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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 2h

(Not for your benefit Professor, but your audience: to be clear!)

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 2h

Dropping (accessible intro to) @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social ‘s research on the petition clause here. Bottom line: for over 100yrs most legislation was written by ordinary ppl (imagine that) & Congress knew that “legislative due process” was a 1st Amendment right. penntoday.upenn.edu/news/whateve...

Whatever happened to the right to petition? | Penn Today

Maggie Blackhawk of the Law School discusses the First Amendment’s right to petition, how the right was exercised historically, what it looks like in its current form, and why it changed.

penntoday.upenn.edu

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 3h

No-one has done a petition in awhile! The Abolitionist movement used petitions so much that Congress imposed a Gag Rule on anti-slavery petitions from 1836 until 1844, which was only defeated when former President John Quincy Adams led a charge against it.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 3h

Black people held their own constitutional conventions before the Civil War and the Black Panthers held their own constitutional conventions in the 1970s; the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 started the march to the Equal Rights Convention; and the Abolitionist movement petitioned Congress.

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14h

Important piece by Prof. Kate Andrias. This is why treating SCOTUS as the only word on the Constitution gives away our power as citizens.

As I frequently say “we are founders and framers” of the next iteration of democracy in this country.
GIFT LINK
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

Opinion | The Constitution Doesn’t Belong to Trump or the Supreme Court

www.nytimes.com

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 2h

Broadly agree, just noting that in a corrupt system, appointing impeachable judges is a feature not a bug. bsky.app/profile/samh...

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · Jul 17

There’s a related problem I’ve been thinking about ever since Kavanaugh’s confirmation
:
Lifetime appointments are meant to insulate judges from politics, but judges who have openly committed impeachable offenses must be aware their posts are vulnerable should the government change hands. 1/2

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · Jul 17

They can be impeached. And, should Bove be confirmed — which he should not be — he should immediately be the subject of an impeachment inquiry should Dems retake Congress. He should not be a federal judge due to his actions at DOJ. That does not change if he is confirmed.

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mediumvillain @mediumvillain.bsky.social · 3h

The fact that prosecutors *knowingly* hiding evidence conclusively proving the person they're prosecuting is innocent isnt a very seriously enforced crime that leads to disbarment & indictment is one of many foundational injustices that led to the far right wing fascist turn in our government

J --?--^--1---> @j-lastcoolletter.bsky.social · 4h

Yes. Stories like this blow my mind. They robbed most of a person's life on purpose. Meanwhile the real culprit got away.

And the ones where they finally caught some awful killer 30-50 years later. Put some 80 year old away, great, justice done. They had a whole life after committing murder.

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Aaron Cynic @aaroncynic.bsky.social · 12h

Remember that all of this is in defense of a detention center where people are being held in horrible conditions after being kidnapped off the street for no reason.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 12h

Again today, local police outside Broadview just aggressively arrested more protesters. Tough to tell exactly how many, but looks like 3-4 people were just detained.

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 4h

This is why Congressmembers can’t afford to waist anymore time calling out the Quantico speech for what it was: a declaration of war against the US; treason, per Art III sec 3 of the Constitution bsky.app/profile/samh...

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 6d

MoC can shape the media narrative by drafting articles of impeachment and talking publicly about how POTUS’ speech Tuesday furnished proof of the *intent* behind his military occupation of cities; he’s waging war on the United States in violation of the Treason Clause.

Josh Sternberg @joshsternberg.com · 6d

One of the questions: Will the media step up and report as such? Yes, the conservative media owns the modes of mass comms. But ostensibly, large mainstream outlets who purport to speak truth to power etc have leaders who are watching things unfold and understand the stakes. Will they be as honest?

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 9h

The credibility of the Court, of any court, lies in how they're supposed to explain their reasoning, how they act as the outcome of an adversarial process. When they stop doing that, their standing with the general public collapses, sure. But as we see, their authority over lower courts also erodes.

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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 13h

I understand the optics here but this is also literally why Charles met his end in Whitehall, either Article I means what it says or it doesn't and the Constitution is dissolved

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 14h

So the Dems need to be clear again that any FMer carrying out direction to implement mil paychecks in the absence of appropriations will be subject to anti-deficiency act criminal penalties, because to be clear even with the reconciliation slush fund BS there is no way to legally so this, period

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 5h

bsky.app/profile/sluc... This seems dispositive to me, & also just as a matter of fundamental separation of powers concerns, a federal regulation that *did* allow POTUS to fund the military for *years* against Congress’ wishes can’t be legit. Must be unconstitutional for the Constitution to survive

Highlights in **’s

transferred: Provided, That such authority to transfer may not be used unless for higher priority items, based on unforeseen military requirements, than those for which originally appropriated *and in no case where the item for which funds are requested has been denied by the Congress:*
Provided further,
That the
Secretary of Defense shall notify the Congress promptly of all transfers made pursuant to this authority or any other authority
Notification.

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 5h

bsky.app/profile/mike...

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 7h

Negative

For starters as a logical matter there is no universe in which this meets the intended purpose of reprogramming language

But as a legal matter you've got to have a valid appropriation to transfer the monies into

Congress appropriates some things on a multi-year basis and others annual

eric gonzalez juenke @egojunk.bsky.social · 9h

The DoD is allowed to transfer this money per statute apparently (though this is outside of my area). The CR in March upped it to 8 billion.

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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 10h

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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lumberjack wharfie @lumberjackwharfie.bsky.social · 5h

@govpritzker.illinois.gov GET YOUR FUCKING GOONS OUT OF BROADVIEW

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 9h

Troopers just violently attacked protesters, tackled several, several arrests, shoving activists and press with batons.

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 5h

bsky.app/profile/clai...

Claire Zagorski, MSc, EMT-P @clairezagorski.bsky.social · 14h

A student on TikTok has been documenting her journey with a professor who “wrote” the anatomy textbook and it’s all a bunch of AI hallucinations.

She’s saying that, understandably, the students are doing super poorly!

Behold what we’re teaching the healthcare professionals of tomorrow:

A diagram of the bones and (some) deep muscles of the hand and forearm. AI says that we only have four digits. It’s also identified a tendon as the median nerve, another tendon as the ulnar nerve, among other issues.

An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the neck. It hallucinated the “ennocleidomasid” muscle, and the “anterior scalpalin muscle”.

An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the lateral thigh. It says that the gluteus Maximus (the big juicy butt muscle) is on the anterior side. It also points to the quadriceps muscle and says “attattment”. It also says that the same structure is the tibia AND the deep fascia of the leg.

An AI generated diagram of the bones of the hand and forearm. This time AI says we have 6 digits. It also says that the radius is the ulnar artery. Among other many issues.

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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 7h

Negative

For starters as a logical matter there is no universe in which this meets the intended purpose of reprogramming language

But as a legal matter you've got to have a valid appropriation to transfer the monies into

Congress appropriates some things on a multi-year basis and others annual

eric gonzalez juenke @egojunk.bsky.social · 9h

The DoD is allowed to transfer this money per statute apparently (though this is outside of my area). The CR in March upped it to 8 billion.

Of course it has. It always does. Sec 8005 of DOD Appropriations, for starters…

That one provision now allows for $8b in transfers, per March’s full year CR:

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 7h

Right. This is the significance of the Dem bill rn. Rs are intentionally choosing to do something unconstitutionally when they had the support needed to do that thing through legal channels. It’s a calculated decision to sever the military payroll from Congressional control.

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 7h

www.notus.org/trump-white-...

Billions in Taxpayer Dollars Have Become Virtually Untraceable

The Trump administration’s aggressive approach to overhauling the executive branch has obscured how federal dollars are actually being spent — even for the members of Congress.

www.notus.org

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 7h

They’re already using that for WIC. There’s a progression. *Quietly* misallocating funds for months (next post), and then announcing tarrifs fund WIC (tarrifs are treasury funds & can’t be Const allocated w/o Congress), now *public* misallocation to consolidate military ctrl bsky.app/profile/pear...

George Pearkes @peark.es · 4d

Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 9h

the Constitution obviously has a lot of room for improvement (which shouldn't be a controversial statement imo but that's a conversation for another day), but there are a lot of lines that Trump has illegally crossed where it's like...THAT LINE IS THERE FOR A PRETTY GOOD REASON, ACTUALLY

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 10h

Dems floated a narrow bill to fund the military, which can’t move because the House isn’t in session. Meanwhile, DoD is now going to spend funds not appropriated by Congress to ensure military paychecks continue.

POTUS now both commands and provisions the military. Unconstitutional and SO dangerous

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The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 10h

So uh this is straight up appropriations clause violation, yes?

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 10h

www.politico.com/live-updates...

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 10h

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

Trump authorizes troop pay amid government shutdown

The president said he would direct Defense Department officials to pay military members on Oct. 15.

www.nbcnews.com

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 10h

www.politico.com/live-updates...

Democratic troop pay bill blocked in House amid shutdown

GOP leaders are seeking to keep pressure on Democrats to reopen the whole government.

www.politico.com

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 10h

Dems floated a narrow bill to fund the military, which can’t move because the House isn’t in session. Meanwhile, DoD is now going to spend funds not appropriated by Congress to ensure military paychecks continue.

POTUS now both commands and provisions the military. Unconstitutional and SO dangerous

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 10h

bsky.app/profile/samh... and now this

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 10h

www.politico.com/live-updates...

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