Anil Kalhan
@akalhan.bsky.social
19K followers 3.8K following 1.8K posts
Law professor, Drexel Univ • Affil'd fellow, Yale ISP • NYC Bar Ass'n Rule of Law Task Force • AAUP Cmte A on Acad Freedom ⚾ Cleveland native/partisan 🏀 runner • https://linktr.ee/akalhan
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akalhan.bsky.social
What we might refer to as a "Kavanaugh Stop"
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
WOW. The lead plaintiff is a Latino man who's been here legally for 24 years. He was grabbed off the street by plainclothes federal agents who didn't even ASK about his status.

He was detained overnight and only released once a supervisor realized he had been illegally arrested.
PARTIES3. Plaintiff José Escobar Molina is a 47-year-old man who has lived in D.C. for 25 years. He has maintained valid Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for El Salvador since 2001. On August 21, 2025, Mr. Escobar Molina was walking from his apartment building in Northwest D.C.to his work truck, about to start his workday, when two cars pulled up next to him. As he was about to get into his truck, plain-clothed and unidentified federal agents exited the cars and—without conducting any inquiry—seized Mr. Escobar Molina, grabbing him by the arms and legs and immediately handcuffing him. The agents arrested him without a warrant and without asking for his name, his identification, or anything about his immigration status. The agents also did not ask him where he lives, whom he lives with, how long he has lived here, or anything else about his ties to the community prior to arresting him. After ICE detained Mr. Escobar Molina overnight at its processing center in Chantilly, Virginia, the next day an ICE supervisor finally realized that he had valid TPS, which statutorily prohibits ICE from detaining him, and released him. Due tohis Latino ethnicity, Mr. Escobar Molina fears being arrested and detained again while going about his daily life in D.C.
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
ddayen.bsky.social
So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."
Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis
In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.
prospect.org
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
jamellebouie.net
thank you brett kavanaugh!
dlknowles.bsky.social
Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...
Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children
Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.
southsideweekly.com
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
johnpfaff.bsky.social
They said on-line isn’t real life, and Bluesky is a niche social media site.

But here is @akalhan.bsky.social getting “Kavanaugh Stops” into the Boston Globe!

With a pic of Kav looking a little petulant too (but then when doesn’t he?).

Glad to see this is sticking to him.
Critics of Trump’s immigration crackdown are using the term ‘Kavanaugh stop.’ Here’s what it means. - The Boston Globe
The phrase, is "a window into where [the administration] can go next," some advocates say.
www.bostonglobe.com
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
denisedwheeler.bsky.social
Reuters photographer Jonathan Ernst noticed that Bondi flipped open a file during the Senate hearing and he zoomed in.

Inside were her crib notes for attacking the senators.

The GOP now practicing Cliff's Notes Fascism

In other words, under oath Bondi was purely a performance.
Bondi senate hearing had a folder full of notes for attacking the senators Bondi senate hearing had a folder full of notes for attacking the senators Bondi senate hearing had a folder full of notes for attacking the senators Bondi senate hearing had a folder full of notes for attacking the senators
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
cleareyedjuraj.bsky.social
This actually makes me like Katie Porter more and I am NOT a supporter of hers. This "reporter" is asking asinine questions in bad faith that are dumb on their face. It's actually refreshing to see a

Democrat push back on canned idiocy.
yasharali.bsky.social
Someone who used to work with Katie Porter sent me this clip from a train wreck interview with her and said “now imagine what she’s like when there aren’t cameras around.”
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
democracyforward.org
We’d also love to know what happened to the $50,000 Tom Homan allegedly took from FBI agents.

Luckily, we’ve sued for the receipts.
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
tomjoscelyn.bsky.social
Look at how this MAGA propagandist, Benny Johnson, spins this scene: “army of Antifa.”

It’s a small group of people and a guy in chicken suit.
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
jackjenkins.me
Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.
(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.
akalhan.bsky.social
Multiple impeachable offenses per day
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
“.. we’re going to take care of our people,” Trump added. “There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of. And we’ll take care of them in a different way.”

@thehill.com
thehill.com/homenews/adm...
akalhan.bsky.social
If you become a premium subscriber you'll get a special edition challenge coin and a shorter records retention period
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
akalhan.bsky.social
University general counsel, university trustee, university president
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
theverge.com
"You have elected to take a job where the primary purpose is for you to eat shit and own the death of broadcast TV news, a thing that is going to die no matter what you do. Nice work!"

Read more from @lopatto.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/business/793...
A photo of Bari Weiss over a headline: "Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You're doomed"
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
qjurecic.bsky.social
Hey guys. It's your boy J Edgar here. I have something new that I'm really excited to share with you—it's called COINTELPRO and I really think you're gonna love it
willoremus.com
Obviously not the main point here, but it's interesting how this is framed as content rather than policy.

"BREAKING" is typically what journalists or influencers say when they have a big story -- not what government officials say when they launch "undercover" operations
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
"Look, the President clearly has some kind of dementia" should be how Democrats begin every single comment to reporters these days.
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Ruben Gallego on whether Trump is talking to Democrats:

“Look, the President clearly has some kind of dementia, so I think there's a he's probably talking to himself, or think he's talking to a Democrat, but I sincerely doubt that that's actually he's actually physically talking to a Democrat.“
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
briantylercohen.bsky.social
This is Adelita Grijalva.

She was elected to Congress two weeks ago, officially making her the final vote needed to force the release of the Epstein files.

She has still not been sworn in because Mike Johnson refuses to do so.
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
dondechert.bsky.social
Trump to exercise monarchic whim and illegally re-direct appropriations is how the headline should read.

Just again, spending and appropriations is a core power of Congress, not subject to the Executive's whims.
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
“.. there is the question of how the bond market will react to tariff revenue being redirected away from lowering the deficit.”

@barrons.com
www.barrons.com/articles/tru...
Reposted by Anil Kalhan
annecaprara.bsky.social
Chicago is so much of a war zone that we just won best big city for the 9th year in a row.
Reposted by Anil Kalhan