Trump approval falls to 35% as prices rating hits a record -46 Our new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds the president's overall job approval at a new low, Democrats leading by 7 on the generic ballot, and a growing majority saying the Iran war is not wort

NEW Strength In Numbers/Verasight.io poll: Trump approval falls to 35% as rating for handling prices hits a record -46
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-04-21...

Viktor Orbán’s Defeat Showed Democrats How to End Trump’s Rule This administration uses self-dealing as brick and mortar to build yet more corruption.

slate.com/news-and-pol...

by @dahlialithwick.bsky.social with @normeisen.bsky.social

The Atlantic responds to Kash Patel's $250 million lawsuit:

"We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit."

221. Chief Justice Roberts and the Clean Power Plan Remarkable reporting from the New York Times provides a peek behind the curtain of the February 2016 rulings that ushered in the modern emergency docket. And what it reveals is pretty discouraging.

"In the first major case in which the Court granted emergency relief as a means of shaping nationwide policy, it turns out that the justice who led the charge was the one who was doing quite a bit more than calling balls and strikes."

Me on Saturday's @nytimes.com scoop in today's "One First":

Faculty Defect From Texas Publics, Citing Censorship Fed up with the state’s censoring of Plato, Joan of Arc and Romeo and Juliet, humanities professors are leaving Texas public institutions in pursuit of academic freedom.

'Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content.' 1/3

Justice Department demands Michigan county turn over 2024 ballots Michigan Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel dismissed the latest election inquiry from the Trump administration as “absurd” and “baseless.”

Now DOJ is demanding 2024 ballots from Michigan without a proper legal basis. Is it just a coincidence that it’s targeting swing states like Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona in the lead-up to the 2026 election?
www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele...

preach.

Me: Writes a book documenting in detail how #SCOTUS’s approach to emergency applications shifted in the mid-2010s, and why those shifts are problematic without regard to the results.

SI: But a 6-3 Court once vacated part of a Fifth Circuit stay in a specific Texas abortion case. So checkmate, libs!

Have been wondering when candidates would start talking about this. One of the biggest corruption scandals is U.S. history playing out in real time.

Trump Thwarted, Orban Toppled: The New Roadmap for Democrats | Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts Norm Eisen on the lessons learned in Hungary and their application to this moment in American history.

Breaking down Hungary's lesson for democracy repair with the great @normeisen.bsky.social --

The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

WOW: Jodi Kantor & Adam Liptak have the memos that describe the origins of SCOTUS shadow docket - the 2016 order halting Obama’s Clean Power Plan @jodikantor.bsky.social @adamliptak.bsky.social @nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas blasts progressivism as threat to America He said that the values enshrined in the 1776 Declaration of Independence have “fallen out of favor” among Americans.

Genuinely funny that Sonia Sotomayor issued a public apology today for her mild criticism of a conservative colleague on a specific, substantive issue, and then a few hours later Clarence Thomas picked up a mic and was like ALL LIBERALS ARE AMERICA-HATING COWARDS

She was granted withholding of removal from India *decades* ago, and had been living and working legally (including for the U.S. government!) ever since.

But with third country removals now a real option, TSA shared her data with ICE and they arrested her at the airport on her way to a job.

Today, these Dems likely to hand Trump-Kash Patel FISA Section 702 power to access Americans' emails, texts, calls without a warrant

@meeks.house.gov
@jahimes.bsky.social

@adamsmith.house.gov "undecided"

While Trump admin appears poised to abuse such powers against bogus "antifa" affiliates.

HSGAC Hearing -- 04-15-2026 -- Vladeck Testimony.pdf | Powered by Box

This morning at 10 ET, the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee is holding a hearing on … the Second Amendment:

www.hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/the...

I’m the minority witness. My written testimony offers some thoughts about what the Committee ought to be talking about instead:

Always read Barb...
congrats and looking forward

For me, a big “aha” moment in law school was when I realized that every year, the handful of normal, median-ish guys (they were all guys) who would land huge clerkships seemingly out of nowhere were all officers in the student FedSoc chapter

The pending ruling in Trump v. Cook (on his highly dubious justification for firing Lisa Cook from the Fed) will very likely undercut this vow

Trump Threatens to Fire Powell if He Does Not Resign From Fed

Breaking NYT:

Trump is now threatening to fire Jerome Powell if he does not resign from the Federal Reserve.

Powell's term as Fed chair officially ends on May 15, but he can stay on as a governor until 2028 and has said he would not leave until the criminal investigation is over.

Honored to Share That I have Been Named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, for Work on My Book, Unbent Arc: The Rise and Decline of American Democracy 1964-2024 #ELB I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve been named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow. I will be using the award to continue work on my book project, Unbent Arc: The Rise and Decline of American Democracy 1964-2024,...

Honored to Share That I have Been Named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, for Work on My Book, Unbent Arc: The Rise and Decline of American Democracy 1964-2024 electionlawblog.org?p=155421 #guggfellows2026

of course it will fail. the point is to say "he is a danger to the country. he thinks he's jesus and he has the nukes. but republicans think he should endanger us and the troops. they should be removed from office too." and then repeat.

this is called "doing something"

Pamela Jo should be testifying under oath today before House Oversight about the Epstein Files, but she is intentionally ignoring her subpoena.

I mean, as far back as Feb. 2025, Pamela Jo was hellbent on getting justice per the below Facebook post.

Let’s get the contempt process started, shall we?

EXCERPTS FROM KAFKA'S DIARIES 281 JANUARY 20. The end of writing. When will it take me up again? JANUARY 29. Again tried to write, virtually useless. JANUARY 30. The old incapacity. Interrupted my writing for barely ten days and already cast out. Once again prodigious efforts stand before me. You have to dive down, as it were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you. FEBRUARY 7. Complete standstill. Unending torments. MARCH 11. How time flies; another ten days and I have chieved nothing. It doesn't come off. A page now anc hen is successful, but I can't keep it up, the next day m powerless. MARCH 13. [.] Lack of appetite, fear of getting ba te in the evening; but above all the thought that I wr

The writing life, courtesy of Franz Kafka.

Newly-Elected Hungarian PM Says Orbán Was Paying CPAC, Calls It a ‘Crime’ That ‘Will Have to Be Investigated’ Péter Magyar, the Hungarian Prime Minister-Elect, announced that outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government had been paying CPAC, but he would put an immediate end to that -- and even went so f...

Peter Magyar’s election is an earthquake for MAGA. He says Orban’s regime paid for CPAC events in Hungary, that is a “crime,” and he’s ending the practice.

CPAC conferences in the U.S. & Hungary are key ideological events for the far-right. Now they’ll have to pay for it on their own in Hungary.

Big Bird’s Obituary: Greatly Exaggerated With apologies, tonight’s column runs a little longer than I like them to.

Trump wanted to kill off PBS & NPR by defunding them. It hasn't worked as intended—viewers came to their aid & now a fed'l judge has held Trump's executive order unconstitutional. We also look at why Trump might dislike public media & a Muppet named Donald Grump.
open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

May their memories be a blessing. I understand how you feel.

Government Workers Say They're Getting Inundated With Religion “This has never happened before,” one government employee tells WIRED. “I have never gotten a message like this from anyone.”

“This has never happened before,” one government employee tells WIRED. “I have never gotten a message like this from anyone.” www.wired.com/story/govern...

'It was horrible': B.C. woman detained by ICE describes harrowing conditions Tania Warner, a Canadian mother who was detained by ICE in Texas, describes the conditions she faced and shares why she was apprehended.

Holy jeez. If you’re a Canadian living in the US.... maybe don't.

Tania Warner, a Canadian mother who was detained by ICE in Texas, describes the conditions she faced and shares why she was apprehended.
#Pinks
www.ctvnews.ca/video/2026/0...