Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Carrie Johnson

Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 12h

A WGN-TV video editor and producer was roughly detained by two Border Patrol agents on Friday morning during a highly visible rush hour enforcement action in Lincoln Square.

WGN-TV producer detained during ICE enforcement action in Lincoln Square

A WGN-TV video editor and producer was roughly detained by two Border Patrol agents on Friday morning during a highly visible rush hour enforcement action in Lincoln Square.

trib.al

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 1d

Letitia James, who prosecuted Trump, indicted for alleged bank fraud

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Justice Department indicts Letitia James after pressure from Trump

The indictment comes after steady pressure from President Trump to prosecute James, who successfully sued Trump and his company for inflating the value of some of its properties.

www.npr.org

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 1d

You wanted to sleep in? Well the joke’s on you, human.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 1d

“A more robust and effective damages regime obviously would not prevent unconstitutional conduct by government officers. But it sure would be an easy way to reduce its frequency—and it would also be a remarkably easy statute to write.”

Me in today’s bonus issue of “One First”:

Bonus 182: Damages as a (Missing) Deterrent

It's worth reflecting on how different things might look right now if federal officers—or the federal government itself—faced a meaningful specter of monetary liability for constitutional violations.

www.stevevladeck.com

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Hannah Bloch @hannahbloch.bsky.social · 4d

Many congratulations to @npr.org’s Anas Baba on this wonderful, hugely deserved recognition of his “steadfast and factual coverage of the war in Gaza [that] is making a singular contribution to public understanding of the conflict at great personal risk.”

www.academyofdiplomacy.org/news/press-r...

Press Release | The Academy’s 2025 Ross Media Award Winners Announced | American Academy of Diplomacy

In a statement issued on October 6, 2025, the American Academy of Diplomacy announced that the winners of the 2025 Ross Media Award for Reporting and Commentary on the Practice of American Diplomacy a...

https://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/news/press-release-%7C-the-academy’s-2025-ross-media-award-winners-announced

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 6d

The judge who granted this restraining order was appointed to the bench by Trump.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 6d

BREAKING: A federal judge has granted a restraining order blocking President Trump's call-up of the National Guard in Portland.

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

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 6d

A young woman in McDonald’s let out a loud noise and when I walked past she had the Phillies game on her laptop

Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 7d

Wants to go out and eat street trash

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Zoe Tillman @zoetillman.bsky.social · 9d

Shutdown update: DOJ requests to delay/extend deadlines in court fights over Trump administration policies and actions have been hitting the docket all day -- a few are opposed, incl. in Kilmer Abrego Garcia's civil suit fighting deportation
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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Scott Wilkens @scottbwilkens.bsky.social · 9d

We're asking the 11th Circuit to compel Judge Aileen Cannon to rule on a motion @knightcolumbia.org filed over 6 months ago seeking the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith's report about Trump’s mishandling of classified information at Mar-a-Lago. knightcolumbia.org/documents/uj...

Knight Institute's Petition for Writ of Mandamus

knightcolumbia.org

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 11d

Mood

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Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 15d

Fed's Lisa Cook seems to have picked up a new superstar conservative lawyer since her case got to the Supreme Court:

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 15d

Full story: Former special counsel Jack Smith warns that rule of law is 'under attack'

www.npr.org/2025/09/25/n...

Former special counsel Jack Smith warns that rule of law is 'under attack'

In his first public remarks since leaving the Justice Department, Smith said he's sad and angry about the dismissals of career public servants and the loss of credibility the DOJ has suffered.

www.npr.org

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 15d

Jack Smith breaks his silence: “Political opponents, critics, perceived enemies are targeted for investigation or arrest to silence them, and the prosecutors instead of investigating…cases, they're left to figure out a basis for charges after the fact.”

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 15d

Former special counsel Jack Smith warns that rule of law is 'under attack'

www.npr.org/2025/09/25/n...

Former special counsel Jack Smith warns that rule of law is 'under attack'

In his first public remarks since leaving the Justice Department, Smith said he's sad and angry about the dismissals of career public servants and the loss of credibility the DOJ has suffered.

www.npr.org

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 16d

JUST IN: Judge Reyes has *denied* the legal effort by fired inspectors general to reclaim their jobs. Trump may have broken the law by firing them, she says, but she has no authority to reinstate them — and Trump could remove them again in 30 days anyway.

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

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Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” @ryanjreilly.com · 18d

This sign wasn’t on my bingo card.

Sign reading “thank you DC Grand Jurors”

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 18d

Cover the Justice Department, come home, get bitten by the puppy. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 18d

Justice Department unease grows as Trump's threats get more blunt

www.npr.org/2025/09/22/n...

Unease grows at the Justice Department as Trump's threats get even more blunt

President Trump is directing the Justice Department to prosecute his perceived political enemies, upending the career ranks and raising questions about selective prosecution.

www.npr.org

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Rick Hasen @rickhasen.bsky.social · 18d

J. Kagan dissent: "Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars.Still more, it should not be used,as it also has been,to transfer government authority from Congress to the President, and thus to reshape the Nation’s separation of powers."

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 18d

#BREAKING: Over dissents from Justices Sotomayor, Kagan & Jackson, #SCOTUS grants a stay in the Slaughter case (allowing President Trump to remove the last Dem member of the FTC), *and* grants certiorari "before judgment" to decide whether to formally overrule its 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19d

there is a point here i want to amplify. the free speech defenders of the mainstream seem to have no awareness that actual free speech is often more fractious and destabilizing than civil and respectful. a society where speech is genuinely free isn’t the deferential space they want it to be.

John Ganz @lioneltrolling.bsky.social · 19d

The round-up.—
www.unpopularfront.news/p/reflection...

Reflections on Free Speech; The Lost Art of Debate; Machiavelli on ‘Good’ Cruelty; When Hitchens was Great

Reading, Watching 09.21.25

www.unpopularfront.news

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 23d

Cute alert

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Ben Mullin @benmullin.bsky.social · 24d

NEW: "I loved him." Bob Woodward remembers Robert Redford

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/b...

Bob Woodward Remembers Robert Redford

www.nytimes.com

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Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 24d

BREAKING:

Two of the terrorism-related counts charged against Luigi Mangione are "legally insufficient," but the others stand, a Manhattan judge rules.

Judge Carro announced his ruling at the start of the hearing.

Full ruling www.nycourts.gov/legacypdfs/p...

www.nycourts.gov

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Carrie Johnson @carriejohnson.bsky.social · 28d

This week has been a year. Here’s Archie in full puppy mode.

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