Cristian Farias
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cristianfarias.com
Cristian Farias
@cristianfarias.com
19K followers 610 following 3.2K posts
Legal journalist and beachgoer. I write about courts, the law, and the politics shaping them for @vanityfair.com, @nymag.com, and @newyorker.com. Plotting a new thing.

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Man praying, with the closed caption: “Jesus, I see what you’ve done for other people, and I want that for me.”
January 13, 2026 at 7:25 PM
cristianfarias.com
I love love love love love that the first cause of action in this complaint is a Tenth Amendment claim.
Screenshot of federal complaint in Minnesota v. Noem, which reads in part: "190. The Tenth Amendment provides that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” See Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 935 (1997). 191. As set forth above, Defendants have sent an unprecedented number of federal law enforcement officers to the Twin Cities and Defendants’ agents have engaged in unlawful conduct that harms Plaintiffs’ residents, infringes on Plaintiffs’ police powers, and violates state sovereignty."
January 12, 2026 at 10:53 PM
cristianfarias.com
Amid the craze surrounding Nicolás Maduro’s arraignment in a U.S. courtroom, it felt important to me to make this point:
Screenshot of New Yorker article, which reads, in part: By forcibly bringing Maduro and his wife into the jurisdiction of the federal courts, the Trump Administration will now have to accept, if only tacitly, that at least two Venezuelans deserve the basic human right to be heard before the government attempts to take their life or liberty—something Judge James Boasberg, in Washington, concluded was not given to the hundred and thirty-seven Venezuelan men whom the White House sent to a brutal prison in a nation not their own. Or to the people murdered in the Caribbean under the pretense that mere suspicion of drug trafficking is enough to subject them to an act of war.
January 7, 2026 at 2:07 PM
cristianfarias.com
On January 6, 2021, on what would have been Charles Sumner’s 210th birthday, an insurrectionist flew the flag of the Confederacy in the halls of Congress.

His memory and life’s work scorned on that day, his portrait hung silently as this shameful desecration of our multiracial democracy took place.
An image by Mike Theiler of Reuters showing an insurrectionist carrying a Confederate flag on January 6, 2021 during the Capitol riot. A portrait of Charles Sumner hangs in the background.
January 6, 2026 at 8:05 PM
cristianfarias.com
Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.
Twitter thread in Spanish by José Mario de la Garza, a human rights lawyer in Mexico, translated using Google Translate: 1. Overthrowing a dictator sounds morally right. No one mourns a tyrant. But international law wasn't built to protect the good, but to restrain the powerful. That's why it prohibits force almost without exception: not because it ignores injustice, but because it knows that if each country decides whom to "liberate" by force, the world reverts to the law of the strongest. 2. The problem is not Maduro. The problem is the precedent. When military force is used to change governments without clear rules, sovereignty ceases to be a limit and becomes an obstacle. Today it is “overthrowing a dictator”; tomorrow it will be “correcting an election,” “protecting interests,” “restoring order.” The law does not absolve dictatorships, but neither does it legitimize unilateral crusades. Cont’d: 3. The uncomfortable question is not whether a tyrant deserves to fall, but who decides when and how. Because history teaches something brutal: removing a dictator is easy; building justice afterward is not. And when legality is broken in the name of good, what almost always follows is not freedom, but chaos, violence, and new victims. The law exists to remind us of this, even when it makes us uncomfortable. Maduro isn't the problem: he's the face of the problem. Removing him from power would be merely opening the door. Behind him is the machine: Rodríguez, Cabello, the military command, the operators of repression and plunder. If you only change the person at the top and leave the system intact, what follows isn't democracy: it's a reshuffling. And there's something even more difficult: Chavismo didn't just capture institutions, it captured daily life. Economy, media, bureaucracy, employment, fear, favors, blackmail. A country can't be "de-Chavistaized" by decree or by an electoral miracle. The real transition begins when that network is broken without setting the country ablaze. The challenge is enormous, and it's also a moral one: to unite without vengeance, but without impunity. Targeted justice for those most responsible, truth for the victims, guarantees that the rest will dismantle the system, and a plan for people to live again—not just survive. Because freedom doesn't come with a new president: it comes when the state ceases to be a threat.
January 3, 2026 at 2:16 PM
cristianfarias.com
Zohran bringing that viral campaign energy to a … city agency account.
January 3, 2026 at 4:25 AM
cristianfarias.com
Barring that, he would appreciate being the Pigeon Czar.
Screenshot of Wall Street Journal interview: Q. Your latest focus is pigeons. You've tweeted that they don't deserve the hate they get and should be the official bird of New York City. A. Absolutely. Q. Most New Yorkers think pigeons are a pest. A. Actually, New Yorkers are split down the middle. Half think they're rats with wings. When Bill de Blasio was mayor, he wanted to fine people who fed pigeons in the park. But the other half embrace the pigeon as the symbol of New York City. And when you walk the streets, you see that on many buildings they put spikes that impale the pigeons. They die a horrible death. Spikes should be replaced with plastic owls. Q. Plastic owls? A. Yeah, the owl is a natural predator. Remember Flaco [the owl who escaped from Central Park Zoo]? The most famous owl ever. Pigeons would see Flaco and hightail it. You put a plastic owl on a windowsill and pigeons will never come there. But no, they'd rather put these spikes, which is barbaric.
January 3, 2026 at 4:19 AM
cristianfarias.com
One year ago today:
January 1, 2026 at 5:01 PM
cristianfarias.com
2025: The year I went from gymbro to swimbro.

Total distance swum: 269 km (167 miles).
Apple Fitness yearly stats: Swimming Workouts This Year DISTANCE 294,374YD TIME 90н 36м PACE 1'51"/100yd Stats for last swim of the year: Wed, Dec 31 Pool Swim Freestyle (1,250yd) 1:59PM-2:28PM Workout Time 0:21:12 Elapsed Time 0:29:45 Distance 1,250YD Active Calories 312CAL Total Calories 353CAL Avg. Pace 1'40"/100yd Avg. Heart Rate 147BPM Laps 50 Pool Length 25YD An empty 25 yard pool. Cristian in the locker room after today’s swim. He’s wearing goggles and blue Puma swim trunks and is holding a towel.
December 31, 2025 at 8:39 PM
cristianfarias.com
People covering the newly unsealed pretrial ruling in the criminal case against Kilmar Ábrego García are largely missing the biggest revelation in it:

That the Trump administration closed the criminal inquiry over the Tennessee traffic stop three days BEFORE a federal judge ordered him returned.
Screenshot from court ruling showing a timeline of events in Kilmar Ábrego García’s case, with this text highlighted: April 1, 2025 HSI closes Abrego file regarding alleged MS-13 Human Trafficking/Smuggling. Opened on December 22, 2022.
December 31, 2025 at 2:54 PM
cristianfarias.com
2025 was the year I began tucking my shirt into everything. Here’s to other sartorial breakthroughs in the new year.
A mirror selfie. Cristian is wearing a black beanie, a sleeveless gray sweatshirt, green joggers, an white sneakers/socks.
December 31, 2025 at 2:17 PM
cristianfarias.com
Ms. Rachel isn’t on this app much, but I’m convinced she’s Mr. Rogers incarnate. Or something close to that.
Screenshot of a post on Threads by Ms. Rachel: One thing I'm going to ask Zohran about is if I can donate a book to every baby born in NYC when he does the baby boxes. I want to do nice things like give away books like the amazing @dollyparton Ilove my city, I love every neighbor!
December 28, 2025 at 2:25 PM
cristianfarias.com
MAGA and DHS are melting down over Kilmar Ábrego García “making TikToks.”

I went to look at the video they’re complaining about, and all he’s doing is lip sync to a Christian song in Spanish about trusting God amid trials and tribulations.

www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs...
December 28, 2025 at 5:23 AM
cristianfarias.com
I showed the kids the latest NYMag cover, and I asked them if they knew who the guy on the left was.

Here are their reactions:

9-year-old: 🤷🏻‍♂️
7-year-old: 😲

(This was fresh after watching the two Home Alone movies.)
A New York Magazine cover featuring Macaulay Culkin and Kareem Rahma sharing a subway ride and a pair of earbuds.
December 24, 2025 at 12:25 AM
cristianfarias.com
If there’s one thing this Supreme Court is good at is animus-laundering—by resolving things on narrower grounds than those at play in the original lawsuit.

Today’s ruling is more of that. nymag.com/intelligence...
Screenshot from NYMag column: The animus in Trump's decision to federalize the Illinois National Guard, like his decision to federalize the California National Guard and the Oregon National Guard, is different in kind. These decisions are driven by his hostility toward major U.S. cities led by Democrats, where his policies and politics aren't welcome. Under the pretext of desiring to maintain law and order, the president is targeting states that are separate sovereigns because their governors, elected leaders, and residents simply reject the idea that federal agents should be allowed to roam the streets like an occupying force, snatching and disappearing their own - workers, bystanders, and others simply going about their lives or looking a certain way. Might a judge find this type of animus violates the Constitution? "The federalization and deployment of the National Guard in the Chicago area is the direct result of President Trump's longstanding and well-documented animus toward Illinois and Chicago," reads a legal memorandum in support of the Illinois lawsuit now pending before a federal judge challenging the legality of this latest gambit. As the state's federal complaint documents, Trump's personal animus and his administration's actions against Illinois and Chicago run deep. In a number of cases in recent months, judges have begun to take notice, dismissing or striking down federal attempts to single out, defund, or invalidate programs and policies Illinois has adopted to advance its own vision of public safety and the general welfare of its residents.
December 23, 2025 at 10:48 PM
cristianfarias.com
Happy first day to winter to all who celebrate. (Everyone must be out shopping or something.)
A near-empty pool at the local YMCA.
December 21, 2025 at 4:12 PM
cristianfarias.com
For some reason this story reminded me of Jonnie Bacon, a Black elevator operator at the Supreme Court photographed by Reuters in … 2016.

I hope he’s doing well.

www.reuters.com/article/worl...
Reuters caption: Elevator operator Johnnie Bacon smiles at a passenger as he tends one of the elevators.
December 20, 2025 at 11:09 PM
cristianfarias.com
Last one in, last one out.
An empty, semi-Olympic pool at closing time. (Not really semi-Olympic: it’s 25 yards long, slightly shorter than 25 meters.) Screenshot of Apple Fitness stats: Sat, Dec 20 Pool Swim Freestyle (1,300yd) 4:15PM-4:45PM Workout Time 0:26:46 Elapsed Time 0:29:08 Distance 1,300YD Active Calories 410CAL Total Calories 462CAL Avg. Pace 2'03" /100yd Avg. Heart Rate 145BPM Laps 52 Pool Length 25YD Effort + Moderate Cristian in locker room after swimming. He’s wearing goggles and a blue pair of swimming trunks.
December 20, 2025 at 10:50 PM
cristianfarias.com
Headstands are a core exercise. Change my mind.
December 19, 2025 at 9:49 PM
cristianfarias.com
Since everyone is taking about that White House photoshoot:

Here’s how @vanityfair.com rendered Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, whom I had the pleasure of profiling last year.

www.vanityfair.com/news/story/e...
December 17, 2025 at 1:52 PM
cristianfarias.com
Today was supposed to be leg day, but instead I started doing a bunch of flexy, bendy things. Happy hump day.
A weighted Cossack squat: Cristian holds a kettlebell while seated deep in a single-leg side squat, with the other leg extended outward. Cristian holds a kettlebell below parallel while in a deep squat on a plyo box. Not sure what this is called, but it looks like a sissy squat, with knees going below parallel, atop a plyo box. A pancake stretch: Cristian bends over in half at the waist while sitting on the floor.
December 17, 2025 at 12:46 PM
cristianfarias.com
Yes, it turns out a broad coalition is against breaking up families and spiriting its members away to gulags without a chance to even say goodbye or see a judge. (Kilmar Ábrego García was in a car with his kid when arrested.)

As I wrote when his political prosecution was turbocharged in August:
Screenshot of New Yorker piece, which reads, in part: In July, Crenshaw, in a second ruling endorsing her findings, was emphatic: “At bottom, the Government fails to provide any evidence that there is something in Abrego’s history, or his exhibited characteristics, that warrants detention.” He did suggest that Ábrego García will soon be afforded what the Trump Administration has denied him so far: a full and fair trial where he can subject the witnesses against him “to a rigorous cross examination.” This kind of scrutiny, which the Constitution demands, may be precisely why the government devised the Uganda option: by coercing Ábrego García to plead guilty, it might have avoided the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt, plus all the procedural safeguards that come with a public trial. That proof is what Senator Van Hollen wants to see from the Administration. “Shut up on social media,” he said. “Put up your evidence in court.”
December 13, 2025 at 11:43 AM
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Judge James Boasberg doesn’t think the Trump administration needs “appellate guidance” in his contempt inquiry, suggests the crime-fraud exception applies to attorney-client communications contemplating defiance of court orders.

Lordy, get this over with!
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Excerpt from court order: “In any event, to the extent that future contempt was being considered, the crime-fraud exception would vitiate any privilege.”
December 12, 2025 at 8:07 PM
cristianfarias.com
What I wrote about Kilmar Ábrego García back in September still stands.

Don’t be afraid to call him a political prisoner—every day the ongoing specter of prosecution, reincarceration, and deportation hangs over him, he is as much an enemy of the Trump administration as all its other targets.
A New Yorker headline and subheadline: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S EXTRAORDINARY PURSUIT OF KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA The Trump Administration's maneuvers are rising to a political prosecution. By Cristian Farias
December 12, 2025 at 3:36 PM
cristianfarias.com
I’ve said this before, but it would be healthy for our republic if news organizations didn’t treat anti-constitutional or extralegal perversions as horse race coverage with winners and losers.
Push notification from NYT: BREAKING NEWS President Trump signed an executive order to neuter state laws placing limits on the A.I. industry, a win for tech companies.
December 12, 2025 at 1:47 AM