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Joanna Schwartz

@jcschwartzprof.bsky.social

8.8K followers 860 following 170 posts

Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law, UCLA. Civil rights, police accountability, civil procedure. Author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable (2023). Learn more at: joannaschwartz.net

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Joanna Schwartz @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social · Jul 22

I've been thinking a lot about the role litigation plays in the protection of constitutional rights because of, well, obvious reasons. So I wrote this article. It's critically important-now more than ever-to articulate & appreciate what suing the government can do.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 14h

need Sunday reading? explore what's on the ballot next month!

I put together the 180+ key races you should know about, across 32 states.

so explore, & find the ones that interest you the most, here: boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

and let me highlight three under-radar races, in 🧵 below. ⬇️

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Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine.bsky.social · 13h

We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences.

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 1d

Important piece by Prof. Kate Andrias. This is why treating SCOTUS as the only word on the Constitution gives away our power as citizens.

As I frequently say “we are founders and framers” of the next iteration of democracy in this country.
GIFT LINK
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

Opinion | The Constitution Doesn’t Belong to Trump or the Supreme Court

www.nytimes.com

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Joanna Schwartz @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social · 4d

I’m really looking forward to these conversations on Friday. Please register and come/zoom in!

harvardlawreview.org/judicial-rev...

Judicial Review in Jeopardy? Symposium - Harvard Law Review

The Harvard Law Review is proud to host, in collaboration with the Center on the Structural Constitution at Texas A&M University School of Law,...

harvardlawreview.org

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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 6d

Whether you're a casual news reader or a breaking news reporter at the NYTimes, I implore you--please, please, please--do not believe or report DHS/ICE/CBP's side of events uncritically. End the state's monopoly on legitimate storytelling. They are not the objective arbiter of what really happened.

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 6d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 6d

@lataco.bsky.social first began as a blog documenting local Mexican cuisine. Now, it’s an essential reporting powerhouse to the city as Trump’s mass deportation plot unfolds.

Check out the latest from our friends at Reveal: tinyurl.com/4cm2bsdr

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 9d

According to eyewitnesses, armed ICE agents dragged kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip tied them and put them in rented vans while raiding an * entire apartment building* on the South Side of Chicago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXO...

‘F--- them kids’: ICE agents drag children out of bed, ransack Chicago building

YouTube video by MSNBC

www.youtube.com

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Bolts @boltsmag.org · 7d

“State constitutionalism makes it easy to consider Roberts Court jurisprudence white noise,” Hawaii Justice Todd Eddins wrote in a recent ruling that assailed the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority.

Hawaii Supreme Court Expands Rights of Defendants, and Once Again Rebukes SCOTUS

The justices ruled that Hawaii’s constitution requires police to record interrogations. And they vowed to protect due process for Hawaii residents—unlike, they said, the Roberts Court.

boltsmag.org

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 8d

THIS!!!

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com · 8d

The regime is acting this way because there are no consequences so it is clear that consequences—the development of them, the advocacy for them, the imposition on bad behavior—are the answer to our crisis.

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 8d

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 8d

BREAKING: A federal judge has granted a restraining order blocking President Trump's call-up of the National Guard in Portland.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Sharon Brett @sharonbrett.bsky.social · 9d

Call for Papers for 15th Annual Fed Courts Junior Scholars conference is now up: law.ku.edu/junior-facul.... Lots of advanced notice, hope you will consider submitting!

Will work on distributing this to various listservs and blogs, but please share if you are able.

15th Annual Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop

April 24, 2026| KU School of Law

law.ku.edu

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 10d

Sorry to see schools placed in this situation but very glad Newsom is doing this. www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

Newsom threatens state funding for California universities that agree to Trump demands

Newsom said California universities that sign what he called the “RADICAL AGREEMENT” will lose state funds, including those for scholarships.

www.sfchronicle.com

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 10d

The "compact" is a threat, with the administration explicitly stating that it plans to disfavor universities that don't sign in areas from foreign student visas, student loans, federal contracts as well as grants, and even tax [501(c)(3)] status.

It's a maximalist plan of 1st Amendment violation.

www.washingtonexaminer.com

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 10d

Surreal moment for America. Needless to say, if the normal police ever pulled something like this — pulling every single person out of an apartment building and handcuffing them to run warrant checks — they would be sued into oblivion.

Yet ICE is going to get away with it entirely.

"It was scary, because I had never had a gun in my face," Fisher said. "They asked my name and my date of birth and asked me, did I have any warrants? And I told them, 'No, 'Ididn't."
Fisher said she was handcuffed before being released around 3 a.m., and she was told that if anyone had any kind of warrant out for them, even if it was unrelated to immigration, they would not be released.

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 12d

If you want to see how much a single local official can change things, look no further than Chicago,

where the new prosecutor this year has ground exonerations to a halt by hindering the work of the commission that reviews wrongful convictions boltsmag.org/chicago-cook...

Exonerations Grind to a Halt Under Chicago’s New Prosecutor - Bolts

Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has weakened her office’s already broken system for freeing the innocent, even as allegations of coercion mount against a former Chicago detective.

boltsmag.org

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Anil Kalhan @akalhan.bsky.social · 12d

Good job Brett

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 12d

the postcard cited in judge young's ruling isn't just at the top, it's a framing device. the whole opinion is a letter to the postcard writer. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Post card dated June 19, 2025
(On file in Chambers) TRUMP HAS PARDONS AND TANKS ... WHAT DO YOU HAVE?
Dear Mr. or Ms. Anonymous,
Alone, I have nothing but my
sense of duty.
Together, We the People of the
United States –- you and me --
have our magnificent Constitution.
Here’s how that works out in a
specific case –-
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

I hope you found this
helpful. Thanks for writing.
It shows you care. You
should.

Sincerely & respectfully,
Bill Young

P.S. The next time you’re in
Boston [the postmark on the card
is from the Philadelphia area]
stop in at the Courthouse and
watch your fellow citizens, sitting
as jurors, reach out for justice.
It is here, and in courthouses
just like this one, both state and
federal, spread throughout our land
that our Constitution is most vibrantly
alive, for it is well said that “Where a
jury sits, there burns the lamp of
liberty.”

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Joanna Schwartz @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social · 12d

TL;DR: 1) don’t use AI to do your legal research; 2) don’t submit a brief unless you are confident that its legal support hasn’t been hallucinated by AI; 3) if you submit a brief with legal support hallucinated by AI, it won’t look good when you try to pass the buck.

www.404media.co/18-lawyers-c...

18 Lawyers Caught Using AI Explain Why They Did It

Lawyers blame IT, family emergencies, their own poor judgment, their assistants, illness, and more.

www.404media.co

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The Marshall Project @themarshallproject.org · 13d

"In half of the cases involving a death, it took over a year to get a case filed. A complaint was filed three and a half years after former Missouri State Trooper Anthony Piercy handcuffed a man to a boat, who was then ejected and drowned."

Missouri Police Officers Often Stay Licensed After Serious Misconduct

Missouri’s system often takes years to resolve a misconduct allegation, in some cases allowing officers to move on to a new department.

www.themarshallproject.org

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Joanna Schwartz @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social · 14d

Thank you! So lovely to hear from you!

Reposted by Joanna Schwartz

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 14d

But Judge Ali concludes he has no power to help now that the man is outside of US custody. It's virtually identical to the position judge Chutkan was in when the US sent 5 men to Ghana — only for them to be sent to places they're likely to face torture. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

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Joanna Schwartz @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social · 14d

Justice Kavanaugh: “If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully
in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 14d

79. American citizen.

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Joe 👻 BOO! 👻 dek @joedudekjd.bsky.social · 15d

18 days later, Justice Kavanaugh would write: “If the person is a U. S.
citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 17d

WOW. The lead plaintiff is a Latino man who's been here legally for 24 years. He was grabbed off the street by plainclothes federal agents who didn't even ASK about his status.

He was detained overnight and only released once a supervisor realized he had been illegally arrested.

PARTIES3. Plaintiff José Escobar Molina is a 47-year-old man who has lived in D.C. for 25 years. He has maintained valid Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for El Salvador since 2001. On August 21, 2025, Mr. Escobar Molina was walking from his apartment building in Northwest D.C.to his work truck, about to start his workday, when two cars pulled up next to him. As he was about to get into his truck, plain-clothed and unidentified federal agents exited the cars and—without conducting any inquiry—seized Mr. Escobar Molina, grabbing him by the arms and legs and immediately handcuffing him. The agents arrested him without a warrant and without asking for his name, his identification, or anything about his immigration status. The agents also did not ask him where he lives, whom he lives with, how long he has lived here, or anything else about his ties to the community prior to arresting him. After ICE detained Mr. Escobar Molina overnight at its processing center in Chantilly, Virginia, the next day an ICE supervisor finally realized that he had valid TPS, which statutorily prohibits ICE from detaining him, and released him. Due tohis Latino ethnicity, Mr. Escobar Molina fears being arrested and detained again while going about his daily life in D.C.

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 15d

In light of reports that the Trump Admin has asked SCOTUS to decide the merits of its effort to end birthright citizenship, I’m re-upping my assessment - reluctantly arrived at - of the majority’s likely response to Trump’s unconstitutional demand. I pray I’m wrong. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Facing this Court

A Sober Look at What to Expect in Trump v. Casa And What We Do About It

open.substack.com

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