Kati Kovacs

Republican Bill Would Limit Judges’ Contempt Power

A few thoughts on the provision in the big beautiful bill that purports to limit courts' enforcement of contempt citations:
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

"The Supreme Court, by contrast, has undermined lower courts seeking to protect the rule of law and emboldened an administration eager to trample it." @kateshaw.bsky.social

This post is evidence that I post things I think #adlaw folks may be interested in reading regardless of whether I agree with them or not.

"Under Trump, presidential subordinates implementing the President’s directions wrt law execution are just as absolutely immune as he is. And the immunity applies to any congressional or judicial attempt to constrain the President’s conclusive and preclusive power." @twmorrison.bsky.social

Trump has spattered the WH website with anti-environmental executive orders. They range from the inane (fighting to save paper straws and wasteful showerheads) to the destructive (saving obsolete coal plants and stopping wind turbines). Here's the list.
legal-planet.org?p=43125

"In Ohio v. EPA, the Court faulted the agency for not adequately grappling, at the time of rulemaking, with at least some subset of the millions of alternate futures that judicial intervention could create." @jacklienke.bsky.social "explores its troubling implications for future rulemaking."

"Drawing on the Australian model, this article emphasizes the advantages of a systematic, bipartisan, and principles-based approach [to legislative review of rules] over the current ad hoc, partisan, and policy-driven approach in the United States." Lorne Neudorf

"Subordinating the President to law means subordinating the President to Congress, and this is what a genuine respect for the separation of powers would require." @dfroomkin.bsky.social

My 2024 Const Day remarks on US v. Skrmetti's implications for wider EP doctrine are now on SSRN: ssrn.com/abstract=526.... The major takeaway: each of the ways the S Ct could rule *against* heightened scrutiny for trans ppl wd require doing damage to one of the core principles of modern EP doctrine

"Presidential administration is now facing a moment of reckoning. While we do still live in the age of presidential administration, how long the age might last and what political possibilities it promises are open to question." AhMenblum @narosenblum.bsky.social

Michael Asimow "proposes a set of best practices for conducting and improving informal adjudication"

"Loper Bright’s promise of independent judicial interpretation of statutes could better police the implementation of immigration law if courts take humanitarian concerns into account when exercising their independent judgment about the meaning of immigration statutes." @jillfamily.bsky.social

@awidman.bsky.social's empirical study on "the various regulatory structures governing nonlawyers" representation in agency adjudication.

@gillianmetzger.bsky.social on change in administrative law.

Mystery of Orange Cats Finally Solved—They're Mutants Your orange cat may host a never-before-seen genetic pathway for color pigmentation, according to new studies

Thank goodness we've finally resolved that.

"Legalistic noncompliance occurs when the administration uses the language of the law as cover to claim that it is complying with court orders when in fact it is not." @dtdeacon.bsky.social @leahlitman.bsky.social

"private enforcement does not violate Article II, except when it amounts to a criminal prosecution, enforces governmental property interests, or crowds the executive out from enforcement entirely—and even then, only under narrow conditions" Nitisha Baronia, Jared Lucky, Diego Zambrano

kermit the frog is standing in front of a red curtain and saying yaaaa ALT: kermit the frog is standing in front of a red curtain and saying yaaaa

Grading done!

Law students and recent grads! Thinking about clerking? Don’t overlook state courts. State Court Report has a new resource w/ info and deadlines for 95 state supreme court justices. Check it out! @statecourtreport.bsky.social
statecourtreport.org/state-judici...

Hey, speaking of the importance of public utility regulators: here's a jobs board showing all the PUC positions open across the country. There's no better place to leverage positive change. We badly need good people in these spots! Tell your energy nerd friends to apply!

No, DOE, You Can't Roll Back Product Efficiency Standards - Legal Planet Trump says the grid is desperately struggling --a strange time to eliminate energy-saving regulations. DOE’s effort to roll back product efficiency standards is also illegal.

Bizarrely, the Trump Administration is trying to roll back energy-saving rules at the VERY SAME TIME that they're claiming we're in a dire energy emergency without enough power to meet surging demand. Not to mention that the rollback is illegal.
legal-planet.org/2025/05/14/n...

"courts in the United States are comparatively less likely to be captured than those of many other countries and more able to resist an authoritarian populist regime, but also somewhat more likely to facilitate democratic backsliding on their own account." Stephen Gardbaum

Flying duck caught in Swiss speed trap believed to be repeat offender Image shows mallard snapped at 52km/h in same 30km/h zone as a duck on the same day seven years ago A radar image of a speed offender caught in central Switzerland last month has revealed that the culprit was not only a duck but probably a repeat offender, local authorities have said. Police in the town of Köniz, near the capital, Bern, were astounded when they went through radar images snapped on 13 April to discover that a mallard was among those caught in the speed trap, the municipality said on its Facebook page at the weekend. Continue reading...

Flying duck caught in Swiss speed trap believed to be repeat offender

Today, House Republicans are unveiling their plan to increase energy bills and pollution for everyday Americans, just to give billionaires another tax break. A summary of their proposals. THREAD! 🧵

Fantastic blog post by our great Golieb fellow @nwdonahue.bsky.social, recovering the Progressive Era intellectual terms at the heart of Humphrey’s Executor (and so agency independence) — quick and critical read

Rare large carnivorous New Zealand snail filmed for the first time laying egg from its neck – video The NZ department of conservation was performing a routine weight check on the snail when a small, white egg began to emerge from it's slimy neck

"The Powelliphanta land snails are among some of the largest in the world, roughly the size of a golf-ball, and found only in New Zealand. They are slow growing and can live for decades. They eat mostly slugs and earthworms, which they slurp up like spaghetti."

City Planner Gets Halfway Through Designing City Before Realizing He’s Just Doing Philadelphia Again

City Planner Gets Halfway Through Designing City Before Realizing He’s Just Doing Philadelphia Again
theonion.com/city-pl...

The Actual Math Behind DOGE’s Cuts If you thought Elon Musk was really trying to cut costs, you weren’t in on the joke.

"Cost reductions from laying off federal employees have been too small to show up in the data. DOGE seems quite likely to expand long-term budget deficits. If you thought DOGE was really about cutting costs, you were never in on the joke." @jessicabriedl.bsky.social