Dahlia Lithwick

For those folks who have been waiting to climb the pole and ring the “constitutional crisis” bell, it would appear we have arrived. Neither Judge Sorokin nor Judge Boasberg believed that he was signing a meaningless order, and both judges demanded compliance that never came.

We’ve Officially Entered the Next Phase of Trump’s Dictatorship Era

Taken together, these actions and declarations amount to a significant escalation in Trump’s transformation of his own presidency into an autocracy.

Here's how to cover things that are illegal:

(i) this is illegal
(ii) they say it's legal
(iii) It's not

Truth sandwich, extra mustard

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com

Breaking news: The U.S. government will no longer recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States to immigrants who lack legal status, one of 10 immigration-related executive orders President-elect Donald Trump plans to sign Monday, an incoming administration official told reporters.

Trump executive order will attempt to end birthright citizenship

The incoming president plans to take at least 10 actions related to the border or immigration, including ramping up deportations and suspending refugee resettlement.

lawyers: your bat signal has been activated

P. Andrew Torrez @andrewtorrez.bsky.social

The American Bar Association has just called upon every attorney, regardless of their political views, to join them & stand up for the rule of law & at minimum insist that our government "follow the law." Every lawyer has an ethical responsibility to do so. www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...

By all that is holy, if and when SCOTUS decides that birthright citizenship is protected in the Constitution, don't let the 3-3-3 numpties tell you this is a moderate, centrist court. Rejecting an a-textual stupid Hail Mary doesn't cash out to a push when it comes to eviscerating the VRA today.

@hcrichardson.bsky.social
“Let’s get in good trouble.

“My friend, madam president, I yield the floor.”

According to Washington Post technology reporter Drew Harwell, before he was through, Booker’s speech had been liked on TikTok 400 million times.

April 1, 2025

Today Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) made history.

Wins 2025 hands down

slate.com/news-and-pol...

I’m a Federal Worker. People Don’t Understand the Level of Heist Elon Musk Is Perpetrating.

Things are bleak.

this is beyond belief
popular.info/p/fortune-50...

Fortune 500 company abruptly fires lawyer who helped immigrant family

On March 4, Clay Jackson, an attorney in the Dallas area, was at a gas station near his home when the attendant asked if he would help a local immigrant family.

"The point of this kind of flex isn’t Jim Comey any more than it’s Tish James or the New York Times. The point is that after he comes for them, he can come for you. That’s how authoritarians work, how they have always worked, and it’s why it’s useful to read the Niemöller poem backward."

The James Comey Indictment Is Huge. The Reaction So Far Is Exactly What They Want.

Why it’s useful to read the Niemöller poem backward.

No rapist left behind

Financial Times @financialtimes.com

Donald Trump pressures Romania to lift restrictions on Tate brothers https://www.ft.com/content/3f951e0b-a9cb-489a-be89-fdf9f996ed27

Donald Trump pressures Romania to lift restrictions on Tate brothers

Tristan and Andrew Tate have been charged with sexual misconduct, organised crime and money laundering

sign an executive order into law is not how any of this works

Jeremy Stahl @jeremystahl.bsky.social

Fun one from today that nobody seems to be clocking amidst all the more substantive chaos. The White House comms department is now declaring that Trump can now "sign [an] executive order into law" without a bill passing Congress. Have never seen this language from a prior White House.

@booker.senate.gov says the answer to "what should I do?" is "something. do something." One thing more than you are doing now. Help another person. Get out of bed.

"While the law makes exceptions when the pregnant person’s life is in danger, Smith’s case falls in a legal gray area: She is brain-dead, which means her life is no longer considered at risk, and her doctors claim they are legally required to keep her body on life support."

We’re Just Human Incubators to Them

Thirty-year-old Adriana Smith, who is brain-dead, has been kept on a ventilator for months due to Georgia’s abortion ban.

saying the staggeringly obvious out loud. Happy holidays to you and yours.

Two Damning Investigations Are a Stark Reminder of What We Stand to Lose

Republican objections to these investigations tell us something about their cynical worldview.

Not The Onion
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

DHS Is Considering Reality Show Where Immigrants Compete for Citizenship

“This isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’ for immigrants,” says the producer behind the pitch.

@mjsdc.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...

The Supreme Court’s New 5–4 Bailout for Trump Couldn’t Be More Ominous

The Supreme Court handed Trump a major victory, lifting a restraining order that had prevented the mass deportation of migrants to an El Salvador prison.

heartbreaking
Rest in Power Cecile Richards
19thnews.org/2025/01/ceci...

Cecile Richards, former Planned Parenthood president and feminist activist, has died

Richards died Monday of an aggressive brain cancer. She was 67.

"It's only til the midterms" is not a plan

you really can't mollify these guys. It's not about the law it's about fealty

DOJ places attorney on leave after struggling in Maryland migrant case

The DOJ has placed on leave the attorney who argued on behalf of the U.S. in a lawsuit brought by a man who was deported to El Salvador in error, sources told ABC News.

Please listen to @kimlanelaw.bsky.social explain that while the eank insanity of the past 12 days is new to America, it's familiar in Hungary (and Poland and Turkey) down to every particular. When lawyers are more dangerous than tanks in the street...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Trump’s American Takeover

Podcast Episode · Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts · 02/01/2025 · 53m

an important column. This won't revert back to normal by acting like its normal.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...

Opinion | There Is No Going Back (Gift Article)

The president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was.

"If the government can disappear any people it wishes, dump them in a Salvadoran dungeon and prevent any court in this country from providing relief, we all should be very, very afraid."

Opinion | Trump’s Gulag Archipelago (Gift Article)

Trump is seeking to establish a truly chilling proposition: that no one can stop his administration from imprisoning anyone it wants, anywhere in the world.

Judge Millett: The President has to comply with the constitution and laws like everybody else."

this