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Matthew Stiegler

@matthewstiegler.bsky.social

7K followers 1K following 4.5K posts

Appellate lawyer, president of Third Circuit Bar Association, former prosecutor, fellow of American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Boring until fascism. Views here: just mine.

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · Aug 31

We lose it all if we don’t unite in time.

Dan Nexon @dhnexon.bsky.social · Aug 30

🧵 Authoritarianism, Democratization, and Coalition Politics.

The consensus around here is, more or less, that the United States is currently a consolidating authoritarian regime controlled by a mix of reactionary populists and fascists.

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Reposted by Matthew Stiegler

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 2h

JB Pritzker has also been emphatically placing Trump's mental decline squarely on the agenda. On our pod, he adds a new element: People around Trump are using his decline to manipulate him, so they're less likely to intervene. More Dems should say this. 1/

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 1h

Well said

bsky.app/profile/jfal...

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 1d

Truly excellent new piece by Lincoln Caplan in @harvardmagazine.bsky.social on John Roberts, seen in full.

Careful, meticulous, devastating case on how "institutionalist" has enabled destruction of crucial institutions. Including his now discredited court.
www.harvardmagazine.com/legal/suprem...

Quote:
Their outcomes, along with the Court’s actions in the last few years, carry the seeds of American tragedy. Roberts, often described as an institutionalist, has enabled the most hostile anti-institutionalist ever elected president. The leader of the nation’s judicial system has empowered the president who is the most disdainful in history of the decrees of judges, the provisos of the Constitution, and the workings of American democracy. The chief justice, attempting to thread the needle between principle and practicality, has opened the door to the possibility of the ultimate constitutional crisis: a president’s outright defiance of the Supreme Court.

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 1h

My take on Roberts is that he’s a figure familiar to history, the credentialed and charming man who seemed so dazzling to his contemporaries, so plainly a bumbling failure to everyone else. A magnificent fool.

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 1h

A fair-minded, ultimately brutal profile of Roberts by Lincoln Caplan.

Roberts, often described as an institutionalist, has enabled the most hostile anti-institutionalist ever elected president. The leader of the nation’s judicial system has empowered the president who is the most disdainful in history of the decrees of judges, the provisos of the Constitution, and the workings of American democracy.

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 1h

And fawn they shall

bsky.app/profile/jona...

Jonah Blank @jonahblank.bsky.social · 14h

A two-minute standing ovation.

Not at a State of the Union, or other big public event. Just at a small meeting, with no cameras, for maybe a dozen (maximum two dozen) people.

Two. Minutes. Set a timer, and imagine a dozen people clapping that long.

For a boss who isn't Kim Jong Un.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17h

Rollins: "We had an amazing cabinet meeting. President Trump walked in before the cameras were there. We all stood up & gave him a two minute standing ovation. There's so much love in that room & respect & just appreciation for him. No one could do what that man is doing today. So I was so grateful"

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 11h

And I thought I was mean

bsky.app/profile/hele...

Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.bsky.social · 11h

Barack Obama. They should give him a second one just for the stroke.

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 11h

Richly deserved

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 12h

Based loaded walk and a bad error and that’s that.

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 12h

All the dogs on my block are barking now because all the humans on my block just hollered in pain

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 13h

One swing away

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 14h

🧵

Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 17h

And Bove will be on the CA3 en banc panel:

www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/OralArgSumma...

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 14h

True.

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 14h

(The 14 actives, not counting seniors.)

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 14h

8R, 6D.

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 15h

Republicans bumped her to the front of the line for confirmation. I suspect this means she will join the Third Circuit in time to participate in a big 2A en banc being argued next week.

Nate Raymond @nateraymond.bsky.social · 15h

New: The Senate confirmed Jennifer Mascott, President Donald Trump's latest nominee to the 3rd Circuit, further shifting the appeals court's ideological balance to the right. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

www.reuters.com

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Reposted by Matthew Stiegler

Nate Raymond @nateraymond.bsky.social · 15h

www.reuters.com

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Reposted by Matthew Stiegler

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 16h

Perry: Four (4) federal judges have issued rulings in the past two (2) days in separate cases that cast significant doubt on federal officials' "credibility and assessment of what is happening on the streets of Chicago."

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 15h

I’m rooting for the Nobel Peace Prize to go to Stormy Daniels.

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 16h

I’d say you have the other half too.

bsky.app/profile/matt...

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 23h

The other half is being able to recognize the difference.

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 17h

One hundred percent.

*And* installing unqualified flunkies to do it.

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 17h

Indicting political opponents & critics because they are political opponents & critics is terrifying.

It's completely inconsistent with the rule of law & democracy.

It should scare everyone - and (hopefully) will get people to realize that we all need to stand against this.

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 17h

Cheesy poster of dude looking across landscape, with text reading “positive thinking”

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 17h

Wait, it’s unconstitutional for one state to prohibit something that millions of law-abiding Americans in other states do? Dangit, I wish we knew that before Dobbs.

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 17h

Gotta find the positive

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 17h

The only happy part about this whole dark era is that all his toadies don’t get to keep any dignity whatsoever. They got the absolute most degraded version of a dictator, and that’s what they have to debase themselves to. Sorry dipshits, no dashing Napoleon for you, you get this, now start fawning.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h

Trump: "I also did a cognitive exam. Which is always very risky because if I didn't do well, you'd be the first to be blaring it and I had a perfect score. And one of the doctors said he's almost never seen a perfect score. I had a perfect score. That made me well good ... not the easiest test."

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 18h

I too hope that you don’t have anything more pressing work-wise that day. That would be good news for us all.