Ryan Doerfler
@ryandoerfler.bsky.social
5.2K followers 460 following 43 posts
Professor at Harvard Law
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Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
jackjenkins.me
Oh — new reporting on Pope Leo from El Paso Matters, citing footage they have of yesterday's meeting.

Sounds like the pope was even *more* forceful in urging U.S. bishops to speak out about immigration than first reported.

I mean, that's…not subtle. elpasomatters.org/2025/10/08/e...
“I was struck at the beginning (of the video), it talks about the feeling of powerlessness, which I think is so much. I think it’s so important that we as a church give a message of hope in the midst of these horrible struggles, what’s going on in so many cities in the United States right now. At least the church cannot be silent,” the pope told the El Pasoans, according to a video of the meeting provided to El Paso Matters by Hope Border Institute.

Seitz responded: “You’ve spoken very strongly. We’re trying to do the same in our country and yet not get into the political fray the best that we can.”

Pope Leo told Seitz that he’d like to see the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops become more vocal on immigration issues.

“I mean, even within the conference, there are challenges. That’s one place they should be … I wish they were stronger in their own voice,” Leo said, adding that Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the conference, should speak out more on immigration.

“There’s been some good movement in that sense, but I certainly intend to continue to encourage” U.S. bishops to address immigration, Leo said.
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
premthakker.bsky.social
I fear if things don’t change right now, this image is going to come back to haunt us
Laura Rodriguez, on Twitter:

A federal agent points a weapon at a woman who was recording them.

Jess, a U.S. citizen and member of a neighborhood patrol team that documents and shares ICE activity across the city, was filming when the incident occurred earlier today in the Berwyn area.
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
sbagen.bsky.social
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.
atrupar.com
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"
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
jameeljaffer.bsky.social
It was incredibly moving to hear Prof Nickel and other non-citizen professors testify in court about the ways in which the arrests and deportations of students had affected them and their colleagues. So grateful to them for their integrity and courage. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
ryandoerfler.bsky.social
I am sorry but people are affording this much more charity than it deserves.
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
sarahlazare.bsky.social
One thing to understand about what's happening now is that on Oct 1, the deportation machine's budget increased dramatically: $170 billion in NEW funding, averaging to $42.5 billion per year. That's just below the Israeli military's annual budget. It's the equivalent of 13th biggest army on earth.
The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago
As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.
inthesetimes.com
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
peoplesparity.bsky.social
1/2 📢PPP’s new report “No Kings: the Urgent Need for Court Reform” shows that court reform would strengthen democracy & help right-size the role of the courts by handing power back to our elected representatives. @jennyhunter.bsky.social

👉READ MORE: tinyurl.com/PPPNoKings
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
maggieblackhawk.bsky.social
Thanks so much, Mary! Deadline 10/10 to apply for the free seminar for junior faculty and grad students on Native peoples and the Constitution.
marydudziak.bsky.social
What a great opportunity! Seminar Native Peoples, American Colonialism and the Constitution with @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social & Ned Blackhawk for grad students & "junior" faculty. In person & virtual. Apply by 10/10.
www.nyhistory.org/education/in...
The New York Historical’s Bonnie and Richard Reiss Graduate Institute for Constitutional History is accepting applications for its fall 2025 seminar for advanced graduate students and junior faculty.	 
 	seminar | fall 2025

Native Peoples, American Colonialism, and the US Constitution

Fridays, November 7 and 21, December 5 and 12, 2025 | 11 am–2 pm ET
Instructors: Maggie Blackhawk, Ned Blackhawk

 
 	As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this seminar invites a critical examination of a central paradox in American constitutional history: how can a nation celebrate a founding document and constitutional tradition built, in part, on the dispossession of Indigenous homelands? Indian affairs and westward expansion were foundational to the creation and evolution of the US Constitution, yet Native history remains marginalized within the fields of constitutional history and mainstream constitutional scholarship. This seminar explores emerging historical and legal literature that re-centers Native peoples and American colonialism in the narrative of US constitutional development.

Presented in person at The New York Historical and via Zoom

Apply by October 10, 2025
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
ahjohnson.bsky.social
One thing I’d be nice if Schatz and others acknowledged is that even judging their hard right turn on immigration in Spring 2024 on its own terms it failed miserably. In July when Harris took over Trump led on “immigration” by 9pts, by election day he led 13pts. At best it, electorally, did nothing
ryandoerfler.bsky.social
Hammer this again and again with administrators at your home institution. The supposed substance of the "compact" is beside the point.
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
dlknowles.bsky.social
I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
paultlevin.bsky.social
““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+
Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags
Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
lookheron.bsky.social
OK let me do a little thread.

Contrary to popular belief, state funding for public colleges did NOT go down overall during the neoliberal era. That widely repeated result seems mostly be be an artifact of unusually low post-2008 levels.

But...

rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
graph of per-FTE student funding, 1980-2024. cycles around $10,500 until a big dip in 2008 and then a gradual recovery back to previous levels starting in 2012
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
oregonian.com
Federal officer blasts chemical spray into vocal but nonviolent Portland protester, video shows

The interaction illustrates how federal law enforcement officers do use aggressive tactics against protesters who yell and needle officers but don’t appear to present clear physical threats.
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
ICE is absolutely out of control in Chicago.
michaelroche.bsky.social
ICE just gassed a group a civilians near the Rico Fresh supermarket intersection on Armitage in Chicago - bystanders say this was in response for being heckled from the street.
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
mjsdc.bsky.social
NEW: By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to cancel Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants.

KBJ, dissenting, says she "cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference" while "lives hang in the balance."
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
I view today's decision as yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket. This Court should have stayed its hand. Having opted instead to join the fray, the Court plainly mis- judges the irreparable harm and balance-of-the-equities factors by privileging the bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families’ pleas for the sta- bility our Government has promised them. Because, re- spectfully, I cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference with cases pending in the lower courts while lives hang in the balance, I dissent.
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
lyndab08.bsky.social
I’m so struck by this video. A regular day in Logan Square in front of a grocery store and ICE pulls up and tear gassed people. Funston Elementary School is right across the street as well. This is a major corridor in Logan Sq. No concern for human safety

Video from: www.reddit.com/r/chicago/co...
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
kthorjensen.bsky.social
this is a GOOD speech
bencollins.bsky.social
I am just so fucking proud of her.
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
blockclubchi.bsky.social
Federal agents handcuffed Humboldt Park Ald. Jessie Fuentes as she confronted them at a hospital. blockclubchi.co/3Wkje5V
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
sbagen.bsky.social
“'This is cruelty for cruelty’s sake,' said a senior congressional aide briefed on the plan. 'Targeting children — threatening their parents — offering them cash to give up safety — this is not immigration enforcement. It’s blackmail.'" open.substack.com/pub/migranti...
BREAKING: ICE Hunts Children in Twisted 'Freaky Friday' Operation
Operation targets unaccompanied children as young as 14 — with threats, bribes, and family arrests if they refuse to self-deport.
open.substack.com
Reposted by Ryan Doerfler
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
"Jones, 27, is among the residents left at 7500 S. South Shore Drive who are trying to piece together what remains after an early morning, high-powered federal immigration raid led to the arrests of dozens of their neighbors at their South Shore apartment building."
Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'
The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.
chicago.suntimes.com