Peter Orlowicz
@peterorlowicz.bsky.social
Admin law atty, IL native, Navy veteran, sometimes appellate lawyer, board game aficionado, ethics enthusiast, railroad law-talkin' guy (he/him). Personal account, as always.
Pinned
Peter Orlowicz
@peterorlowicz.bsky.social
· Jul 14
Well, new platform means new people, so I may as well introduce myself. I'm a lawyer in Chicago, though I live in the western suburbs, and I'm just over 10 years into practice. This is a personal account, but my day job is Senior Counsel for the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, a federal agency.
Today in "at no point could I predict the next word in this headline"...
🚨 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 6:08 PM
Today in "at no point could I predict the next word in this headline"...
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
NEW — I spoke with Rep. Delia Ramirez (@ramirez.house.gov) about her calling DHS leaders "inheritors of the Klan hood and the slave patrol," the prospect of one day seeing them behind bars, and what it's like to see the public [finally] embrace her long-held dream to abolish ICE.
Our conversation:
Our conversation:
"The day of accountability will come": Rep. Delia Ramirez on abolishing and prosecuting DHS
The Handbasket spoke with the congresswoman who called out ICE long before it was popular.
www.thehandbasket.co
February 13, 2026 at 11:40 PM
NEW — I spoke with Rep. Delia Ramirez (@ramirez.house.gov) about her calling DHS leaders "inheritors of the Klan hood and the slave patrol," the prospect of one day seeing them behind bars, and what it's like to see the public [finally] embrace her long-held dream to abolish ICE.
Our conversation:
Our conversation:
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
This is an awesome thread and a fascinating result. We discuss this lawsuit in the Arizona Cardinals episodes in @badlawyerpod.bsky.social too
FOOTBALL & RACE 🧵
1/ Four years ago, Brian Flores sued the NFL alleging that the "Rooney Rule" requiring teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching vacancies is a sham.
Today, the judge ruled that ALL claims must be litigated, not arbitrated.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
1/ Four years ago, Brian Flores sued the NFL alleging that the "Rooney Rule" requiring teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching vacancies is a sham.
Today, the judge ruled that ALL claims must be litigated, not arbitrated.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 13, 2026 at 10:21 PM
This is an awesome thread and a fascinating result. We discuss this lawsuit in the Arizona Cardinals episodes in @badlawyerpod.bsky.social too
Not only is this a great piece of movie and cultural critique, but it made me click through a bunch of links to the OP's other Trek articles and they are also great. New rabbit hole unlocked!
Unironically yes, LOWER DECKS is about how the response to the disappointments of the post-Cold War era and the complexity of the modern world should not be despair or cynicism but instead a recommitment to the original ideals of liberalism, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
February 13, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Not only is this a great piece of movie and cultural critique, but it made me click through a bunch of links to the OP's other Trek articles and they are also great. New rabbit hole unlocked!
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
DHS is shutting down because it refuses to obey the law. They are tear-gassing schools, killing American citizens, and disappearing legal immigrants. Democrats shouldn’t fund an out of control ICE.
February 13, 2026 at 4:53 PM
DHS is shutting down because it refuses to obey the law. They are tear-gassing schools, killing American citizens, and disappearing legal immigrants. Democrats shouldn’t fund an out of control ICE.
Hey @mreno79.bsky.social , yay trains!
February 13, 2026 at 8:15 PM
Hey @mreno79.bsky.social , yay trains!
Live your life in a way that you don't need a $15m security detail, is my opinion.
"The White House Office of Management and Budget, which Vought leads, is allocating $15 million of what remains of USAID operating expenses to cover the costs of his protection" www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...
Exclusive: White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought's security, documents show
The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump's budget chief and an archit...
www.reuters.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Live your life in a way that you don't need a $15m security detail, is my opinion.
"The Grand Jury Members Should Be Arrested for Obstruction of Justice" by Josh Blackman
There is no serious legal scholarship that suggests that the Framers were thinking of the radical left Democrat Party when they wrote the First Amendment. The grand jury grievously erred by failing to indict Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin, and their cohort.
by Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley
February 13, 2026 at 1:32 PM
"The Grand Jury Members Should Be Arrested for Obstruction of Justice" by Josh Blackman
There's gotta be SOMEONE, right?
Do I know anyone licensed in the Court of Federal Claims?
February 13, 2026 at 12:35 AM
There's gotta be SOMEONE, right?
Look, the Maersk Lego train set is one of the two Lego sets I will always regret not getting my hands on, I'm not gonna let it happen to the container ship.
Kids frantically pushing aside the new Pokemon and Mandalorian LEGO sets in Target to purchase the ANE MÆRSK container vessel
February 13, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Look, the Maersk Lego train set is one of the two Lego sets I will always regret not getting my hands on, I'm not gonna let it happen to the container ship.
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
BREAKING: Judge Nancy Brasel, a Trump appointee, has issued a TRO in the Minnesota access-to-counsel case about treatment at Whipple.
"It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."
"It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."
February 13, 2026 at 12:14 AM
BREAKING: Judge Nancy Brasel, a Trump appointee, has issued a TRO in the Minnesota access-to-counsel case about treatment at Whipple.
"It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."
"It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
Here’s that passage from the ethics opinion
February 12, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Here’s that passage from the ethics opinion
This is particularly insulting and cowardly from the IOC since Russia is banned from competing as a nation at these Olympics specifically because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Heraskevych’s choice to forfeit the medal chance instead of give up the memorial helmet is the biggest story in Ukraine today. Everyone is heartbroken but there is a unanimous consensus that this was what had to happen rather than to give up.
February 12, 2026 at 3:52 PM
This is particularly insulting and cowardly from the IOC since Russia is banned from competing as a nation at these Olympics specifically because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
I needed to adapt a doc for a class exercise. So I had it scanned in & converted to Word, & ofc. the formatting was fubar. So I told MS Copilot to fix the formatting, remove excess spaces, etc but do not change any words. It told me “Here I’ve fixed the formatting but didn’t change any words.”
LIES
LIES
February 12, 2026 at 2:22 PM
I needed to adapt a doc for a class exercise. So I had it scanned in & converted to Word, & ofc. the formatting was fubar. So I told MS Copilot to fix the formatting, remove excess spaces, etc but do not change any words. It told me “Here I’ve fixed the formatting but didn’t change any words.”
LIES
LIES
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it.
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
February 11, 2026 at 9:56 PM
I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it.
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
Of all the Illinois Senate candidates in the Democratic primary, Christopher Swann has by far the best platform. The problem is that Raja Krishnamoorthi, the current polling leader, has by far the *worst*.
February 12, 2026 at 3:15 AM
Of all the Illinois Senate candidates in the Democratic primary, Christopher Swann has by far the best platform. The problem is that Raja Krishnamoorthi, the current polling leader, has by far the *worst*.
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
Scoop–CFPB just fired employee alexisgoldstein.bsky.social for allegedly disrupting &documenting a meeting a year ago between CFPB & DOGE www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
She says she's being retaliated against after asking DOGE visitors who they were & if they'd completed training on handling info
She says she's being retaliated against after asking DOGE visitors who they were & if they'd completed training on handling info
CFPB Fires Employee Over a Confrontation With DOGE a Year Ago
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fired an employee for disrupting and documenting a 2025 meeting between the agency and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to emails rev...
www.bloomberg.com
February 11, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Scoop–CFPB just fired employee alexisgoldstein.bsky.social for allegedly disrupting &documenting a meeting a year ago between CFPB & DOGE www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
She says she's being retaliated against after asking DOGE visitors who they were & if they'd completed training on handling info
She says she's being retaliated against after asking DOGE visitors who they were & if they'd completed training on handling info
I love that this story has a railroad retirement connection! (It has to do with certain prefixes of Social Security numbers that were originally reserved for rail workers pre-1963 and haven't been used since.)
Aided by genAI models like ChatGPT, “writers” hoping to get paid for fake stories have become an even bigger problem for publications big and small. One such writer almost pulled one over on COYOTE — until @soleilho.com, who is a nerd, spotted a key idiosyncrasy.
How COYOTE Almost Got Slopped by AI
The sordid tale of the freelancer who never was.
www.coyotemedia.org
February 12, 2026 at 1:14 AM
I love that this story has a railroad retirement connection! (It has to do with certain prefixes of Social Security numbers that were originally reserved for rail workers pre-1963 and haven't been used since.)
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
Fellow fiber arts nerds, you'll want to click through not only for the great article but the photos of the gorgeous swatches he crocheted. I gasped out loud.
February 11, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Fellow fiber arts nerds, you'll want to click through not only for the great article but the photos of the gorgeous swatches he crocheted. I gasped out loud.
If you are the fourth person in a remote meeting/presentation/CLE to ask for a copy of the slide deck, after the first three people who asked were told "yes, we will send out the slides to all registered attendees" you should get auto-ejected from the meeting.
February 11, 2026 at 5:36 PM
If you are the fourth person in a remote meeting/presentation/CLE to ask for a copy of the slide deck, after the first three people who asked were told "yes, we will send out the slides to all registered attendees" you should get auto-ejected from the meeting.
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
“Unfortunately, because Congress is not taking any steps to rein ICE officers in, there really is no option other than states protecting their constituents’ rights," said Joanna Schwartz, a law professor at UCLA.
Local and State Police Can Investigate Federal Agents, But Rarely Do
It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable w...
www.propublica.org
February 11, 2026 at 3:50 PM
“Unfortunately, because Congress is not taking any steps to rein ICE officers in, there really is no option other than states protecting their constituents’ rights," said Joanna Schwartz, a law professor at UCLA.
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
If you're not from Chicago, you might not be aware that ICE attempted to murder a person doing ICE monitoring, long before the murders in Minneapolis. She survived being shot 5 times. She's taking them to court.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shootin...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shootin...
JUST IN: Marimar Martinez, the Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol agent, expected to file lawsuit and release evidence Wednesday
From @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
From @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Marimar Martinez, the Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol agent, expected to file lawsuit, release evidence
Body-cam video, text messages and other evidence tied to shooting during Operation Midway Blitz is set for a Wednesday release.
chicago.suntimes.com
February 11, 2026 at 2:13 AM
If you're not from Chicago, you might not be aware that ICE attempted to murder a person doing ICE monitoring, long before the murders in Minneapolis. She survived being shot 5 times. She's taking them to court.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shootin...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shootin...
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
Reposted by Peter Orlowicz
PACZKI DAY IS ONE WEEK AWAY. NOT A DRILL. HAVE A PLAN.
February 10, 2026 at 11:49 PM
PACZKI DAY IS ONE WEEK AWAY. NOT A DRILL. HAVE A PLAN.