ICYMI (Law)
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ICYMI (Law)
@icymilaw.org
I’m a law-themed discovery bot built by @davidcolarusso.com. Follow me to add a dash of law talk to your timeline—roughly 60 posts/day. Approximate algo: follow law folks; share new & popular posts.

Daily digest: https://icymilaw.org (news & scholarship)
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I'm a discovery tool for law talk on Bluesky—distilling a firehose of law-themed posts into something more approachable. I'm here to help folks find stuff they would otherwise miss, be it because they don't know where to look or because it's hard to spot in the crowd.

This is what I do: 🧵👇
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
Catch up on our recent analysis:

• Minnesota / ICE and CBP Operations
• U.S. Actions Related to Venezuela
• Iran
• Syria
• Symposium: Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity
• Symposium: International Courts and Ending Wars
• Global Governance
• Trump Executive Actions
• Emerging Technologies
Digest of Recent Articles on Just Security (Jan. 24-30, 2026)
Minnesota / ICE and CBP Operations • Collection: U.S. Lethal Strikes • U.S. Actions Related to Venezuela • Syria • Symposium: Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity • Symposium: International Courts and En...
www.justsecurity.org
January 31, 2026 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
When is a fine on a company not a fine?

When it is levied on England's water companies with nearly 1,200 criminal convictions.

Headline grabbing fines are announced but not collected for years, not even paid.

No pressure on water companies to obey laws.

Water companies indulged by govt. Why?
Public ownership of water is the only way to deliver security, efficiency, investment and value for money
37 years of privatisation has been a disaster
leftfootforward.org
January 31, 2026 at 8:11 AM
ICYMI, this was yesterday's 🔥 news item among the law-type folks I know. See context at https://icymilaw.org/archive/2026-01-31.html#news (daily news digest). Article here 👇
How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are
www.nytimes.com
January 31, 2026 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
A sordid bankshot: Patriots owner Robert Kraft had just been indicted for a sex crime in S. Fla (soliciting prostitution), so Jeffrey Epstein reached out to Brad Karp, chairman of the Paul Weiss biglaw firm offering to help find Kraft a lawyer.

Karp was among the earliest to capitulate to Trump.
The hits: they keep on coming
January 30, 2026 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
As luck would have it, my colleagues and I recently represented journalists in the Minnesota Supreme Court in a case involving allegations that they trespassed while newsgathering.

Here's an excerpt from our brief: assets.aclu.org/live/uploads...
January 30, 2026 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
Common use of the word “censorship”conflates three distinct things: (a) factual claims ab suppressing speech; (b) legal claims ab U.S. law; (c) a normative claims ab free speech values.

Elon slides between them interchangeably; the word becomes an escape hatch from accountability & chills others.
January 31, 2026 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
It doesn’t matter that Don Lemon hired a superstar attorney or that the case against him is meritless.

There are too many journalists with far less money and far fewer resources than Lemon who will be more cautious going forward. That was the intent, and that’s the main problem.
January 30, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
Here’s my @thenation.com post on the arrest of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, the violation of the First Amendment, and Trump’s ongoing attempts to change the face of his victims and spark a race war.
The Trump Administration Arrested Don Lemon Like He Was a Fugitive Slave
Lemon’s arrest is not only a clear violation of the First Amendment but a blatant throwback to the Constitution’s long-discarded Fugitive Slave Clause.
www.thenation.com
January 30, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
Why is DOJ announcing it will now, belatedly, do a civil rights investigation of the Pretti murder and NOT announce that is doing the same for Renee Good or announcing it is giving the state access to the evidence in both cases. Why? Only reason I can think of is to do a whitewash
January 30, 2026 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
More Nick Catoggio: “ICE now operates so far above the law in America that victims of its brutality may not have legal remedies available to them in any form. At any level of government….Joining ICE functionally gives you authority to shoot someone in the face without consequences.”
The Fall Gal
Firing Kristi Noem would be a simulacrum of accountability.
thedispatch.com
January 31, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
DEVELOPING: This might be 1st official sign of Don Lemon arrest in L.A. court records. Bednarski is a local lawyer working with Abbe Lowell on other matters. Interesting that this says affidavit, since indications were it is an indictment. Earlier: www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
January 30, 2026 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
An investigation by DHS is not a criminal civil rights investigation. Only FBI has jurisdiction for that. This seems like a misleading and hollow gesture to appease critics
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
Minnesota Live Updates: Justice Dept. Conducting Inquiry Into Pretti Killing
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota and Los Angeles refused to participate in the Trump regime’s prosecution of journalist Don Lemon

www.alternet.org/department-o...
January 30, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
Per @msnowreports.bsky.social: Career DOJ prosecutors in both Minnesota and Los Angeles have refused to charge Don Lemon and the other journalists who covered the Minneapolis church protests.
January 30, 2026 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
The DOJ just took down pages with detailed descriptions of Trump engaged in child rape and other pedophilia. We don't know if they have been corroborated, but we already know this DOJ will deny everything on behalf of their client.
January 30, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
The problem with the field is that we're dependent on politics, because it's politics that picks the judges

When you have a nullificationist Supreme Court, you're gonna find that suddenly nullification is respectable in the field
constitutional law knowerers love to go “you know, i don’t agree but the Right and Honorable Gentleman makes an interesting argument” and the argument is, like, “actually the constitution was written on Opposite Day”
January 30, 2026 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
Worth noting these lawyers did something brave and honorable and are mostly likely going to have find new jobs (in a crap job market) because they refused to go along with Harmeet Dhillon's corrupt orders.
Breaking on MS NOW:

Career DOJ prosecutors in both Minnesota and Los Angeles refused to be involved in charging Don Lemon and the other journalists who covered the Minneapolis church protests.

The prosecutors believe the evidence does not support the charges, per @carolleonnig.bsky.social.
January 30, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
I wrote this piece in 2020--but given ICE's use of face recognition and Pam Bondi posting mugshots on X, I'll share that since the 1890s, there has been concerns about the constitutionality of mugshots taken before conviction. Police retaining your photo erodes your presumption of innocence.
Facial Recognition Technology Is the New Rogues’ Gallery
The problem with facial recognition technology isn’t just that you could be mistaken for a suspect—it’s that it means your government doesn’t trust you.
slate.com
January 30, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
As Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, Blanche is unfit to serve as deputy AG and untrustworthy when it comes to holding predators accountable for their crimes
Blanche: "I do not whether there are men out there that abused these women. If we learn about information and evidence that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will. But I don't think the public is going to undercover men within the Epstein files that abused women. Unfortunately."
January 30, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
U.S. District Court Judge Margaret M. Garnett has dismissed two of Luigi Mangione’s four federal murder charges, including the only one that can carry the death penalty. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Memorandum & Opinion AND ~Util - Terminate Motions – #103 in United States v. Mangione (S.D.N.Y., 1:25-cr-00176) – CourtListener.com
OPINION & ORDER as to Luigi Nicholas Mangione. The Defendant's motion to dismiss Counts Three and Four of the Indictment is GRANTED. (Signed by Judge Margaret M. Garnett on 1/30/2026) (See ORDER set f...
storage.courtlistener.com
January 30, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
The investigation doesn't seem particularly "active" if the DOJ forgot these documents existed until a couple of months ago.
Blanche says that any Epstein document that "would jeopardize an active federal investigation" is not being released by the DOJ
January 30, 2026 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
Last week, a federal magistrate judge declined to sign off on an arrest warrant for Don Lemon, saying there was insufficient evidence.

DOJ arrested Lemon anyway last night, part of its escalating attacks on the First Amendment.
Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon arrested on charges connected to Minnesota church protest
Lemon’s lawyer said he was taken into custody after attending protest in which demonstrators disrupted a church service earlier in January
www.theguardian.com
January 30, 2026 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
At the end of the day doesn’t matter if we like/admire folks they decide to test out full blown authoritarian violations of the constitution on. It matters that we fight for everyone to be protected by the constitution. Solidarity is not the same as fandom or friendship, solidarity is what wins.
I thought this was fake, but apparently, they've arrested Don Lemon for reporting from Minneapolis.

I'm not a huge Don Lemon fan, but this is totalitarian nonsense meant to threaten anyone who reports on the regime's horrors.
Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Minnesota Church Protest
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
The arrests of Lemon and Fort are intended to deter journalists from doing work we need them to do, and that the First Amendment was meant to protect. DOJ should drop these prosecutions or the courts should throw them out. knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...
Knight Institute Condemns Arrest of Journalists Reporting on Minneapolis Protests
knightcolumbia.org
January 30, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by ICYMI (Law)
The party of free speech is at it again.

Also remember Florida was the first to pass its (unconstitutional) law suggesting that no political speech could ever be removed from social media, and desantis did a whole big thing about how Florida had the strongest free speech protections.
January 30, 2026 at 3:46 PM