Joyce White Vance

A Night Off With Chickens I’ve had lots of travel and lots of travel delays in the last week, so I’m going to take a night off now that I’m safely back home, and get a little extra sleep.

If you need some pictures of chickens tonight, I’m here for you.
joycevance.substack.com/p/a-night-of...

F.B.I. Subpoenas Records in Arizona in Expansion of 2020 Voting Inquiry

“The subpoena was issued in recent days to the Arizona State Senate, which oversaw a sprawling but partisan audit of the vote result that was ordered by Senate Republicans in Maricopa County in the months after Donald J. Trump lost to Joseph R. Biden Jr.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/n...

The Week Ahead March 8, 2026

The government just told a federal court:
“Courts cannot tell the President what to say.”

That’s the theory behind Trump’s latest clash with the judiciary—and it could end up before the Supreme Court. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

"It’s almost as though the government’s lawyers don’t know there’s a Constitution out there..." @joycewhitevance.bsky.social

Not just any white hat. It comes from “The Trump Store." You can find it there for $55 & plenty of other stuff & links to Trump Hotels, Trump Golf, etc. Apparently, to Trump, nothing says great opportunity for pushing merchandise like bringing home fallen soldiers. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

The Week Ahead March 8, 2026

Lots of legal proceedings to read up on for the week ahead, and beyond. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

The Sunday Morning Wrap-Up Here’s the highlight reel of the past week’s posts and events.

In case you missed anything, here are all of the past week’s columns from Civil Discourse, collected in one place.
open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

The Last Gatekeepers Why the Trump administration wants to neutralize state bar discipline.

My latest on the complicity of lawyers in dismantling democracy and the Justice Department's attempt to thwart the ability of state bars to hold them accountable open.substack.com/pub/asharang...

Bloody Sunday Today marks the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965.

We used to be a country that could summon outrage and turn it into courage. Now, MAGA watches Trump bomb a girls’ school in Iran and lie about it. Here are some ideas about what we need to do about it. joycevance.substack.com/p/bloody-sun...

No More Benefit Of The Doubt Last Sunday, we discussed a number of cases pending in front of federal district judges in Minneapolis.

Some judicial opinions have to be read in full, like the one I parse for you to night, from Judge Tunheim in Minneapolis.
open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Noem is gone, sort of, but there are lessons to be learned from her tenure, how she was fired, and why it didn’t happen earlier, why the Senate confirmed her in the first place, that we can”t afford to ignore joycevance.substack.com/p/fired-but-...

Fired, But For the Wrong Reason Today, Donald Trump fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

I’m not mad she’s gone, but let’s talk about what’s really at stake here. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

There Is More Than One Way to Kill Mail-in Voting On Tuesday in Texas, Democratic voters in Dallas and Williamson Counties, Texas, had their work cut out for them if they wanted to vote.

We shouldn’t have to fight just to be able to exercise a right, but primary night in Texas made it clear we will have to. Here’s what you need to know and how to get ready to do it.
open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

House Oversight Committee subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi Bondi has faced criticism from Democrats, and some Republicans, over the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files.

Writing & calling your elected officials, even your Republican ones really does work: House Oversight Committee subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Karoline Leavitt: The President can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Americans: 😎

DOJ now just doing whatever Trump says. joycevance.substack.com/p/doj-change...

A Pirate’s Life For Us

It’s Wednesday, which means the drop of the new Sisters Sidebar where we answer your questions. www.politicon.com/podcast-epis...

DOJ Changes Course Last night, I wrote to you about reporting that the Trump administration would stop defending the clearly illegal executive orders the president issued last March.

DOJ is supposed to be slow and deliberate when it makes decisions—take the time to get it right. It’s rare, in fact, I can’t remember any other time when we’ve seen the sort of whiplash change in position we’re seeing right now. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

holy hell, what *could* possibly go wrong?

Measles. In 2026. In the US of A. 🤦🏼‍♀️

This is what happens when the Secretary of HHS is a guy who snorts cocaine off of a toilet seat

What did House Republicans hope to gain by calling Hillary Clinton to testify about Jeffrey Epstein? @preetbharara.bsky.social and I discuss on a new episode of @cafedotcom.bsky.social Insider. Listen: cafe.visitlink.me/PIayIQ

More detail here: www.ms.now/news/justice...

The Deputy Attorney General just rescinded the policy against no knock warrants in most cases. That policy was an important public safety measure. Restricting their use saved lives. Breonna Taylor died because of one. www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/u...

"The answer is not to dehumanize us." -- Judge Salas

Really looking forward to this from @weissmann.substack.com!

Another Big Loss for the Little Bully Today, the Trump administration delivered a loss in court to itself.

Why go after Big Law? Courts can’t act on their own, they need lawyers to bring them cases. During the first Trump administration, that happened regularly. The new administration wanted to put a stop to it. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Hilarious in a really sad way, though.

"Who gets to decide when the end justifies the extra-legal means and when it’s acceptable to ignore a [war powers] law that stands in the way of certain actions?

"Is it you? Me? Donald Trump? Stephen Miller?"
-- @joycewhitevance.bsky.social | joycevance.substack.com/p/the-law-of...

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...