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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 19h

He literally has one trick: for instance, right now, he’s pretending that the CFPB does not exist.

Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 20h

The origins:

The Achilles Heel of Russ Vought is that he is cute. The guidance in question actually just does not refer to the relevant law at all. So, how can you “guide” anyone on a law you never refer in your guidance? Cute.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 20h

So cute.

Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 1d

Lawless Russell Vought thinks he can nullify a law by deleting it from an FAQ

www.govexec.com/pay-benefits...

OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance

An Office of Management and Budget FAQ document now states that only excepted employees forced to work without pay are guaranteed backpay at the conclusion of a lapse in appropriations.

www.govexec.com

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 20h

As I said, cute.

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 23h

Russ Vought has always wanted to pretend the spending clause, impoundment control act, and civil service laws don’t exist so that he can just slash and burn whatever he likes. Alas, it’s a government of laws and not of Voughts

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 21h

The Achilles Heel of Russ Vought is that he is cute. The guidance in question actually just does not refer to the relevant law at all. So, how can you “guide” anyone on a law you never refer in your guidance? Cute.

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 22h

I'm on the record saying that Russ Vought will do things during the shutdown that will make his illegal rescissions visible in the way they otherwise weren't. And boy howdy, threatening to ignore the law on backpay is a great example. [corrected]

Shaheen, a retiring Dem Rs are looking to flip on shutdown, says of OMB threats on back pay:

“It would be a lot easier to resolve the situation if Russ Vought would stop talking.”

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Reposted by Professa Murray

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 22h

If appropriations bills are not seen as enforceable contracts, why should any Member of Congress vote to fund any part of the federal government under Donald Trump? You're voting to provide money for lawlessness. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 23h

I mean it is always assumed, first, and then I go from there.

Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 23h

Taps Sign: No presumption of regularity, anymore. What is the Trump Administration trying to achieve here?

Nick Bednar @nicholasbednar.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, they are. "Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations..." 31 USC 1341. It's not even close.

www.axios.com/2025/10/07/t...

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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Reposted by Professa Murray

George Pearkes @peark.es · 1d

It's black letter, can't get more explicit, printed in US code you ignoramus. 31 U.S. Code § 1341 (c)(2)

*JOHNSON: SOME LEGAL ANAYLYSTS DON'T BELIEVE IN SHUTDOWN BACKPAY

(2)Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates, and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.

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Reposted by Professa Murray

Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 1d

Feel free to attribute the following to a former OMB General Counsel: The supposed "new legal analysis" is, to use a technical legal term, horseshit. What the law actually says is that when Congress enacts a law ending a lapse, furloughed employees get paid at the earliest date possible. Period.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Johnson: "It's true that in previous shutdowns, many or most furloughed employees have been paid for the time they were furloughed, but there is new legal analysis - I don't know the details, I just saw a headline - but there are some legal analysts saying that might not be appropriate or necessary"

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

They were trying to create a modern democratic state in the midst of a massive continental expansion, and an emergence into a modern economic state that was still tied to an ossified form of enslavement. It boggles my mind that we treat every sentence they say as deeply coherent.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

@joshchafetz.bsky.social and @anthonymkreis.bsky.social were having an important conversation, so I am posting about again. That is, from at least 1790 until 1830, you have to see separation of powers, and the administrative law that flowed from it as experimental.

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 2d

The weird snipe at @stevevladeck.bsky.social aside, Ilan misses the entire point that even the framers accepted the general idea of judicial oversight re: the president's deployment of military forces. Congress enacted a statutory regime. The president is bound by it. Courts have equitable powers.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

The Supreme Court will commit factual malpractice if they say that this was justified “for cause” firing on the facts themselves.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

The prosecutor in the EDVA knows this falsity; when they investigated Leticia James, 15 people testified that she had not committed mortgage fraud and Lindsey Halligan is going to charge anyway. Lisa Cook did not commit mortgage fraud either.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

Again, what did I say, yesterday, this government enjoys no presumption of regularity. You should view anything they say one way: what are they trying to achieve? And these mortgage referrals are built on one man’s calculation that no-one knows publicly recorded mortgages have standard terms.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

From the moment I read Bill Pulte’s letter, I knew the criminal referrals had not come from the Inspector General of the Fair Housing Finance Agendy, and I said so on BlueSky. Bill Pulte’s criminal referrals have always been the crime. FHFA referrals were usually complicated criminal schemes.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“.. The referrals did not come from the OIG,” one of these people said, using shorthand for the office of the inspector general. “It took people there by surprise.”

@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

Me, upon hearing this story, well, I guess I will have to wait until the arraignment.

Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

Judges have stopped offering the Trump Adminstration, the presumption of regularity, and so should the producers and consumers of “news”. At this point, I read any press release or statement as: what are they trying to achieve as opposed what are they trying to tell me.

Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 1d

Whether you're a casual news reader or a breaking news reporter at the NYTimes, I implore you--please, please, please--do not believe or report DHS/ICE/CBP's side of events uncritically. End the state's monopoly on legitimate storytelling. They are not the objective arbiter of what really happened.

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 1d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

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Reposted by Professa Murray

Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, to my mind the far bigger point here is that this and many other similar things show that there was no rigid sense of "THIS is a legislative power; THAT is an executive one; THIS OTHER is executive" and that such powers could only be doled out to the "proper" institution.

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 2d

The weird snipe at @stevevladeck.bsky.social aside, Ilan misses the entire point that even the framers accepted the general idea of judicial oversight re: the president's deployment of military forces. Congress enacted a statutory regime. The president is bound by it. Courts have equitable powers.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry, fired! Why is there no edit button on BlueSky!

Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

And this is why you have judges evaluate the evidence. Right now, the fact that you can get disbarred for failing to tell the truth, is what is keeping an accurate historical record possible right now.

Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 1d

Claim: 10 cars rammed ICE
Truth: No cars rammed ICE

Claim: She boxed ICE in
Truth: ICE boxed her in

Claim: She shot a rifle at ICE
Truth: She did not have a rifle

Claim: ICE returned fire
Truth: Only ICE fired

Claim: She drove herself to the hospital
Truth: Paramedics found her

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 1d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

We are all so tired. Billy Long—a man so corrupt that his only expertise in tax law was that he ran tax avoidance schemes—refused to turn over the data collected by the IRS and was died. Frank Bisignano is competent, but he will turn over your tax data.

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1d

I don't have the bandwidth to make this case explicit. But today, Todd Bessent put Frank Bisignano in charge of IRS, in addition to Social Security.

Bisignano, at Social Security, gave Big Balls access to all our Social Security data.

Now he's in charge of IRS.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 2d

Well, Well, Well. The 3rd Amendment Truthers aka the Anti-Federalists, were indeed ready for this moment.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 2d

Not a big legal literature on the 3rd Amendment, but here you go: www.jstor.org/stable/845653.

The Third Amendment and the Issue of the Maintenance of Standing Armies: A Legal History on JSTOR

William S. Fields, David T. Hardy, The Third Amendment and the Issue of the Maintenance of Standing Armies: A Legal History, The American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Oct., 1991), pp. 393...

www.jstor.org

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 2d

I mean the biggest problem is that ICE is not the military, but rather a malcompetent, poorly trained administrative agency. Hence, my use of the term, military and military-equivalent.