Jay Willis
@jaywillis.net
I write about courts, democracy, media, and the raccoon family living in a tree behind my house. Bluesky’s ONLY fantasy football guru. EIC @ballsandstrikes.org, more writing at jaywillis.net.
A tradition unlike any other: my dog spending 48 hours after I cut her hair visibly terrified of me every time I walk in the room
November 26, 2025 at 1:36 AM
A tradition unlike any other: my dog spending 48 hours after I cut her hair visibly terrified of me every time I walk in the room
Reposted by Jay Willis
Pesky Verge ethics policy strikes again in this killer @andyjayhawk.bsky.social piece looking into car YouTube’s obsession with Chinese EVs and the company organizing the access and junkets. Comments from DeMuro, TFL, OmarDrives, and more -> www.theverge.com/transportati...
November 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Pesky Verge ethics policy strikes again in this killer @andyjayhawk.bsky.social piece looking into car YouTube’s obsession with Chinese EVs and the company organizing the access and junkets. Comments from DeMuro, TFL, OmarDrives, and more -> www.theverge.com/transportati...
There are times Antonin Scalia thought diversity was important and necessary (when it got him nominated to the Supreme Court), and times when he thought it was ridiculous and illegal (when there were Black kids going to Harvard)
Antonin Scalia Was a Diversity Hire
The late justice spent his career ridiculing the notion that elite institutions had any interest in diversity. He might not have made the Supreme Court without it.
ballsandstrikes.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:33 PM
There are times Antonin Scalia thought diversity was important and necessary (when it got him nominated to the Supreme Court), and times when he thought it was ridiculous and illegal (when there were Black kids going to Harvard)
Emil Bove has no business being a lawyer, let alone a life-tenured appeals court judge. "Just sink the boats" is an idea that shouldn't come from anyone with more power than a 13-year-old who plays too much Call of Duty
Report: Trump’s Most Corrupt, Least Qualified Judge Was Also an Enthusiastic Proponent of Extrajudicial Killings
Yet another reason for Senate Democrats to impeach Emil Bove the moment they take back the upper chamber.
ballsandstrikes.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Emil Bove has no business being a lawyer, let alone a life-tenured appeals court judge. "Just sink the boats" is an idea that shouldn't come from anyone with more power than a 13-year-old who plays too much Call of Duty
Is Davante Adams the first-ever combination wide receiver and goal line back
November 24, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Is Davante Adams the first-ever combination wide receiver and goal line back
Ironclad law of fantasy football is that if you spend a lot of time thinking about and then pull off what you imagine to be a savvy trade, it will immediately blow up in your face in hilarious and spectacular fashion
November 24, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Ironclad law of fantasy football is that if you spend a lot of time thinking about and then pull off what you imagine to be a savvy trade, it will immediately blow up in your face in hilarious and spectacular fashion
This fucking guy is going to have me paying for a fucking Telos subscription
November 22, 2025 at 5:44 AM
This fucking guy is going to have me paying for a fucking Telos subscription
A trade just went through in my fantasy football league that has kicked off an irate group text exchange at 50 messages and counting, along with five enraged side texts and now a half-hour phone call
November 21, 2025 at 7:35 PM
A trade just went through in my fantasy football league that has kicked off an irate group text exchange at 50 messages and counting, along with five enraged side texts and now a half-hour phone call
Reposted by Jay Willis
Just a little FYI from @jaywillis.net
Antonin Scalia Was a Diversity Hire
The late justice spent his career ridiculing the notion that elite institutions had any interest in diversity. He might not have made the Supreme Court without it.
ballsandstrikes.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Just a little FYI from @jaywillis.net
Pretty revealing, in my view, that Scalia spent his entire career ridiculing diversity and affirmative action for underrepresented groups, given that the Reagan White House put him on the Supreme Court in part because it really, really wanted to nominate the first-ever Italian American justice
Antonin Scalia Was a Diversity Hire
The late justice spent his career ridiculing the notion that elite institutions had any interest in diversity. He might not have made the Supreme Court without it.
ballsandstrikes.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Pretty revealing, in my view, that Scalia spent his entire career ridiculing diversity and affirmative action for underrepresented groups, given that the Reagan White House put him on the Supreme Court in part because it really, really wanted to nominate the first-ever Italian American justice
Ref really sold that “pass interference…OFFENSE” reveal, great stuff
November 21, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Ref really sold that “pass interference…OFFENSE” reveal, great stuff
Blogger Jay Willis Said to Be Interested In MacArthur Genius Grant
Litigator Erin Hawley Said to Be Interested in Circuit Judgeship
A Trump-appointed trial judge and a senior Justice Department official are included on a White House list of candidates interviewing for a federal appeals court seat in Missouri, a person familiar wit...
news.bloomberglaw.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Blogger Jay Willis Said to Be Interested In MacArthur Genius Grant
Dumb and embarrassing that ostensibly serious journalists are laundering Sarah Isgur's reputation now to the point where she gets billed as a Trump outsider who is "deeply concerned about his overreach" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...
November 20, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Dumb and embarrassing that ostensibly serious journalists are laundering Sarah Isgur's reputation now to the point where she gets billed as a Trump outsider who is "deeply concerned about his overreach" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...
It is bad and alarming for Trump to call for the executions of other elected officials, but it is also absolutely a sign of weakness. He’s afraid and flailing. Presidents only crash out like this when they’re in extreme distress.
November 20, 2025 at 5:06 PM
It is bad and alarming for Trump to call for the executions of other elected officials, but it is also absolutely a sign of weakness. He’s afraid and flailing. Presidents only crash out like this when they’re in extreme distress.
Reposted by Jay Willis
For Big Game week between Cal and Stanford I tracked down the anonymous Oski and Stanford Tree who got into a nationally televised brawl on ESPN 30 years ago that required police intervention. The untold story involves 18 beers, suspensions & lots of blood.
My latest:
www.sfgate.com/collegesport...
My latest:
www.sfgate.com/collegesport...
What really happened the night Oski beat up the Stanford Tree
"I must've been 18 beers deep at that point. I was in big trouble."
www.sfgate.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:28 PM
For Big Game week between Cal and Stanford I tracked down the anonymous Oski and Stanford Tree who got into a nationally televised brawl on ESPN 30 years ago that required police intervention. The untold story involves 18 beers, suspensions & lots of blood.
My latest:
www.sfgate.com/collegesport...
My latest:
www.sfgate.com/collegesport...
If you are a right-wing freak judge, there is no funnier way to kick off your jumbled, screeching mess of a dissenting opinion in a voting rights case by immeidately announcing that your dissenting opinion is a jumbled, screeching mess electionlawblog.org/wp-content/u...
November 19, 2025 at 9:38 PM
If you are a right-wing freak judge, there is no funnier way to kick off your jumbled, screeching mess of a dissenting opinion in a voting rights case by immeidately announcing that your dissenting opinion is a jumbled, screeching mess electionlawblog.org/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Jay Willis
I present my review of "Unfettered," John Fetterman's memoir. In between petty grievances about doing his job, Fetterman asserts that he's feeling good.
Two days after "Unfettered" came out, Fetterman fell directly on his face from ventricular fibrillation, a life-threatening heart rhythm disorder.
Two days after "Unfettered" came out, Fetterman fell directly on his face from ventricular fibrillation, a life-threatening heart rhythm disorder.
John Fetterman's Memoir Is As Low-Effort As His Senate Tenure | Defector
John Fetterman’s just-released memoir, Unfettered, argues that he’s turned a corner and has everything under control. Fetterman was a “stubborn asshole” (his words), he was clinically depressed, he wa...
defector.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:10 PM
I present my review of "Unfettered," John Fetterman's memoir. In between petty grievances about doing his job, Fetterman asserts that he's feeling good.
Two days after "Unfettered" came out, Fetterman fell directly on his face from ventricular fibrillation, a life-threatening heart rhythm disorder.
Two days after "Unfettered" came out, Fetterman fell directly on his face from ventricular fibrillation, a life-threatening heart rhythm disorder.
I find Mike Davis's involvement in Trump's judicial nominations process fascinating, because all available evidence suggests that he has the critical thinking skills of a high school sophomore cribbing from Simple English Wikipedia www.foxnews.com/opinion/mike...
November 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I find Mike Davis's involvement in Trump's judicial nominations process fascinating, because all available evidence suggests that he has the critical thinking skills of a high school sophomore cribbing from Simple English Wikipedia www.foxnews.com/opinion/mike...
Reposted by Jay Willis
The conservative justices are helping Trump poison your drinking water now
How the Supreme Court Helped Trump Deliver More Pollution In Your Drinking Water
A proposed rule change from Trump’s EPA would strip federal protections from 85 percent of the nation’s wetlands.
ballsandstrikes.org
November 19, 2025 at 5:13 PM
The conservative justices are helping Trump poison your drinking water now
Reposted by Jay Willis
This is an excellent story. We got similar pitches from the same writer at Defector and if they had not been entirely generated by someone plugging prompts into The Fabulism Device they really would've been cool.
A few months ago @thelocal.to got a promising pitch from a writer with bylines in whole bunch of reputable publications—The Cut, The Guardian, Dwell, Architectural Digest, etc. Then I started investigating. Here's a story about fabulists in journalism's AI slop era. thelocal.to/investigatin...
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 19, 2025 at 4:23 PM
This is an excellent story. We got similar pitches from the same writer at Defector and if they had not been entirely generated by someone plugging prompts into The Fabulism Device they really would've been cool.
It's not any worse than anywhere else by virtue of the fact that it's happening in my hometown, but it is making me so angry tonight that I think I need to go take a walk
Immigration officials detain woman outside Issaquah immersion preschool
The Learning Nest Preschool was closed Friday and it is not clear when it may reopen, said owner and director Fatima Escareno.
www.seattletimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:23 AM
It's not any worse than anywhere else by virtue of the fact that it's happening in my hometown, but it is making me so angry tonight that I think I need to go take a walk
I think it should be a bigger deal that before Trump made him a life-tenured appeals court judge, Emil Bove was at DOJ taking the position that the White House should do war crimes
Report: Trump’s Most Corrupt, Least Qualified Judge Was Also an Enthusiastic Proponent of Extrajudicial Killings
Yet another reason for Senate Democrats to impeach Emil Bove the moment they take back the upper chamber.
ballsandstrikes.org
November 18, 2025 at 10:25 PM
I think it should be a bigger deal that before Trump made him a life-tenured appeals court judge, Emil Bove was at DOJ taking the position that the White House should do war crimes
Wow, time to do some journalism I guess
November 18, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Wow, time to do some journalism I guess
where is part two, and how many parts are we talking about here
November 18, 2025 at 7:44 PM
where is part two, and how many parts are we talking about here
At this point, the only real challenge for Democrats should be deciding how they will order their impeachment charges against Emil Bove as soon as they take back the Senate ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...
Report: Trump’s Most Corrupt, Least Qualified Judge Was Also an Enthusiastic Proponent of Extrajudicial Killings
Yet another reason for Senate Democrats to impeach Emil Bove the moment they take back the upper chamber.
ballsandstrikes.org
November 18, 2025 at 5:57 PM
At this point, the only real challenge for Democrats should be deciding how they will order their impeachment charges against Emil Bove as soon as they take back the Senate ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...