Paul Blumenthal
@paulblumenthal.bsky.social
HuffPost. Reporter covering politics, courts, history and the crisis of democracy.
Tips: Email: [email protected]. Signal: PaulBlumenthal.37
Read me: huffpost.com/paul-blumentha…
Tips: Email: [email protected]. Signal: PaulBlumenthal.37
Read me: huffpost.com/paul-blumentha…
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
🚨Update: Vahid Abedini has been released. He wrote on LinkedIn early Tuesday, “It was a deeply distressing experience, especially seeing those without the support I had.”
🚨And: A DHS spokesperson now tells me: “This Iranian national was detained for standard questioning. He's been released.”
🚨And: A DHS spokesperson now tells me: “This Iranian national was detained for standard questioning. He's been released.”
New: Professor Detained En Route To Middle East Studies Conference
Vahid Abedini was on his way to a Middle East Studies Association meeting when he was detained. He’s now in ICE custody.
www.huffpost.com/entry/vahid-...
Vahid Abedini was on his way to a Middle East Studies Association meeting when he was detained. He’s now in ICE custody.
www.huffpost.com/entry/vahid-...
Iranian Studies Professor Taken In ICE Custody While Traveling To Academic Conference
Vahid Abedini was on his way to a Middle Eastern Studies Association meeting when he was detained. He’s now in ICE custody, one law enforcement official said.
www.huffpost.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:36 PM
🚨Update: Vahid Abedini has been released. He wrote on LinkedIn early Tuesday, “It was a deeply distressing experience, especially seeing those without the support I had.”
🚨And: A DHS spokesperson now tells me: “This Iranian national was detained for standard questioning. He's been released.”
🚨And: A DHS spokesperson now tells me: “This Iranian national was detained for standard questioning. He's been released.”
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
BREAKING: Comey case dismissed without prejudice. Halligan invalidly appointed, judge rules. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
November 24, 2025 at 5:36 PM
BREAKING: Comey case dismissed without prejudice. Halligan invalidly appointed, judge rules. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
Turns out Originalism didn’t start as a reaction to the Warren Court or Brown but as a tool to argue the 15th Amendment was either invalid or didn’t apply to the states. Here’s the real birth story of the doctrine (discovered by a real historian): www.dorfonlaw.org/2025/11/orig...
Originalism's Racist Birth and Subsequent Death
A few weeks ago at the Federalist Society National Convention, Judge Patrick Bumatay of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decla...
www.dorfonlaw.org
November 24, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Turns out Originalism didn’t start as a reaction to the Warren Court or Brown but as a tool to argue the 15th Amendment was either invalid or didn’t apply to the states. Here’s the real birth story of the doctrine (discovered by a real historian): www.dorfonlaw.org/2025/11/orig...
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
NEW: Texas goes to the Supreme Court in the redistricting case, seeking a stay pending appeal and administrative stay. The state also asks the court to treat this as a request for merits review.
This filing was expected, but this is very quick.
It will be Docket No. 25A608.
This filing was expected, but this is very quick.
It will be Docket No. 25A608.
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 PM
NEW: Texas goes to the Supreme Court in the redistricting case, seeking a stay pending appeal and administrative stay. The state also asks the court to treat this as a request for merits review.
This filing was expected, but this is very quick.
It will be Docket No. 25A608.
This filing was expected, but this is very quick.
It will be Docket No. 25A608.
And here I was thinking it was terrorism to call Trump a fascist
A reporter asks if Mamdani stands by calling Trump a fascist. Mamdani starts to give a delicate answer.
Trump (smiles, pats Mamdani's arm): "That's OK, you can just say yes. It's easier. I don't mind."
Trump (smiles, pats Mamdani's arm): "That's OK, you can just say yes. It's easier. I don't mind."
November 21, 2025 at 9:21 PM
And here I was thinking it was terrorism to call Trump a fascist
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
Useful. You don't get to Trump saying anything he does abroad is legal (& jumping to calls for executing dissenting lawmakers) without decades of US officials avoiding uncomfortable conclusions. The pattern of a lack of accountability for foreign policy has been deepened by Democrats & bureaucrats..
Another aspect is that the USG may simply refuse to reach an adverse legal conclusion which would render presidential directives unlawful.
If the USG refuses to determine that Saudi Arabia or Israel are committing war crimes with US weapons, then continued arms sales aren't aid & abetting...
If the USG refuses to determine that Saudi Arabia or Israel are committing war crimes with US weapons, then continued arms sales aren't aid & abetting...
November 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Useful. You don't get to Trump saying anything he does abroad is legal (& jumping to calls for executing dissenting lawmakers) without decades of US officials avoiding uncomfortable conclusions. The pattern of a lack of accountability for foreign policy has been deepened by Democrats & bureaucrats..
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
This is a very good essay from the @ACLU’s Brett Kaufman making the case that Trump’s boat strikes should be viewed as the logical end point of legal arguments normalized by OLC lawyers during the war on terror. Highly recommend. www.justsecurity.org/124776/secre...
November 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
This is a very good essay from the @ACLU’s Brett Kaufman making the case that Trump’s boat strikes should be viewed as the logical end point of legal arguments normalized by OLC lawyers during the war on terror. Highly recommend. www.justsecurity.org/124776/secre...
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
DOCS: Here's what federal grand jurors are looking into around Ed Martin and Bill Pulte: www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
November 20, 2025 at 9:39 PM
DOCS: Here's what federal grand jurors are looking into around Ed Martin and Bill Pulte: www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
Judge Ellis derides Greg Bovino as a serial fabulist who brazenly lied on the stand and seemingly considered it funny to perjure himself. cst.brightspotcdn.com/49/34/daecfb...
November 20, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Judge Ellis derides Greg Bovino as a serial fabulist who brazenly lied on the stand and seemingly considered it funny to perjure himself. cst.brightspotcdn.com/49/34/daecfb...
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
WAPO SCOOP: U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
wapo.st/3Mbd9a6
wapo.st/3Mbd9a6
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
wapo.st
November 20, 2025 at 6:33 PM
WAPO SCOOP: U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
wapo.st/3Mbd9a6
wapo.st/3Mbd9a6
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
A senior ICE official just admitted in an evidentiary hearing in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case that someone else drafted his declaration in the case and he didn’t know what certain words meant.
November 20, 2025 at 5:18 PM
A senior ICE official just admitted in an evidentiary hearing in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case that someone else drafted his declaration in the case and he didn’t know what certain words meant.
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
🚨A newly uncovered document flagged last week in a federal court filing threatens undocumented immigrant children in government custody with “prolonged” detention if they choose to exercise their legal rights rather than voluntarily depart the United States.
www.huffpost.com/entry/docume...
www.huffpost.com/entry/docume...
Newly Uncovered Document Reveals An 'Alarming And Disturbing' Trump Threat
The Trump administration is turning the screws on kids who’ve arrived in the United States without adults accompanying them.
www.huffpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:02 PM
🚨A newly uncovered document flagged last week in a federal court filing threatens undocumented immigrant children in government custody with “prolonged” detention if they choose to exercise their legal rights rather than voluntarily depart the United States.
www.huffpost.com/entry/docume...
www.huffpost.com/entry/docume...
🔪🔪🔪🔪
SCOOP: A federal grand jury in Maryland is investigating whether FHFA director Bill Pulte and Justice Department prosecutor Ed Martin improperly appointed unauthorized people to help in mortgage fraud investigations of President Trump's critics. With @carolleonnig.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 5:41 PM
🔪🔪🔪🔪
Unserious, unworkable, ahistorical and rooted in a fantasy history of how the administrative state was created.
i think the vision of rigid separation of powers and no independent agencies articulated here is unserious and unworkable. these are just slogans untethered from either the history or reality of american governance.
www.nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Unserious, unworkable, ahistorical and rooted in a fantasy history of how the administrative state was created.
I always think of this when I see a Harari quote
November 20, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I always think of this when I see a Harari quote
What Hazony did was come up with a universal intellectual concept -- national conservatism -- that was really just designed to justify Israel's apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. You'll never guess what that wound up looking like when applied in other countries!
In order to figure out where all the antisemitism on the right has come from, we interviewed the most obtuse fool imaginable who is both Jewish AND built one of the key institutions that has served as an incubator of right wing antisemitism since its founding.
November 20, 2025 at 3:39 PM
What Hazony did was come up with a universal intellectual concept -- national conservatism -- that was really just designed to justify Israel's apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. You'll never guess what that wound up looking like when applied in other countries!
Republicans understand what health insurance is challenge. They can't do it.
Cassidy: "The president is proposing that we take the $26b that would be going to insurance companies if we just do an extension and give it directly to the American people in which 100% of the money is used for them to purchase healthcare on their own terms. That makes them an informed consumer."
November 20, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Republicans understand what health insurance is challenge. They can't do it.
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
"Before folks assume that one side of this fight clearly acted in bad faith and the other didn’t, it’s worth indulging the possibility that Purcell itself is the culprit—and that its standardless-ness creates perverse incentives for lower courts in election cases."
Me on the TX redistricting case:
Me on the TX redistricting case:
Bonus 193: The Pernicious Effects of Purcell
The remarkable row between the majority and dissent in the three-judge district court's ruling in the Texas redistricting case can be traced directly to the Supreme Court's election-related case law.
www.stevevladeck.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:23 PM
"Before folks assume that one side of this fight clearly acted in bad faith and the other didn’t, it’s worth indulging the possibility that Purcell itself is the culprit—and that its standardless-ness creates perverse incentives for lower courts in election cases."
Me on the TX redistricting case:
Me on the TX redistricting case:
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
GoOd WoRk EvErYoNe! www.huffpost.com/entry/house-...
House Devolves Into Lawmakers Just Voting To Punish Each Other
They’re about to bring up their fourth resolution this week to condemn another one of their colleagues. Good work, Congress!
www.huffpost.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM
GoOd WoRk EvErYoNe! www.huffpost.com/entry/house-...
It's always nice when judges reveal that their brains are totally rotted by Fox News.
Oh it gets nuttier.
November 19, 2025 at 9:07 PM
It's always nice when judges reveal that their brains are totally rotted by Fox News.
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
I dunno, man, if I began an opinion with a 3+ page "Preliminary Statement" complaining about disrespectful conduct by the other two judges on the panel, I would not immediately follow it up with this:
November 19, 2025 at 8:48 PM
I dunno, man, if I began an opinion with a 3+ page "Preliminary Statement" complaining about disrespectful conduct by the other two judges on the panel, I would not immediately follow it up with this:
Republicans learn what health insurance is challenge
Markwayne Mullin: "Reward people for being healthy. Think about this. Healthcare is the only industry that you're not rewarded for taking care of your responsibility. If you think about homeowners insurance, if you're within 500 feet of a fire hydrant, your insurance goes down."
November 19, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Republicans learn what health insurance is challenge
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
Lindsay Halligan: "I'm sorry, Your Honor—
November 19, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Lindsay Halligan: "I'm sorry, Your Honor—
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
NEWS: During a hearing in federal court in VA, prosecutors confirmed that the operative indictment in the case against James Comey was never shown to or voted on by the entire grand jury before it was presented in open court.
Defense counsel argued that’s a complete bar to further prosecution
Defense counsel argued that’s a complete bar to further prosecution
November 19, 2025 at 4:36 PM
NEWS: During a hearing in federal court in VA, prosecutors confirmed that the operative indictment in the case against James Comey was never shown to or voted on by the entire grand jury before it was presented in open court.
Defense counsel argued that’s a complete bar to further prosecution
Defense counsel argued that’s a complete bar to further prosecution
Reposted by Paul Blumenthal
pretty convincing nymag.com/intelligence...
A Theory of Dumb
What if the cause of Americans’ collective cognitive decline is, simply, each other?
nymag.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:08 PM
pretty convincing nymag.com/intelligence...