Douglas Kelso
@darkpoole.bsky.social
180 followers 95 following 410 posts
Legal research guy.
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That doesn't help with murder on the high seas, though. Venezuela is a party to the ICC and might complain about illegal military attacks on its people. But I don't know if ICC jurisdiction extends to a non-party committing war crimes in international waters.
I'm hoping state AGs and/or county DAs will wake up to their power to criminally charge federal officers under state law, as long as the feds are acting outside their lawful federal authority.

Pritzker has at least acknowledged that's a possibility.

That's what would prevent street executions.
Under Oregon law, this would be 2nd degree assault and 2nd degree kidnapping. If they weren't performing a legitimate government function, the ICE agents who did that can be criminally charged by Oregon AG or Multnomah County DA.

States really need to start indicting these thugs.
Really, there's a LOT Congress can do to cut the Supreme Court's power and to create checks and balances on the Court. They need to get a LOT more imaginative than "expanding the court", since expansion alone won't prevent partisan capture of an overpowered Supreme Court. /end
Let Congress disapprove SCOTUS opinions as non-binding based on errors of law. SCOTUS proposes an interpretation of the Constitution; Congress passes a law to disagree, and the President takes sides by signing or veto. Let all branches argue what the constitution means until they agree. 5/
Restrict Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction to cases that can't get a 2/3rds majority on the Court of Review. Also, give the Court of Review final say on interlocutory appeals. No more shadow docket. 4/
Create a "Court of Review" between the courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. Staff it with one judge from each appellate circuit, chosen by a 2/3rd majority of each circuit to minimize partisanship. Court of Review judges serve 4 or 5 year terms, and are thus accountable to fellow judges. 3/
Pass enabling legislation for the "good behavior" clause. Set up a judicial process to fire judges (including SCOTUS justices) for misconduct. 2/
Other possible reforms:

Put statutory limits on stare decisis. Only unanimous decisions are binding precedent. All other decisions are deemed to reflect unresolved issues of law, and may be followed at lower courts' discretion. 1/
The key to avoid non-stop coverage of one scandal is to do ALL THE SCANDALS ALL THE TIME so nobody focuses on any one of them.

And normalizing scandalous behavior becomes almost unavoidable when the entire administration does literally nothing else 24/7.
Oregon law says false arrest is second degree kidnapping if done "without legal authority." Federal agents have immunity to state criminal charges for crimes committed when doing their job. But illegal arrest isn't part of their job.

Oregon AG needs to indict these thugs for kidnapping.
It's a story that works astonishingly well as a 40-minute planetarium show. A real-time radio play set entirely in an observatory, built around what we see happening in the sky. I imagine there aren't many SF stories that would fit that bill.
Federal officers have Supremacy Clause immunity for state crimes committed while carrying out their federal duties. It's broad immunity, but it isn't total. They can face indictment for doing things beyond the legal scope of their jobs.

It's time to find out just how much ICE has overstepped.
Reposted by Douglas Kelso
What got me into science fiction in the early 1970s: as a fourth-grade kid, I saw a planetarium show adaption of Asimov's "Nightfall" (1941). So I searched for the original story and found it in an anthology. I read the whole book. And I was off.

But I don't assume that would work for anyone else.
Exhibit 32,486 in the case against allowing billionaires to exist at all.
I just imagine an inheritance was involved somewhere.
Reposted by Douglas Kelso
What The Hell Is Going On, a thread:

I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong.

So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.
Share a TV show you love from the 1970s
Scene from M*A*S*H* with main cast at a table in the mess tent
Reposted by Douglas Kelso
LA: we will fight you.

Chicago: we will fight you.

PDX: we will make you endure week after week of of improv theater.
I do that all the time. But I've never been married, so maybe that's the single dude default.
Reposted by Douglas Kelso
My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but