When a federal judge (finally) put ICE officers under oath, they admitted that they are given daily detention quotas and rely heavily on a Palantir-supplied AI tool to select targets, without warrants and without enough evidence to obtain one. They simply go into neighborhoods and round people up.
The wealthy Americans benefitting from Trump’s economic chaos and illegal tariffs are doing so not only at the expense of most Americans who are doing much worse economically as a result, but also at the expense of the people of all other countries across the world whose economies have been damaged.
😕🇺🇸
Connect the dots
As Jim Wallis always said, budgets are moral documents.
As a point of comparison, the US spent $21 billion in FY 2022 to feed billions of breakfasts and lunches to kids in schools across our whole country for an entire year under the universal school meals program that was later discontinued.
This is hilarious.
Also, completely enraging.
Officials at DHS removed career staff at CBP after they refused orders to mislabel surveillance records to block release under FOIA.
Those forced out include CBP’s top privacy officer & FOIA director after a lawful disclosure angered political leadership.
#ProudBlue
www.wired.com/story/dhs-cb...
I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.
I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.
1/ Here's what I can share:
![After throwing off the fetters of despotism,1 this nation’s founding fathers were left with the task of “institut[ing] new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”2 Familiar with the dangers that attend the concentration of authority,3 “[t]he Framers recognized that, in the long term, structural protections against abuse of power were critical to preserving liberty.”4](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:24vva42nxim6zbcmnozegoef/bafkreieiydlmldr4q4xp4b7kcowakr6qhhlbmjxcvo2xarhnqsvv3sukze)
After throwing off the fetters of despotism,1 this nation’s founding fathers were left with the task of “institut[ing] new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”2 Familiar with the dangers that attend the concentration of authority,3 “[t]he Framers recognized that, in the long term, structural protections against abuse of power were critical to preserving liberty.”4
V. CONCLUSION For the above-stated reasons, I conclude that the triumvirate has been unlawfully delegated the authority of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey in violation of the FVRA, the statutory offices its members purport to hold, and the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution. Accordingly, they are disqualified from supervising the prosecutions of Naviwala and Torres. Naviwala’s motion to dismiss his superseding indictment is denied. Torres’s motion to dismiss his superseding indictment is deferred pending supplemental briefing.
Any federal court decision that starts "After throwing off the fetters of despotism" is going to be a big L for the government.
Here, fed. judge holds DOJ unlawfully appointed attorneys to lead USAO-NJ following Alina Habba's departure.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Whole lotta Lud Marrois and no Mon Mothmas in the U. S. Senate, right @alexandermfreed.bsky.social?
JUST IN: A federal judge has barred Gov DeSantis from designating CAIR as a terrorist organization and punish those who associate with the group.
“Once again, Florida chooses political posturing over the First Amendment,” Judge Walker writes.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
I don’t want to share the video because it’s pretty graphic, but apparently we’re at the ‘Republican Senator breaks the arm of a Marine IN FULL DRESS because that marine was protesting the Republicans starting a war of choice with Iran’ stage of things.
Elections matter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House says Spain has agreed to cooperate with US operations in Mideast after Trump threatened financial penalties.
MADRID (AP) — Spain's government denies cooperation with US operations in the Middle East, contradicting White House.
Haitian Asylum Seeker Dies of Toothache in What ICE Calls "The Best Healthcare of Their Lives"
open.substack.com/pub/austinko...
SNAP benefits cost $100b a year, or about a third of what they're spending on a way no one outside the WH wants.
This “it’s not a war but a special military operation” is very Kremlin March 2022. As is the propaganda that we are not starting a war but ending one. As is the confusion of oligarch media as it tries to be faithful in the confusion…
The costs of this Iran war debacle will likely be more than the cost of extending the ACA health insurance subsidies.
If you asked Americans, which do you want: another war in the Middle East or lower health care costs at home, is the margin 90 to 10? 95 to 5?
Whoa.
Sen Andy Kim: Bring Congress back into session. Now. We should vote on Senator Kaine's War Powers Resolution today.
Research shows that when communities switch from local to national news, it measurably increases partisan voting.
This is part of what's polarizing America. When newspapers close, we only see partisan labels. Split-ticket voting drops nearly 2%.
www.carnegie.org/our-work/art...
![JUSTICE GORSUCH: — we shouldn’t be concerned with — I want you to explain to me how you draw the line, because you say we shouldn’t be concerned because this is foreign affairs, the President has inherent authority, and so delegation off the books more or less.
GENERAL SAUER: Or at least —
JUSTICE GORSUCH: And if that’s true, what would — what would prohibit Congress from just abdicating all responsibility to regulate foreign commerce, for that matter, declare war to the President?
[snip]
JUSTICE GORSUCH: Can you give me a reason to accept it, though? That’s what I’m struggling and waiting for. What’s the reason to accept the notion that Congress can hand off the power to declare war to the President?
GENERAL SAUER: Well, we don’t contend that. Again, that would be —
JUSTICE GORSUCH: Well, you do. You say it’s unreviewable, that there’s no manageable standard, nothing to be done. And now you’re — I think you — tell me if I’m wrong. You’ve backed off that position.
GENERAL SAUER: Maybe that’s fair to say.
JUSTICE GORSUCH: Okay. All right. Thank you.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/bafkreib73gbnceotrjrbjjknxltqlbsxew3d5bgfeqeoeqw6epcd7zl5ce)
JUSTICE GORSUCH: — we shouldn’t be concerned with — I want you to explain to me how you draw the line, because you say we shouldn’t be concerned because this is foreign affairs, the President has inherent authority, and so delegation off the books more or less. GENERAL SAUER: Or at least — JUSTICE GORSUCH: And if that’s true, what would — what would prohibit Congress from just abdicating all responsibility to regulate foreign commerce, for that matter, declare war to the President? [snip] JUSTICE GORSUCH: Can you give me a reason to accept it, though? That’s what I’m struggling and waiting for. What’s the reason to accept the notion that Congress can hand off the power to declare war to the President? GENERAL SAUER: Well, we don’t contend that. Again, that would be — JUSTICE GORSUCH: Well, you do. You say it’s unreviewable, that there’s no manageable standard, nothing to be done. And now you’re — I think you — tell me if I’m wrong. You’ve backed off that position. GENERAL SAUER: Maybe that’s fair to say. JUSTICE GORSUCH: Okay. All right. Thank you.
When Neil Gorsuch conceived of the impossibility of Congress abdicating one of its core roles in November, he raised the power to declare war. This was the oral argument for the tariffs that SCOTUS just declared illegal.
emptywheel.net/trumps-illeg...
Rep Jim Himes (D-CT), top Democrat on House Intelligence Committee:
“Everything I have heard from the Administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame…”
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops files a SCOTUS amicus against Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship
They call Trump's order "immoral" and urge the justices to "protect God-given human dignity" by finding it unconstitutional 👀
The Ellisons are gobbling up the media ecosystem to please Trump. Oligarchy in service of authoritarianism.
It is already very late, folks. 🇺🇸
A statement from Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, on its discussions with the Department of War.
![As noted, Rosen asserted in his email that "[t]he lawyers in my civil division
didn't deserve" the supposedly inaccurate January 28 order. Putting aside the fact that
the January 28 order was not inaccurate, Rosen failed to mention that this Court said the
following in the show-cause order that preceded the January 28 order:
The Court expresses its appreciation to attorney Ana Voss and her colleagues [in the civil division], who have struggled mightily to ensure that respondents comply with court orders despite the fact that respondents have failed to provide them with adequate resources.
ECF No. 7 at 2 n.1.
The judges of this District have been extraordinarily patient with the government
attorneys, recognizing that they have been put in an impossible position by Rosen and
his superiors in the Department of Justice (leading many of those attorneys- including, unfortunately, Ana Voss- to resign). What those attorneys "didn't deserve" was the
Administration sending 3000 ICE agents to Minnesota to detain people without making
any provision for handling the hundreds of lawsuits that were sure to follow.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreicr5bo7wzyf54cgwvlf5ada722e6fs6b5f2ycbxh33lqnwi57m3ve)
As noted, Rosen asserted in his email that "[t]he lawyers in my civil division didn't deserve" the supposedly inaccurate January 28 order. Putting aside the fact that the January 28 order was not inaccurate, Rosen failed to mention that this Court said the following in the show-cause order that preceded the January 28 order: The Court expresses its appreciation to attorney Ana Voss and her colleagues [in the civil division], who have struggled mightily to ensure that respondents comply with court orders despite the fact that respondents have failed to provide them with adequate resources. ECF No. 7 at 2 n.1. The judges of this District have been extraordinarily patient with the government attorneys, recognizing that they have been put in an impossible position by Rosen and his superiors in the Department of Justice (leading many of those attorneys- including, unfortunately, Ana Voss- to resign). What those attorneys "didn't deserve" was the Administration sending 3000 ICE agents to Minnesota to detain people without making any provision for handling the hundreds of lawsuits that were sure to follow.
If anything is "beyond the pale," it is ICE's continued violation of the orders of this Court. Increasingly, this Court has had to resort to using the threat of civil contempt to force ICE to comply with orders. The Court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt -again and again and again - to force the United States government to comply with court orders. -5- CASE 0:26-cv-00107-PJS-DLM Doc. 12 Filed 02/26/26 Page 6 of 6 This Court will continue to do whatever is required to protect the rule of law, including, if necessary, moving to the use of criminal contempt. One way or another, ICE will comply with this Court's orders. Dated: February 26, 2026 (s/ Patrick J. Schiltz Patrick J. Schiltz, Chief Judge United States District Court
BREAKING: Judge Patrick Schiltz in Minnesota threatens criminal contempt, if necessary, to address ICE noncompliance in an order calling out U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen's response to Schiltz's earlier questions about noncompliance with court orders.
"ICE will comply with this Court's orders."
NEW: SCOTUS rejects private prison company GEO Group's attempt at avoiding accountability.
A long-delayed lawsuit challenging GEO Group's treatment of people in immigration detention can proceed again. A unanimous decision that matters — especially now.
Tonight, at Law Dork:
