Barack #Obama warns the #US is ‘dangerously close’ to slipping into #autocracy under #Trump
In rare public remarks, the fmr president said recent actions from the admin are “not consistent with American #democracy.”
#USpol #democracy #Constitution #law
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/barack-obama-trump-speech-trump-autocracy-rcna213729
Frightening images out of #Pasadena, #California show a plainclothes #federal #LawEnforcement officer at a stoplight jumping out of his vehicle & drawing his #weapon on a person attempting to #photograph his license plate.
Details are limited & exact circumstances of the incident are unknown, but the potentially deadly confrontation occurred Wed morning at around the same time federal #immigration agents carried out an op at a bus stop nearby.
#law #Trump #AbuseOfPower
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/plainclothes-federal-agent-draws-gun-on-man-at-stoplight-in-pasadena/
#LA #Dodgers denied #ICE agents access to #DodgerStadium parking lot
The #LosAngeles Dodgers on Thurs said they had denied ICE agents access to the parking lot at Dodger Stadium earlier in the day.
"This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium & requested permission to access the parking lots," the team said in a social media post.
"They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization. Tonight's game will be played as scheduled."
#immigration #law #Trump
https://www.reuters.com/sports/la-dodgers-say-they-denied-ice-agents-access-dodger-stadium-parking-lot-2025-06-19/
US #judge blocks #Trump plan to tie #states' #transportation funds to #immigration enforcement
A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump admin from forcing 20 #Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation #grant #funding, according to a court filing.
#law #judiciary
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-judge-blocks-trump-plan-tie-states-transportation-funds-immigration-2025-06-19/
🤬🤬🤬
US court lets #Trump retain control of #California #NationalGuard for now
A US appeals court let Trump late Thurs retain control over CA's National Guard while the state's #Democratic #governor proceeds with a lawsuit challenging the legality of the #Republican president's use of the #troops to *quell* #protests & unrest in #LosAngeles.
#law #Title10 #PosseComitatusAct #ExecutiveOverreach #AbuseOfPower
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-court-lets-trump-retain-control-california-national-guard-now-2025-06-20/
#California surgical center staff demand to see #warrant as #ICE agents detain landscaper
Federal #immigration agents seeking to detain a Honduran landscaper chased him into a SoCal surgical center & quickly found themselves in a tense standoff as clinic staff demanded to see identification & a warrant.
#law #Trump #immigration #Gestapo #DueProcess
https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrest-california-surgery-center-c827038f1a40227dc05ab1c28b048035
WTF?
Burning of migrant boat #effigy in #NorthernIreland triggers police investigation
Authorities in Northern Ireland are investigating a bonfire that featured effigies of migrants in a boat & a banner reading “stop the boats” to determine whether it was a hate incident.
#law #HateCrime #immigration #UK #Ireland #Éire #TuaisceartÉireann
https://apnews.com/article/northern-ireland-bonfire-migrants-effigy-fa590eb31b67fd97a4350ce2aae1e95c
A #California #farmworker died on Friday from injuries sustained a day earlier when #US #immigration agents raided a cannabis operation & arrested hundreds of workers, according to a farmworker advocacy group.
Dozens of #ImmigrantRights activists faced off w/ #federal agents in rural Southern California on Thursday. It was the latest escalation of #Trump's campaign for #MassDeportations of immigrants in the US.
#law #HumanRights #ICE #Gestapo #PoliceBrutality
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/one-california-worker-dead-hundreds-arrested-after-cannabis-farm-raid-2025-07-11/
N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to sign a bill that bans anonymous complaints to the state child abuse hotline. The law would still maintain the confidentiality of callers.
The change comes in the wake of a 2023 ProPublica investigation that showed how the hotline had been weaponized by people endlessly calling in baseless allegations against exes or rivals.
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-bans-anonymous-child-welfare-reports?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
The story behind the arrest of 87-year-old #veteran #JohnSpitzberg at the Capitol
John Spitzberg joined a #veterans march at the National Mall on March 14 in Washington, DC. The 87-year-old veteran was #arrested June 13 at the US Capitol while protesting #Trump’s birthday parade spectacle.
#AmericanAutocracy #law #democracy #Constitution #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #RightToProtest #dissent
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/20/nx-s1-5438406/john-spitzberg-veteran-arrest-trump-parade
I am delighted to see the publication of the Bristol University Press book, Climate Technology and Law in the Anthropocene
Edited by Leonie Reins and Alexander Zahar
https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/climate-technology-and-law-in-the-anthropocene
Open Access - https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollbook-oa/book/9781529232912/9781529232912.xml
I contributed a chapter on the topic, 'Promethean Dreams: Intellectual Property and Climate Change in the Anthropocene', https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781529232912/ch017.xml
#DOJ fires 9 more employees from JackSmith's team
#US AG #PamBondi on Friday fired at least 9 more *#Justice* Dept employees who worked for Special Counsel #JackSmith to investigate #Trump's retention of #ClassifiedDocuments & efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to 5 people familiar with the matter.
#law #MafiaState #authoritarianism #dictatorship #tyranny #AmericanAutocracy
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-fires-nine-more-employees-jack-smiths-team-sources-say-2025-07-12/
A federal judge blocked the #Trump admin on Friday from making indiscriminate #immigration arrests in the #LosAngeles area & denying detainees the right to consult with a lawyer.…
The California judge granted 2 TROs in response to a lawsuit filed last week by immigrant advocacy groups. A fuller hearing is expected in the coming weeks, but the initial rulings represent a sharp rebuke of the tactics that federal agents have employed in & around #LA….
#law #ICE #Gestapo
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/immigration-raids-judge-injunction.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Furor over Epstein files sparks clash between #PamBondi & #DanBongino at DOJ
The #DOJ & #FBI are struggling to contain the fallout & appease the demands of #FarRight *conservative* personalities & influential members of Trump’s base after the admin’s decision this week to withhold records from the #JeffreyEpstein #SexTrafficking investigation [likely because #Trump is in them].
#law #idiocracy #BreadAndCircuses #PanemEtCircenses #ConspiracyTheories
https://apnews.com/article/epstein-files-dan-bongino-bondi-trump-fbi-0f02f67b6c97fc50e4d93bc4dbf4c4d0
#ICE Set to Vastly Expand Its Reach With New Funds
After the passage of #Trump’s domestic policy #law, #DHS is poised to hire thousands of new #immigration agents & double detention space.
Thousands of new #deportation agents deployed into American #cities. A doubling of #detention space to hold tens of thousands of immigrants before they are expelled. Miles of new border wall, along with #surveillance towers equipped with #ArtificialIntelligence.
#AmericanAutocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/12/us/politics/ice-expansion-concerns.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
#ICE memo outlines plan to #deport #immigrants to countries where they are not #citizens
The shift in policy could result in thousands of people being sent to places where they lack family ties or even a common language.
Federal #immigration officers may deport immigrants with as little as 6 hours notice to countries not their own even if ofcls have not provided any assurances that the new arrivals will be safe from #persecution or #torture….
#Trump #law #rendition
https://wapo.st/3TxrUES
The People Being #Disappeared by #ICE in #LosAngeles
As communities across Southern #California document & #protest the escalating #raids, loved ones grapple with the unimaginable.
In Los Angeles in recent weeks, a popular phrase has been revived on protest signs & social-media posts: “Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo,” or, “only the people can save the people.”
#Trump #law #immigration #TheCrueltyIsThePoint
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-los-angeles/the-people-being-disappeared-by-ice-in-los-angeles
‘It Felt Like Kidnapping,’ #MahmoudKhalil Says in First Interview Since Release
The #Columbia graduate & pro-#Palestinian #activist returned to New York after more than three months in #detention. The #Trump administration is still seeking to deport him.
#law #immigration #StateSponsoredAbduction
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/nyregion/mahmoud-khalil-interview-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Q08.08iZ.quUx5RwW5FJ5&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Many of you may already be aware of the important thoughts shared by #FrankWilhoit in his March 2018 blog comment "There is No Such Thing as Liberalism".
https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288
It provides political framing I find useful. I propose using it as a test or "razor" (à la Occam) when evaluating political actions and legislation:
👉 Who does this action or law bind? Who does it protect? 👈
The best answer is the people who are bound are also protected. That would be a sign of that the action or law is a good one.
The worst answer is the people who are bound are not protected. This almost always means the action or law is a bad one.
As with all politics and compromise there are shades of grey, but this rule of thumb can help find the better action or law.
https://mdpaths.com/rrr/commentary/wilhoits_razor/index.html
#Law & #Legal picks of the day:
➡️ @ToSDR - FOSS project to summarise & grade online terms of service, founded in 2012
➡️ @creativecommons - Non-profit org promoting & developing creative commons licences
➡️ @Curia (in English) & @Curia_fr (in French) - Court of Justice of the EU, interpretation of EU law
➡️ @BGH_Bund - German Federal Court of Justice (in German)
➡️ @BVerwG_de - German Federal Administrative Court (in German)
➡️ @bundesfinanzhof - German Federal Fiscal Court (in German)
🧵 1/6
#TrumpMedia approves $400M stock buyback
The Trump Media buyback will be funded separately from the company’s #bitcoin #treasury plan, which includes $1.5B in equity & $1B in convertible notes.
#Trump indirectly owns more than 114M shares of the company through a revocable trust & is the largest shareholder.
Trump Media posted a $400.9M net loss in 2024 on just $3.6M in revenue but says it ended the year with over $775M in cash.
#law #fraud #securities #Emoluments
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/23/trump-media-stock.html
#DOJ Leader Suggested Violating #CourtOrders, #WhistleBlower Says
#EmilBove III, a #Trump judicial nominee [& fmr Trump criminal defense atty], voiced his intent to disobey court orders as others stonewalled & misled judges, according to a complaint.
#law #felon47 #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/us/politics/justice-department-emil-bove-trump-deportations-reuveni.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
#Trump admin asks #SupremeCourt to clarify last night's "third country" #immigration order after a federal judge said it did not apply to a subset of the litigation re: 6 people the government wants to deport to #SouthSudan.
#DOJ calls the judge's actions "unprecedented defiance" of #SCOTUS.
A federal appeals court ordered the return of another man deported to #ElSalvador in violation of a #CourtOrder. Jordin Melgar-Salmeron was deported on May 7, 30 minutes after the court ruled.
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25982192/melgarorder062425.pdf
#law #immigration #rendition #Trump #EmilBove #DOJ #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers
#Immigration authorities gave Sae Joon Park an ultimatum: Leave voluntarily or face #detention & #deportation.
For 55-yr-old US #Army #veteran Sae Joon Park, this was the hardest moment of his life. Not getting shot in combat. Not the years battling PTSD or addiction. Not prison. It was leaving the US, a country he called home for nearly five decades.
#Trump #immigration #law
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/24/g-s1-74036/trump-ice-self-deportation-army-veteran-hawaii
