Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chris Kaiser @chriskaiserva.bsky.social · 3h

really want to go back to before I read this. ☹️

Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 10h

This might be the worst ICE video yet, because it’s literally random dudes hanging around, and then a bunch of heavily armed thugs running them down completely out of nowhere, because they’re brown. It’s a nightmare that would have seemed excessive in Jim Crow. Everyone in America should see this.

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 11h

ICE is not only chasing down every random brown person in Chicago, they have a cameraman following them to film this for social media. Cruelty and inhumanity as content.

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 13h

I’m not a political strategist or a social psychologist, but to me this seems true and important. Values must be activated. Surviving a real crisis takes real leadership.

Highlighted: “We've learned, hearteningly, that majorities seem to harbor a deep attachment to liberal rights and liberties, one that instinctively recoils at masked kidnappings, at hypermilitarized vehicles on urban boulevards, at the trappings of totalitarian dictatorship. But this must be activated. That takes conflict and controversy-powerful imagery and language that rivets attention.”

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 13h

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 15h

"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1d

Presidents have federalized a state's own Guard to use over its objection, most famously desegregation. And sometimes regular military has been used. But taking one state's soldiers and putting them in another state? This is a completely unprecedented breakdown of what the Union fundamentally is.

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Spooky action at a distance @mkranz.bsky.social · 1d

“At first glance, Skrmetti and Chiles seem logically inconsistent: Medical uncertainty confers authority here, yet restricts it there. There is, though, an internal consistency: For the Supreme Court, right-wing reactionaries should always win.” There it is, courtesy of @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 1d

SCOTUS signaled at its hearings today it may strike down Colorado's ban on conversion therapy

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/chile...

The Conservative Justices Don't Trust Any Science That Supports LGBTQ Kids

States that want to facilitate discrimination against LGBTQ people have the Court's blessing. States that want to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination do not.

ballsandstrikes.org

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Sam Levin @samtlevin.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom "deceived" the Supreme Court + "profoundly misrepresented" LGBTQ+ research, according to scholars cited by ADF.

Quoted experts speak out about ADF's "distortions" + "false evidence" in major case, on deck tomorrow, to revive "conversion therapy"

Christian group ‘deceived’ supreme court about LGBTQ+ research, cited scholars say

Exclusive: Experts say Alliance Defending Freedom, arguing to revive conversion therapy, ‘profoundly misrepresented’ their work in case threatening trans and queer youth

www.theguardian.com

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Chris Kaiser @chriskaiserva.bsky.social · 2d

For the lay audience, a “workability issue” is when the Constitution restrains government agents in a way that they’d prefer it didn’t. 🌠

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2d

Ellis is carefully (slowly) going through this. We're still on 1.a.

And yet, this summed it up: DOJ says they don't want something in the order because it presents a "workability" issue.

Ellis: Noo. (Not harshly, just, "I'm not buying it.")

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING: Judge Ellis says that "it appears that the plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success" on their claim that DHS has violated plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment and First Amendment rights.

In addition to the standing ruling, this is the key aspect of deciding whether to enter a TRO here.

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Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 2d

Great to see Chicago news outlets and press orgs stand up against ICE's violent and unconstitutional rampage against journalists and protesters.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 2d

Well, yeah, we're suing ICE.

This wasn't really a hard decision. As little faith as we have in institutions, we recognize the value of drawing visible lines in the sand. We drew ours personally a while ago, but better late than never.

May every protester be freed and may this occupation end.

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Julie Novkov @jnovkov.bsky.social · 2d

As you read this puff piece about how brave and steadfast Amy Coney Barrett is, keep in mind that the house of South Carolina circuit court judge Diane Goodstein exploded over the weekend and some of her family members barely escaped with their lives. She had recently ruled against the admin.

As justices confront harassment, death threats and an assassination attempt, Barrett declares "I'm not afraid"

In an interview with CBS News, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said of the Supreme Court's emergency orders in the Trump cases, "This isn't the final decision."

www.cbsnews.com

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Lindsay P Cohn @lindsaypcohn.bsky.social · 2d

Folks we are watching the adjudication of some of the most important constitutional issues of federalism, executive discretion, and judicial review since the 19th c

www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

Judge issues new broader order barring any National Guard from relocating to Oregon

Judge asked federal government lawyer: 'Do you believe this is an appropriate way to deal with a judge’s order that you disagree with?'

www.oregonlive.com

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 3d

Just because it’s cringe, incompetent, and unpopular doesn’t mean this is any less of an open civil conflict on the part of united states federal government. American chauvinism, a refusal to extend basic comparative analysis as we have for countless nations in the global south, cannot hide this.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 3d

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 3d

It appears that the federal agents occupying Portland have people embedded with them charged with the task of producing stories presenting the government’s version of events. Ironically, this was the sort of work JD Vance did in Iraq before he decided he was against that war.

Done
opb.org
Federal officers were flanked by videographers, toting professional equipment and wearing high-visibility vests.
They filmed from behind the lines of officers, capturing the show of force. At least two drones swept over the scenes.

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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 3d

We have to consider that a part of the elite reluctance to speak out against Trump is because they’re getting death threats from people they know are serious on a pretty consistent basis

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 3d

Judge Diane Goodstein crossed the Trump administration last month. Yesterday, her home burned, her husband was injured and it's being investigated for arson.

www.postandcourier.com/news/crime/s...

Judge blocks South Carolina from giving DOJ millions of voters' data
Sep. 3, 2025

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 3d

bsky.app/profile/marw...

I think that it is impossible to make such a state without an ideological emphasis on altruistic sacrifice. there is no such thing in Trumpism

Marwood @marwoodlennox.bsky.social · 3d

It's trying to create the image of a 20th century authoritarian state while totally eschewing the material realities of how it operated.

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Russ Frankenstein (no relation) @russ41.bsky.social · 3d

Time for a thread of all the things that Stephen Miller and his band of morons are doing to make enemies of state/local authorities.

Let's start things off with some spice for the CPD.

Phoenix Calida @phoenixcalida.bsky.social · 3d

ICE is pepper spraying CPD (Chicago police)

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Schnorkles O'Bork @schnorkles.bsky.social · 3d

I think the Jimmy Kimmel stuff is going to go down as the mountain where the attempted consolidation completely failed. And it's because it wasn't even trying to disappear someone, wasn't even trying to put someone in jail, it was just trying to use the levers of capitalism to go after jokes.

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 3d

Thirded. Their capacity is orthogonal to whether or not there fascist. The reason to keep “peacocking” as Tom put it is that that’s one way to actively prevent suppression of public opposition www.liberalcurrents.com/forming-an-o...

Forming an Opposition Media Bloc in the Network Era

Media is a crucial tool for building solidarity among opposition to authoritarian rule.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

I think often about the Amazon engineer who wrote in an open letter to the company that Ring was “incompatible” with a free society.

Analysis | Amazon’s Ring plans to scan everyone’s face at the door

For the first time, the company is putting facial recognition into its home security doorbells and video cameras.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Chris Kaiser @chriskaiserva.bsky.social · 3d

“The main function of the compact is to replace such provisions of law with “the deal”—that is, a piece of paper, signed by the university, that purports to entitle the Department of Justice, on the basis of its own “finding,” to take away all of these “benefits.””

The effect of the agreement is to hang a sword of Damocles over any compact-signing university that is not there today. The "benefits of this agreement," quoted above, consist almost entirely of things that the administration does not have the power to arbitrarily withdraw under federal law. The government has run into that problem repeatedly in recent weeks as federal trial courts enjoined the administration's efforts to revoke visas on the basis of political speech and its efforts to "suspend" federal scientific research grants on the pretext of enforcing Title VI. The government cannot easily take away a university's "preferential treatment under the tax code" (its 501(c)(3) status) without meeting a heavy burden of proof that clearly cannot be met with regard to any serious university. The government cannot even take away NIH or NSF funds a university has been granted
—let alone student loans—without significant due process, unless perhaps it is lucky enough to find a federal court much more compliant than most have been so far.

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Reposted by Chris Kaiser

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 3d

The specific provision is section 2 of the Calling Forth Act of 1792:

www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

For more background on the judicial review provision, and on how President Washington expressly relied upon it in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion, see:

www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/427_pa9s...

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Chris Kaiser @chriskaiserva.bsky.social · 3d

bsky.app/profile/stev...

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 3d

The very first statute authorizing domestic use of the military during domestic emergencies, enacted in 1792 by a Congress full of the same folks who wrote and ratified the Constitution, expressly provided for judicial review in certain circumstances *before* the President could even send troops.

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Chris Kaiser @chriskaiserva.bsky.social · 3d

These people have been saying openly for a while that they don’t believe in the constitutional order of checks and balances among coequal branches.

They don’t believe in the constitutional order and want to destroy it, they want a dictatorship, they are saying this pretty plainly.

Patrick De Klotz @patdeklotz.bsky.social · 4d

Stephen Miller is a fascist lunatic

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