Drew B. Howk
dhowk.bsky.social
Drew B. Howk
@dhowk.bsky.social
Health law litigator/appellate lawyer; GC. Husband in training. Geriatric millennial. Oxford comma believer & double space atheist. Traveling the world, collecting laugh lines & grays. FINAL - REALLY FINAL.v39

All posts mine alone - not advice.
The Court was not amused. www.courtlistener.com/docket/69837...
April 29, 2025 at 2:55 AM
The We The People program is an amazing chance not just for students but for community members to engage and be reinvigorated by civics. Find your local org - like the Indiana Bar Foundation - and volunteer. They always need and welcome judges.

Proud to be a part of INBF’s fantastic program.
Each year, teams of students from across the country travel to DC and discuss the Constitution.

I was one, in 1996. Which is how I know how crazy it is for a *TWO-person* team to win it all.

A heartwarming and eerily timely feature by Hank Sanders…

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/u...
Two-Student Team Stuns the Competition at U.S. Constitution Contest (Gift Article)
Matthew Meyers and Colin Williams of Oregon won first place at the national U.S. Constitution Team competition. Then came the recount that threatened to unravel their achievement.
www.nytimes.com
April 20, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Listening to my wife and her friends nonironically ‘remember’ they have email then talk about how they never check it. . . Straight up feels like time travel.
April 19, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Pi day : the one day a year that Indiana gets relief from being a national embarrassment as the home state of VP Pence.
"Were the world to adopt Goodwin's copyrighted number, the thinking went, textbook publishers everywhere might be forced to pay him royalties -- except the state of Indiana, which would receive use of Goodwin's discovery free of charge." WHAT?! abcnews.go.com/US/happy-pi-...
Happy Pi Day. Indiana once tried to define pi as 3.2. The bill almost passed.
The Indiana state legislature once took up a bill to define pi as 3.2. It almost passed.
abcnews.go.com
March 14, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Sending Mizelle to argue this TRO for DOJ will not have been anyone's best decision this day, this week, this month, this year, or this. . . .

The Court is having to teach law school and conduct a hearing at the same time.

Turns out, court isn't Tweeting.
March 12, 2025 at 7:08 PM
This is literally the reason the Founders put speech in the first of the Amendments.

Having created a powerful federal government, they knew the primary threat to its viability would be any part of that government seeking to smother the Peoples’ freedom to think and speak.
The president, who last week told Congress he had "stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America," said today that the government had arrested a student because of his disfavored opinions.

"This is the first arrest of many to come," he said.
Trump takes credit for Mahmoud Khalil's arrest by ICE:
March 10, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Who do I call to tell I’m officially tired of winning?

I’ll even channel my assistant’s fake-nice voice and pretend I mean it.
March 4, 2025 at 3:41 AM
My only regret is that I had but one subscription to give up for democracy.
This is an opinion piece that evidently meets Jeff Bezos' new test for supporting "personal liberties and free markets."

Support pro-democracy independent media.
March 3, 2025 at 2:04 AM
#LawSky / #AppellateSky- I know I’ve seen some organizations out there helping connect term’d DOJ & Gov’t attorneys with other attorneys for networking and hiring opportunities.

Does anyone have those orgs / links ?
February 28, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Not even bothering to come up with new ideas :

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.”

Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2

I’m guessing they haven’t read it to the end. . .
Hegseth says firing of top military lawyers was about making sure "they don't exist to be roadblocks to anything that happens."
February 23, 2025 at 6:11 PM
The news is rough sometimes - then you find articles like this. Smart people doing amazing things to make a better future.

I'll take more of this right now.
New Technique Turns Ordinary Rocks Into Carbon-Capturing Machines
The method speeds up CO2 absorption—potentially helping the fight against climate change.
gizmodo.com
February 23, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I feel seen.

The real superpower isn’t in the article. It also lets you ‘unpop’ you ears when the pressure is off.

Where are the rest of the mutants out there?
February 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Bad news. Only we can save ourselves.
February 20, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Some reasons we ditched a King the last go around :

"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good...

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world [and]

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us."
Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling a...
www.archives.gov
February 20, 2025 at 2:46 AM
How are there still leopards that can even eat still? It beaks the imagination.
DOJ will not drop the conviction of a Jan. 6 defendant for conspiring to murder FBI agents and other law enforcement

Edward Kelley said the case was “related” to his Jan. 6 conviction and should be covered by Trump’s proclamation. “The defendant is wrong” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
February 19, 2025 at 1:51 AM
So we’ve entered the “Mike Pence will as voice of reason” stage.

As a Hoosier. Can 100% vouch this isn’t a good plan.
Mike Pence just reposted an old article he wrote about the limitations on the powers of a president. For some reason. Here is a part of it.
February 15, 2025 at 11:06 PM
So - is this how the Purge starts? Never watched it.
February 15, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Unsurprising to learn that the only reason someone would step forward and consider doing this was because they were being strong-armed and thinking first of protecting their colleagues.

I'm equal parts deeply embarrassed for our country, and deeply humbled by these principled public servants.
Acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove assembled DOJ's remaining public corruption prosecutors this morning and gave them an hour to find someone to sign the Eric Adams dismissal.

One of them agreed to do it, to spare the others from potentially being fired.

www.reuters.com/world/us/fed...
February 14, 2025 at 10:09 PM
This is as stunning as it is a sad moment for this country.

But young lawyers take note. This is how you put country first.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Read the Resignation Letter From Hagan Scotten
Hagan Scotten, an assistant U.S. attorney, wrote to Emil Bove, acting deputy attorney general, refusing to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams.
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2025 at 5:08 PM
This timeline man. Whew. Couldn't script it.
One of the two lawsuits seeking to invalidate Elon Musk's role in the government has been assigned to ... Tanya Chutkan:
February 14, 2025 at 4:23 PM
This is how you write.
READ Danielle Sassoon's letter to AG Pam Bondi, via @nytimes.com:

"Rather than be rewarded, Adams's advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case." static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...
February 13, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Incredible amount of grit to put principles out front like this.

I should hope to have half that steel in my spine if ever faced with such a call.

Humbled to be a member of a noble profession today.

#lawsky #appellatesky
Valor

Danielle Sassoon, Acting U.S. attorney for SDNY - refuses to drop Adams charges and resigns

John Keller, Acting head of DOJ Public Integrity Section - refuses and resigns

Kevin Driscoll, Acting head of DOJ Criminal Division - refuses and resigns

www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
Top federal prosecutor in N.Y. resigns after refusing to drop Adams charges
Two top prosecutors in Washington also resigned over the DOJ order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
www.nbcnews.com
February 13, 2025 at 10:39 PM
'And I said, Hunny, how many times do I have to tell you? You don't need to prewash the dishes. It wastes the water.'
February 13, 2025 at 1:50 AM
When Freedom Fries just seems so passé.
February 11, 2025 at 4:33 PM
I thought I was alone. But Bluesky again reminding me - here, you’re among friends.
Tom Brady is wearing pants with belt loops but no belt and it is upsetting me. This has been the Guy Who Used To Work At GQ post of the night.
February 11, 2025 at 3:09 AM