Marcy Murninghan

We need your drone interceptors for our war, but we won’t thank you and our propaganda will claim that we made them.

Issue: (1) Whether the federal government’s submission to a state or territorial regulator of an application to renew a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) permit is “final agency action” that is immediately reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act; and (2) whether the federal government must comply with the general environmental-review procedures of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, before submitting a permit-renewal application under RCRA, which sets forth its own specific procedures to review environmental impacts in the context of hazardous-waste treatment.

The Supreme Court takes up one new case today, a challenge to the Air Force's disposal of toxic waste on a beach that's vital to Guam's endangered wildlife and local population. SCOTUS will review a lower court ruling against the Air Force.
www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

Some justices are afraid of applying the Sixth Amendment to supervised release violations because it would render these no-jury, no-reasonable-doubt trials unconstitutional. SCOTUS came one vote away from doing so with full force in US v. Haymond. Gorsuch is still pushing for it, rightfully so IMO.

Bypassing juries, trials, and the reasonable doubt standard in this way may hold some obvious advantages for prosecutors. But whether this arrangement can be squared with the Constitution is another thing. Under the Sixth Amendment, this Court has held, “[o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U. S. 466, 490 (2000) (emphasis added); see also Erlinger v. United States, 602 U. S. 821, 833 (2024); United States v. Haymond, 588 U. S. 634, 644 (2019) (plurality opinion) (collecting cases). The Court’s failure to grant review to address whether what happened to Mr. Burnett complies with that Sixth Amendment rule is unfortunate. I can only hope we will take up another case like his soon—and that, in the meantime, lower courts will more carefully consider the Sixth Amendment’s application in this context. Respectfully, I dissent

Gorsuch dissents from the Supreme Court's refusal to consider whether a judge (not a jury) can extend a person's prison sentence by finding, by a preponderance of evidence (not beyond reasonable doubt), that he violated supervised release. (I agree with Gorsuch.) www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

Procurement, Capacity and Soverignity When your contractors are also your enemy

New, from me: Trump's retribution against Anthropic is over the top. But it should cause Democrats to think about how they will deal with contractors like Musk or Ellison when they return to power.
What do you do with vendors working to oppose you? 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/procuremen...

Government shutdown hits spring break travel with hours-long TSA lines A partial shutdown impacting the Department of Homeland Security left some travelers waiting hours at airport security checkpoints.

We offered to fund TSA. No conditions. Republicans refused.

They want the hostage, to extract more ICE money with. No ICE reforms

Google, Amazon, others team to cut climate "superpollutants" Superpollutants are shorter-lived in the atmosphere than CO2 but have powerful near-term effects.

Great to see companies including Amazon, Google, and JPMorgan step up to tackle non-CO2 greenhouse gases.

The climate fight must cut these super-pollutants, which cause more than half of global warming today.

The No World Order Meir Kahane, Netanyahu, Trump, and the war beyond Iran.

Sarah Kendzior in her usual excellent form.
@sarahkendzior.bsky.social
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/the-no-wor...

NTSB is the last exemplar of independent professionalism in federal government, because we used to think stopping plane crashes was a goal beyond partisanship

Would be good to be a flight-to-safety country now

These people are, to be blunt, substantially less intelligent than they believe they are.

Every time I open a news app or site and this story isn’t being discussed or featured prominently I feel like I’m losing my mind. Do not look away.

Along with being fascist criminals:

He can just use state power to make bad things worse, blame others, and demand that we don’t hold elections. That’s it, that’s the whole plot; and if we don’t see it that’s on us. (3/3)

The funny thing is — he can’t do anything about college sports because the oligarchs are bigger than him, and he can’t do anything about Russian intel because the oligarchs are bigger than him. He can’t solve either problem. He can’t solve any problem. (2/3)

To clarify this: the context is college sports. Trump is saying that Russia helping Iran target Americans in a war is less important than the pay structure for athletes. (1/3)

The Oligarchical Corridor A Source of War

If we examine the origins of the war on Iran, we get an inkling of a closed domain of international oligarchs, exploiting the state’s power and patriotic sentiment, while creating a world order in which the American state is much weaker. An oligarchical corridor.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-oligar...

The Desire for Terror And the defense of democracy

A purpose of the war on Iran might well be to provoke a terrorist attack inside the United States. This would provide Donald Trump with a pretext to try to cancel or “federalize” the coming Congressional elections.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-desire...

And it is probably worth noting that Senator Mullin has no experience that would qualify him to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Given that we are at war and counter-terror is already severely compromised, might be worth a thought.

The most salient thing about Senator Mullin would seem to be his endorsement of the Big Lie about the 2020 election. That should certainly come up in hearings about running an organization that Trump allies (improperly) associate with elections.

Church and State are Being Reunited, Thanks to SCOTUS | Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts An unholy alliance between the Roberts majority and the Trump administration is demolishing the separation of church and state.

With @rachellaser.bsky.social of Americans United on all the many many ways church is crowding out state, and why it all started at SCOTUS

March 7, 2026 At 8:50 yesterday morning, President Donald J.

March 7, 2026

What Does Russia Have on Trump? Americans Deserve an Answer As Russia reportedly shares intelligence with Iran that could endanger American forces, the White House chooses to ease pressure on Moscow instead of confronting it.

Ukraine offers to help defend the West from Iranian drones.

Russia helps Iran track American forces.

And the White House eases sanctions on Russian oil.

Explain that to the families of U.S. troops. My latest:
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

Interesting that among the few advance plans we made are those that benefit Russia. See my longer essay on Oligarchic Corridors.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-oligar...

oligarchic architecture of world order, replete with governance structures ("Board of Peace") and implementation mechanisms ("Shield of the Americas"). Wake up, folks, and FOLLOW the MONEY!!! @timothysnyder.bsky.social makes it plain. We need to get up to speed. Old lenses of warfare don't help.

A profoundly important must-read that reveals the true gameplan operating here — beyond conventional "national interest" + "cost / benefit analyses"—not to mention Just War principles—operating here. Why hasn't media covered MSB's role, not to mention the emerging parallel ... (#1)

Russia is providing Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say The targeting information has included the locations of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East, the officials said.

This is interesting. But it is more interesting that Trump is rewarding Moscow for doing this by helping Russia sell oil, repeating Russian propaganda points, and senselessly burning through weapon stocks.
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Tragedy and farce, at the same time.

Scenes from a personalist regime: it is the presidential vibes that determine when the opponent has surrendered and when the war is over, not any pesky observable facts

Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees - ProPublica Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their de...

Wow. The corruption and self-dealing is boundless — in the billions.