Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 14h

Ghana’s foreign minister just posted this to X:

“The Ghanaian Government is pleased to note that our refusal to accept Abrego Garcia has been duly acknowledged and complied with by the US Department of Homeland Security.”

Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa &
@S_OkudzetoAblak
X.com
The Ghanaian Government is pleased to note that our refusal to accept Abrego Garcia has been duly acknowledged and complied with by the US
Department of Homeland Security.
We have also followed with satisfaction that DHS has today taken the appropriate steps to inform Garcia's lawyers and amend court submissions to reflect the fact that Ghana cannot be an option for Garcia's deportation.
The Mahama Administration will continue to be transparent and truthful to Ghanaians at all times.
For God and Country E
anana was premature
abe NEWS
LAURA ROMERO
Fri, October 10, 2025 at 6:03 AM PDT|
凸
to

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❀°。Der Siebenschläfer *.ﾟ✿ ⋆ @sababausa.bsky.social · 14h

Whoa, Judge Perry says the Feds’ declarations about unrest at ICE facilities are not credible because some of the incidents they cite in their declarations were separately no-billed by grand juries

The Court therefore must make a credibility assessment as to which version of the facts
should be believed. While the Court does not doubt that there have been acts of vandalism, civil
disobedience, and even assaults on federal agents, the Court cannot conclude that Defendants' declarations are reliable. Two of Defendants' declarations refer to arrests made on September 27,
2025 of individuals who were carrying weapons and assaulting federal agents. See Doc. 62-2 at
19; Doc. 62-4 at 5. But neither declaration discloses that federal grand juries have refused to
return an indictment against at least three of those individuals, which equates to a finding of a lack of probable cause that any crime occurred. See United States v. Ray Collins and Jocelyne Robledo, 25-cr-608, Doc. 26 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 7, 2025); United States v. Paul Ivery, 25-cr-609

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ACLU @aclu.org · 4d

Read more about your rights when interacting with military troops or federal agents at aclu.org/deployment_kyr

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Larry Tenney @larrytenney.bsky.social · 2d

The Trumps: law breaking immigrants

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123simco.bsky.social @123simco.bsky.social · 14h

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 13h

I like how the news will be like “while the President claiming Portland was ruled by a giant skeleton named Mr Nibbles is not strictly true, it does speak to the anxiety of many Americans”

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Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 14h

I love this image.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 12h

My first thought was “wow I hope this guy didn’t give out his name because he could absolutely be charged” and yup, he is correct to stay anonymous.

This man’s account is shocking. His neighbors’ situation is shocking. The entire Chicago raid is shocking.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.
"I wasn't planning on letting her stay, but I didn't know what the hell was going on," the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.
"I didn't want them to take her," said the man, who didn't want to be named because he fears he'll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.
"I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her,
'Just stay there. Don't open, don't, shh, just stay quiet," he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.

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CajunBlueAZ ⚜️🇺🇸 🇺🇦 @cajunblue.bsky.social · 9h

🚨 Do ICE have MRE provisions? Oh, no. That’s a damn shame. All that income and no place to buy a meal. Hey, I know what they can eat… 1/2

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 22h

Nothing says “America First” like letting another country put an Air Force base in Idaho

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Pivot Podcast @pivotpod.bsky.social · 2d

“There is not any advantage to be won from grim lamentation.”

@karaswisher.bsky.social shares some words of wisdom from Homer — and a larger message for the current moment.

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VoteVets @votevets.org · 4d

BREAKING! VoteVets is going big in the Virginia and New Jersey Governor races with $1 million in ad buys. These new ads feature veterans speaking directly to voters, focusing on rising costs & taxes. We're all in for Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill! #VAGOV #NJGOV

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VoteVets @votevets.org · 3d

A new Trump administration memo would have immense consequences for one key group: 25% of all federal employees are US military veterans. Republicans are putting the financial security of hundreds of thousands of veterans and their families at risk.

Scoop: White House memo says furloughed federal workers aren't entitled to backpay

A move to deny backpay to up to 750,000 furloughed workers would dramatically escalate Trump's pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown.

www.axios.com

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VoteVets @votevets.org · 1d

BREAKING: Republican Governor of Oklahoma comes out blasting deployment of National Guard from Texas to Illinois. Calls it a violation of States' Rights. MAGA and Trump are increasingly isolated on this -- as they should be. We will not stop until this insanity ends.

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Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 1d

Letitia James and James Comey have the best lawyers on earth and will almost certainly be fine. The fact that there’s a zillion stories about them and virtually none about NSPM-7 - which affects countless ordinary people - really says something about who the media writes for

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 20h

Washington Supreme Court Justice Mungia has an extraordinary opinion condemning "the underlying racism and prejudices that are woven into the very fabric" of SCOTUS opinions about Native people.

"We must clearly, loudly, and unequivocally state that was wrong.”
www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf...

MUNGIA, J. (concurring)—I concur with the majority’s opinion.1
And yet I
dissent. Not from the majority’s opinion, but I dissent from the racism embedded in the
federal case law that applies to this dispute.
FEDERAL INDIAN LAW IS A PRODUCT OF THE RACIST BELIEFS ENDEMIC IN OUR SOCIETY
AND OUR LEGAL SYSTEM
While it is certainly necessary to follow federal case law on issues involving
Native American tribes and their members, at the same time it is important to call out that
the very foundations of those opinions were based on racism and white supremacy. By
doing this, readers of our opinions will have no doubt that the current court disavows, and
condemns, those racist sentiments, beliefs, and statements.

Since the founding of our country, the federal government has characterized
Native Americans as “savages”: They were “uncivilized.” They had little claim to the
land upon which they lived. At times, the federal government attempted to eradicate
Native Americans through genocidal policies. At other times, the federal government
employed ethnic cleansing by forcibly removing children from their parents’ homes to
strip them from their culture, their language, and their beings.2
Federal Indian case law arises from those racist underpinnings.
The majority correctly cites to Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1, 8
L. Ed. 25 (1831), which is one of the foundational cases involving tribal sovereignty.
That opinion is rife with racist attitudes toward Native Americans. Chief Justice John
Marshall, writing for the majority, describes a tribe’s relationship to the federal
government as one of “ward to his guardian.” Id. at 17. In effect, the opinion presents
tribal members as children, and the federal government as the adult. That theme would
follow in later opinions by the United States Supreme Court—as would the theme of
white supremacy.
Cherokee Nation began with the premise that Native American tribes, once strong
and powerful, were no match for the white race and so found themselves “gradually
sinking beneath our superior policy, our arts and our arms.” Id. at 15. The white man
was considered the teacher, the Native Americans the pupils:

Meanwhile they are in a state of pupilage. Their relation to the United
States resembles that of a ward to his guardian.
Id. at 17.
This characterization of superior to inferior, teacher to student, guardian to ward,
was repeated in later United States Supreme Court opinions.
In Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U.S. 553, 23 S. Ct. 216, 47 L. Ed. 299 (1903),
often characterized as the “American Indian Dred Scott,”
3
the Court used that rationale to
justify ruling that the United States could break its treaties with Native American tribes.
These Indian tribes are the wards of the nation. They are communities
dependent on the United States. Dependent largely for their daily food.
Dependent for their political rights. . . . From their very weakness and
helplessness . . . there arises the duty of protection, and with it the power.
Id. at 567 (quoting United States v. Kagama, 118 U.S. 375, 383-84, 6 S. Ct. 1109, 30 L.
Ed. 228 (1886)).
Our court also carries the shame of denigrating Native Americans by using that
same characterization: “The Indian was a child, and a dangerous child, of nature, to be
both protected and restrained.” State v. Towessnute, 89 Wash. 478, 482, 154 P. 805
(1916), judgment vacated and opinion repudiated by 197 Wn.2d 574, 486 P.3d 111
(2020).
3 See A

Returning to Cherokee Nation, Justice William Johnson’s separate opinion was
less tempered in how he considered the various Native American tribes:
I cannot but think that there are strong reasons for doubting the
applicability of the epithet state, to a people so low in the grade of
organized society as our Indian tribes most generally are.
Cherokee Nation, 30 U.S. at 21. Native Americans were not to be treated as “equals to
equals” but, instead, the United States was the conqueror and Native Americans the
conquered. Id. at 23.
In discussing Native Americans, Justice Johnson employed another racist trope
used by judges both before and after him: Native Americans were uncivilized savages.
[W]e have extended to them the means and inducement to become
agricultural and civilized. . . . Independently of the general influence of
humanity, these people were restless, warlike, and signally cruel.
. . . .
But I think it very clear that the constitution neither speaks of them as states
or foreign states, but as just what they were, Indian tribes . . . which the law
of nations would regard as nothing more than wandering hordes, held
together only by ties of blood and habit, and having neither laws or
government, beyond what is required in a savage state.
Id. at 23, 27-28.
This same characterization was used by Justice Stanley Matthews in Ex parte KanGi-Shun-Ca (otherwise known as Crow Dog), 109 U.S. 556, 3 S. Ct. 396, 27 L. Ed. 1030
(1883). Justice Matthews described Native Americans as leading a savage life.

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Michael McFaul @mcfaulmike.bsky.social · 22h

Machado!!! Fantastic news.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

Immigrant Nobel Prize winners exiting the United States

Florian Scheuer @florianscheuer.bsky.social · 1d

I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

🧵 1/7

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

C-SPAN caller from Missouri to Missouri Rep. Mark Alford: "I hope you, sir, as an elected official, will think of the people who are in nursing homes, their parents are in nursing homes, their Medicaid is going to be cut. What is going to happen to Missourians whose hospitals are gonna close?"

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 1d

It really feels like they’re trolling our autocrat.

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 1d

Reporting live from Chicago, there’s no “hellscape” I’d rather be in.

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opal @defnotadino.bsky.social · 1d

The Catholics who are stepping up are the same as the Catholics who raised me and as my in laws. Cradle Catholics who genuinely believe in social justice (a cornerstone of Catholicism!!!). My grandmother was such a Catholic and her favorite pastime was screaming at old fashioned bishops.

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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 23h

Today my daughter's preschool is holding a farewell assembly for one of her classmates whose mother has no choice but to self deport. The school is hoping it will be joyful in tone, so we might make this less upsetting for this 3 year old.

There's just no words for the uselessness of this cruelty.

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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 22h

Democrats are ramping up the pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who won a special election last month to succeed her late father.

Who is Adelita Grijalva and what is the controversy over her being sworn in to Congress?

Democrats are ramping up pressure on Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to swear in the newest member of Congress.

bit.ly

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 22h

The correct response to Republicans widely depicting the coming protests as terrorism is to go out and protest. Each person should get 10 more people to do so. If Republicans are going to hint at violent state responses to legitimate protest, the only answer is bigger numbers.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 23h

By contrast, JB Pritzker told me that people should flood the No Kings protests precisely in order to let the American people know that something is deeply amiss.

More Dems should be doing this, to send the message widely that we are in real trouble right now.

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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