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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 11h

This is a nice reaction. They'll keep trying more and more until they are stopped.

CajunBlueAZ ⚜️🇺🇸 🇺🇦 @cajunblue.bsky.social · 15h

🚨🚨🚨WA Governor Bob Ferguson responds to a letter he received from AG Pam Bondi in which she threatened to place him in jail. 🧯He is on fire! 1/2

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 14h

Legitimation crisis happening before our eyes.

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 16h

They invalidate your old passport on day 1 of the application process, which gave me a strange atavistic fear of six weeks of not being able to travel abroad if I suddenly needed to. Maybe related to this: www.discourse.net/2003/09/rose...; in any case, absurdly relieved now after just 10 days!

Rose Burawoy, Political Scientist – Discourse.net

Lately, I have been thinking a great deal about something grandmother once said. Rose Burawoy was born in Bialystock, then a thriving metropolis with a substantial Jewish population. She told me once ...

www.discourse.net

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 16h

It's come to this.

Martha Albertson Fineman @mlafineman.bsky.social · 17h

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 17h

On the 2nd day of the govt shutdown, I realized my passport would hit the 6-month barrier soon, so I filed an electronic passport application. They said 6 weeks. It took 6 days, plus shipping. Was it a pre-shut-down hurry up? Was no one else crazy enough to try it? IDK but thank you Consular office.

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 1d

Glad that I teach in a private university where they support me teaching a seminar on the constitutional crisis and helped me get the lectures online: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 1d

This is a large, long deployment, an unpleasant, expensive, and unnecessary move which has the feel of the next setting on the boiled-frog meter. But even 12 months doesn't get us to Halloween 2026, much less the election. Of course I presume they can always extend it.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 1d

1,000 TROOPS: TN National Guard vet, who is protesting the Trump-@GovBillLee military/police takeover in Memphis, says deployment order is for a year. Takes us to the November election…

Commercial Appeal reported the same troop number. www.tiktok.com/@itsrachelda...

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 1d

This.

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 1d

"The original #NoKings protest was 250 years ago. We've had democracy since then. Now we have a would-be king who wants to take it away—King Donald the First. Fuck that. Stand up and be counted in the nationwide No Kings protest on October 18."
👉👉 nokings.org

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 1d

Coincidentally, I got both of these yesterday too, one in each arm. I'd signed up for the regular flu shot but CVS said they'd run out and offered me the high-dose version instead. Although I have no history of reactions, 24 hours later my arm hurts & I feel lousy. Calling RFK to OK some Tylenol.

Eric Feigl-Ding @drericding.bsky.social · 2d

Guess who just got both the updated COVID vaccine and flu shots today? Your dear Leader Trump. Maybe you should get them too.

Sincerely, An Epidemiologist Who Told You Trump Would Get COVID Booster.

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 2d

Alas, based on the description at Amazon, I'm just a bit too tall for a frog suit.
www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7P39CP2

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 2d

The flaw is that it doesn't ensure true representation. House gerrymandering plus the huge structural flaws in the Senate are the root causes of most of our problems. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Saving Democracy from the Senate

It should not be surprising that Americans say they are frustrated with their national institutions. Congress, particularly the Senate, responds poorly to the p

papers.ssrn.com

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 2d

Threats are cheap; litigation is expensive.

And, strikingly (and, to any lawyer, obviously) the letter fails to actually deny the alleged conduct.

TL/DR: letter == nothingburger

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 2d

Uh-oh. Increases in missed car payments are not a 100% sure-fire early sign of recession or occasionally worse but often are.
www.wsj.com/business/aut...

Americans Are Falling Behind on Their Car Payments

Delinquency rates on subprime auto loans are at records.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Michael Froomkin

Jotwell @jotwell.bsky.social · 2d

Jotwell Corporate:
Charles O'Kelley, Understanding The Nature and Role of The Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur-created Value in Theorizing The Business Judgment Rule, JOTWELL (October 10, 2025), corp.jotwell.com/understandin....

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 3d

Boom! No-holds-barred opinion by Magistrate Judge says federal judge can't accept grand jury indictment from a grand jury convened by DC Superior Court (ie local) judge.

Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social · 3d

JUST IN: U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui refuses an indictment DC US Atty's office got from DC Superior Court grand jury after US District Court grand jury refused to indict. Faruqui calls indictment "facially invalid." Govt to appeal to Boasberg. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

StewartOrder100925

www.documentcloud.org

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Reposted by Michael Froomkin

Jotwell @jotwell.bsky.social · 3d

Jotwell Contracts:
Eboni Nelson, “Consumer” Protection for Small Businesses, JOTWELL (October 9, 2025) (reviewing Rachel G. Ngo Ntomp, The Small Business Dilemma, 81 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1939 (2025)), contracts.jotwell.com/consumer-pro....

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Reposted by Michael Froomkin

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 5d

Monstrous.

"federal agents detained nearly every resident of the 130-unit building—including children and babies—placing them in zip ties and separating them by race into vans for more than two hours early Tuesday morning."

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 5d

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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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

Hmmm.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 4d

NOTE: Leavitt says Trump will "stop by for his routine yearly check up."

But…Trump had his annual check up already. 5 months ago. On April 11.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 4d

New — White House says Donald Trump will visit Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday.

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

And they've already given in.

One trial balloon down in flames.

www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

On Tuesday, the Trump admin said furloughed feds were not guaranteed back pay. On Wednesday, it sent notices saying they were

Just one day after taking a different argument, the Trump administration notes federal law guarantees back pay for employees sent home during a shutdown.

www.govexec.com

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

Could it be that an underappreciated aspect of the transformation of the Washington Post into a near MAGA Fantasyland is to change the information that daily impinges on the less doctrinaire conservative Supreme Court Justices?

Or is that category also a fantasy?

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

Pritzker-Warnock 2028

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

BIG not "bug". Not my autocorrect day. (When is?) bsky.app/profile/mfro...

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

Signs of AI sentience: My autocorrect just changed "Congress" to "chickens".

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

And, third, although it seems a little crazy, requiring government employees to work for free, especially with no employer intention to pay them, might be "involuntary servitude" in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment (although query how one gets damages). 4/4

Thirteenth Amendment

Section 1

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

2nd, if for some crazy reason GEFTA doesn't apply, then the workers would have donated their time. But that would violate the Anti-Deficiency Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1342, except for "emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property" other than "regular functions" of govt. 3/4

An officer or employee of the United States Government or of the District of Columbia government may not accept voluntary services for either government or employ personal services exceeding that authorized by law except for emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property. This section does not apply to a corporation getting amounts to make loans (except paid in capital amounts) without legal liability of the United States Government. As used in this section, the term "emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property" does not include ongoing, regular functions of government the suspension of which would not imminently threaten the safety of human life or the protection of property.

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

First, there's the obvious issue that it violates GEFTA, Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, 31 U.S. Code § 1341 (2)-(3). 2/3

(2) Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates, and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.
(3) During a covered lapse in appropriations, each excepted employee who is required to perform work shall be entitled to use leave under chapter 63 of title 5, or any other applicable law governing the use of leave by the excepted employee, for which compensation shall be paid at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.

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