In pretty much any other administration, Signalgate would have been more than enough for heads to roll. Targeting individual law firms for punishment by Executive Order because they represented people and cases that angered the president would have been a huge scandal, as would firing the personnel staffing nuclear weapons only to have to rehire them, if they could be found, as a demonstration of utter incompetence.

Even the most basic elements of administrative incompetence would have been more than enough to launch a dozen congressional inquiries, from why there is no toilet paper in federal office buildings to why staff were required to return to their offices only to find no room and be forced to work from their cars in parking lots. Unless, of course, DOGE came with guys with guns to evict non-executive branch staff from a privately owned building because they had no clue how they fit into the administrative scheme. Continue reading →

Shortly after the Supreme Court decided Citizens United, a friend was near hysterical about its implications for judicial elections. Mind you, I’m no fan of judicial elections, it being the worst of the bad methods of selecting judges. But I really couldn’t get very worked up about the notion that money would be the issue, that huge sums of money would be invested in getting a judge elected because the value of buying a judgeship just wasn’t all that great.

I mean, sure, it might prove better to have judges you preferred over judges you didn’t, but for the most part, judges didn’t wield all that much influence since they were limited by the cases that made it before them and most judges still felt constrained by reason and integrity. But then, I didn’t think about Elon Musk back then. Continue reading →

When Vice President J.D. Vance got off his plane, he was met with a banner that read “Yankee Go Home.” The advance team tried to find a local who supported Vance’s visit, but came up empty. And so the visit came and went with little more than Vance claiming that Denmark has failed to safeguard Greenland, a claim for which there was absolutely no basis. Not that Vance cared.

Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland, and I think we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland. We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.” pic.twitter.com/kkGRbamsqp

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) March 28, 2025

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Greetings, loyal denizens of the Simple Justice hotel! It’s your ol’ pal Seaton, back from the wilderness of Knoxville with a confession that’s been gnawing at me like a raccoon on a trash can lid. I don’t give a damn about basketball. Never have. Never will. The sound of sneakers squeaking on hardwood makes my teeth itch, and the only thing I hate more than a jump shot is the guy who thinks “dribbling” is a personality trait.

But here I am, parked on my couch with a Diet Dr. Pepper in one hand and a remote in the other, forcing myself to watch March Madness like some masochistic penance for sins I didn’t commit. Why? Because the Tennessee Vols and Lady Vols are doing well, and apparently, I’m contractually obligated as a Volunteer State resident to care. Continue reading →

It’s unclear whether any of the indiscriminate personnel and projects cuts made by DOGE will end up saving any money, on their own, or end up costing half a trillion due to the inability of the IRS to collect taxes. Claims of vast savings have proven to be false, whether because the Muskrats aren’t very good at math or because they fail to grasp how government works. Then there’s the problem of impounding allocations made by Congress, which mean judges keep enjoining just because it’s unconstitutional.

Of course, there is no savings when money spent by the federal government comes in return for services provided that people want and need. If you decide not to buy a new computer, did you save a grand or did you lose a computer? If you needed that computer, you didn’t save anything. Continue reading →

In a post some might consider slightly snarky, David Post at Volokh Conspiracy refuses to let the next shoe drop without mention. This time, it’s the law firm of Jenner & Block. David prefaces his post with an important note.

Given that the VC is a blog that is heavily focused on the law and the legal profession in all of its various manifestations, I think it is incumbent upon us to at least pay a little bit of attention to the Trump Administration’s continuing attacks on lawyers and judges, if only to ensure that our silence is not construed as capitulation.  So no, I’m not going to let it go – no one’s forcing you to read anything I write. 

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Remember the calls to pack the Supreme Court? After the confirmation of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, giving Trump three of nine justices on the Court and what appeared to be an insurmountable conservative majority of at least five, and more likely six, votes, the cries from the left to expand the Supreme Court to add enough justices to take back the majority were loud, shrill and died in Biden’s judicial commission.

But Congress did have the constitutional authority to do so. Similarly, the Constitution only requires that there be a Supreme Court and a Chief Justice. The existence of “inferior Courts” is left to Congress’ discretion. Continue reading →

Despite the stunning lack of clarity surrounding the affair, ranging from the roundup preceding Trump’s proclamation that Tren de Aragua are invading enemy aliens to his claim that he never signed the proclamation at all, one thing was totally clear. Chief Judge Jeb Boasberg ordered the government to bring the renditioned people back to the United States, even if that meant turning the airplanes around.

The government did not, under the bizarre theory that the court lost jurisdiction once the planes left United States airspace. It did not, and this theory was laughable, so naturally the government stuck with it for lack of any theory. No, you cannot commit murder without fear of prosecution when your Celebrity Cruise Lines bartender makes a mediocre negroni after leaving US territorial waters. Take my word on this. Continue reading →

Trump named Tom Homan his “border Czar,” but after serving as a local cop with the West Carthage, NY police, he joined the Immigration and Naturalization Serve and was appointed by President Obama to the position of “Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations” in 2013. Obama awarded Homan the Presidential Rank Award in 2015, and WaPo praised his service.

Thomas Homan deports people. And he’s really good at it.

As it turned out, there was a reason for this. Continue reading →

Nope. Not gonna do it. No more Dick the Butcher quotes. It’s played. You already know it. Not going to do it again. Plus, the likelihood that Trump read Shakespeare seems slim, although it increases exponentially when you consider the folks at the Heritage Foundation, who are likely far better educated. But the quote sure does apply.

The evident goal is to spread anxiety and fear among judges and keep them from fulfilling their constitutional duty to insist that the Trump administration follow the law. The campaign extends to private-sector lawyers, with Mr. Trump trying to damage the business of several firms he does not like.

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