Jay Willis
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Jay Willis
@jaywillis.net
150K followers 310 following 6.3K posts
I write about courts, democracy, media, and the raccoon family living in a tree behind my house. Bluesky’s ONLY fantasy football guru. EIC @ballsandstrikes.org, more writing at jaywillis.net.
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jaywillis.net
Checking in on the Washington Post editorial board’s take on the new RFK-approved food pyramid, and I really cannot believe how lazy these people are www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
guidelines at the White House on Wednesday. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
The Trump administration has flipped the national food pyramid as part of its campaign to “Make America Healthy Again,” and once again the new dietary guidelines recommend Americans change their food habits.
The main takeaway: don’t get takeaway. Eat more protein and fats. Scale back on breads and pastas. The imposter meme from inglorious basterds
January 10, 2026 at 4:12 AM
jaywillis.net
The Washington Post editorial board is publishing analysis that is not distinguishable from, like, Breitbart www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
He seemed unconcerned about interfering in the democratic process by seeking to muzzle a candidate for high office. Three appellate judges, all nominated by Democratic presidents, ruled that Smith’s proposed gag order infringed on Trump’s First Amendment rights. While some restrictions were appropriate, the appeals court said, Trump had to be able to rebuke his prosecutor — as a candidate and a defendant. The former special counsel apparently has no regrets about this heavy-handed approach, even though it failed legally and probably helped Trump win the 2024 election. Smith was a war-crimes prosecutor in the Hague before taking over the Trump investigations, and Europe’s protections for free speech are far weaker than America’s. Maybe he went native in the Netherlands.
January 9, 2026 at 7:50 PM
jaywillis.net
I am trying to write a newsletter about James Ho's latest desperate, sweaty law review article, but this thing is so weird and incoherent I'm having trouble pinning it down. It's like reading a Tumblr written by Antonin Scala on quaaludes journals.law.harvard.edu/jlpp/wp-cont...
V. PRINCIPLES OF JUDICIAL SELECTION Now, I do think it’s possible that, in the coming months, the judiciary will make a turn for the better—to more consistently and faithfully apply our written Constitution, rather than a woke Constitution. That’s because, as 2025 has unfolded, we’ve seen an increasing confidence in our Constitution and an increasing backlash against wokeness.39 So, for those of us who are upset over fair-weather originalism, the good news is that the weather may be getting better. But even the good news strikes me as still bad news. Because the quality of the judiciary shouldn’t have to turn on the quality of the weather. And because we all know that, as night follows day, the weather will turn back again someday. 40 If I have any real good news to share, it’s this: Arrogance in the judiciary isn’t inevitable. Before I took the bench, I spent over fifteen years participating in one way or another in the judicial selection process—first, as a lawyer at the Justice Department and then on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and again later as the vice-chair of the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee in Texas. That experience taught me three basic principles of judicial selection. First, I think of the advice that Moses got about selecting good judges. The Book of Exodus tells us to choose “trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain.”41 In other words, pick people you can trust to rule honestly, based on the law, and only the law. Ruling based on who’s favored or disfavored by cultural elites is most certainly awarding dishonest gain. Second, consider the advice that Paul gave in his first epistle to Timothy about choosing a good leader. Don’t pick “a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.”42 Instead, recall what was done when it was time to replace Judas among the 12 disciples. As the Book of Acts put it, “choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time.”43 In other w not come to be served, but to serve.”44 In other words, pick people who will use power, not to serve themselves, but to serve others. People who are willing to be a judge—not people who are desperate to be a judge. People whose goal isn’t to get onto a bench, but to get into heaven. 45 Our judiciary would be stronger if we didn’t just talk about these principles, but actually followed them, in every case. And I do mean all three principles. If you’re able to recite the correct vision of the judge’s role, well, that’s certainly important. But any reasonably smart person can fake an interview. If we’re granting life tenure, then we deserve a lifelong record of commitment to the Constitution—even, and indeed especially, when the result is unpopular. Moreover, correctness and commitment are necessary, but insufficient. We should also demand people of humility, with a demonstrated devotion to service over self, if we’re going to have any confidence that a judge will stand against the tide, stand up to the mob, and withstand the seductions and pressures of the cultural elite. CONCLUSION My hope is that judicial supremacy will ultimately prove to be self-defeating—that the harder its proponents push, the more likely they’ll fail. I recently criticized the Supreme Court for treating a district court in Texas like a Denny’s. 46 We’ve never expected judges to be available at all hours of the night, 24/7, at the drop of a hat. We don’t do so for ordinary litigants. We shouldn’t do so just for those held as members of Tren de Aragua, either. 47
January 9, 2026 at 12:58 AM
jaywillis.net
Seven Dem senators voted to confirm a Trump judicial nominee today, and I really do not think I'm asking for much when I say that Democrats should not be doing favors for a president whose masked thugs murdered a woman in the streets 24 hours ago www.senate.gov/legislative/...
Grouped By Vote Position YEAs ---53 Banks (R-IN) Barrasso (R-WY) Blackburn (R-TN) Boozman (R-AR) Britt (R-AL) Budd (R-NC) Capito (R-WV) Cassidy (R-LA) Collins (R-ME) Cornyn (R-TX) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Curtis (R-UT) Durbin (D-IL) Ernst (R-IA) Fischer (R-NE) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Hagerty (R-TN) Hassan (D-NH) Hawley (R-MO) Hoeven (R-ND) Husted (R-OH) Hyde-Smith (R-MS) Johnson (R-WI) Justice (R-WV) Kaine (D-VA) Kennedy (R-LA) King (I-ME) Klobuchar (D-MN) Lankford (R-OK) Lee (R-UT) Lummis (R-WY) Marshall (R-KS) McConnell (R-KY) McCormick (R-PA) Moody (R-FL) Moreno (R-OH) Mullin (R-OK) Murkowski (R-AK) Paul (R-KY) Ricketts (R-NE) Risch (R-ID) Rounds (R-SD) Schmitt (R-MO) Shaheen (D-NH) Sheehy (R-MT) Sullivan (R-AK) Thune (R-SD) Tillis (R-NC) Welch (D-VT) Young (R-IN) NAYs ---40 Alsobrooks (D-MD) Baldwin (D-WI) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Blunt Rochester (D-DE) Booker (D-NJ) Cantwell (D-WA) Coons (D-DE) Cortez Masto (D-NV) Duckworth (D-IL) Fetterman (D-PA) Gallego (D-AZ) Gillibrand (D-NY) Heinrich (D-NM) Hickenlooper (D-CO) Hirono (D-HI) Kelly (D-AZ) Kim (D-NJ) Lujan (D-NM) Markey (D-MA) Merkley (D-OR) Murphy (D-CT) Murray (D-WA) Ossoff (D-GA) Padilla (D-CA) Peters (D-MI) Reed (D-RI) Rosen (D-NV) Sanders (I-VT) Schatz (D-HI) Schiff (D-CA) Schumer (D-NY) Slotkin (D-MI) Smith (D-MN) Van Hollen (D-MD) Warner (D-VA) Warnock (D-GA) Warren (D-MA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR) Not Voting - 7 Cramer (R-ND) Daines (R-MT) Moran (R-KS) Scott (R-FL) Scott (R-SC) Tuberville (R-AL
January 8, 2026 at 9:59 PM
jaywillis.net
you will not see heaven
Kyle Rittenhouse @rittenhouse2a X.com After thinking about it, should I travel across the state line to Minnesota?
January 8, 2026 at 3:09 AM
jaywillis.net
Oooh, professor!! I know! Call on me! Professor!!! democracyproject.org/posts/has-th...
Jan 5, 2026 Has the Supreme Court Helped Save Democracy? Richard M. Re Congress, The President & The Courts Courts
January 7, 2026 at 6:17 PM
jaywillis.net
Classic Floyd. If you decide to refinish it, let me know and I will pass along to you The Extremely Detailed But Not Especially Complicated Plan that my friend passed along to me
My old shitty stained table earlier this year The refinished table
January 7, 2026 at 4:24 AM
jaywillis.net
Final layer of ceramic finish went on today. Definitely some things I’d do differently next time, but we live and we learn, etc. Better than the gouge that was there before! Fingers crossed this epoxy holds, but it’s already more solid than the last on so I’m optimistic.
Finished table with patch visible in middle center Overhead shot of table with patch at mid right
January 7, 2026 at 3:56 AM
jaywillis.net
I know this feels impossible now, but I swear, on January 6 itself, there was a pretty broad bipartisan consensus that storming the Capitol to find and kill lawmakers was bad, and that Trump was responsible for inciting his followers to try it
Post See new posts Conversation Ted Cruz @tedcruz Violence is always unacceptable. Even when passions run high. Anyone engaged in violence—especially against law enforcement—should be fully prosecuted. God bless the Capitol Police and the honorable men & women of law enforcement who show great courage keeping all of us safe. 11:47 AM · Jan 6, 2021 Rep. Jim Jordan @Jim_Jordan Stop the violence. Support Capitol Police. 12:02 PM · Jan 6, 2021 Graham said, “Count me out. Enough is enough.” Graham called Biden the “legitimate president of the United States,” and told colleagues definitively that “it is over” and the Biden-Harris administration would begin on January 20th. Earlier Wednesday, supporters of Trump breached the U.S. Capitol, forcing a lockdown of the lawmakers and staff inside. Trump has claimed widespread voter fraud to explain away his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden, though election officials have said there wasn’t any. Graham said that “if you’re a conservative,” the idea that Vice President Mike Pence could reverse the results of the election, as President Donald Trump had urged him to do, was “the most offensive concept in the world.” “There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president,” McConnell said. “The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things.”
January 6, 2026 at 10:32 PM
jaywillis.net
"Family separation," listen, bitch,
January 6: A Date Which Will Live in Infamy President Trump took decisive action to pardon January 6 defendants who were unfairly targeted, overcharged, and used as political examples. They were not protected by the leaders who failed them. They were punished to cover incompetence. On his first day back in office, January 20, 2025, President Trump issued sweeping blanket pardons and commutations for nearly 1,600 patriotic Americans prosecuted for their presence at the Capitol—many mere trespassers or peaceful protesters treated as insurrectionists by a weaponized Biden DOJ. He fully pardoned most, commuted sentences, and ordered immediate release of those still imprisoned, ending years of harsh solitary confinement, denied due process, and family separation for exercising their First Amendment rights.
January 6, 2026 at 7:27 PM
jaywillis.net
I understand that this exists mostly to make people upset, but still, a solemn January 6 tick-tock published on an official U.S. government website which asserts that Trump is the rightful winner of the stolen 2020 election is fucking obsence www.whitehouse.gov/j6/
BETRAYAL OF THE PRESIDENT Mike Pence Refuses to Act Vice President Mike Pence, who had the opportunity to return disputed electoral slates to state legislatures for review and decertification under the United States Constitution, chooses not to exercise that power in an act of cowardice and sabotage. Instead, Pence presides over the certification of contested electors, undermining President Trump's efforts to address documented fraud and ending any chance to correct the election steal. 8:00 PM FRAUDULENT CERTIFICATION Stolen Election Certified After law enforcement clears the Capitol, Congress reconvenes late that night and certifies Joe Biden’s electoral votes—votes from battleground states marred by massive mail-in ballot fraud, hidden suitcases of ballots, exploding water pipes, voting machine irregularities, and unprecedented pandemic-era rule changes that bypassed state legislatures. 2020 is considered the greatest election theft in U.S. history, with widespread fraud deliberately ignored by courts, officials and the media. 8:00 PM – 3:40 AM
January 6, 2026 at 7:27 PM
jaywillis.net
When I see a team sending in a defensive player on offense for some convoluted gimmick goal line play
the gamer lean meme
January 5, 2026 at 3:19 AM
jaywillis.net
Rubio is in all other contexts a vapid moron, but it’s very funny that he has the ability to look an interviewer in the eye and explain that a Delta Force op to depose a foreign head of state and install a puppet in his place isn’t “military,” but simply good old-fashioned police work
Besides navigating the treacherous minefield of nation-building that lies ahead, Rubio will also have to rebuild trust among U.S. lawmakers, many of whom have accused him of lying to Congress when he said the Trump administration would seek congressional approval before taking military action against Venezuela. "Secretaries Rubio and [Pete] Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change. I didn't trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress," said Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey). In an interview with The Washington Post, Rubio denied that he lied and said he promised to get congressional approval only if the United States "was going to conduct military strikes for military purposes." "This was not that. This was a law enforcement operation," Rubio said, referring to the indictment against Maduro in the Southern District of New York on drug charges. When pressed that U.S. forces bombing Venezuela, seizing its leader and claiming to "run" the country would be widely interpreted as a military operation, Rubio did not relent, saying "the mission last night was in support of the Department of Justice.
January 4, 2026 at 3:38 PM
jaywillis.net
Mike Lee’s role is to justify Trump’s Venezuela invasion to conservative legal movement types, but this is fucking gibberish. The assertion that kidnapping a head of state “likely” falls under “inherent authority” is as close as it gets to admitting you’re a little errand boy doing as you’re told.
Mike Lee * @BasedMikeLee •11h Just got off the phone with @SecRubio He informed me that Nicolás Maduro has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant This action likely falls within the president's inherent authority under Article Il of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack Thank you, @SecRubio, for keeping me apprised Mike Lee @BasedMikeLee • 12h | look forward to learning what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force x.com/nicksortor/sta... • 4.8K セ 7.9K 33K Il 77M 贝
January 3, 2026 at 9:25 PM
jaywillis.net
A special New Year’s Eve message, from me to you
January 1, 2026 at 2:51 AM
jaywillis.net
When the Kraken started playing a couple years ago, they gutted an old vacant mall and turned it into a giant community center and practice facility. No tickets, open to the public, you can just walk in. My kids got to see the team today before family skate and they’re still buzzing about it.
The kraken practicing My kids watching kraken practice Me and my kid rinkside
December 31, 2025 at 10:32 PM
jaywillis.net
Disaster, I didn’t let it cure long enough and the dye came off during buffing. Trying again! Black dye down, will let it dry and then texture. At this rate I look forward to having full use of my table again in June.
The patch re-dyed black. Looks okay but the uniform color makes clear that it’s an artificial, non-wood patch.
December 31, 2025 at 4:41 PM
jaywillis.net
You can see I still have to reapply and blend the actual finish in the circle-ish area I had to sand down, will do so and report back in a couple days, please keep me in your thoughts
Overhead shot of the repair where you can see I need to reapply finish
December 31, 2025 at 2:39 AM
jaywillis.net
My biggest mistake was not pre-tinting the epoxy, because adding color after it cured was a huge pain in the ass (black dye, and sandpaper to add texture in the direction of the grain). I’m not thrilled with the result, but zoomed out, it doesn’t stick out quite as much as the detail photo
A zoomed out shot of the repair against the whole table
December 31, 2025 at 2:26 AM
jaywillis.net
Some of the epoxy on the dining table I refinished this summer failed, so gather round dads (non-gendered) because it is SPOT REPAIR TIME
Rotting gouge in the table treated with wood hardener wood epoxy patch over the area of the gouge Sanded down epoxy, but still very obviously filler Patched dyed gray with texture added to match the wood grain using fine grit sandpaper
December 31, 2025 at 2:18 AM
jaywillis.net
Hope he sees this Jan
"They are nine justices. They don't necessarily see the Constitution the same way by any means, or how to interpret federal law," Crawford said. "They're in a struggle over the proper way to interpret the constitution, but that is as it should be. And I think as we approach our 250th anniversary of this country, it's important to think about the court and the rule of law as the justices are doing, especially if we hope to keep democracy intact."
December 30, 2025 at 12:20 AM
jaywillis.net
On the one hand this take is incoherent, but on the other it’s exactly what I’d expect from Jan Crawford, the Supreme Court journalist whose coverage makes very clear that her primary source for inside baseball stuff is Sam Alito

www.foxnews.com/media/cbs-re...
Crawford joined CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday to discuss what the panel considered the most underreported stories of the year. While some panelists cited the blanket use of pardons and cuts to the federal workforce as examples, Crawford instead pointed to a narrative she considered overreported: alleged political corruption in the Supreme Court. "You know, there is a narrative that the Supreme Court is corrupt," Crawford said. "I mean, we saw that emerge in the wake of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, and now we see it, that they're in the tank for Trump. Not only is that narrative overreported, it is patently false, and it is dangerous for the institution, and the public's faith and confidence in the rule of law."
December 30, 2025 at 12:19 AM
jaywillis.net
In my view, this passage reveals a lot more about Jeffrey Toobin than it does about Tom Goldstein
One day when Goldstein and I were talking in his office in Washington, he rose from the chair in front of his computer and invited me to take his place. "Go ahead," he said. "Look at anything you like." He offered to show me his tax returns, bank records that Goldstein and his law firm had turned over pursuant to subpoenas, thousands of emails and texts to and from his poker opponents and all of his lawyers' pleas to the Justice Department. I didn't take full advantage of Goldstein's characteristically dramatic gesture, but he made his point. He had nothing to fear because, he insisted, the evidence showed he was innocent.
December 29, 2025 at 4:24 PM
jaywillis.net
[me impressing you, the biggest rube of all time] Oh, you think I’m a cheater?? Would a cheater send an email that says, “We always play completely by the rules”???
The core of the government's case is that Goldstein used funds from his law firm to pay several million dollars in personal expenses, including some poker debts, thus reducing his taxable income. Goldstein acknowledges that this did happen on occasion, but he said the payments were errors by his office manager or his accountant. To make that case, he showed me a 2014 email that he sent to his office manager in response to a question about taxes: "We always play completely by the rules, " it read.
December 29, 2025 at 4:22 PM
jaywillis.net
There is a LOT going on in Jeffrey Toobin’s weird soft-focus profile of Tom Goldstein, but my favorite recurring bit is all the people who know poker finding creative ways to politely make clear that Tom Goldstein is not good at poker www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/m...
Goldstein's style of play reflected his swaggering, risk-friendly approach to litigation. "Very often lawyers, or people in general, want to make every conceivable argument, and you get in the situation where, by making every point, you essentially make no points," he told me. "I'm a big believer that you have to figure out what your winning argument is. It is a poker thing, and that is being willing to say: This is not working. And if I just sit here and hedge my bets and argue both, I'm not going to accomplish anything." As Bill Perkins, an Austin, Texas-based hedge fund manager, put it: "Tom is extremely wild and crazy, like a lunatic at the poker table. He's fearless, an overbluffing kind of a player, what we call a chip bully. He tried to run people over at the table. You want controlled aggression, and he had unbridled aggression." For better or worse, in poker and elsewhere, Goldstein believed in going all-in. The first major turning point in Goldstein's poker career came in 2008, when he put up the $10,000 fee to enter the World Series of Poker, a multiday extravaganza in Las Vegas. On the first night, after the tournament had ended for the day, Goldstein sat down at a table at the Bellagio. "I end up playing without looking at my cards," Goldstein said. That, to put it mildly, was an unconventional strategy. He bet wildly and recklessly, but his opponents were flummoxed by his blind aggression. Goldstein told me he ultimately played that way for 18 hours and won some $400,000. That night was also significant because it's when Goldstein met Dan Bilzerian. An heir to a family fortune, Bilzerian became famous for his extravagant and louche lifestyle as a professional poker player in Las Vegas, and later for being a social media influencer whose posts often featured guns and women in bikinis. Bilzerian recalled Goldstein's antics that night: "People were all watching the game and talking about what a [expletive] maniac he was." After getting the loan from Resnick, Goldstein promptly lost $9 million playing ring games. "Playing ring poker against a bunch of people requires enormous discipline, enormous patience, and those are just not things in poker that I have," Goldstein said. "If you're playing against eight people, just mathematically, the odds that somebody has a hand that's better than yours are quite high. If you're playing against one person, you don't have to be nearly as patient. What's rewarded is being very aggressive. So heads-up, in essence, is built for me." Goldstein started taking on investors in his heads-up contests, who would share in his wins and losses.
December 29, 2025 at 4:19 PM