Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Kira

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 1h

Trump says a lot of weird and concerning stuff that people just kind of shrug at but right now I’m stuck on how he keeps insisting he’s going to hell

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Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 2h

It now appears the federal agents have left the intersection, after deploying more gas into the crowd. Still working to sort more details.

Feels almost trite at this point to bring up the federal court's restraining order, which included language meant to rein in agents' use of chemical weapons.

Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 3h

A confrontation between community members and militarized federal agents appears to be unfolding on Chicago's southeast side, near the intersection of E. 105th St and S. Ave. N.

Details still emerging. From what I've seen federal agents have deployed at least one can of some kind of gas.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1h

Not only that, just days ago, he was claiming there were no drug boats in the entire Caribbean left. That is, of course, not true. So we’re going to go through a cycle where they just keep killing more and more people, and keep claiming success as the body count rises.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 2h

Trump is no longer even pretending to have any kind of argument that his murdering of people in the Caribbean Sea has any kind of statutory validity. Just straight up declaring that he has quasi-unlimited power to execute people based on (nominal) suspicion.

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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 1h

Why do I have a feeling these guys were deep in incel circles before they crossed over into Republican politics 🤔

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 5h

Free speech is when Republicans can say what they want and when you can say what they want. bsky.app/profile/noup...

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 5h

I'm sorry, is the Trump Administration talking to a tech platform?

Is it...requesting content moderation?

Today following outreach from @thejusticedept, Facebook removed a large group page that was being used to dox and target @ICEgov agents in Chicago.
The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs. The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 4h

There are worse things that Trump has done, but I don't know that any judicial appointment has been more of a middle finger to the legal system and the rule of law than Bove's appointment.

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 4h

Truly abhorrent and a mockery of the rule of law that Emil Bove is a federal judge.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 4h

JUST IN: The 3rd Circuit *denies* a push by national GOP to reconsider ruling on misdated mail ballots in Pa.

Judge Emil Bove may have cast his first vote here in dissent of the decision -- and plans to write about it later. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 9h

7/ Democrats need to stand for something right now. And what need, to vote for this budget, is pretty simple and reasonable:

Don't cut people's health care just to pay for a billionaire tax cut.

Don't fund Trump's growing authoritarianism without checks on his corruption.

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Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 7h

This is a really important point.

They want “meme authoritarianism.”

They want rage.

They’re getting frogs & aging hippies.

Not great optics—for them.

But great for us: you build a movement by showing folks that they’re part of an energized and hopeful “us.”

Let’s go!

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

one of the reasons they're so mad at "no kings" is that they thought they were going to get a different kind of protest. they *want* the black bloc to be out there fighting with the cops. those are the images they've been trying to generate from "go." instead--

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

MAGA Rage at “No Kings” Boils Over—and It Quickly Backfires on Trump

As Trump allies smear the coming protests, a good writer on MAGA skewers the absurdity of these attacks on large swaths of Americans—and explains why our best recourse will be to turn out in force.

newrepublic.com

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 11h

Residovic then explained that he didn't know how to preserve video, but would have made the effort if it was inculpatory, just not if it was exculpatory.

Agent Residovic also acknowledged that he did not recover the video because he “didn’t
see anything in the video that was criminal.” Tr. 10/10/25 at 48. While he first stated that he
would not recover an inculpatory video because he didn’t know how, he admitted that if he saw
strong evidence for the prosecution, he would reach out to others to learn how to preserve the
video. He said that he did not try to learn how to preserve the video in question because it was
short and because it “didn’t show evidence of anything criminal.” Tr. 10/10/25 at 49-50. He did
not and could not express that he did not think it was possible to capture the video.

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 11h

Understand the background to this case.
1) Reid was arrested for what the FBI agent, who also called Reid a "libtard" said was a boo boo. They tried to charge her with felony assault.
2) That was no billed. So they decided to go ahead w/misdemeanor assault.

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 12h

Here's what prosecutors--PROSECUTORS!!!--said last week about why they had not given Sydney Reid video to her alleged assault of an FBI agent.

She's seeking to get her case thrown out before it goes to trial this week.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

There can be little doubt that the government failed in its duties, first by failing to collect
contemporaneous statements and other information from the officers from the incident and then
by neglecting to supervise the collection of that information, by relying on the officers’ conclusion
as to what is relevant and not relevant. Still, the government persists in trying to blame the defense.
Even at the hearing, the government deflected blame: “The ambiguity, I think, that arises here is
that we are trying to construct a very mundane incident three months after it happened involving,
I guess for lack of a better word, middle-aged people who just aren't great with technology, just
like everyone else in this courtroom.” Tr. at 10/10/25 at 14

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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 8h

This from the great @sulliview.bsky.social on the media's anemic (or non-) coverage of the massive No Kings movement is such a great point

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 11h

open.substack.com/pub/anneappl...

Manufactured Drama

ICE violence in Chicago is real, but it's also made for Instagram

open.substack.com

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 11h

This is exactly right: it's real violence, but a performance at the same time

Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 16h

You need to see this:

“The show of force is the point. They want these images to be out…The Department of Homeland Security is walking around Chicago with a film crew.” @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social

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Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social · 8h

JUST IN: Judge sides w/Comey in early skirmish over discovery, limits info that has strict restrictions on defense handling. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

ComeyOrd101325.PDF

www.documentcloud.org

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 16h

Yes, you should be surprised and horrified by secret federal police running around our city kidnapping immigrants, crashing cars, launching chemical weapons and shooting and killing people. This is a thing you should be *perpetually* shocked by. We lose when we become numb to it.

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Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 17h

Four cemetery workers, all U.S. citizens, arrested during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation that crossed over onto the private Concordia Cemetery in the west suburban village of Forest Park.

Forest Park cemetery workers recount traumatic clash with ICE; mayor calls for crackdown to end

‘If this is happening to me, a U.S. citizen, what are they doing to the other individuals?’

trib.al

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Dan Mihalopoulos @dmihalopoulos.bsky.social · 18h

Foreign student enrollment:

IIT 51%
UChicago 31%
Art Institute of Chicago 31%
U of I 22%
Northwestern 21%

Samantha Brennan @samanthabrennan.bsky.social · 1d

Trump caps international student enrollment at top US universities, limits set at 15%

www.businesstoday.in/nri/study/st...

Trump caps international student enrollment at top US universities, limits set at 15% - BusinessToday

This move is part of a broader policy aimed at regulating academic admissions and funding, and it is set to have significant repercussions for colleges and universities across the United States.

www.businesstoday.in

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 18h

Late last month, a local CBS reporter said a masked ICE agent fired a pepper ball at her car, causing her to vomit for hours. The reporter, Asal Rezaei, said there was no protest happening at the time. Police are now investigating.

www.npr.org/2025/10/13/n...

Tackles, projectiles and gunfire: Many fear ICE tactics are growing more violent

Videos taken by eye witnesses of federal agent encounters with immigrants in Chicago and elsewhere have shown increasingly tense incidents. Immigrant advocates and observers say they're indicative of ...

www.npr.org

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Harry Litman @harrylitman.bsky.social · 21h

There isn’t another side to the argument. Every actor in the system—from defense attorneys to Justices on the Supreme Court—recognizes what is happening. The only question is how the criminal justice system should respond.”

open.substack.com/pub/harrylit...

The Irredeemable DOJ

Why James has an even stronger case of selective prosecution than Comey.

open.substack.com

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 1d

This is some of the best political news I've seen in a very long time.

There's a clear a way to end the Citizens United precedent by changing state incorporation laws - and now luminaries in both parties are forcing a vote on it in the 2026 election.

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Waldo Jaquith, but Spooky @waldo.net · 2d

The Supreme Court is so illegitimate that cases are often about fictional matters with plaintiffs who have been harmed in no way, now to the point where they are not aware that they are plaintiffs in a Supreme Court case.

Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 2d

“One of them, Albert ‘Skip’ Caissie Jr., 78, said in a phone interview that he wasn’t aware that he was involved in a Supreme Court case.”

Who Are the Louisiana Voters Behind a Major Supreme Court Challenge?

www.nytimes.com

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 1d

seventeen people were arrested solely for resisting/obstructing a police officer.

for the resisting (not obstructing) part, per to illinois law, a person can only be arrested if there's "an underlying offense for which the person was initially subject to arrest."

www.ilga.gov/Documents/le...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

I read Caleb Nelson's piece on the removal power and I was taken with a reference he makes in the conclusion.

When the First Congress confronted the same ambiguities, more than one member warned against interpreting the Constitution in the expectation that all Presidents would have the sterling character of George Washington. The current Supreme Court may likewise see itself as interpreting the Constitution for the ages, and perhaps some of the Justices take comfort in the idea that future Presidents will not all have the character of Donald Trump. But the future is not guaranteed; a President bent on vengeful, destructive, and lawless behavior can do lasting damage to our norms and institutions. As one member of Congress argued in 1789, we should not gravitate toward interpretations of the Constitution that “legaliz[e] the full exertion of a tyrannical disposition.”

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Carolyn Shapiro @cshaplaw.bsky.social · 1d

www.scotusblog.com/2025/10/shad...
"A lot of attention has (appropriately) focused on the Supreme Court’s virtual reversal of Humphrey’s Executor on the shadow docket. ... It is doing the same to Clinton v. City of New York, the 1998 case that struck down the Line Item Veto Act ..." 1/

Shadow overruling: it’s not just for Humphrey’s Executor

Cases and Controversies is a recurring series by Carolyn Shapiro, primarily focusing on the effects of the Supreme Court’s rulings, opinions, and procedures on the law, on other institutions, and on [...

www.scotusblog.com

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