Kate Riga
@kateriga.bsky.social
46K followers 130 following 210 posts
Covering the Supreme Court (especially reproductive rights) etc at TPM & co-hosting the Josh Marshall Podcast; Philly-born Mystics diehard 🚴‍♀️🏃‍♀️. Call me/beep me: [email protected]. 📸 Leah Miessler, Anna Moneymaker
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kateriga.bsky.social
Phew, from DOJ's Eric McArthur on Portland ICE protesters: "These are violent people and if at any point we let down our guard, there is a serious risk of ongoing violence"
kateriga.bsky.social
Full-on SCOTUS audition today by Nelson: do you admit that it was "ill advised" by the city of Portland to order the boards be taken off the ICE building?

His whole thesis is: we don't know what Trump is seeing behind the scenes, so how could we possibly question his judgment in sending in troops?
kateriga.bsky.social
Two Trump judges (Nelson, Bade) on 9th circuit panel really trying to outperform each other in their eagerness to give Trump the ability to deploy the Guard to unwilling states based on events that occurred months earlier. Lotttt of beating up on Oregon's Judge Immergut, who blocked deployments
kateriga.bsky.social
Trump drove civil servants out of government, attacked universities/news outlets, turned the CDC into an anti-vax megaphone & inflated ICE into an untrained secret police force. In lockstep, SCOTUS discredits the experts before it, the better to extend the regime's hostility towards LGBTQ kids
kateriga.bsky.social
“Was there a time when many medical professionals thought that certain people should not be permitted to procreate because they had low IQs?” Alito mused, invoking the era of eugenics. Eg: Doctors have been wrong before, so we couldn't possibly trust medical consensus (that opposes my beliefs) now.
kateriga.bsky.social
In this case, no amount of medical consensus can convince the Court’s majority that conversion therapy is a harmful practice — they poke holes in the mountain of evidence on the anti-conversion therapy side and elevate pseudoscience on the other.
kateriga.bsky.social
The political right's greatest project is discrediting experts. Only in a "do your own research" world can their cultural preferences - anti-abortion, anti-gender affirming care - claim equal legitimacy to the left's medically-backed positions on those issues. SCOTUS is a full partner in that effort
talkingpointsmemo.com
The Supreme Court's conservatives advanced the right's greater project of discrediting experts Tuesday, feigning that there is no medical consensus against conversion therapy.
The Medical Science Is Always ‘Uncertain’ When It Pushes Against Supreme Court’s Bias
If you came into Tuesday’s oral argument over Colorado’s conversion therapy ban...
talkingpointsmemo.com
kateriga.bsky.social
DOJ's Hamilton pipes up that he wants a stay pending appeal or an administrative stay - judge says no to both - hearing concludes. Phew
kateriga.bsky.social
Judge will hand down new TRO that "prohibits the relocation, federalization, or deployment of any National Guard under federal command" "within the state of Oregon"
kateriga.bsky.social
In real time during hearing, Judge Immergut grants Oregon/California's motion for another temporary restraining order - now talking through scope of relief based on "conduct of defendants," which she sees in "direct contravention" to first order
kateriga.bsky.social
Oregon's Kennedy says they need broader relief now, given the 11th hour mobilization of the Texas Guard — now says they need protection from the Guard of every state/DC to protect from this "gamesmanship," "rhetorical whack-a-mole"
kateriga.bsky.social
Hamilton keeps saying CA Guard already "properly federalized" so it's fine to deploy them in Portland — judge says that's not the point, you need a "colorable claim" in Portland but they don't have one, "we've already been over this"
kateriga.bsky.social
Judge Immergut asks Hamilton sternly if this is an appropriate way for an officer of the court to deal with a judge's ruling he disagrees with
kateriga.bsky.social
Judge to DOJ's Eric Hamilton: "You're an officer of the court," asks how this could be anything but "circumventing my order" — "how is this appropriate?"
kateriga.bsky.social
Finally in and the hearing just began - judge starts by announcing deployment of Cali and Texas National Guard to Portland. Judge asks DOJ: "How could bringing in the federal national guard from California not be in direct contravention to the TRO I issued yesterday?"
kateriga.bsky.social
1) Trump-appointed judge rules admin cannot deploy Oregon National Guard to Portland 2) Trump admin deploys California Guard there instead, circumventing her ruling 3) CA joins Portland/Oregon in filing for a second temporary restraining order 4) judge schedules emergency hearing (about to start)
kateriga.bsky.social
-“Some events? And that’s enough to call up the National Guard?”
-“Really? A social media post is going to count as a presidential determination that you can send the National Guard into cities?"

More: talkingpointsmemo.com/news/thats-e...
‘That’s Enough To Call Up The National Guard?’ Trump-Appointed Judge Skeptical Of Portland Occupation
U.S District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, was brimming with skepticism...
talkingpointsmemo.com
kateriga.bsky.social
Trump DOJ successfully pressed the Obama-appointed judge assigned to the Portland National Guard case to recuse himself, and the case got reassigned to a Trump appointee. But based on some of her questions today, it might not be the advantage the admin hoped for:
kateriga.bsky.social
was surprised that Kacsmaryk allowed the big mifepristone case out of his clutches, as clearly flawed as the jurisdictional arguments were — but a look at who appointed the active judges at the court he sent it to cleared it up
It's a list of the appointees of the 9 active judges at the eastern district of Missouri — 7 of them were appointed by Trump, one by George W. Bush and one by Obama
kateriga.bsky.social
Republicans voted down the effort to subpoena Carr (led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) — Garcia, the ranking Dem, said he and Comer are in talks to get Carr to come voluntarily
kateriga.bsky.social
Comer replies that he's friends with Carr and thinks he'd be willing to come in
kateriga.bsky.social
In unrelated hearing on DC with DC leadership, Rep. Ro Khanna is introducing a motion to subpoena FCC Chair Brendan Carr to come testify before Oversight Committee after the Jimmy Kimmel cancellation
kateriga.bsky.social
New from me + @emineirmakyucel.bsky.social about the damage Trump/allies did to DC before flooding it with armed federal law enforcement under pretext that its own government can't handle the fabricated crime spike talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-a...
Trump and Allies Weakened DC Into an Easier Occupation Target
President Trump flooded Washington D.C. with armed federal law enforcement under the...
talkingpointsmemo.com