Michael Romano
@romanopsci.bsky.social
560 followers 1.2K following 290 posts
Another digital migrant. Full Prof, Political Science (Shenandoah Uni). SLAC life. Posts abt politics, judges, democracy, rep. Also games, movies, music, and other nerdy things.
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Reposted by Michael Romano
wyden.senate.gov
Video taken one hour ago outside the Portland ICE facility of the violent insurrectionists in question
Reposted by Michael Romano
whstancil.bsky.social
I guess my point here is that MAGA has become totally unashamed to admit that they are racist, but somehow the rest of society has become ashamed to call them racist. Which gives them this incredible advantage of being able to express openly racist ideas and never be called on it
shoe.bsky.social
Ask Matt Walsh what the Founders and the first oh 200 years of America thought about Catholics. Total bigoted dumbass. Shame that Dearborn Michigan sided with him in protest.
Reposted by Michael Romano
darinself.com
Wiranto, the chief of Indonesia's military, refused to use this same power that Suharto gave him, leading to Suharto's resignation after 30 years in power.

Because he knew it would rip Indonesia apart.
atrupar.com
Trump says he’s authorized Hegseth to use “Full Force” against Antifa in “War ravaged” Portland
At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Reposted by Michael Romano
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
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.
Reposted by Michael Romano
annabower.bsky.social
In December 2023, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked SCOTUS to grant cert before judgement to hear Trump’s immunity appeal.

The court rejected that request and didn’t issue its immunity decision until July 2024.

Trump’s federal cases never made it to trial before the November 2024 election.
stevevladeck.bsky.social
Certiorari "before judgment" is how #SCOTUS takes up a full appeal *before* the intermediate federal courts have heard it.

It used to be exceedingly rare. For instance, there wasn't a *single* grant of such expedited review b/w August 2004 & February 2019.

This is the *23rd* such grant since then.
stevevladeck.bsky.social
#BREAKING: Over dissents from Justices Sotomayor, Kagan & Jackson, #SCOTUS grants a stay in the Slaughter case (allowing President Trump to remove the last Dem member of the FTC), *and* grants certiorari "before judgment" to decide whether to formally overrule its 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor.
Reposted by Michael Romano
jlray.bsky.social
The latest from YouGov (n ~ 3k). People overall believe Jimmy Kimmel's comments were acceptable.

Further, people found FCC Chair Brendan Carr's comments about planning to retaliate *unacceptable.* And overall, people strongly disapprove of canceling Kimmel's show

today.yougov.com/topics/overv...
Reposted by Michael Romano
mcopelov.bsky.social
Indeed. What they, and the Founders, could simply not imagine, is the absolute & total cowardice of everyone who swore oaths on bibles & now occupies positions of power under Article I of the constitution.
Reposted by Michael Romano
audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
The Dept of Education is now accepting comments on a proposed rule that would overhaul Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and make it too expensive for students to go into work that threatens the Trump administration

Folks have til *Sept. 17* to oppose the changes

ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...
The Trump White House Is Trying to Price Law Students Out of Public Service
A proposed Department of Education rule would make borrowers ineligible for loan forgiveness if the administration doesn’t approve of their work.
ballsandstrikes.org
Reposted by Michael Romano
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
The White House Press Secretary, the official spokesperson for the Trump administration, told reporters in an official briefing that the president wants to invade "every Democrat-run city" with troops.

Any media still pretending that this is about "crime" is making a conscious choice to lie to you.
atrupar.com
Leavitt: "These are the bad guys that we are picking up in Washington DC every day. The president would love to do this in every Democrat-run city across the country."
Reposted by Michael Romano
gailsimone.bsky.social
I hope you all read this from me.
rphutch1975.bsky.social
To describe the current state of the world as a daily show of deepening horrors is a massive understatement.

However, I read something today that I think more people should see and read.

I hope she doesn't mind my me sharing it here.

I'd rather be an X-Men by @gailsimone.bsky.social
romanopsci.bsky.social
They should at least be openly cowardly enough to write Per Curiam. Give me something to work with!
romanopsci.bsky.social
Shouting it louder for the people in the back
stevevladeck.bsky.social
I know these “interviews” with Justice Barrett are carefully scripted. But if she’s going to keeping urging Americans to “read the opinions,” and not just commentary, it sure would be nice if someone would ask her what we should do when—as is so often the case these days—there’s no opinion to read…
Reposted by Michael Romano
lilymasonphd.bsky.social
1. We do not know the motive of the shooter. The man who shot at Trump was after attention.
2. The man who murdered MN legislators WAS motivated by politics, and I didn’t hear any Dems calling for reprisals against all Repubs.
3. It’s easy to start a cycle of violence. Not easy to end one.
zackbeauchamp.bsky.social
Very, very bad stuff coming from leading right-wingers
Reposted by Michael Romano
swin24.bsky.social
If u watch the whole clip here this is about as good as you’re gonna get from a Republican leader rn; contrast it with the myriad other prominent conservatives in politics and media calling for blood, gore, and preemptive blame games
atrupar.com
Spencer Cox: "Our nation is broken. We had political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination on the gov of Pennsylvania. And we had an attempted assassination on a president. Nothing I say can unite us as a country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken"
Reposted by Michael Romano
adamrose.bsky.social
BREAKING: Federal judge in Los Angeles issues preliminary injunction against Department of Homeland Security to restrict use of force against press, legal observers and protesters.

Judge in LA Press Club v. Noem calls out "surprising savagery" of DHS officers:

"The First Amendment demands better."
romanopsci.bsky.social
This is a terrorist's move.
glopan.bsky.social
OMG, the WH is literally holding the South Korean detainees HOSTAGE.

They delayed the charter flight while Marco Rubio met with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun to discuss ways to "strength their alliance and revitalize American manufacturing through South Korean investments."

#AAPI
Detained South Korean nationals' return home has been delayed
A spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport told NBC News that the charter flight for today had been canceled.
www.nbcnews.com
Reposted by Michael Romano
reuning.bsky.social
I find it funny how evenly split voters are on this _major_ issue (and the difference is not partisan). Good luck to everyone working in education right now. www.nbcnews.com/politics/nbc...
Reposted by Michael Romano
seamas.bsky.social
- you clean up that banksy?
- sure did, your honour, leaving a perfect, permanent outline, imbuing the work with real fuckin gravitas while making its point better than the artist did himself just like you asked
adrianandshane.bsky.social
They erased the new Banksy mural in London. But the stain remains.
Side-by-side images of Banksy’s mural on the Royal Courts of Justice in London. On the left, the artwork appears faded and scrubbed, leaving only a ghostly outline of a judge raising a gavel over a protester holding a placard. On the right, the mural is fully visible in sharp black and white stencil, showing a judge in a traditional white wig and robes striking down at a protester who defends himself with a bloodied sign.
Reposted by Michael Romano
stevevladeck.bsky.social
Here's my updated chart of #SCOTUS's rulings to date on emergency applications from the Trump administration.

See if you can spot the pattern...
A chart listing the Supreme Court's rulings on emergency applications from the Trump administration, the last 20 of which have been granted in full or in part, and almost always over dissents from (only) the Democratic appointees.
romanopsci.bsky.social
Ask me about my gundam backlog....
Reposted by Michael Romano
cristianfarias.com
The New Yorker asked me “how bad” today’s Supreme Court ruling was. I boiled it down to one paragraph:

link.newyorker.com/view/5bda429...
"Just the other day, I was in the audience at Lincoln Center when Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, while promoting a new book, that she doesn't think the United States is in a constitutional crisis," Farias told us. "Today, the Supreme Court, without offering a single line of reasoning, more or less declared that the Fourth Amendment, which protects everyone from unreasonable searches and seizures, nonetheless allows the Trump Administration to arrest and detain anyone who looks Latino, citizen or not, on account of the language that they speak or the kind of jobs they do. The ruling putatively covers the Los Angeles area, but the effect could be national," he continued.
"If that's not a constitutional crisis, then what is?"
Reposted by Michael Romano
erincikanek.bsky.social
I think all people who abuse women and children should be named and prosecuted, regardless of political party.
Free speech norman rockwell meme