Mark Histed
@markhisted.org
9.3K followers 1.3K following 630 posts
How brain neural nets do computations; we aim to understand differences in brain wiring, using lasers and neuro-AI. Lab head, NIH. Prev: policy for democracypolicy.network. Pers views only. neuro posts: #neuroscience /🧪
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markhisted.org
Proud to talk about defending the Constitution in front of the Capitol this week.

We are seeing the greatest assault on our freedoms of our lifetimes. The shredding of the Constitution must stop. The lawlessness must stop.
And Congress can and must stop it.
safa-science.bsky.social
Federal workers are speaking out on how the Trump regime is harming Americans:

"We stand here today at a moment of the greatest assault of our lifetimes on our freedoms. The US Constitution is being shredded... We are here to call on Congress to stand up and stop it."

youtu.be/uw1KwIBgrCw?...
Mark Histed, NIH Scientist *speaking in personal capacity
YouTube video by Civil Servants Coalition
youtu.be
markhisted.org
Lawlessness, and ignoring the constitution, are matters of the utmost public concern. This is a matter at the core of the speech clause of the First Amendment. And the public has a special interest in hearing from government employees on such issues.

This is First Amendment protected speech.
markhisted.org
When Russell Vought pushes something into the news on Friday night of a long weekend, is that a sign of strength — of a battle for public opinion he thinks he can win?
sherylnyt.bsky.social
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
Reposted by Mark Histed
jrakove.bsky.social
As I have argued previously, when one is living as we are in an ongoing constitutional crisis, that term loses its analytical meaning. The better term is constitutional failure, meaning that our institutions are no longer capable of fulfilling their responsibilities.
mcopelov.bsky.social
👇🎯 Folks look at you like you’re crazy when you say we’re in the midst of the worst Article I constitutional crisis in 🇺🇸 history, & then, well, 👇🤷‍♂️
donmoyn.bsky.social
To sum up: the President is not enforcing the law about TikTok access in order to structure the timing and sale of another giant social media platform to his political allies.
markhisted.org
more support for that analysis. yes
ddayen.bsky.social
I think we have enough info to piece it together:
1-Trump threatened mass firings
2-The lawyers told him he can't
3-He risked looking weak
4-He decided to do the firings anyway
markhisted.org
and
"the underlying calculus — they’re already rehiring people because they’re having a hard time maintaining basic government functions that affect “their” people — remains the same."

They are doing this to lash out because that's what they understand, but mass firings are unpopular. Yes.
markhisted.org
More immediately, it seems unlikely Trump/Vought will get any mass firings to stick because of public opinion.

This post seems correct:

"the press about this was getting to the White House and both angering Trump and making them look like they’re flailing..."
markhisted.org
"Congress has significantly more constitutional power than we are accustomed to seeing it exercise. By failing to make effective use of its power, Congress has invited the other branches to fill the vacuum, resulting in a constitutional imbalance."

Yes.
@joshchafetz.bsky.social
Congress's Constitution
Congress has significantly more constitutional power than we are accustomed to seeing it exercise. By failing to make effective use of its power, Congress has invited the other branches to fill the va...
scholarship.law.cornell.edu
markhisted.org
Challenge today: I keep trying to write about synfire chains, cortical synchrony, and neural coding, and I keep getting interrupted by things related to Russell Vought‘s lawlessness.

And ha, despite that I got 800 words done. Will come back to it tonight.
Reposted by Mark Histed
mickcraig.bsky.social
Are we still doing #FluorescenceFriday? #NeuroSkyence
Ventral hippocampal pyramidal cells transduced with rabies (cyan), helper proteins (magenta), or both. Part of a monosynaptic circuit tracing experiment
markhisted.org
@bbkogan.bsky.social adds the point that the work necessary to carry out mass firings is illegal during a shutdown.
bbkogan.bsky.social
Three key points:
1) The admin has been planning mass firings to begin in October since February
2) The work necessary to carry out mass firings is illegal during a shutdown, violating the Antideficiency Act, which carries a criminal penalty
3) This harms America, ridding us of talent and expertise
Russ Vought v @russvought
The RIFs have begun.
12:27 PM • 10/10/25 • 15K Views
markhisted.org
Stopping here for now. A summary first:

- Vought can try to lawlessly RIF people.

- The corrupt Court will probably sign off.

- And Congress, the Article I branch, the most powerful and most democratic branch, can stand up and stop Vought definitively. Please do so, Congress.

/end
markhisted.org
Judge Illston is a better read on the lawless RIFs than the unsigned shadow docket order from a lawless Supreme Court.

And @chrisgeidner.bsky.social is an essential read on what's happening with the Court today.
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee who will have served on the Northern District of California bench for 30 years this month, issued the 42 page TRO Friday evening following a hearing in the case brought by unions, nonprofit organizations, and local governments.

Here is the TRO:
For the foregoing reasons and for good cause shown, the Court therefore ORDERS as follows:
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, pending consideration of a preliminary injunction, the agency defendants (as delineated below) and their officers or employees or any other individuals acting under their authority or the authority of the President are hereby enjoined and/or stayed from taking any actions to implement or enforce sections 3(c) and 3(e) of Executive Order 14210 or the February 26,
2025 OMB/OPM Memorandum, including but not limited to: ( anytie periods by MARRaivers of statutorily-mandated
(2) any further orders by DOGE to agencies to cut programs or staff in conjunction with implementing the Executive Order, the OMB/OPM Memorandum, or the ARRPs;
(3) any further implementation of the Executive Order, the OMB/OPM Memorandum, or ARRPs by Federal
Agency
Defendants, including but not limited to: execution of any existing RIF notices (including final separation of employees), issuance of any further RIF notices, placement of employees on administrative leave, and transfer of functions or programs between the agency defendants.
This restraining order shall last fourteen days, through Friday, May 23, 2025, unless the Court finds good cause to extend it. See Fed. R.
Civ. P. 65(b)(2). The restraining order shall apply to the following defendant agencies: OMB, OPM, DOGE, USDA, Commerce, Energy, HHS, HUD, Interior, Labor, State, Treasury, Transportation, VA, AmeriCorps, EPA, GSA, NLRB, NSF, SBA, and SSA. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, good cause having been shown pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d), OMB and OPM must provide to the Court and to Plaintiffs (1) the versions of all defendant agency ARRPs submitted to OMB and OPM, (2) the versions of all defendant agency ARRPs approved by OMB and OPM, (3) any agency applications for waivers of statutorily-mandated RIF notice periods, and (4) any responses by OMB or OPM to such waiver requests, by 4:00 p.m. (PDT) on Tuesday, May 13, 2025.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, by 3:00 p.m. (PDT) on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, defendants shall serve and file a declaration(s)
40
verifying that they have complied with this Order, including serving a copy of this order on every defendant agency head, and detailing what additional steps, if any, they have taken to comply.
markhisted.org
@nicholasbednar.bsky.social has written extensively and compellingly about the legal details of the RIFs.

His opinions, however depend on the idea that the SCOTUS is the final arbiter of what is lawful. But that is not the case. The Court majority is rogue, lawless, and corrupt.
nicholasbednar.bsky.social
Unions have filed a lawsuit seeking to enjoin RIFs during a shutdown. I think this is a hard case to win before we actually see whether and how the administration attempts to carry out the RIFs. I think SCOTUS would say you need to look at each RIF individually.

www.afscme.org/pdf/Complain...
www.afscme.org
markhisted.org
Let's not lose track of the difference between the SCOTUS saying something is legal, or as here they may in future rule something legal, and whether it actually is in line with the law and our Constitution.
markhisted.org
"Thus, over the past century, Presidents who have attempted to reorganize the Federal Government have first
obtained authorization from Congress to do so."

Let's not be crazy - OF COURSE the mass firings are lawless and ignore decades of settled law. This is obvious.
markhisted.org
Scientists, journalists, all of us who believe in democracy and freedom and rule of law:
Please read KBJ's opinion in t July RIF case.

She begins:
"Under our Constitution, Congress has the power to establish administrative agencies and detail their functions"
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
Cite as: 606 U. S. ____ (2025) 1
JACKSON, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 24A1174
DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, ET AL. v. AMERICAN FEDERATION
OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
[July 8, 2025]
 JUSTICE JACKSON, dissenting from the grant of application for stay.
Under our Constitution, Congress has the power to establish administrative agencies and detail their functions.
Thus, over the past century, Presidents who have attempted to reorganize the Federal Government have first
obtained authorization from Congress to do so. The President sharply departed from that settled practice on February 11, 2025, however, by allegedly arrogating this power
to himself. With no mention of congressional buy-in, the
President’s Executive Order No. 14210 mandates a “critical
transformation” of the Federal Government, to be accomplished by “eliminat[ing] or consolidat[ing]” existing agencies and ordering agency heads to “promptly undertake
preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force.” 90
Fed. Reg. 9669, 9670.
This unilateral decision to “transfor[m]” the Federal Government was quickly challenged in federal court. As relevant here, the District Judge thoroughly examined the evidence, considered applicable law, and made a reasoned
determination that Executive Branch officials should be enjoined from implementing the mandated restructuring until this legal challenge to the President’s authority to undertake such action could be litigated. But that temporary,
practical, harm-reducing preservation of the status quo was
markhisted.org
Yes, the lawless court majority, which believes in unfettered presidential power and seizing power from Congress, is going to let this happen. While weaseling around and letting Trump do it anyway, via shadow docket orders whose meanings district judges must divine or Gorsuch will yell at them.
markhisted.org
The president cannot just reorganize agencies and cut out essential functions without Congress. It is lawless to do so.
markhisted.org
And Sotomayor says
"I agree with JUSTICE JACKSON that the President cannot restructure federal agencies in a manner inconsistent
with congressional mandates."

That is, Sotomayor is saying mass firings — mass RIFs — are lawless.

And let's be real: of course they are.
markhisted.org
Sotomayor concurs. But she doesn't say anything is lawful.

She simply says the RIF orders are not before the court. That is because the Trump government withheld them from the district court.
2 TRUMP v. AMERICAN FEDERATION
OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
SOTOMAYOR, J., concurring
assessment of the plans themselves. Those plans are not
before this Court.
 JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, concurring in the grant of stay.
I agree with JUSTICE JACKSON that the President cannot restructure federal agencies in a manner inconsistent
with congressional mandates. See post, at 13. Here, however, the relevant Executive Order directs agencies to plan
reorganizations and reductions in force “consistent with applicable law,” App. to Application for Stay 2a, and the resulting joint memorandum from the Office of Management
and Budget and Office of Personnel Management reiterates
as much. The plans themselves are not before this Court,
at this stage, and we thus have no occasion to consider
whether they can and will be carried out consistent with the
constraints of law. I join the Court’s stay because it leaves
the District Court
markhisted.org
Here is the Calvinball conserv court ruling on the spring RIFs.

The unsigned shadow docket order says "the Trump gov't is likely to succeed in showing the EO is lawful." 1. Calvinball. 2. Saying the EO is lawful isn't saying the mass firings are lawful.

www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 24A1174
DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, ET AL. v. AMERICAN FEDERATION
OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
[July 8, 2025]
The application for stay presented to Justice Kagan and
by her referred to the Court is granted. The May 22, 2025
preliminary injunction entered by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, case No.
3:25–cv–3698, is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari,
if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied,
this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending
down of the judgment of this Court.
The District Court’s injunction was based on its view that
Executive Order No. 14210, 90 Fed. Reg. 9669 (2025), and
a joint memorandum from the Office of Management and
Budget and Office of Personnel Management implementing
that Executive Order are unlawful. Because the Government is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive
Order and Memorandum are lawful—and because the other
factors bearing on whether to grant a stay are satisfied—
we grant the application. We express no view on the legality of any Agency RIF and Reorganization Plan produced or
approved pursuant to the Executive Order and Memorandum. The District Court enjoined further implementation
or approval of the plans based on its view about the illegality of the Executive Order and Memorandum, not on an
markhisted.org
Russell Vought has announced that "mass firings [RIFs] have begun."

Lawless. The RIFs in the spring were illegal, as Judge Illston outlined. Yes, the conservative SCOTUS supermajority lawlessly signed off. But the Calvinball Court is not doing law.

Congress can stop this. A thread: 1/
'RIFs have begun.' Vought announces start of mass firings during government shutdown
The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
www.pbs.org
Reposted by Mark Histed
ericcolumbus.bsky.social
OMB head Russ Vought says RIFs have begun. In litigation challenging OMB's ability to RIF during a shutdown, OMB must provide more details by 3pm PT/ 6pm ET.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Russ Vought
@russvought
The RIFs have begun. The Court hereby ORDERS defendants to file a response to the motion for a TRO no later than October 10, 2025, at 3:00 p.m. PDT.  In their response, defendants SHALL address:  (1) the status of any currently planned or in-progress RIF notices to be issued during/because of the government shutdown, including the earliest date that those RIF notices will go out; (2) which of the defendant agencies anticipate issuing RIF notices during/because of the government shutdown and the estimated number of employees at the defendant agency who will receive such RIF notices; and (3) whether any employees at the defendant agencies have been ordered back to work during the government shutdown in order to effectuate the issuance of RIF notices. Defendants shall provide evidence (declarations, exhibits, etc.) in support of the above information.