Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Melissa Stewart

@lissajostewart.bsky.social

11K followers 540 following 3.5K posts

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · Jul 4

Just a reminder that pretty much everything Hitler did in Germany was legal and enabled by lawyers and judges who considered their duty to “the law” to be of supreme importance.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since Kagan’s vote yesterday.

Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · Jul 4

Judge Murphy DENIES the motion to stop the flight taking the eight men from Djibouti to South Sudan.

It's "substantially similar" to the relief sought by orders paused by SCOTUS.

The flight is set to take off in roughly 30 minutes.

Background www.allrisenews.com/p/litman-sco...

10 100 390

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 3h

This is infuriating. She excuses the orders as "preliminary," but that's an argument for applying settled law or preserving the status quo. Allowing POTUS to disregard Congressional appropriations and fire independent agency heads are neither, they're a radical restructuring of Constitutional order.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7h

Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."

38 290 1K

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 7h

JD Vance is the worst. Luckily, he’s also dumb as a rock and has the charisma of that rock.

I, too, would like to interview JD Vance, primarily to tell him I’m done with him.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8h

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

46 170 980

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 1d

Luttig has it right here: “[T]he Supreme Court has given them no choice but to speak out.”

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 1d

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

11 270 880

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 1d

This is it. Very glad to see this full-throated welcome to queer people — and recognition of trans people’s history — from Zohran Mamdani in the closing month of his campaign and on National Coming Out Day.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

6 210 920

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

LOL

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group

American Girl · Taylor Swift

American Girl

℗ 2009 Big Machine Records, LLC

Released on: 2009-01-01

Auto-generated by YouTube.

From and including: Friday, October 10, 2025
To, but not including Thursday, January 1, 2026

Result: 83 days

It is 83 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date.

Or 2 months, 22 days excluding the end date.

1 8

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

Izzy no

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

Oh!

Well, she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn't help thinkin' that there
Was a little more to life
Somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
Yeah, and if she had to die tryin'
She had one little promise
She was gonna keep

Oh yeah, alright
Take it easy baby
Make it last all night
She was an American girl

3 1 20

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 2d

My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but

140 3.9K 19K

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

Idk if she’s Taylor or close to Taylor. But none of her collections seem like AI to me.

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

I would bet all my money that JB’s poems are very much not AI

1 6

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 2d

Turns out lawyers are on Bluesky

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 2d

Lawyers have been publicizing a new term to describe ICE's racially targeted detainments: a “Kavanaugh stop.”

Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy explains in this new video:

3 14 86

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah but I’m really, really good at peace and stuff.

1 7

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

Still waiting for my prize

Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 2d

A few years ago @lissajostewart.bsky.social made a similar request ...

2 1 41

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING: Federal judge finds the Trump admin likely violated the First (viewpoint discrimination) and Fifth (vagueness) Amendments in a case over changed domestic violence grant conditions.

Preliminary injunction issued.

(A TRO previously was issued.)

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

Case 1:25-cv-00342-MRD-PAS
Document 72
1683
Filed 10/10/25 Page 1 of 39 PagelD #:
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND
RHODE ISLAND COALITION
AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. in his official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al.,
Defendants.
C.A. No. 25-cv-342-MRD-PAS
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Melissa R. DuBose, United States District Judge.

Over twenty non-profit coalitions that receive federal grant money to help
support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault as well as members of
society who are unhoused or without stable housing filed suit against the United
States Departments of Health and Human Services ("HHS") and Housing and Urban
Development ("HUD") as well as various administrators and subagencies who fall
under and within these agencies (hereinafter the "Coalitions" or the "Plaintiffs").
Compl. at 1-4. The Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants are springing new conditions
on them as grantees and are requiring compliance with new spending restrictions on grant funds (the "Grants"), all in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act (the
"APA"), 5 U.S.C. § 706, the U.S. Constitution's clearly articulated separation of
Case 1:25-cv-00342-MRD-PAS Document 72
1684
Filed 10/10/25 Page 2 of 39 PagelD #:
powers principles such as the Article I Spending Clause, the First Amendment, and the Due Process Clause under the Fifth Amendment. Id. 11 4, 66-89. The new
conditions and certifications foisted upon the grantees are focused on compelling
compliance with sweeping changes imposed by the executive branch by way of Executive Orders ("E.O.s") aimed at eliminating programs that are perceived as promoting gender ideology; diversity, equity, and inclusion; elective abortions; and
antidiscrimination. Id. 11 21-31, MPI at 73-74.

IV. CONCLUSION
As stated, the Court determines that the Plaintiffs have met their burden as
to the preliminary injunction factors and finds them entitled to relief. Pursuant to Section 705 of the APA, the Court finds that it is necessary and appropriate to grant
the Plaintiffs' request for a preliminary stay of the Challenged Conditions.
See 5
U.S.C. § 705 (permitting a reviewing court to "issue all necessary and appropriate
process to postpone the effective date of an agency action or to preserve status or
rights pending conclusion of the review proceedings on such conditions as may be
required and to the extent necessary to prevent irreparable injury").
38
Case 1:25-cv-00342-MRD-PAS Document 72 Filed 10/10/25 Page 39 of 39 PagelD #:
1721
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Melissa R. DuBose
United States District Judge
October 10, 2025

4 150 510

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

Meanwhile Chuck’s personality is 93% limousine

1 1

Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 2d

What madness leads a person to say this to David Fucking Simon

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 3d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

1 2 30

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Justin @justinlawguy.bsky.social · 3d

I do not think we have time to try and do a bunch of stuff, let the courts slowly walk it back, and then, and only then, do court reform

If court reform isn't a first 100 days kind of thing, then we'll have squandered the opportunity.

1 1 5

Reposted by Melissa Stewart

Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 3d

I know this case is all over - & it should be - but Turning Point USA has waged a harassment campaign against faculty for more than a decade. I know of at least a half dozen other faculty, personally, who have received death threats and several of those who felt so unsafe they too left their homes

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 3d

Are we great yet?

Mark Bray, a Rutgers University professor and expert on anti-fascist groups, is fleeing to Spain with his family due to death threats that stem from a campaign by Turning Point USA and other conservative groups to get him fired, falsely labeling him as an antifa member.