Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 10h

This is excellent.

Isaac! At the Butler! @isaacbutler.bsky.social · 3d

I finally got a chance to write one of my dream assignments, an in depth evaluation of Daniel Day-Lewis, an actor whose achievements and methods cast a long shadow over the field, and whose work is often misunderstood.

slate.com/culture/2025...

Only One Performer Has Won Three Best Actor Oscars. Is It Fair That He’s Also a Joke?

He might be the greatest actor of all time—and the most misunderstood.

slate.com

2

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 12h

Hasn't Hegseth *already* deployed the Texas Guard to Illinois?

1 1 1

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 12h

Ah, thanks -- it's Exhibit C, not D (which is what the DOJ brief says), and it's not referenced in the paragraphs of the Nordhaus declaration cited by DOJ.

4

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 12h

Anyone know where one might find Trump's alleged Oct. 4 determination that the "regular troops" are unable to execute federal laws in Chicago and/or his activation of the National Guard for Chicago?

@justsecurity.org

1 7 16

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 18h

Judge Nelson repeatedly references alleged presidential findings and determinations that there's no evidence in the record Trump ever made.

1 3

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 19h

It is great analysis. And of course universities shouldn't consider accepting the "compact." But don't underestimate the enormous costs: What's driving the trepidation is the fact that the executive agencies have the (de facto, even if not de jure) power to turn the spigots off *prospectively.*

1

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 1d

Materially less speculative--and thus more of a "substantial risk"--that the statute could affect the outcome of at least one election in the state, and therefore it saves the Dems some costs of getting those voters to the polls. Or so said the Court in Crawford (affirming Posner), anyway.

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 1d

As if the Trump immunity decision weren't indefensible enough, @philippesands.bsky.social explains how corrosive it could be w/r/t head-of-state immunity for international law crimes, which the U.S. (Robert Jackson, in particular) worked for decades to eradicate.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

How Far Does Trump’s Immunity Go?

The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision threatens the system of international justice.

www.theatlantic.com

4 6

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 1d

As Justice Kagan rightly noted, it's much ado about nothing b/c parties can bring pre-election challenges (and voters should be able to, as well). The good news is that *if* the Court holds that candidates can, too, it should (at least implicitly) repudiate much of Clapper's rationale.

1

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 1d

www.execfunctions.org/p/president-...

@jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social @richardprimus.bsky.social

President Trump Holds the Legal Cards on the Use of the Military in the Domestic Sphere

The protective power for the regular military, and the Insurrection Act, lie in the wings

www.execfunctions.org

3 4

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 1d

Justice Alito's line of questioning about possible-but-speculative harms in Bost, in light of his opinion for the Court in Clapper, is ... a bit rich.

1 2 11

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 2d

... or even that he personally called the National Guard into Federal service "in such numbers as he [i.e., Trump] considers necessary to ... execute those laws."

How can a court defer to a presidential judgment that a statutory predicate was satisfied w/o any evidence that he ever made it? [2]

2 21

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 2d

The oddest thing about the Portland case to be argued in the 9th Circuit tomorrow is that DOJ doesn't cite any evidence that Trump ever determined that he was "unable with the regular forces to execute the laws," 10 U.S.C. 12406(3) ... [1]

3 3 26

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 3d

"Harvard may be partly to blame for encouraging student absences, with a policy that allows students to enroll in two classes that meet at the same time."

Partly?

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say

www.nytimes.com

4 2 22

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 3d

I tend to think that what ICE is doing is more significant than whether national guard forces are deployed to Portland but, FWIW, it is noteworhthy that Judge Immergut found that Trump lacked even a "colorable basis" for his findings, and that his statements weren't "conceived in good faith."

1 21

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 5d

Lucky Town has 1000 times more life than this does.

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 6d

On why Trump's determination that the U.S. is engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels is (i) wrong; and (ii) insufficient, in any event, to make legal the strikes against vessels in the Caribbean.

www.justsecurity.org/121844/trump...

Legal Flaws in the Trump Administration’s Notice to Congress on “Armed Conflict” with Drug Cartels

Top legal expert analyzes the Trump administration's notice to Congress of an "armed conflict" with drug cartels.

www.justsecurity.org

18 170 520

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 7d

Will any school agree to this?

5 13

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 7d

As I read this "compact," it provides that if School X *expressly* "agrees" to do everything listed--and complies to DOJ's satisfaction--then the Trump Administration *implicitly* agrees that it won't *unlawfully* withhold funding or deny grants.

www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

13 71 230

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 8d

The constitutional question almost certainly won't be briefed or decided in this case (though of course it's looming overhead).

@normative.bsky.social

1

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 8d

Typical DOJ fare:

"The [DOJ attorney] summed it up ... by quoting Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, for the proposition that 'anxiety is the dizziness of freedom,' dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims of collective chill as somehow wholly self-imposed."

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

storage.courtlistener.com

7

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 10d

Fourth and (for now) final part in my series about the birthright citizenship litigation, this one focusing on the statutory argument that might be the basis of the SCOTUS' ultimate decision when it rules on the petitions the SG filed on Friday.

www.justsecurity.org/121397/birth...

Taking Stock of the Birthright Citizenship Cases, Part IV: DOJ’s Ineffective Responses to Plaintiffs’ Statutory Argument

Analysis of birthright citizenship statutes - in contrast to the constitutional questions - now before the Supreme Court.

www.justsecurity.org

3 12

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 12d

No vestiges of Roberts/Alito's "Congress has the upper hand on matters of foreign affairs" dissent in Zivotofsky detected, either. I can't imagine what's changed in the succeeding ten years.

1 12

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 12d

... and that it was "manifest" that none of the Justices who decided the Slaughterhouse Cases "understood the court to be committed to the view that all children born in the United States of citizens or subjects of foreign States were excluded from [birthright citizenship]." 169 U.S. at 678-79. [3]

3 2 15

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 12d

... in light of the fact that the SCOTUS, in Wong Kim Ark, specifically rejected that proposition after explaining that it was a dictum, that it "was unsupported by any argument, or by any reference to authorities," ... [2]

1 2 12