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Reposted by Kim Lane Scheppele

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 1h

NEW: Comey is going to file selective and vindictive prosecution motion to dismiss AND he will challenge the legality of Halligan’s appointment! There’s more, too… so glad @annabower.bsky.social is there to bring us the whole story! Thread below with details:

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 1h

The judge also set an initial schedule for pre-trial motions.

The first set is expected by Oct. 12. Per Comey’s defense counsel, that batch will include motions to dismiss for selective and vindictive prosecution, as well as a motion challenging the legality of Halligan’s appointment as US attorney

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb.bsky.social · 22h

NEW: ICE purchased custom-made vans from a company called TechOps Specialty Vehicles (TOSV) that are equipped with fake cellphone towers designed to spy on phones.

TOSV president said the company integrates the cell-site simulators into their vans, but does not manufacture the surveillance tool.

ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones | TechCrunch

The federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with “cell-site simulators” which allow the real-world location tracking of nearby phones and their owners.

techcrunch.com

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 2h

We must all stand up and speak out.

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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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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4h

#WarRavagedPortland

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DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 3h

🧵
Today's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is for the discovery and stabilization of metal-organic frameworks, stable networks of metal ions and carbon (organic) molecules

Applications of these porous compounds include catalysis and pollution remediation

Example of metal-organic framework formed by reacting chromium ion clusters with organic compound and hydrofluoric acid

Electron microscope image of a periodic array of super tetrahedra of the previous image

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Douglas Keith @douglaskeith.bsky.social · 2d

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's jurisprudence is... complicated! But with nearly half the court up for retention election next month, the money is still pouring in. More @statecourtreport.org: statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

Everything You Need to Know About Next Month’s High-Stakes Supreme Court Elections in Pennsylvania

Three justices will face an up or down vote in November, the outcome of which is likely to impact the midterms.

statecourtreport.org

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 23h

here's how to explain the shutdown to those who are puzzled -- great video!

Nick Knudsen @nickknudsenus.bsky.social · 1d

This is the BEST description of the shutdown.

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Mark Zaid, Esq @markzaidesq.bsky.social · 1d

On direct pathway to a constitutional crisis. Intentionally and deliberately.

www.axios.com/2025/10/06/n...

MAGA calls for Trump to overrule judges on National Guard deployments

Trump's base has embraced the idea that court rulings should not constrain his powers as commander-in-chief.

www.axios.com

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Norm Eisen @normeisen.bsky.social · 1d

Flashing red light: a top federal prosecutor REJECTED pressure to indict NY AG Letitia James

Career DOJ lawyers aren’t giving to Trump’s revenge campaign

Now what will Bondi & Halligan do?

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Top prosecutor is rejecting Trump pressure to charge New York AG

A key federal prosecutor in Virginia, where James Comey was indicted, is resisting bringing charges against Letitia James.

www.msnbc.com

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 1d

I understand the impulse to highlight the acceptable things that can be found in the "compact" and imagine how those could be built on.

But those elements are a disguise. The gov't doesn't care about them. The *purpose* of the compact is unconstitutional federal control over higher education.

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 1d

It's a pretty big deal that the NYC Bar Association--one of the most prominent and respected bar associations in the country--is accusing the President of ordering the "unlawful summary execution," i.e. murder--of civilians in violation of US and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

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Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 1d

Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right

Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in bright red wooly gowns, with a beige trim. It looks sort of like a Santa robe

The Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in black gowns with a bright white kravat, and two thin red vertical lines on the side of the robe

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Edward Swaine @edswaine.bsky.social · 1d

Re-upping these questions from @tessbridgeman.bsky.social & Mary McCord. Note that the subsequent CNN story on the classified OLC memo does not report whether the memo was prepared before the recent strikes, which is one of the questions posed.

Edward Swaine @edswaine.bsky.social · 4d

Valuable questions, terrific format -- ideally reaching Senate staff.

Tess Bridgeman @tessbridgeman.bsky.social · 4d

Mary McCord, former Acting Assistant AG for National Security, and I teamed up on Qs Senators should ask #Bondi at her Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, on strikes that have killed 17 people to date.

The implications are serious. Consider a few of the Qs:

www.justsecurity.org/121862/ask-b...

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Isaac Dovere @isaacdovere.bsky.social · 1d

Newsom says he’s on the verge of quitting the National Govs Association: “should not be difficult … regardless of partisan affiliation, to agree that politicizing our states’ Natl Guard and deploying… over the objections of the home-state Governor,harms the interests of states”

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 1d

i will miss the Santa look . . .

Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 1d

Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right

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Anil Kalhan @akalhan.bsky.social · 1d

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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d

this statement by the American Council of Learned Societies, one of the key orgs in higher ed, is exactly right.

reject the 'compact'. no ifs, no studies.

read and share and, for your opeds, steal.

I cannot post the entire alt text but it begins: On October 1, the White House proposed to nine leading American universities that they agree to a list of demands in exchange for receiving preferential access to research funding. The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” undermines the long-standing independence of American academia. It works against the best interests of colleges and universities and of every one of us who has benefited from the knowledge they produce. We call for its immediate rejection by all institutions of higher education.

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 1d

Excellent analysis of what the US Supreme Court has done and might do. Are they providing the appearance of normal law in order to disguise the authoritarianism driving the executive branch? That's the logic of the dual state.

Pema Levy @pemalevy.bsky.social · 1d

“The reality is that the court is adjusting the law to make place for arbitrary power.”

To understand the Supreme Court's role in Trump's authoritarian project, I turned to the idea of a dual state: an authoritarian regime that keeps up a facade of normalcy

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The “dual state” theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there.

Authoritarianism—but make it look like the rule of law.

www.motherjones.com

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Ian Gordon @idgordon.bsky.social · 1d

The NYT's Michael Grynbaum reported that this is the note that Bari Weiss sent to CBS News staffers this morning (1/2)

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Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 2d

Statement from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.
We must now start calling this what it is: Trump's Invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state's military troops.
I call on Governor Abbott to immediately withdraw any support for this decision and refuse to coordinate. There is no reason a President should send military troops into a sovereign state without their knowledge, consent, or cooperation.
The brave men and women who serve in our national guards must not be used as political props. This is a moment where every American must speak up and help stop this madness.

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 2d

This is the home of Diane Goodstein, a federal judge who ruled against Trump last month.

Members of her family were still inside, but survived by jumping out windows.

Just yesterday Stephen Miller claimed left wing judges were terrorists & state power was needed to stop them.

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 2d

Once again, Anna Bower live-tweets hearings like no one else can!

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 2d

Ok, here we go.

The case is called and Judge Immergut explains the background. She says there were technical difficulties, which caused the delay.

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Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 2d

BREAKING: We just won in court — again.

A federal judge BLOCKED Donald Trump’s unlawful attempt to DEPLOY 300 OF OUR NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS TO PORTLAND.

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