Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 2h

See Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2017 New Yorker article on rereading Speer’s __Inside the Third Reich__.
www.newyorker.com/books/second...

Rereading Albert Speer’s “Inside the Third Reich”

Right-wing populism is rising around the world; there are lessons to be learned from the memoir of Hitler’s close associate.

www.newyorker.com

John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 2h

Who is President Trump’s Albert Speer, building such a model (whether it’s serious or just trolling)?

I think I know what Speer’s father would say about this, based on what he said about his son’s designs for Hitler’s “Germania,” and I agree: “Mad.”
#Nazis
#Nuremberg

Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 8h

Press pool: “On Trump’s desk in the Oval Office today was a plan for a triumphal arch on the other side of the river from the Lincoln Memorial”

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 11h

U.S. v. Letitia James.

An indictment in which District?

Obtained by which — unethical, because proper DOJ lawyers don’t do DoorDash deliveries — prosecutors?

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 18h

An important @dicktofel.bsky.social reminder that U.S. constitutional law is the U.S. people—it is the law that is constitutive of us. So don’t expect courts to “save” us from ourselves. Do stand for right values (such as press freedom), moral substance, and making better choices.

Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 20h

Why protecting free speech and a free press is most importantly a question of what we value. This week’s Second Rough Draft newsletter

open.substack.com/pub/dicktofe...

Freedom of the Press Isn’t Just a Legal Issue

Why constitutional values are even more important than case law

open.substack.com

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 22h

Very important @emptywheel.bsky.social thread, on media failures to report Pres. Trump delusions & absurd conduct.

This thread itself is a corrective, which you can make more real & effective by reading this & sharing this.

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 22h

I couldn't find stories in other outlets about,
1) POTUS is clearly OUT OF HIS MIND & as he was babbling WH announced a "yearly" physical tomorrow 6 mos after last one
2) FUCKING PIZZAGUY WAS TREATED AS AN EXPERT
3) Trump, whose Wormtongue is talking suspending habeas corpus, though it was a person

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 2d

AUSAs Nathaniel Lemons and Gabriel Diaz should remember their oaths of office, their professional responsibilities, their good names, and the future knowledge of their children and grandchildren, and then, morally fortified, they should reconsider/refuse/resign from DOJ.
@jamescomey.bsky.social

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 2d

Nathaniel (Tyler) Lemons and Gabriel Diaz both join the Comey case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

bsky.app/profile/anna...

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 2d

Lindsey Halligan has company on the Comey docket:

Ahead of tomorrow’s arraignment, Nathaniel Lemons and Gabriel Diaz file notices of appearance on behalf of the United States.

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 2d

I look forward to being in Nuremberg this Friday-Sunday, eighty years since the International Military Tribunal commenced, for Nuremberg Forum 2025.

Click the registration link below for program details, and register to join us online.

International Nuremberg Principles Academy @nurembergacademy.bsky.social · Jun 6

Registration is open for Nuremberg Forum 2025! Join us 10–12 Oct in the historic Courtroom 600 to mark 80 years since Nuremberg & explore how to strengthen international criminal law. Info & sign-up: bit.ly/4dLC8KU

#NueForum #NurembergForum2025

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 2d

This is very good—it’s a true service to/must read for U.S. Judges, on their options as they decide cases about the legality of Executive actions.

Marin K. Levy @marinklevy.bsky.social · 10d

Just posted a new essay with @williambaude.bsky.social and Sam Bray -

"Remedies for a Constitutional Crisis" (forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review).

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Remedies for a Constitutional Crisis

<p><span>In a crisis of authority, where it is unclear whether executive officials will comply with judicial decisions, the courts may seem to have limited reme

papers.ssrn.com

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 3d

This is "First Monday"--the U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term at 1000 this morning.

From the #JacksonList archive, here are essays about Robert H. Jackson and First Mondays.
@scotushistory.bsky.social
@rhjc.bsky.social
thejacksonlist.com?s=%22First+M...

Search Results for “"First Monday"” – The Jackson List

thejacksonlist.com

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 4d

Video, May 3, 2016:
Sen. Ted Cruz’s shining moment in Evansville, Indiana, calling out opponent Donald Trump for being an amoral, narcissistic, pathological liar.
(And the nine-plus years since are so much more evidence that this @sentedcruz.bsky.social was right.)
newsroom.ap.org/editorial-ph...

Newsroom

newsroom.ap.org

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 4d

Watch this video. This might be a lawful arrest by ICE agents. But it is inhumane—violent, cruel, unnecessary.

So who, really, would choose to do this? No one who remembers love from family; kindness from neighbors, teachers, coaches; values of decent upbringing. No decent person needs *this* job.

Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 4d

coloradosun.com/2025/10/01/i...

“There’s a baby!” ICE agents stop Alamosa family at gunpoint, smash car window

Immigration arrest last week in southern Colorado follows national trend of escalating force from ICE agents

coloradosun.com

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 5d

What specifically does this mean?

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 5d

Excellent, very important episode.

Reposted by John Q. Barrett

David Cole @davidcole-gtown.bsky.social · 17d

There’s abuse of power. And then there’s ordering the killing of civilians in cold blood. The latter is called murder under federal law.

Trump has crossed a line. Will it matter?

Getting Away with Murder | David Cole | The New York Review of Books

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

Getting Away with Murder | David Cole

During his first presidential campaign Donald Trump famously claimed that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not lose

www.nybooks.com

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 5d

bsky.app/profile/davi...

David Cole @davidcole-gtown.bsky.social · 17d

There’s abuse of power. And then there’s ordering the killing of civilians in cold blood. The latter is called murder under federal law.

Trump has crossed a line. Will it matter?

Getting Away with Murder | David Cole | The New York Review of Books

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

Getting Away with Murder | David Cole

During his first presidential campaign Donald Trump famously claimed that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not lose

www.nybooks.com

John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 6d

He must know better. So yes, this sentence — this performative lying — is unfitness for public office.

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 6d

bsky.app/profile/1rob...

Rob Gunther @1robgunther.bsky.social · 12d

Remember when Bush fired a bunch of of US attorneys for political reasons and Congress investigated the hell out of the firings and Alberto Gonzales eventually had to step down as AG?

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 13d

Yet another US Attorney fired — this time in California, for… telling people to abide by a court order. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 6d

bsky.app/profile/1rob...

Rob Gunther @1robgunther.bsky.social · 12d

Remember when Bush fired a bunch of of US attorneys for political reasons and Congress investigated the hell out of the firings and Alberto Gonzales eventually had to step down as AG?

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 13d

Yet another US Attorney fired — this time in California, for… telling people to abide by a court order. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 6d

DOJ reorganization — dumb to crime-protecting in almost every particular.

And not authorized by law?

Note abolition of the Tax Division, a component of combined, related civil & criminal law expertise (which AAG Robert H. Jackson headed in 1936).
@rhjc.bsky.social

Reuters @reuters.com · 7d

The Justice Department eliminated 275 positions and shuttered its Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces. The restructuring affects 140 federal employees through elimination or reassignment, marking the largest DOJ reorganization in two decades reut.rs/4nxYuUg

Exclusive: US scraps Justice Department task force that took on cartels, documents show

The U.S. Justice Department is closing a task force that took on drug cartels and an office that aimed to ease racial tensions, in a reorganization that drops a plan to merge the nation's top drug and gun law enforcement agencies, documents seen by Reuters show.

reut.rs

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 6d

I never met Judge Bazelon or Justice Powell. But Joel Klein is take-it-to-the-bank honest.

The lessons here are that happily life can work out anyway (he found Powell, & vice versa), and that there’s no defense for judges who are abusive to staff, litigants, media, commentators, anyone.

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 9d

Former clerk's memoir in which Judge Bazelon comes off poorly, Justice Powell well [Joel Klein]

Ancient Wisdom: How a Supreme Court Justice Changed My Life

"Justice Lewis Powell taught me many things," Joel Klein writes, "including what humility was about, and how to let your thoughts evolve even at an age when most people see theirs harden."

www.thefp.com

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 8d

It just struck me that UET resembles UTI…. Maybe both continue to be treatable.

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 8d

Earlier this year, “federal authorities tracked Mr. Comey’s phone….” — ??
@nytimes.com
#CriminalProcedure
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/u...

Trump and Comey: An Escalating Conflict With No Off-Ramp

www.nytimes.com

John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 8d

Pres. Trump’s Office of Management & Budget has refused to spend appropriated funds for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE). This isn’t part of the government shutdown. It is action to thwart oversight. CIGIE’s website is dark.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/u...

Trump Administration Defunds Federal Watchdog Office

www.nytimes.com

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 9d

I’m drawing a blank.
But I was there when KC’s Steve Busby no hit the Brewers….

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John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 9d

Trying to think of who played for both. Mayberry?

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