The ACLU is raising alarm over a facial recognition app loaded onto the smartphones of immigration agents to identify and arrest people.
"It's being used on the street in ways that are dangerous, that are totally unprecedented in this country, and that are, frankly, blatantly illegal."
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
“We are a Minneapolis 2nd grade Brownie Troop of 12 including trans and neurodiverse youth and 75% BIPOC kids. We want to go to summer camp and try horseback riding! During the current ICE occupation we need your support more than ever...”
And that’s how I ordered 4 boxes of thin mints.
Ossoff: "This is a seismic event. This should have people across the country absolutely shook. This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office ... This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020."
ICE activity has not noticeably tapered off yet here and in fact this week they seem to be focused on terrorizing kids at bus stops and schools.
Congrats to Kennedy and Trump—living the dream
"Those who were violent and those who were not have equal responsibility to be nonviolent" should lead to some pretty obvious conclusions. Unless you're NYT editorial in which case, "both the perpetrators and the victims had a responsibility not to do it but never mind who did it."
Good afternoon from downtown Chicago, where despite heavy snowfall, thousands have gathered for an anti-ICE/CBP demonstration in solidarity with the Twin Cities. More are still streaming in.
Lt. Illinois Gov. Juliana Stratton just addressed the crowd, and called for ICE to be abolished.
For "One First," I wrote about DOJ's unprecedented attempt to secretly strong-arm a widely respected district judge in the Cities Church protest case—and why everyone, especially other federal judges, should read Chief Judge Schiltz's two letters in response:
www.stevevladeck.com/p/205-chief-...
If I hear one more big name former prosecutor attorney call for better training of fascist military forces that are killing people, I am going to yeet my phone into the sun.
As I said yest, there are legal commentators who are built for this moment, and PLENTY, including those on MSM, who ARE NOT.
Re: In Re: United States of America No. 26-1135 Dear Chief Judge Colloton, I apologize for addressing this letter to you, but, for reasons I will describe, I do not have any other option. I am working from home today, as the program that my mentally disabled adult son attends each day is closed because of the extreme cold At 11:34 am, I received an email regarding Case No. 26-1135, entitled "In re: United States of America." The order in its entirety read: The motion of the United States to seal is granted. The Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota is invited to file a response, at his discretion, to the petition for writ of mandamus. Any response is due by 2:00 p.m. Friday, January 23. This is the first that I have heard of any petition for a writ of mandamus. The United States did not have the courtesy to tell me that they would be filing such a petition, nor did the United States serve the petition on me. I am unable to access any documents in Case No. 26-1135 because, at the request of the United States, the case is sealed-apparently even from me. So I have been given about two-and-one-half hours to respond to a mandamus petition that I have not read and cannot read. Apparently I am supposed to guess what the petition is about and guess what the mandamus petition says and then respond. I will do so.
The Honorable Steven M. Colloton January 23, 2026 Page 2 On the evening of Tuesday, January 20, the United States presented an application for eight arrest warrants to Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko in connection with the disruption of a religious service at Cities Church on Sunday, January 18. Judge Micko was the magistrate judge who was on duty at the time. Judge Micko found there was probable cause to issue warrants with respect to three of the suspects but not with respect to the other five. Minutes after Judge Micko signed three arrest warrants, the U.S. Attorney notified me that his office wanted a district judge to review Judge Micko's decision -either by hearing an appeal of that decision or by considering the application de novo. The first thing I did is ask our Clerk's Office to randomly assign a district judge to consider the government's request. I was the judge who was randomly assigned. It is important to emphasize that what the U.S. Attorney requested is unheard of in our district or, as best as I can tell, any other district in the Eighth Circuit. I have surveyed all of our judges — some of whom have been judges in our District for over 40 years —and no one can remember the government asking a district judge to review a magistrate judge's denial of an arrest warrant. I have also surveyed the chief judges of all of the districts in the Eighth Circuit. I have heard back from almost all of them, and all of those responding have said that, to their knowledge, no district judge has ever reviewed the decision of a magistrate judge to deny an arrest warrant. The reason why this never happens is likely that, if the government does not like the magistrate judge's decision, it can either improve the affidavit and present it again to the same magistrate judge or it can present its case to a grand jury and seek an indictment. On Wednesday, January 21, I informed the U.S. Attorney that because he was asking me to do something that was unprecedented, and because m…
A magistrate judge found no probable cause to support arrest warrants for 5 people involved in the St. Paul church protest.
DOJ appealed to the 8th Cir.
That appeal led to this remarkable letter from the Chief Judge of the Minnesota district court…
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
One of the best organizers I know in the Twin Cities has a great line, "We can't always take away the hurt, but we can take away the alone."
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
One thing that irks me: people keep calling the folks on the streets in Minneapolis protestors. They are not generally there to protest, they are there to observe and document. This is the product of organizing and mutual aid. It is telling that these acts of citizenship are seen as protest!
All I see is federal agents getting violent with residents, over and over, while Democratic leaders repeatedly tell those residents to calm down and not do anything in response. This is not sustainable.
Woman tells Minnesota Public Radio that the man killed today was helping vehicle traffic get around the area where ICE agents and observers had started to gather and "next thing I knew, they shot him." www.mprnews.org/live-updates....
The people who'll tell you today's murder victim in Minnesota shouldn't have turned up to a protest carrying a gun are the same people who said Kyle Rittenhouse was perfectly entitled to do the same thing.
To put a finer point on it: Republicans have embraced the “insurrectionist theory” of the Second Amendment—the notion that you have a constitutional right to stage an armed rebellion against the government if it becomes tyrannical.
Now they’re lining up to say ICE can shoot any armed protester?
It's so cold out here, I can't take pics or film for more than a minute because my fingertips hurt so much. Just looked, it's currently negative 8.
And yet, look at everyone out here, going strong, fired up, so kind to each other. Some have been singing.
The clergy just keep coming to this anti-ICE protest.
Genuinely unclear where they all will go — it’s packed outside on the sidewalk already.
Police have arrived. Arrests seem imminent. The crowd chants “let them pray” and “Minnesota nice means prosecute ICE”
As clergy pray, arrests begin
#SCOTUS is likely to do the right thing in the Lisa Cook case.
But it's worth bearing in mind that this idea that the Fed is some bespoke exception to the unitary executive theory is utterly incoherent as a matter of both law and history—and is really just proof that the UET is itself bollocks:
The justices sound pretty irritated with Solicitor General Sauer; Chief Justice Roberts even told him to stop interrupting KBJ when he kept talking over her questions.
He is ... not an effective oral advocate, especially in comparison to his predecessor Elizabeth Prelogar.
Immediate punishment for speaking out against the regime.
Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project, discusses the nonprofit's partnership with queer fashion designer Willy Chavarria in its More Than a Game campaign.
Newly available videos and existing footage synchronized and assessed by The New York Times provide a millisecond-by-millisecond look at the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Watch our visual investigation.
There are places where Trump, as president, has broad freedom of action. And there are places where Trump, as president, has been able to act unilaterally because the main point of opposition, Congress (and SCOTUS), support his program. (1/?)
