.com/podcasts/wha...

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

Emerging from my lair each time a court rebukes a Trump EO

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

NEW: A court has issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking Trump’s unlawful removal of Hampton Dellinger as Special Counsel. He says he will return to his work immediately.

submitted 11 days ago • 10 comments

This is another one where, for the moment, the temporary order applies only to the 23 plaintiff states—which are mostly Democratic-controlled, or have a Dem. AG. It thus preserves NIH disbursements for Blue States, but the taps are still turned off for Red States.

submitted 12 days ago • 9 comments

Brazen, undisguised corruption on a scale that’s hard to fathom, and an incredibly dark omen about what’s to come. The Justice Department has a LOT of power to let powerful criminals off the hook—and to ruin innocent people’s lives.

submitted 11 days ago • 17 comments

Judges aren't kidding around. Federal judge not only just blocked Trump administration's attempt to cut NIH's funding of indirect costs (emergency motion for TRO was earlier today). The judge has also imposed a reporting requirement to ensure compliance.⬇️ storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 12 days ago • 100 comments

NEW: Plaintiffs in USAID case tell Judge Nichols that the Trump administration is violating his temporary restraining order: they say USAID employees on administrative leave haven't been reinstated and are still locked out of computer systems. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 12 days ago • 78 comments

BREAKING: On Friday, Defense Sec. Hegseth ordered an immediate "pause" on trans medical care, processing of trans military recruits. DOJ didn't inform the court until Monday, despite having been ordered to “immediately notify“ the plaintiffs and court of any change. www.lawdork.com/p/breaking-d...

submitted 12 days ago • 67 comments

BREAKING: 22 states sue NIH over Trump administration's new 15% cap on overhead for federal research grants. Suit filed federal court in Boston contends lifesaving research 'will grind to a halt' under the policy. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 12 days ago • 65 comments