Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dahlia Lithwick @dahlialithwick.bsky.social · 10h

the fun is very very not in evidence I fear

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 21h

Exactly.

Emily Galvin-Almanza @galvinalmanza.bsky.social · 1d

Seriously, Judges *do no do things like this*

They don't give their opinion to the media

They don't criticize how SCOTUS works

This is them breaking the emergency glass, folks
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders

www.nytimes.com

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Simon Rosenberg @simonrosenberg.bsky.social · 21h

"Who could have imagined nine years ago that the US would be zapping vessels suspected of drug-running, vast distances from American soil?
...Who said it was OK to fire at civilians who are not firing back?"

"Trickle down immunity" is now a big problem for the US military. And so for everyone else.

Dahlia Lithwick @dahlialithwick.bsky.social · 1d

With Yale Law School military justice expert Eugene Fidell and former JAG Maj. General Steven J. Lepper on the biggest civil/military crisis since the Civil War.

Trump Wants to Use American Cities as a “Training Ground.” It’s Becoming Clear Why.

MAGA cries “Insurrection!”, setting up a dangerous standoff between the American people and the military.

slate.com

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 21h

Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality just got reviewed in New York Review of Books!

It’s a great review that connects the dots between a few 📚 - incl @rmac.bsky.social’s - as cautionary tales ab what’s now happening in free speech & social media.

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Algorithm Nation | Jacob Weisberg

Fights about digital filtering tools have turned more and more bitter. That's because of their extraordinary power to shape both political opinion and mass culture.

www.nybooks.com

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David Noll @david.noll.org · 21h

Ladies and gentlemen, the meritocracy

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Dahlia Lithwick @dahlialithwick.bsky.social · 1d

With Yale Law School military justice expert Eugene Fidell and former JAG Maj. General Steven J. Lepper on the biggest civil/military crisis since the Civil War.

Trump Wants to Use American Cities as a “Training Ground.” It’s Becoming Clear Why.

MAGA cries “Insurrection!”, setting up a dangerous standoff between the American people and the military.

slate.com

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 1d

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 1d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Lizard Of Oz @lizardofoz316.bsky.social · 1d

This is a hair on fire situation.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

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#TuckFrump @realtuckfrumper.bsky.social · 1d

Trump Wants to Use American Cities as a “Training Ground.” It’s Becoming Clear Why.

slate.com

Trump Wants to Use American Cities as a “Training Ground.” It’s Becoming Clear Why.

twp.ai

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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 4d

For one, the federal government cannot constitutionally commandeer state officials to do its bidding.

But more importantly, the president does not see his political opposition as legitimate but rather as a target for a carceral and militaristic state. It is deeply undemocratic and authoritarian.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 4d

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 4d

Weaponizing the Justice Department. Happening right in front of us. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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Julie Cohen ❌👑 @filmmakerjulie.bsky.social · 4d

Look what’s chalked all over the sidewalks of Bloomfield, NJ.
Free speech is a power we should use while we can.
Chalk is cheap.
#NoKings October 18.

Chalk on sidewalk: yellow crown with a pink X thru it.

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Julie Cohen ❌👑 @filmmakerjulie.bsky.social · 5d

Gifting this one: interesting, important read on how the USA shook off authoritarianism of 1920s. Yes cataclysm is part of it.
But bolstering the WEB Duboises & Sidney Hillmans of today?
Pushing Grand Experiments for democracy?
BRING IT ON.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

Opinion | How to Save the American Experiment

www.nytimes.com

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CNN @cnn.com · 4d

Thirty paintings created by the bushy-haired, soft-spoken Bob Ross will soon be up for auction to defray the costs of programming for public television stations suffering from cuts in federal funding. https://cnn.it/4h0nDET

Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to support public TV stations after federal funding cuts | CNN

Thirty paintings created by the bushy-haired, soft-spoken Bob Ross will soon be up for auction to defray the costs of programming for public television stations suffering from cuts in federal funding.

cnn.it

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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 4d

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 5d

New (& important) from @dahlialithwick.bsky.social @mimirocah1.bsky.social Rachel Foster & me slate.com/news-and-pol...

The National Failure at the Heart of the Jeffrey Epstein Story

It is a great challenge to pay sustained attention to any one of the onslaught of moral or legal indignities unfolding in this moment.

slate.com

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Nancy Gertner @ngertner.bsky.social · 5d

open.substack.com/pub/harrylit...

Portland Judge’s Vital Lesson: Deference Is Not Blind Obedience

Judges can’t defer to determinations “untethered to facts.”

open.substack.com

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Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 5d

Pritzker is also furious: “Should National Governors Association leadership choose to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.”

Gov. JB Pritzker’s letter to the National Governors Association

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 5d

These programs weren't set up this way simply for the benefit of recipients. They are by design also a subsidy for American agriculture. That's the longstanding red-blue, rural-urban political deal of it. Like how they're getting nuked by the trade war, they are cannibalizing their own coalition.

ProPublica @propublica.org · 5d

Records obtained by ProPublica indicate that food banks across the country were expecting more than 27 million pounds of chicken, 2 million gallons of milk, 10 million pounds of dried fruit and 60 million eggs that never arrived.

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.

ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

projects.propublica.org

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 6d

I truly don't understand what people thought was going to happen

Mary Dudziak @marydudziak.bsky.social · 6d

Has Trump’s second term posed a greater or lesser threat to the rule of law than you expected? @nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/m...

Has Trump’s second term posed a greater or lesser threat to the rule of law than you expected?
Circular graph showing over half answered: much more than I expected, about a quarter: more than I expected, about an eighth: similar threat to what I expected, small sliver: much less threat than I expected.

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Dahlia Lithwick @dahlialithwick.bsky.social · 6d

with @mjsdc.bsky.social and @imillhiser.bsky.social on the term ahead

SCOTUS Is About To Make Trump’s Dreams Come True

From voting rights to trans rights, presidential powers and beyond, the new Supreme Court term is a win-win for the court’s conservatives, and Trump.

slate.com

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Dahlia Lithwick @dahlialithwick.bsky.social · 6d

Trump's invasion

This weekend marked a major escalation of his campaign of terror.

open.substack.com

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 6d

Ohhhh not staying the order is *really interesting*. The tidal shift we're seeing in the past two or three weeks in how much judges are *completely done* with the presumption of regularity and refusing to play Calvinball is fascinating

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 6d

DOJ: I would just reiterate request for stay pending appeal and admin stay and note request in order.

Judge: I am denying both requests for stays.

[HEARING ENDS]

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David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 6d

Over the weekend, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller repeatedly attacked judges, calling them part of an "organized terrorist attack" on the US government....

On Saturday, the home of a judge who ruled against Trump, went up in flames

time.com/7323442/sout...

House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Set Ablaze

Authorities are investigating a fire at the home of a South Carolina judge who had reportedly received death threats in what could be the latest incident of political violence across the country.

time.com

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