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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 10d

It should be referred to as a Kavanaugh stop.

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 10d

The stage of deterioration where gangs of large (mostly) white men just publicly assault people who seem to be brown because they're brown in the hopes of doing far more harm to them in the name of the state. Glad this one escaped.

WuTangIsForTheChildren @wutangforchildren.bsky.social · 10d

ICE Nazis in Chicago tried to kidnap a food delivery worker but my man was too fast for those slow bastards

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divine beastmode @gunstreet.bsky.social · 13d

the post office is a public service. it doesn’t need to make money. public transit doesn’t need to make money. the library doesn’t need to make money. some things exist for the public good and we desperately need lawmakers to stop thinking about them in terms of capitalism. these are not businesses.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 13d

WOW. The lead plaintiff is a Latino man who's been here legally for 24 years. He was grabbed off the street by plainclothes federal agents who didn't even ASK about his status.

He was detained overnight and only released once a supervisor realized he had been illegally arrested.

PARTIES3. Plaintiff José Escobar Molina is a 47-year-old man who has lived in D.C. for 25 years. He has maintained valid Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for El Salvador since 2001. On August 21, 2025, Mr. Escobar Molina was walking from his apartment building in Northwest D.C.to his work truck, about to start his workday, when two cars pulled up next to him. As he was about to get into his truck, plain-clothed and unidentified federal agents exited the cars and—without conducting any inquiry—seized Mr. Escobar Molina, grabbing him by the arms and legs and immediately handcuffing him. The agents arrested him without a warrant and without asking for his name, his identification, or anything about his immigration status. The agents also did not ask him where he lives, whom he lives with, how long he has lived here, or anything else about his ties to the community prior to arresting him. After ICE detained Mr. Escobar Molina overnight at its processing center in Chantilly, Virginia, the next day an ICE supervisor finally realized that he had valid TPS, which statutorily prohibits ICE from detaining him, and released him. Due tohis Latino ethnicity, Mr. Escobar Molina fears being arrested and detained again while going about his daily life in D.C.

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 11d

Nobody cares about the victims in the Dallas ICE shooting apparently. The first I've heard about one of them was on CNN today. He's fighting for his life in the hospital --- he was brought to the US when he was 13. He's 33 now. No criminal record.

I just don't know what to say anymore.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Jul 15

WOW. A lawyer told @miamiherald.com that a Florida Highway Patrol agent told her that they are calling Border Patrol to investigate anyone who "appears Hispanic" that they pull over.

That is direct evidence of racial profiling — said over the phone to a lawyer! They aren't even hiding it!

Magdalena Cuprys says she has three clients at the state facility. In the case of one of her clients – a Honduran man with a pending asylum application as a victim of human trafficking — Cuprys said she was able to land a bond hearing. But she remains puzzled by his detention. She said her client was originally held at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection building in Dania Beach for about a week after he was stopped at a truck weigh station by Florida Highway Patrol officers on June 25. He has a valid drivers’ license, Cuprys said. She still doesn’t know why he was detained that day. The Honduran man called her when he was stopped and an FHP officer took the phone and told her that anyone who “appears Hispanic” needs to be sent to CBP to have their license verified, she said. Cuprys didn’t name her client publicly, but the Herald/Times was able to independently confirm he is a detainee at the facility.

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · Jul 5

one way you can tell he’s lying is that the story was sold with a hard news headline as opposed to the poncy “From Kampala to Queens, Mamdani navigates a complex identity” feature hed it would have gotten if it was actually about the decisions “people with overlapping identities wrestle with”

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · Jul 4

Patrick Healy, NYT assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust, wrote a thread on how the Zohran Mamdani/Columbia story came together:

First post: As the @nytimes assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust, I’ve received reader feedback regarding our reporting on Zohran Mamdani’s 2009 application to Columbia University. To provide context on how the reporting came together, I wanted to share some information:

2nd post: The Times has been reporting comprehensively on Mr. Mamdani’s proposals for the city, his vision on the economy and affordability, his leadership record and his personal background, including his biography and South Asian heritage that he’s talked about during his campaign.

Third post: Times journalists for decades have done deep reporting on major party nominees for New York's mayor to provide insight, context and texture about their priorities, history and evolution. Our reporting helps readers better understand how candidates think and what they believe.

4th post: Our reporters obtained information about Mr. Mamdani’s Columbia college application and went to the Mamdani campaign with it. When we hear anything of news value, we try to confirm it through direct sources. Mr. Mamdani confirmed this information in an interview with The Times.

5th post: Mr. Mamdani shared his thinking about the limitations of identity boxes on forms like Columbia’s, and explained how he wrote in “Uganda,” the country of his birth – the kind of decision many people with overlapping identities have wrestled with when confronted with such boxes.

6th post: We believe Mr. Mamdani’s thinking and decision-making, laid out in his words, was newsworthy and in line with our mission to help readers better know and understand top candidates for major offices.

7th post: We sometimes receive information that has been hacked or from controversial sources. The Times does not solely rely on nor make a decision to publish information from such a source; we seek to confirm through direct sources, which we did with Mr. Mamdani.

8th post: Sometimes sources have their own motives or obtain information using means we wouldn't, like Trump's taxes, Wikileaks or Edward Snowden. It’s important to share what we can about sourcing, but we always independently assess newsworthiness and factual accuracy before publishing.

9th post: On sourcing, we work to give readers context, including in this case the initial source’s online alias, as a way to learn more about the person, who was effectively an intermediary. The ultimate source was Columbia admissions data and Mr. Mamdani, who confirmed our reporting.

10th post: We heard from readers who wanted more detail about this initial source. That’s fair feedback. We printed his online alias so readers could learn more about the person. The purpose of this story was to help illuminate the thinking and background of a major mayoral candidate.

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Jul 5

The core problem to me isn't the sourcing so much as newsworthiness. Does it reveal any wrongdoing? Lying? Receiving a benefit he did not earn? Does it have any baring on his qualifications for mayor? Fill a notable gap in his biography? It's all insinuation and implication

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · Jul 4

Patrick Healy, NYT assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust, wrote a thread on how the Zohran Mamdani/Columbia story came together:

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · Jul 5

The story itself still entirely depends on a falsehood, which the Times despite itself now documents is false: it claims that Mamdani was "[a]sked to identify his race" on the form, but the image of the actual form reads "ETHNICITY/RACE INFORMATION"

Screenshot of text:

But as a high school senior in 2009, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, claimed another label when he applied to Columbia University. Asked to identify his [Highlighting begins] race [Highlighting ends], he checked a box that he was “Asian” but also “Black or African American,” according to internal data derived from a hack of Columbia University that was shared with The New York Times.

Screenshot of form reading "ETHNICITY/RACE INFORMATION"

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · Jul 5

I don't think "divorced guy" is widely enough recognized as a political affiliation

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Jul 5

the whole story is worth reading, and the implication is that as Bezos got a personal trainer, divorced, sought a celebrity lifestyle *and* felt like he was mistreated by the Biden administration, his views about the purpose of the Post evolved accordingly
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?

The Amazon founder was once thought to be the newspaper’s savior—now its journalists are fleeing for the exits. Clare Malone reports on how the paper that brought down Nixon is struggling to survive t...

www.newyorker.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Jul 5

For anyone who wants to read a critique of the Times piece, here is a gift link donmoynihan.substack.com/p/whos-afrai...

Who's Afraid of Zohran Mamdani?

And what it means to be an immigrant on July 4th

donmoynihan.substack.com

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Jul 2

Personally I am using the phrase "Everglades Detention Camp," which I think is a good middle ground.

Note that apparently Florida has declared that "Alligator Alcatraz" is the *official* name of the facility, which is clearly designed to force media orgs to call it that.

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · Jul 2

"Alligator Alcatraz" is wrong and media should not use it. It's propaganda. Alcatraz held people convicted of crimes, particularly violent crimes.

The Florida camp holds people *not* convicted of any crime. If they had been, they'd be in prison elsewhere.

The site is a textbook concentration camp.

Charles Johnson Antifa ID Confirmed @charles.littlegreenfootballs.com · Jul 1

I know the media is going to unthinkingly start using “Alligator Alcatraz,” but it’s disgusting and sadistic and I intend to call it what it is, a fucking concentration camp, and fuck those people who are doing this and giving it a cutesy name.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · Jul 1

Wow. Please, PLEASE watch this two-minute video.

In which Lisa Murkowski, in a self-pitying way, admits to being everything that is wrong with the politics of this moment.

FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · Jul 1

Sen. Murkowski admits Trump's budget bill is harmful after she folded and voted yes on it:

"I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill"

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Anonymous policy lawyer @theoderic.bsky.social · Jul 2

The key question: What are states doing to protect their people from a hostile government? Are they prepared for how much harder that will be when the president has a $45 billion private army?

Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social · Jul 1

if (more likely when) this bill passes it will fundamentally alter the character of the federal government. the relationship between resident and government fully, irrevocably changed, and there’s no going back.

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Chris Morran @themorrancave.bsky.social · Jul 1

NEW: After Texas Banned Abortion, More Women Nearly Bled to Death During Miscarriage

A @propublica.org analysis adds to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous.

A “Striking” Trend: After Texas Banned Abortion, More Women Nearly Bled to Death During Miscarriage

A new ProPublica data analysis adds to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous.

www.propublica.org

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A person! @madgomez.bsky.social · Jul 1

I also completely agree with this assessment of lawyers giving themselves too much power to direct the messaging of repro movement. (AND progressive mvmnts in gen. rely too much on polling to direct messaging rather than to inform us about gaps in understanding and what we need to do more of)

Abigail @abigailb.bsky.social · Jul 1

The emphasis on "privacy" in pro-choice work is almost entirely due to the way that Roe was decided, previously you see much more language around gender equity etc. But the lawyers became the tail that wags the dog.

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A person! @madgomez.bsky.social · Jul 1

I’m a big proponent of the possibility in losing forward. Litigation is an important tool, even if it cannot deliver a win, but to lose effectively, you have to work with organizers, media, and policy folks in a coordinated campaign. We (lawyers) are often very bad at that collaborative work.

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · Jul 1

Which, I guess, means that the ACLU SHOULD bring them (better them than someone worse), but it should view its tactics much differently at the SCOTUS we've-already-lost level.

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Abigail @abigailb.bsky.social · Jul 1

I think part of the key here, having thought about this a lot in repro, is to stop forcing the movement to follow the framing most likely to win with the courts rather than the framing most likely to actually be politically effective/preserve the right.

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Wagatwe Wanjuki @wagatwe.com · Jul 1

one factor in Mamdani's appeal is "what if I had an elected official who didn't hate my guts?"

Anil Dash @anildash.com · Jul 1

This @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social video is absolutely INCREDIBLE. The numbers he cites, the strategy and results they produced — it’s the future. When have you heard *any* campaign talk about this, ever? (Video split in 2 to fit in Bluesky’s limits)

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · Jul 1

People have no idea, not really, how this budget is about to wreck their very foundations.

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A person! @madgomez.bsky.social · Jul 1

Lisa Murkowski can get bent but so can all 49 other hateful idiots that voted for this bill. This legislation is so heinous & will be so damaging. The fact that it garnered so many votes is a disgrace, and should embarrass the Republican Party (and Dems that have failed to effectively counter them)

Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · Jul 1

Final vote. 50-50. VP breaks the tie.

One single GOP Senator could have stopped this abomination. Saved millions of parents from watching their child go hungry. Saved the lives destroyed when Medicaid disappears.

They will all live forever with the horror of this bill.

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · Jul 1

In other words, voters who chose someone other than Mamdani and Cuomo as their first preference went for Mamdani over Cuomo by almost 2:1.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · Jun 28

Speaking to nonlawyers: never let a legal pundit tell you a SCOTUS case isn't a big deal because it's written around a wonky technical issue.

The true wonky technical cases are readily apparent and look quite limited in the number of people affected.

If it looks big and serious, it is.

Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · Jun 28

Remarkably strong correlation between pundits who told me the Supreme Court upholding Texas’s abortion bounty hunter law was technical and not a sign it would overturn Roe, and pundits assuring me birthright citizenship is fine because people can “just file a class action” or whatever

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A person! @madgomez.bsky.social · Jun 28

White womanhood is coded as innocent. Motherhood as benevolent, esp. toward children.

You cannot divorce her white motherhood from the work this decision is doing to make America untenable for undocumented black & brown folks.

Surely this mother of black children could never be racist, etc etc

A person! @madgomez.bsky.social · Jun 27

Listening to @strictscrutiny.bsky.social question why Barrett was assigned CASA & I’m stunned no one suggested it is precisely *because* she is a mother (of non-White children!). White supremacy has a long history of using white womanhood and motherhood in particular to do its dirty work.

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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · Jun 27

"For the child born this summer in Texas, whose parents receive no documents, whose name never appears in any system, and who grows up asking why she can’t go on field trips, apply for scholarships, or open a bank account, the consequences are not legal theory. They are her life."

The United States Is About to Embark on a Terrifying Experiment in Mass Statelessness

This scenario, until recently, might have read like a dystopian projection. But after the court’s decision on Friday, it is no longer hypothetical.

slate.com

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