Fabulous conversation today with @jamellebouie.net and my wonderful colleague Alexander Arnold.

i think to understand the meaning of the birthright citizenship clause to the framers of the 14th amendment, you have to understand significance of dred scott to the civil war republican party. dred scott wasn't just a bad ruling, it was understood as a rejection of the declaration itself.

California Republicans, now joined by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, have sued California in federal court to stop implementation of Proposition 50, a voter-passed ballot measure that creates a Democratic gerrymander of the state’s congressional districts, adding up to five more Democratic seats. The lawsuit argues that the Legislature had an unconstitutional race-focused intent on the state’s Latino voters when it passed the maps. In fact, whatever the Legislature intended should be irrelevant to the Republicans’ claim, and they likely will lose because California voters were acting with a predominantly political, not racial, intent. If Republicans lose the Prop 50 lawsuit and the United States Supreme Court does not interfere with a new federal district court ruling putting Texas’ new gerrymander on hold for 2026, Democrats could have an advantage going into 2026, even as the Supreme Court contemplates even more changes in redistricting rules in its pending case out of Louisiana.

My new one @slate.com with @cooke-m.bsky.social: "Republicans Are Suing to Kill California’s Pro-Democratic Gerrymander. They Have a Huge Problem." slate.com/news-and-pol...

Lisa Murkowski, Charles Sumner, and a cowardice crisis in Congress | Will Bunch The driving force on Capitol Hill is cowardice, as both GOPers and Dems confess to fear of violence. It wasn't always that way.

A senator saw racism, threats to democracy were tearing America apart, so he spoke out, even after colleagues warned he'd be attacked. Charles Sumner was nearly caned to death in 1856, but he lives on as a hero.

Today, fear is winning in Congress. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/lisa...

L.A. Protests Prompt Calls for Police Restraint After Journalist Injuries

Amazing how hard it is to write: “Police shoot at journalists.”

Sen. Van Hollen: "I don't think it's ever wrong to fight for the constitutional rights of one person because if we give up on one person's rights, we threaten everybody's rights...Anyone who is not prepared to stand up and fight for the Constitution doesn't deserve to lead."

Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

If the President can ignore court orders and send anyone he wants to a prison overseas, we are all at risk. An insult to the Constitution and to our values as Americans.

Abrego Garcia must be returned now.

i'm watching a group of conservative law professors insist that there is a grand debate over birthright citizenship that somehow escaped generations of scholarship and only popped into existence after a right-wing president announced an effort to nullify the 14th amendment.

Abrego Garcia's wife: "I will not stop fighting until I see my husband alive. Kilmar, if you can hear me, stay strong. God hasn't forgotten about you. Our children are asking when you will come home ... they miss their dad so much."

The Year’s Most Urgent Best Picture Contender Is the One Almost No One Has Seen I’m Still Here has a warning—and a reason for hope.

just reupping this, on the Oscar-winning movie about how life under authoritarianism can feel almost normal until people start getting disappeared.

I had been doubtful that we were going to have a "this is the crisis moment" with Trump, as opposed to "everything about this is a destructive catastrophe."

But the Abrego Garcia case is the crisis moment.

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Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs The U.S. government has submitted a two-page memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio as its main evidence in its deportation case against Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil.

"The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil"

"Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs."

Free this man immediately.

apnews.com/article/mahm...

The ICE arrests are meant to terrorize dissenters and crush the intellectual freedom that’s the whole point of universities—and the tactic is having its intended effect. Thanks to these professors for fighting back. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Riddle me this: How do you not mention the Civil War at of all places Arlington National Cemetery?

Killing off our research facilities and talent pipelines is perhaps the biggest, dumbest self-own in American history.

if you find yourself reluctant to support the guy at Columbia because you find some of the politics he espoused distasteful or even abhorrent, you should know that this is exactly the reaction that they hoped for in choosing him as a target for unlawful detention based on political speech.

BREAKING: DHS Detains Palestinian Student from Columbia Encampment, Says Advocates Agents told him his student visa was revoked. But he had a green card. Agents then said that was revoked too.

NEWS: Last night, the Department of Homeland Security detained a Palestinian who helped lead the Columbia encampment.

Agents told him his visa was revoked. He said he had a green card. They were confused—then said that was revoked too.

His attorney demanded a warrant. Agents hung up instead.

Yes. If DHS can barge in, say your visa was revoked, be told you have a green card, say it's revoked too, and then disappear you so that neither your lawyer nor your family can find you, then all the guardrails are gone. There is no policy, practice, or law protecting anyone.

It's getting tiring to keep saying this, but for posterity's sake I will: any previous administration would have been instantly sunk by this. Before January 20, 2017, this would have been the most stunning corruption scandal in the history of the American justice system. Now, it's...a Thursday.

State Dept. Plans $400 Million Purchase of Armored Tesla Cybertrucks The department plans to buy armored Tesla vehicles. Elon Musk, who is leading efforts to cut government spending, has won more than $13 billion in government contracts in the past five years.

"The department plans to buy armored Tesla vehicles. Elon Musk, who is leading efforts to cut government spending, has won more than $13 billion in government contracts in the past five years."

one news story that really brings together a lot

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

There has never been a larger gap in my (admittedly quite short) professional life between how lay folks and law profs are talking about what is happening in government right now. So much of what Trump is doing is just blatantly illegal — often in several ways at once.

Today is Fred Korematsu Day in seven states + NYC.

It really ought to be a national holiday, but for reasons ironically not dissimilar to his story, I don’t think it will be any time soon.

Misread this as referring to Paul Verhoeven at first and thought he had a very interesting, if far-fetched, new movie coming out

I'm a believer in smart policy, but all the finger-pointing in the LA firestorm about hydrant flows and LAFD budgets seems like arguing about the adequacy of Hiroshima's 1945 building code standards. It's a way to evade the big questions.

Segregation Academies Still Operate Across the South. One Town Grapples With Its Divided Schools. Seventy years after Brown v. Board, Black and white residents, in Camden, Alabama, say they would like to see their children schooled together. But after so long apart, they aren’t sure how to make…

After the Brown v. Board decision, white people across the South opened hundreds of private schools. 70 years later, most of the ones still open in Alabama’s Black Belt remain overwhelmingly white.

In this town, one school keeps kids divided.

By @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social
(Pub. May 2024)

In class until 10pm is pretty tough

folks, we love a good statutory interpretation joke, don't we

We Need to Know More About State Supreme Court Cases State high courts interpret laws that impact some of the most intimate parts of our lives. Communities have a right to know what’s on the docket.

State supreme courts have a long way to go when it comes to transparency. @bridgetlavender.bsky.social & Julie Murray @aclu.bsky.social discuss the findings of their excellent new report in @statecourtreport.bsky.social. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...