Ian Sinclair
@imsinclair.bsky.social
appellate counsel || democracy, inequality, segregation, baked goods || former city planner and low-level bureaucrat || imsinclair.substack.com/
Pinned
Ian Sinclair
@imsinclair.bsky.social
· Dec 21
The Imperial President
Why the Court's decision in Trump v. United States undermines the separation of powers and encourages political violence.
imsinclair.substack.com
I wrote a thing! Come read my middling thoughts about why the Supreme Court’s terrible decision in Trump v. United States will encourage political violence. It’s not much, but it was fun to write and think through. 1/
imsinclair.substack.com/p/the-imperi...
imsinclair.substack.com/p/the-imperi...
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com
Pope Leo, on Christmas Eve, says denying help to poor is rejecting God
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon on Wednesday that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and stra...
www.reuters.com
December 24, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
Damned if you do; damned if you don't. The government spent months turning immigration court into a deportation trap.
More immigrants are not showing up for their mandatory immigration court hearings compared to prior years, an NPR analysis shows, allowing the government to order their immediate deportation. n.pr/4saLnem
NPR analysis shows skyrocketing number of 'no-shows' in immigration court
More immigrants are not showing up for their mandatory immigration court hearings compared to prior years, an NPR analysis shows, allowing the government to order their immediate deportation.
n.pr
December 22, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Damned if you do; damned if you don't. The government spent months turning immigration court into a deportation trap.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
This is happening around the country and it's the new normal in immigration court — the creation of a "heads I win, tails you lose" system where the government is seeking to dismiss virtually EVERY SINGLE asylum claim through so-called "safe third country" agreements.
NEW: The Trump administration is stepping up its battle against NYC's immigrants—stopping their asylum cases and instead filing motions to send them to other countries across the world.
One Latin American woman was told this week she'd be sent to Uganda.
hellgatenyc.com/trump-asylum...
One Latin American woman was told this week she'd be sent to Uganda.
hellgatenyc.com/trump-asylum...
The Trump Administration Wants to Send NYC's Asylum Seekers to Uganda and Beyond
And other links to start your Thursday.
hellgatenyc.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:42 PM
This is happening around the country and it's the new normal in immigration court — the creation of a "heads I win, tails you lose" system where the government is seeking to dismiss virtually EVERY SINGLE asylum claim through so-called "safe third country" agreements.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
incredible that the oldest scam in the book — “look away from the greed and poor leadership that destroy your chance to make a career, it is the [blanks] that stole your job!” — still works
December 17, 2025 at 10:01 PM
incredible that the oldest scam in the book — “look away from the greed and poor leadership that destroy your chance to make a career, it is the [blanks] that stole your job!” — still works
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
This is precisely the intention of vouchers. They are an elaborate plot to destroy the public education system, which is part of a larger plot to enslave the American population
Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it faced hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects last year.
(Published July 2024)
(Published July 2024)
School Vouchers Were Supposed to Save Taxpayer Money. Instead They Blew a Massive Hole in Arizona’s Budget.
Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, has spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it’s now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state program...
www.propublica.org
December 16, 2025 at 5:18 AM
This is precisely the intention of vouchers. They are an elaborate plot to destroy the public education system, which is part of a larger plot to enslave the American population
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
Genuinely think if you tried to explain a conservarion easement to Trump he'd start talking about golf courses and sand traps in three sentences.
December 15, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Genuinely think if you tried to explain a conservarion easement to Trump he'd start talking about golf courses and sand traps in three sentences.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.
Federal agents use chemical irritant on crowd in Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis amid Trump crackdown
Federal agents have used chemical irritant to disperse a crowd in a heavily Somali neighborhood in Minneapolis. This happened Tuesday during a identification checks amid the Trump administration's cra...
www.mprnews.org
December 14, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
To give you a sense of how big a departure this year, the government doesn't do this for wanted criminals.
SCOOP: The Trump administration is providing the names of all travelers passing through U.S. airports to immigration officials in search of people with deportation orders, a substantial expansion of government efforts to draw on data to hunt down immigrants.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...
Immigration Agents Are Using Air Passenger Data for Deportation Effort
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 11:19 PM
To give you a sense of how big a departure this year, the government doesn't do this for wanted criminals.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
it's why left-YIMBYism is, imo, the correct position from a political economy point of view. the trade offs of rent control vs zoning + development reform really mean that the costs of the former are offset by the latter
yeah i'm not being funny but most arguments against rent controls, while they may be /economically/ sound, are bad from the perspective of /political/ economy
Um, ok...
This paper forthcoming at the JOP provides evidence that rent control in Germany actually made tenants MASSIVELY *less* NIMBY.
This result was in the opposite direction of the authors' pre-registered expectations.
And the effect sizes are, truly, massive.
This paper forthcoming at the JOP provides evidence that rent control in Germany actually made tenants MASSIVELY *less* NIMBY.
This result was in the opposite direction of the authors' pre-registered expectations.
And the effect sizes are, truly, massive.
December 12, 2025 at 1:56 PM
it's why left-YIMBYism is, imo, the correct position from a political economy point of view. the trade offs of rent control vs zoning + development reform really mean that the costs of the former are offset by the latter
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
It is not! A “scrivener’s error” is for things like fixing typos or very minor non-material errors, not retroactively adding a deportation order that doesn’t current exist!
Is "correcting" a previous order like this a real thing?
December 12, 2025 at 1:50 PM
It is not! A “scrivener’s error” is for things like fixing typos or very minor non-material errors, not retroactively adding a deportation order that doesn’t current exist!
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
Anyway, a very good FOIA to file this morning would be for all emails and calls received in the last 24 hours by the immigration “judge” who issued the order.
December 12, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Anyway, a very good FOIA to file this morning would be for all emails and calls received in the last 24 hours by the immigration “judge” who issued the order.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
This was not the lede, but instead paragraph six, with the bulk of the article dedicated to weighing the pros and cons of regulation policy. NOT THE FACT THAT THE PRESIDENT IS NOT ALLOWED TO ERASE STATE LAW BY FIAT.
“Likely to be challenged in courts.” Snort.
“Likely to be challenged in courts.” Snort.
December 12, 2025 at 1:39 AM
This was not the lede, but instead paragraph six, with the bulk of the article dedicated to weighing the pros and cons of regulation policy. NOT THE FACT THAT THE PRESIDENT IS NOT ALLOWED TO ERASE STATE LAW BY FIAT.
“Likely to be challenged in courts.” Snort.
“Likely to be challenged in courts.” Snort.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
At any other time before 2025, a seasoned and sophisticated commander such as Bradley, and the JAGs he consulted, would have immediately dismissed any such notion as palpably mistaken (indeed, incoherent), & thus it would have been obvious that he couldn't strike the boat in the first instance. [3]
December 11, 2025 at 12:39 PM
At any other time before 2025, a seasoned and sophisticated commander such as Bradley, and the JAGs he consulted, would have immediately dismissed any such notion as palpably mistaken (indeed, incoherent), & thus it would have been obvious that he couldn't strike the boat in the first instance. [3]
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
The fundamental problem here--even if there were some legal basis for using such force to destroy the cocaine headed to Suriname (there's not)--is that Bradley accepted at face value ... [1]
@justsecurity.org
@justsecurity.org
Take this in.
"[Admiral] Bradley ... affirmed having sought real-time legal advice, but that he did not say whether his military lawyer considered the survivors shipwrecked and out of the fight."
"[Admiral] Bradley ... affirmed having sought real-time legal advice, but that he did not say whether his military lawyer considered the survivors shipwrecked and out of the fight."
How a U.S. admiral decided to kill two boat strike survivors
The controversial order given by Adm. Frank Bradley is under scrutiny from Congress. Inside the most consequential deliberation of his career.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:39 PM
The fundamental problem here--even if there were some legal basis for using such force to destroy the cocaine headed to Suriname (there's not)--is that Bradley accepted at face value ... [1]
@justsecurity.org
@justsecurity.org
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
This is a white supremacist rally. Anyone who attends something like this or still supports the leader of this movement should be unwelcome in your home and shunned from civil society. Period. We’re way past the point where this crap should be tolerated from anyone. Cast them out.
Trump: "Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch ... we ought to get her the hell out ... she's here illegally."
The crowd in Pennsylvania then starts chanting "send her back!"
The crowd in Pennsylvania then starts chanting "send her back!"
December 10, 2025 at 12:57 AM
This is a white supremacist rally. Anyone who attends something like this or still supports the leader of this movement should be unwelcome in your home and shunned from civil society. Period. We’re way past the point where this crap should be tolerated from anyone. Cast them out.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
Democrats—if they take back the House—already needed to launch an investigation into Bove’s egregious criminal conduct on Trump’s behalf before his confirmation to the 3rd Circuit. But they should also look into his brazen partisanship, which obviously violates the judicial Code of Conduct.
Via MS NOW: Emil Bove is in attendance at Trump’s speech in Pennsylvania tonight.
December 10, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Democrats—if they take back the House—already needed to launch an investigation into Bove’s egregious criminal conduct on Trump’s behalf before his confirmation to the 3rd Circuit. But they should also look into his brazen partisanship, which obviously violates the judicial Code of Conduct.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
What we see here with crystal clarity is Altman's facile understanding of intelligence as a process of input/output. Perhaps he will learn, as so many parents do, that things are not nearly as linear with human beings, and that creativity and joy are not easily converted to data. Perhaps. /end
December 9, 2025 at 5:54 PM
What we see here with crystal clarity is Altman's facile understanding of intelligence as a process of input/output. Perhaps he will learn, as so many parents do, that things are not nearly as linear with human beings, and that creativity and joy are not easily converted to data. Perhaps. /end
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
Ok, this is *so* easy to dunk on, but actually something sorta profound happens here. Altman says ChatGPT is a "genius level intelligence" and then contrasts this with his newborn dropping pizza on the floor and laughing. The conversation moves on, but this is a moment worth pondering... 1/n
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Ok, this is *so* easy to dunk on, but actually something sorta profound happens here. Altman says ChatGPT is a "genius level intelligence" and then contrasts this with his newborn dropping pizza on the floor and laughing. The conversation moves on, but this is a moment worth pondering... 1/n
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
to quote myself on this
December 9, 2025 at 3:27 PM
to quote myself on this
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
the unitarian notion of accountability is, in general, very strange as it holds that a single election — the president’s reelect — is more democratically accountable than the rolling process of democratic assent produced by legislative elections and congressional oversight.
December 9, 2025 at 1:57 PM
the unitarian notion of accountability is, in general, very strange as it holds that a single election — the president’s reelect — is more democratically accountable than the rolling process of democratic assent produced by legislative elections and congressional oversight.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
(2) seems to be an even more dubious point than (1). first because agencies are shaped by congress as well as executive appointments, and second because the agency rule-making process is more transparent and democratic than top-down decrees from political appointees
The theory of the unitary executive is that (1) the constitution requires it and (2) you get democratic accountability through presidential control through the power to remove agency heads. (1) is dubious (2) seems ridiculous at the present moment.
December 9, 2025 at 1:57 PM
(2) seems to be an even more dubious point than (1). first because agencies are shaped by congress as well as executive appointments, and second because the agency rule-making process is more transparent and democratic than top-down decrees from political appointees
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
it is similar to the trick conservatives are trying to pull with the birthright citizenship clause. take something whose meaning is absolutely clear from just a plain reading of the text and transmogrify it into something that says its opposite through obfuscation and esoterica
December 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
it is similar to the trick conservatives are trying to pull with the birthright citizenship clause. take something whose meaning is absolutely clear from just a plain reading of the text and transmogrify it into something that says its opposite through obfuscation and esoterica
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
it is actually kind of bananas how unitary executive theorists have taken a straightforward clause requiring the president to "faithfully execute the laws" and transformed it into a grant for the exercise of limitless unenumerated power.
The Take Care Clause was a byproduct of the lessons learned from the Glorious Revolution that the executive should not be able to dispense with the law promulgated by the legislature. It was not a constitutional provision to empower the executive branch— but to constrain it!
December 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
it is actually kind of bananas how unitary executive theorists have taken a straightforward clause requiring the president to "faithfully execute the laws" and transformed it into a grant for the exercise of limitless unenumerated power.
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
Trump says Lisa Cook is unfit to be a Fed governor because she claimed two different properties as her primary residence on her mortgage applications. (Cook denies this.)
Trump did the exact same thing on mortgage applications submitted a mere 7 weeks apart.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Trump did the exact same thing on mortgage applications submitted a mere 7 weeks apart.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
December 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Trump says Lisa Cook is unfit to be a Fed governor because she claimed two different properties as her primary residence on her mortgage applications. (Cook denies this.)
Trump did the exact same thing on mortgage applications submitted a mere 7 weeks apart.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Trump did the exact same thing on mortgage applications submitted a mere 7 weeks apart.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Reposted by Ian Sinclair
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:40 PM
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.