Matthew Stiegler
@matthewstiegler.bsky.social
Appellate lawyer, president of Third Circuit Bar Association, former prosecutor, fellow of American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Boring until fascism.
Views here: just mine.
Views here: just mine.
Pinned
In 1854, after watching the federal government deploy 2000 federal troops and spend $40,000 sending Anthony Burns back into slavery, Boston's Amos Adams Lawrence said “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.”
Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
Boring Until Fascism
Forthwith around and find out
Judge Rufe is fed up, and has reminded the Trump administration that "forthwith" means FORTHWITH. In other words, when she ordered them on Monday to restore all historical panels to the President's House site in Philadelphia, it better get done by Friday.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
![ORDER CIVIL ACTION NO. 26-434 AND NOW, this 18th day of February 2026, upon consideration of Defendant’s failure to comply with this Court’s February 16, 2026 Order to FORTHWITH follow terms and conditions of the Order, it is hereby ORDERED that Defendants shall comply with the terms of this Court’s February 16, 2026 Order by restoring the President’s House site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026 by Friday, February 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM.1 It is so ORDERED. BY THE COURT: /s/ Hon. Cynthia M. Rufe __________________________ HON. CYNTHIA M. RUFE, J. 1While Defendants appealed this Court’s February 16, 2026 Memorandum Opinion and Order [Doc. No. 58], this Court retains jurisdiction to enforce its own orders when it does not modify or alter the appealed order. § 3921.2 Interlocutory Injunction Appeals—Trial Court Action Pending Appeal, 16 Fed. Prac. & Proc. Juris. § 3921.2 (3d ed.). Defendants have not moved this Court for a stay. The Court is enforcing the deadline for FORTHWITH action, and this order does not modify the February 16, 2026 Order. Absent a stay granted by this Court or the Third Circuit, this Court must enforce its own order. Fed. R. Civ. P. 62(c); E.O.H.C. v. Sec’y United States Dep’t Homeland Security, 950 F.3d 177, 194 (3d. Cir. 2020) (“[E]ach court has the inherent power to enforce its own orders[.]”) (internal quotations and citations omitted)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wovz3whdkughp6decczypkqq/bafkreie3wjokfjolpwptnxqdsc5iz4ukqvh3bvqyav2pbvigkyohnqs22e@jpeg)
February 18, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Forthwith around and find out
Reposted by Matthew Stiegler
Judge Rufe says govt has failed to comply with her 2/16 order to restore *forthwith* the slavery exhibits to the [George Washington] President's House in Philadelphia. Orders them restored by 5pm Friday. (Govt has appealed, but has not yet moved for a stay.)
![AND NOW, this 18th day of February 2026, upon consideration of Defendant’s failure to comply with this Court’s February 16, 2026 Order to FORTHWITH follow terms and conditions of the Order, it is hereby ORDERED that Defendants shall comply with the terms of this Court’s February 16, 2026 Order by restoring the President’s House site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026 by Friday, February 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM.1
It is so ORDERED.
BY THE COURT:
/s/ Hon. Cynthia M. Rufe
__________________________
HON. CYNTHIA M. RUFE, J.
1 While Defendants appealed this Court’s February 16, 2026 Memorandum Opinion and Order [Doc. No. 58], this Court retains jurisdiction to enforce its own orders when it does not modify or alter the appealed order. § 3921.2 Interlocutory Injunction Appeals—Trial Court Action Pending Appeal, 16 Fed. Prac. & Proc. Juris. § 3921.2 (3d ed.). Defendants have not moved this Court for a stay. The Court is enforcing the deadline for FORTHWITH action, and this order does not modify the February 16, 2026 Order. Absent a stay granted by this Court or the Third Circuit, this Court must enforce its own order. Fed. R. Civ. P. 62(c); E.O.H.C. v. Sec’y United States Dep’t Homeland Security, 950 F.3d 177, 194 (3d. Cir. 2020) (“[E]ach court has the inherent power to enforce its own orders[.]”) (internal quotations and citations omitted).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vrmx2e5gsi23srsy2n7vljvb/bafkreifbznhfyuzfbvpsraagowobk6pcjgutm567suv3ricnciq3puxqee@jpeg)
February 18, 2026 at 7:09 PM
Judge Rufe says govt has failed to comply with her 2/16 order to restore *forthwith* the slavery exhibits to the [George Washington] President's House in Philadelphia. Orders them restored by 5pm Friday. (Govt has appealed, but has not yet moved for a stay.)
“Typically, an inquiry of such gravity, one that could potentially result in charges being filed against six sitting members of Congress, would have taken months of painstaking work and received intense scrutiny from every level of the Justice Department.”
Gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...
Gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...
A Case Against 6 Democrats Lacked Urgency. Then Came a Swift Bid for an Indictment.
www.nytimes.com
February 18, 2026 at 7:08 PM
“Typically, an inquiry of such gravity, one that could potentially result in charges being filed against six sitting members of Congress, would have taken months of painstaking work and received intense scrutiny from every level of the Justice Department.”
Gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...
Gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...
This by @skennedy2504.myatproto.social gives a helpful overview of tools that federal judges have, but generally haven’t used so far, to ensure compliance with their orders.
At some point, federal judges are going to have to go beyond issuing strongly worded orders condemning ICE's lawlessness, and start fining recalcitrant Trump administration officials and/or putting them in jail
How Federal Judges Can Bring Down the Hammer On ICE
Federal judges have plenty of tools at their disposal for punishing ICE’s lawlessness—if they feel like using them.
ballsandstrikes.org
February 18, 2026 at 6:32 PM
This by @skennedy2504.myatproto.social gives a helpful overview of tools that federal judges have, but generally haven’t used so far, to ensure compliance with their orders.
Reposted by Matthew Stiegler
NEW: DOJ told a judge in New Jersey that it had violated court orders about 54 times between Dec. 5 and this week — the latest accounting of a phenomenon that used to be rare and is now rampant. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
February 18, 2026 at 4:33 PM
NEW: DOJ told a judge in New Jersey that it had violated court orders about 54 times between Dec. 5 and this week — the latest accounting of a phenomenon that used to be rare and is now rampant. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
Reposted by Matthew Stiegler
Fulton Co elections expert: “In all 5 areas identified by ... the [search warrant] affidavit, there are a multitude of false or misleading statements or omissions. ... Once ... corrected, the affidavit loses any basis in reality.”
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 18, 2026 at 1:52 AM
Fulton Co elections expert: “In all 5 areas identified by ... the [search warrant] affidavit, there are a multitude of false or misleading statements or omissions. ... Once ... corrected, the affidavit loses any basis in reality.”
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Fortunately the Axis countries didn’t do this well in WWII
February 18, 2026 at 3:31 AM
Fortunately the Axis countries didn’t do this well in WWII
“The agreement provides that the DOJ will ‘test, analyze, and assess states’ [voter rolls]’ and send each participating state a list of voters who must be removed within 45 days.”
Why is the federal government demanding that states turn over their voter rolls? A confidential agreement that the DOJ sent to states has some answers. bit.ly/46tX4nd
“Confidential” Agreements Show Trump Administration’s Plans for States’ Voter Data
At least 10 states have handed over their full voter files to the Justice Department.
www.brennancenter.org
February 16, 2026 at 7:16 PM
“The agreement provides that the DOJ will ‘test, analyze, and assess states’ [voter rolls]’ and send each participating state a list of voters who must be removed within 45 days.”
Reposted by Matthew Stiegler
Judge Rufe's opinion ordering the Trump administration to restore truthful panels about Washington's ownership of enslaved persons from the President's House site in Phila is here. (I jailbroke it from PACER.)
TL;DR: Gov't acted arbitrarily, capriciously.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
TL;DR: Gov't acted arbitrarily, capriciously.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
![Some escaped to freedom, including Oney Judge. The President’s House displays recognized
Oney Judge and focused on how her struggle for freedom represented this country’s progress
away from the horrors of slavery and into an era where the founding ideals of “Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness”
165 could be embodied for every American.
And yet, in its argument, the government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter,
remove and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments
within its control. Its claims in this regard echo Big Brother’s domain in Orwell’s 1984, where:
The largest section of the [government’s] Records Department . . . consisted simply
of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books,
newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for
destruction. A number of the Times [a newspaper] which might, because of changes
in political alignment, or mistaken prophesies uttered by Big Brother, have been
rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other
copy existed to contradict it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and
again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had
been made. Even the written instructions [for workers in the Records Department]
. . . never stated or implied that an act of forgery was to be committed; always the
reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or misquotations which it was necessary to
put right in the interests of accuracy.166
The government here likewise asserts truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of
the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegees, at his whim to be scraped clean,
hidden, or overwritten. And why? Solely because, as Defendants state, it has the power. At oral
argument, Defendants insisted:
Although many people feel strongly about this one way, other people may disagree
or feel strongly another way. Ultimatel…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wovz3whdkughp6decczypkqq/bafkreieozargzz4mwsqojgo7uapxz6ucuof2uw7k66q45tlgjvu3bgnupi@jpeg)
![. . . [T]he message that the Government chooses to convey is for the Government
to choose. I don't get to choose what that message is. And it's our position that the
City doesn't either.167
An agency, whether the Department of the Interior, NPS, or any other agency, cannot
arbitrarily decide what is true, based on its own whims or the whims of the new leadership,
regardless of the evidence before it. Accordingly, the City is likely to prevail on its claims that
the removal was arbitrary and capricious](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wovz3whdkughp6decczypkqq/bafkreidpzcv3mt65ac543gn5t4vkirwm6d64zr6taujzfiybsps65np6ea@jpeg)
February 16, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Judge Rufe's opinion ordering the Trump administration to restore truthful panels about Washington's ownership of enslaved persons from the President's House site in Phila is here. (I jailbroke it from PACER.)
TL;DR: Gov't acted arbitrarily, capriciously.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
TL;DR: Gov't acted arbitrarily, capriciously.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Been thinking about this interview, where a fmr top Biden aide was asked why Merrick Garland didn’t release the Epstein files.
Her answer: “He was hypersensitive about any perception of unfairness, to a point where I think I’m not sure justice was always even done.”
m.youtube.com/watch?v=kX1a...
Her answer: “He was hypersensitive about any perception of unfairness, to a point where I think I’m not sure justice was always even done.”
m.youtube.com/watch?v=kX1a...
Neera Tanden: "I don't know why Merrick Garland" didn't release the Epstein files
YouTube video by The Bulwark
m.youtube.com
February 16, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Been thinking about this interview, where a fmr top Biden aide was asked why Merrick Garland didn’t release the Epstein files.
Her answer: “He was hypersensitive about any perception of unfairness, to a point where I think I’m not sure justice was always even done.”
m.youtube.com/watch?v=kX1a...
Her answer: “He was hypersensitive about any perception of unfairness, to a point where I think I’m not sure justice was always even done.”
m.youtube.com/watch?v=kX1a...
Reposted by Matthew Stiegler
Writing is thinking.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
It’s easy to think writing is mainly the transcription of ideas you already have—that is, until you try to write something worthwhile, and you find what you thought were saying transform into something far more interesting in the process. This skips that last step, and that is *not* an improvement.
“We plan to hire an AI rewrite specialist to ingest the reporting by Hannah and others and use AI to convert it into stories.”
The editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said it will use AI to ‘write’ its articles.
www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10...
The editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said it will use AI to ‘write’ its articles.
www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10...
February 16, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Writing is thinking.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
This expert’s assessment of FIRE’s failure to protect free speech is harsher than mine.
Professor Vivian: “FIRE’s allegedly staunch defense of ‘free speech’ endangers free speech.”
bsky.app/profile/brad...
Professor Vivian: “FIRE’s allegedly staunch defense of ‘free speech’ endangers free speech.”
bsky.app/profile/brad...
To me, they’re like security guards who didn’t notice their bank was being robbed because they were too busy yelling at children running in the lobby. Nice they’re chasing the getaway car now, but concerns remain.
February 16, 2026 at 2:18 PM
This expert’s assessment of FIRE’s failure to protect free speech is harsher than mine.
Professor Vivian: “FIRE’s allegedly staunch defense of ‘free speech’ endangers free speech.”
bsky.app/profile/brad...
Professor Vivian: “FIRE’s allegedly staunch defense of ‘free speech’ endangers free speech.”
bsky.app/profile/brad...
Reposted by Matthew Stiegler
There’s also a progressive candidate running who HASN’T taken money from Palantir partners @mikesacks.bsky.social :
www.mikesacksforcongress.com
www.mikesacksforcongress.com
February 16, 2026 at 1:25 AM
There’s also a progressive candidate running who HASN’T taken money from Palantir partners @mikesacks.bsky.social :
www.mikesacksforcongress.com
www.mikesacksforcongress.com
The people who loudly insisted at the time that the Surrender Firms had no choice to keep their firms from being destroyed have been remarkably quiet ever since.
February 14, 2026 at 11:17 PM
The people who loudly insisted at the time that the Surrender Firms had no choice to keep their firms from being destroyed have been remarkably quiet ever since.
Roses are red,
Appellants’ briefs they are blue.
I sure liked my co-clerks, but
Not like I like you.
#AppellateValentines
Appellants’ briefs they are blue.
I sure liked my co-clerks, but
Not like I like you.
#AppellateValentines
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
My concurrences are often doubtful
unlike my love for you.
#AppellateValentines
Violets are blue.
My concurrences are often doubtful
unlike my love for you.
#AppellateValentines
February 14, 2026 at 9:39 PM
Roses are red,
Appellants’ briefs they are blue.
I sure liked my co-clerks, but
Not like I like you.
#AppellateValentines
Appellants’ briefs they are blue.
I sure liked my co-clerks, but
Not like I like you.
#AppellateValentines
The Venn-diagram overlap of my views and the president’s consists of a single point, and that point is that Bill Maher sucks.
February 14, 2026 at 8:12 PM
The Venn-diagram overlap of my views and the president’s consists of a single point, and that point is that Bill Maher sucks.
Boring Until Fascism
In 1854, after watching the federal government deploy 2000 federal troops and spend $40,000 sending Anthony Burns back into slavery, Boston's Amos Adams Lawrence said “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.”
Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
February 14, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Boring Until Fascism
Wat
🚨 President Trump’s Claim of an “Irrefutable” Argument Supporting His Right to Unilaterally Impose Voter ID and Election Rules May Be Based on Insane Claim that Marriott Hotel Manager Found Secret Text in the Shadows of a Microfilm Copy of the U.S. Constitution electionlawblog.org?p=154326
President Trump's Claim of an "Irrefutable" Argument Supporting His Right to Unilaterally Impose Voter ID and Election Rules May Be Based on Insane Claim that Marriott Hotel Manager Found Secret Text ...
Yesterday I noted the latest set of unhinged social media posts from President Trump in which he declared that voter id requirements and other election changes would be imposed in the midterms via exe...
electionlawblog.org
February 14, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Wat
Reposted by Matthew Stiegler
Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
February 14, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
Hummus and beer in Carrboro NC. At the end, I stood there so awkwardly that she reached out and shook my hand.
This is an unapologetically sappy feel-good subject (at least, I guess, for people in a happy relationship”). So, to prepare for Valentine’s Day, what did you and your partner do for a first date?
My wife and I went to tea at Huntington Gardens and walked around.
My wife and I went to tea at Huntington Gardens and walked around.
On our first date, my spouse and I spent like an hour talking about footnotes.
February 14, 2026 at 4:35 PM
Hummus and beer in Carrboro NC. At the end, I stood there so awkwardly that she reached out and shook my hand.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting piece today on Philly-based FIRE. Gift link.
“Creeley and Glennon said they never anticipated their work being used to justify repression.”
www.inquirer.com/news/a/fire-...
“Creeley and Glennon said they never anticipated their work being used to justify repression.”
www.inquirer.com/news/a/fire-...
How FIRE, a Philly-based free-speech group, went from ‘cancel culture’ watchdog to Trump antagonist
FIRE built its reputation policing cancel culture. Now the free-speech group is confronting the Trump administration.
www.inquirer.com
February 14, 2026 at 2:32 PM
The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting piece today on Philly-based FIRE. Gift link.
“Creeley and Glennon said they never anticipated their work being used to justify repression.”
www.inquirer.com/news/a/fire-...
“Creeley and Glennon said they never anticipated their work being used to justify repression.”
www.inquirer.com/news/a/fire-...
Reposted by Matthew Stiegler
This was the incident that led Deputy Attorney General Blanche to immediately accuse Minnesota Gov. Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Frey of “terrorism” and “promise, not “threat[en],” to “stop[]” them “by whatever means necessary.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump’s former criminal lawyer — responds to an ICE shooting in Minneapolis tonight in which a man was hit in the leg by threatening Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing them of “terrorism” in relation to “Minnesota insurrection.”
February 13, 2026 at 10:12 PM
This was the incident that led Deputy Attorney General Blanche to immediately accuse Minnesota Gov. Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Frey of “terrorism” and “promise, not “threat[en],” to “stop[]” them “by whatever means necessary.”
Pardon the habeas nerdery, but I am definitely including this language in all future COA applications.
"I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future."
😆
😆
Trump: “The Democrats refuse to vote for Voter I.D., or Citizenship. The reason is very simple — They want to continue to cheat in Elections. This was not what our Founders desired … There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!“
February 13, 2026 at 10:13 PM
Pardon the habeas nerdery, but I am definitely including this language in all future COA applications.
Today’s tweet is bad too, but Trump has been perfectly open about trying to impose voter ID without Congress for quite a while now.
Trump says he plans to issue an executive order to force states to adopt voter ID.
In plain English, his last EO targeting free elections ordered:
• cutting off election funding to any state that counts mail-in ballots received after election day;
/1
In plain English, his last EO targeting free elections ordered:
• cutting off election funding to any state that counts mail-in ballots received after election day;
/1
February 13, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Today’s tweet is bad too, but Trump has been perfectly open about trying to impose voter ID without Congress for quite a while now.