Melissa Stewart
@lissajostewart.bsky.social
11K followers 540 following 3.5K posts
Civil Rights Lawyer | Drag is not a crime | 🏳‍🌈 | [email protected] | Memphis | they/she
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lissajostewart.bsky.social
Just a reminder that pretty much everything Hitler did in Germany was legal and enabled by lawyers and judges who considered their duty to “the law” to be of supreme importance.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since Kagan’s vote yesterday.
klasfeldreports.com
Judge Murphy DENIES the motion to stop the flight taking the eight men from Djibouti to South Sudan.

It's "substantially similar" to the relief sought by orders paused by SCOTUS.

The flight is set to take off in roughly 30 minutes.

Background www.allrisenews.com/p/litman-sco...
Reposted by Melissa Stewart
djangowexler.bsky.social
My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but
lissajostewart.bsky.social
Idk if she’s Taylor or close to Taylor. But none of her collections seem like AI to me.
lissajostewart.bsky.social
I would bet all my money that JB’s poems are very much not AI
Reposted by Melissa Stewart
evanbernick.bsky.social
Turns out lawyers are on Bluesky
motherjones.com
Lawyers have been publicizing a new term to describe ICE's racially targeted detainments: a “Kavanaugh stop.”

Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy explains in this new video:
lissajostewart.bsky.social
Yeah but I’m really, really good at peace and stuff.
Reposted by Melissa Stewart
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
BREAKING: Federal judge finds the Trump admin likely violated the First (viewpoint discrimination) and Fifth (vagueness) Amendments in a case over changed domestic violence grant conditions.

Preliminary injunction issued.

(A TRO previously was issued.)

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Case 1:25-cv-00342-MRD-PAS
Document 72
1683
Filed 10/10/25 Page 1 of 39 PagelD #:
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND
RHODE ISLAND COALITION
AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. in his official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al.,
Defendants.
C.A. No. 25-cv-342-MRD-PAS
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Melissa R. DuBose, United States District Judge. Over twenty non-profit coalitions that receive federal grant money to help
support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault as well as members of
society who are unhoused or without stable housing filed suit against the United
States Departments of Health and Human Services ("HHS") and Housing and Urban
Development ("HUD") as well as various administrators and subagencies who fall
under and within these agencies (hereinafter the "Coalitions" or the "Plaintiffs").
Compl. at 1-4. The Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants are springing new conditions
on them as grantees and are requiring compliance with new spending restrictions on grant funds (the "Grants"), all in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act (the
"APA"), 5 U.S.C. § 706, the U.S. Constitution's clearly articulated separation of
Case 1:25-cv-00342-MRD-PAS Document 72
1684
Filed 10/10/25 Page 2 of 39 PagelD #:
powers principles such as the Article I Spending Clause, the First Amendment, and the Due Process Clause under the Fifth Amendment. Id. 11 4, 66-89. The new
conditions and certifications foisted upon the grantees are focused on compelling
compliance with sweeping changes imposed by the executive branch by way of Executive Orders ("E.O.s") aimed at eliminating programs that are perceived as promoting gender ideology; diversity, equity, and inclusion; elective abortions; and
antidiscrimination. Id. 11 21-31, MPI at 73-74. IV. CONCLUSION
As stated, the Court determines that the Plaintiffs have met their burden as
to the preliminary injunction factors and finds them entitled to relief. Pursuant to Section 705 of the APA, the Court finds that it is necessary and appropriate to grant
the Plaintiffs' request for a preliminary stay of the Challenged Conditions.
See 5
U.S.C. § 705 (permitting a reviewing court to "issue all necessary and appropriate
process to postpone the effective date of an agency action or to preserve status or
rights pending conclusion of the review proceedings on such conditions as may be
required and to the extent necessary to prevent irreparable injury").
38
Case 1:25-cv-00342-MRD-PAS Document 72 Filed 10/10/25 Page 39 of 39 PagelD #:
1721
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Melissa R. DuBose
United States District Judge
October 10, 2025
lissajostewart.bsky.social
Meanwhile Chuck’s personality is 93% limousine
lissajostewart.bsky.social
What madness leads a person to say this to David Fucking Simon
junoryleejournalism.com
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
Reposted by Melissa Stewart
justinlawguy.bsky.social
I do not think we have time to try and do a bunch of stuff, let the courts slowly walk it back, and then, and only then, do court reform

If court reform isn't a first 100 days kind of thing, then we'll have squandered the opportunity.
Reposted by Melissa Stewart
profgabriele.com
I know this case is all over - & it should be - but Turning Point USA has waged a harassment campaign against faculty for more than a decade. I know of at least a half dozen other faculty, personally, who have received death threats and several of those who felt so unsafe they too left their homes
davidho.bsky.social
Are we great yet?

Mark Bray, a Rutgers University professor and expert on anti-fascist groups, is fleeing to Spain with his family due to death threats that stem from a campaign by Turning Point USA and other conservative groups to get him fired, falsely labeling him as an antifa member.
Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats
An expert on anti-fascist groups who teaches at New Jersey’s flagship state university is moving his family overseas.
apnews.com
lissajostewart.bsky.social
Judge Nelson does have a particularly active imagination
lissajostewart.bsky.social
All I heard was “obstruct me harder daddy.”
poofer.bsky.social
Rise up Americans
lissajostewart.bsky.social
I never believe blinds but I like to know the gossip anyway
lissajostewart.bsky.social
I don’t have TikTok anymore, can someone give me the gist
Reposted by Melissa Stewart
leahlitman.bsky.social
From the Supreme Court opinion granting Trump immunity:

"Investigative & prosecutorial decisionmaking is the special province of the Executive ... allegations that the requested investigations were shams or proposed for an improper purpose do not divest the President of [his] exclusive authority"
lissajostewart.bsky.social
Yes but that doesn’t work for eating out.

At home I make my own ranch and vinaigrette but tend to purchase other kinds
lissajostewart.bsky.social
What do you MEAN your ranch dressing contains gluten? Why?? What are you putting in it??