There has been a flurry of activity from the White House, from the bizarre to the banal, and the scope and breadth of matters into which President Trump has poked his very small fingers is, many people say, overwhelming. There is only one thing that he hasn’t done

Unsealing the transcripts would be an exception to the secrecy of grand juries, wrote the judge supervising Ms. Maxwell’s case, Paul A. Engelmayer. Permitting such an exception “casually or promiscuously” would erode confidence in people called to testify before future panels, the judge wrote in a 31-page opinion.

This was, of course, about as easy a decision as could be, there being no exception under law to permit the unsealing of the grand jury transcripts, and there being no purpose for doing so in any event. Continue reading →

Such niceties as geopolitical diplomatic messaging elude him, being from a world where nothing matters other than getting the thing built and stiffing the contractors. So when Trump invited a man who was shunned by the rest of the free world, the democratic world as an invading pariah to come to the United States, which he occasionally misunderstood to still be Russia, it likely didn’t register that he gave away a key sanction for nothing.

Vladimir Putin, invading war criminal, was coming to the United States at the invitation of the President. Putin was being welcomed back into international society, embraced by that society’s matron. The red carpet will be rolled out for him. Hands will be shaken, not stirred. There will camaraderie with the comrade. Comrades. Continue reading →

Students go by many names. Someone named Andrew might prefer to be called Andy, or perhaps even Drew. So what? What if Andy was chosen because the student was transgender and the person who was once known as Andrew was now Andrea?

As Prawf Jon Adler explains, the Sixth Circuit held in Meriwether v. Hartop that forcing college professors to use preferred pronouns violated their First Amendment rights of free expression and free exercise. But that was pronouns. In Kluge v. Brownsburg Community School Corp, the issue was whether a teacher could be required to use the student’s chosen name as reflected in the high school’s database under Title VII. Continue reading →

Andrew Sullivan chronicles some of our president’s abuses of power for his own personal gain. If you’re unfamiliar with what this is about, or refuse to believe that Trump isn’t your savior doing everything for you rather than him, feel free to read the sordid details in Sullivan’s post. My hope is that it’s not necessary as you’re already well aware of it. All of it. All of it increasing monthly, weekly, daily, as it pops into Trump’s head that there is someone out there he wants to crush and will happily abuse the power of his office to impose suffering on his enemies or to gain his advantage.

But then, it’s only for another three and half years, right? After all, his bluff notwithstanding, his two terms as president is all he gets, and it’s not as if he can or would try to violate the Constitution. Right? Right?!? Continue reading →

Do they look Hispanic? Do they speak Spanish or English with an accent? Do they have Hispanic names? Do they work in construction or lawn care? Do they pick up day jobs at Home Depot? Does that give rise to reasonable and articulable suspicion that they’re in the United States unlawfully? Central District of California Judge Maame E. Frimpong said no, it was racial profiling and prohibited roving ICE patrols from rounding up all the Hispanic-looking people as if they were “illegal aliens.” The Ninth Circuit affirmed the temporary restraining order.

ICE didn’t care.

The Department of Homeland Security said that the operation, named Trojan Horse, was a “targeted raid” that led to arrests of 16 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua. Continue reading →

Ed. Note: As much as I wanted to write about RFK Jr.’s inane decision to cancel almost $500 million in vaccine contracts, I realized that I was no more qualified to challenge his action than he was to take it. Instead, I have asked an academic who is exceptionally well qualified to address the mess. This academic has chosen to stay anonymous for obvious reasons, but I very much appreciate his effort here.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy announced his decision to end 500 million dollars’ worth of development contracts covering 22 projects on vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA). This is a decision that will result in many unnecessary deaths, especially when (not if) the next pandemic arrives. Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams stated, “this move is going to cost lives. University of Minnesota Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm said, “I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business.” Continue reading →

There have been merely a handful of trade deals announced, none of which have been reduced to serious writings and most of which are characterized by the other side as conceptual frameworks rather than actual deals. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from announcing that he’s made fabulous deals, including the one with the European Union which includes, according to him, $600,000,000,000 to be spent anyway he wants.

There might be a problem or two with Trump’s grasp of the deal. Continue reading →

Most people can agree that gerrymandering is wrong, whether done by the Democrats or Republicans, as it is designed to undermine the will of the voters. But it’s been done by both Dems and Reps to gain an improper advantage. We’re long past the question of who started it or who is more at fault. It’s wrong, and yet both parties have employed it.

But now that Trump has ordered his Texas minions to redistrict to add five House seats to the Republican roster to bolster the Republican majority in the House and stave off the potential midterm backlash against him, the Democrats in the Texas lege have taken to the wind, having no ability to prevent the Republicans from doing Trump’s bidding. Continue reading →

The flip side of grievances filed against the useful idiots who have chosen to remain in Trump’s Justice Department at the risk of their integrity was Attorney General Pam Bondi’s grievance against Chief Judge James Boasberg based upon his raising the concern that the Trump administration will not abide by the orders of the Court. As former District Court Judge Nancy Gertner and Georgetown Law Prof Steve Vladeck write, it’s preposterous.

Last week, in a post on social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint against James Boasberg, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, claiming he made “improper public comments about President Trump” and his administration.

At least he didn’t provide unemployment statistics that made Trump look bad, but then, Trump can’t fire Judge Boasberg for telling the unpleasant truth either. Continue reading →

Let’s get this out of the way: Twisted Metal, Peacock’s attempt to turn a 90s PlayStation car-smashing game into a TV show, is the kind of thing you’d expect from a streaming service desperate to justify its existence. It’s loud, it’s bloody, it’s got Anthony Mackie driving a beat-up Subaru with a “Got Milk?” sticker, and it’s trying so hard to be cool that you can practically hear the executives sweating through their Zoom calls.

But does it work? Spoiler: not really, but it’s not a total wreck either.

The premise is simple enough—think Mad Max meets The Last of Us, but with the depth of a kiddie pool. It’s 2002, the internet’s gone kaput thanks to a Y2K virus (remember those?), and America’s a wasteland of walled cities and roving lunatics. Mackie plays John Doe, a motormouthed “milkman” who delivers packages across this hellscape for a shot at a cushy life in New San Francisco. He’s joined by Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), a carjacker with a vendetta, and they bicker their way through a dystopia filled with psychos like Sweet Tooth, a clown-masked nutcase voiced by Will Arnett and bodied by wrestler Joe Seanoa. The plot’s a delivery quest with a side of vehicular carnage, culminating in a tease of the game’s iconic demolition derby tournament. Continue reading →