Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 12h

When Comey was indicted by the insurance atty he found willing to do it (after career prosecutor resigned), even the NYT reported it as it was: an effort “to harry, punish and humiliate a former official the president identified as an enemy.” This story should be covered exactly the same way.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 12h

CNN: We have just learned that Letitia James has just been indicted by the DOJ

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Larry Ferlazzo @larryferlazzo.bsky.social · 15h

Oklahoma’s Republican governor criticizes guard deployment. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...

Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association, on Thursday criticized the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois as a violation of his beliefs in federalism and “states’ rights.”

His comments, in an interview with The New York Times, marked the first time a Republican governor has questioned the interstate deployment of National Guard troops over a governor’s objections. Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and other Democratic elected officials have been strongly critical of the move and have implored Republican governors to join the opposition.

Mr. Stitt on Thursday said, “We believe in the federalist system — that’s states’ rights,” adding, “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”

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Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 18h

Once again, so wish Bloomberg Law wasn't behind such an expensive paywall. Reporter credited for the story is Bloomberg's Seth Stern in DC, [email protected]. /end

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Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 18h

Bloomberg quotes judge: “I trust and rely upon the men and women of the US Marshals Service and the Court Security Officers to provide security... At no point did I, nor did the Building Security Committee, authorize or request the National Guard’s assistance to secure the Dirksen Courthouse.” /2

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Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 18h

Remarkable stmt from Chicago’s chief federal trial court judge (a GWBush appointee) making clear troops aren’t needed to secure the city’s US courthouse. This, in response to DHS's request for nat'l guard troops to help protect the courthouse during cases involving ICE "activities and personnel.” /1

Bloomberg Law

news.bloomberglaw.com

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 1d

Michigan Avenue right now.

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Count Every Hero @counteveryhero.org · 1d

Nine former service secretaries + retired four-star admirals and generals filed a brief in federal court in Illinois today challenging the administration’s deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago as a dangerous trend of politicizing the military, and militarizing society. 🔗 bit.ly/48gA25b

“Over the short period of only the past several months, the Administration has abandoned the American tradition against domestic deployment of the military, embracing instead what the District Court of Oregon described as ‘martial law,’” they wrote. “The Administration has suggested it plans to use United States cities as ‘training grounds’ for the military, turning our troops on the ‘enemy within’ – the very people they have proudly sworn to protect, with their own lives if necessary. Thousands of troops have been deployed in at least five such communities over the objection of local leaders, with the promise of more.”

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Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 1d

O good, Trump prefers to leave the Q whether to suspend habeas corpus not to Congress - the only institution the Const gives the suspension power - but to the DHS Sec'y who thinks habeas is about a president's authority "to remove people from this country." www.npr.org/2025/05/20/n...

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Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 1d

People ask what they can do in this moment: here's a crucially important election. There are 52,000 elections taking place next month, many of which will be determined by turnout.

Alex Burness @burness.bsky.social · 2d

Dispatch from Pennsylvania on a highly unusual state Supreme Court election—one of the few most consequential matters on the ballot anywhere in the country next month. New from me in @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/pennsylvania...

Inside the Clunky Elections to Control Pennsylvania's Supreme Court - Bolts

The GOP is making an expensive push to end Democrats’ majority on a court at the center of election lawsuits, sparking a fledging campaign season with little precedent or template.

boltsmag.org

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

AP: “.. the administration has only pointed to unclassified video clips of the strikes posted on social media by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and has yet to produce ‘hard evidence’ that the vessels were carrying drugs.”

@apnews.com
apnews.com/article/trum...

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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 1d

“Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine said Wednesday that he and other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a classified briefing this week, were denied access to the Pentagon’s legal opinion about whether the boat strikes adhered to U.S. law.”

apnews.com/article/trum...

Trump has yet to provide Congress hard evidence that targeted boats carried drugs, officials say

The Trump administration hasn't provided evidence to lawmakers that recent U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats were justified.

apnews.com

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Princeton PLAW @plawpu.bsky.social · 1d

P•LAW is now accepting applications for visiting law fellows for the academic year 2026-27. This full-time visiting program is open to legal scholars engaged in research and writing on contemporary issues in law and public policy. @debpearlstein.bsky.social plaw.law.princeton.edu/faculty/cran...

Crane Fellowship in Law and Public Policy

plaw.law.princeton.edu

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Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 1d

Yup, the only possible solution for this is the 82nd Airborne.

Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 2d

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

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Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 1d

Yup, the only possible solution for this is the 82nd Airborne.

Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 2d

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 3d

Less than a year into the Trump admin and the National Governors Association, founded over 115 years ago, is on the brink of collapse.

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 3d

Pritzker is also furious: “Should National Governors Association leadership choose to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.”

Gov. JB Pritzker’s letter to the National Governors Association

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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 3d

The Senate Judiciary Committee needs to get a copy of this OLC memo publicly released.

www.cnn.com/2025/10/06/p...

Exclusive: Classified Justice Department opinion authorizes strikes on secret list of cartels, sources say | CNN Politics

The Trump administration has produced a classified legal opinion that justifies lethal strikes against a secret and expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers, according to multiple peop...

www.cnn.com

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Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 3d

Need an antidote to doomerism? @johnfabianwitt.bsky.social has a terrific piece based on his book arguing the best parallel to current circumstances isn't comparative but US success avoiding fascism c.1920 where Europe failed. Optimistic & cautionary both; a new progressive infrastructure is req'd.

John Fabian Witt @johnfabianwitt.bsky.social · 4d

Political violence, post-pandemic one-party rule, vast economic inequality, and immigration backlash? The 2020s are the 1920s all over again--and that may show us a way out. Adapted from my book, to be published next week. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

Opinion | How to Save the American Experiment

www.nytimes.com

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Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 3d

While we were sleeping:

A federal judge in Oregon has blocked the Trump administration from deploying any federalized National Guard—Texas, California, the state’s own—in Oregon.

That’s big news. Even bigger: She’s decided to hold a trial on the merits. That is: She’s putting people under oath.

Screenshot of court order, which reads in part:

“A combined hearing on the preliminary injunction motion land a trial on the meries
under Rule 65(al(2) is set for October 29, 2025l before the Honorable Judge Karin J. Immergut, in Courtroom 13A, beginning at 9:00 a.m.”

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 4d

"Headlines Matter" part six million

-Every part of this very good story is about MAGA/Doge/Vought *imposing* politics on civil servants

-Not what headline implies www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/u...

-What could it have said?
Same line length:
In Shutdown
Civil Service Is
Turned Political

NYT Headline:
In Shutdown
A Civil Service
Turns Political

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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 5d

A judge appointed by President Trump no less

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 5d

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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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 5d

Judge IMMERGUT, a Trump appointee to the bench, ruled that Trump's call-up was based on false claims about unrest in Portland and that Trump's own statements were "simply untethered to the facts." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Deborah Pearlstein @debpearlstein.bsky.social · 6d

First and Second Circuit Courts of Appeals striking birthright citizenship on the merits on the same day.

Reuters @reuters.com · 6d

Second US appeals court rejects Trump's order curtailing birthright citizenship reut.rs/4nCUhyO

Second US appeals court rejects Trump's order curtailing birthright citizenship

President Donald Trump's effort to curtail birthright citizenship was declared unconstitutional by a second U.S. appeals court on Friday, handing him another defeat on a core piece of his hardline immigration agenda whose ultimate fate may lay with the U.S. Supreme Court.

reut.rs

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Brian Soucek @brsoucek.bsky.social · 6d

Strong statement today from UC's Academic Senate:

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 6d

NEW: A 20-year federal prosecutor, fired abruptly this week even as he lead case against Abbey Gate bomber, warns his colleagues: the Trump administration is sacrificing national security to purge Trump's perceived adversaries.

w/ @dnlbrns

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Protect Democracy @protectdemocracy.org · 6d

BREAKING: Today, over 1,000 former DOJ officials who served in both Republican & Democratic administrations—have released a letter condemning the unprecedented, politically motivated indictment of fmr. FBI Director James Comey. Read their letter: protdem.org/3ITOo0Y

BREAKING DOJ Alumni Condemn Comey Indictment
A bipartisan group of over 1,000 former DOJ officials decry unprecedented abuse of power

"The indictment represents an unprecedented assault on the rule of law directed by President Donald Trump..."

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