Mark Joseph Stern
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Mark Joseph Stern
@mjsdc.bsky.social
Senior writer at Slate covering courts and the law. Co-host of the Amicus podcast. Dad.
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
One of the things that the Bovino-directed operations in Chicago and Minnesota made clear is that CBP thought they could treat any and every person in the US the same way they treat migrants at the southern border.

If it's unacceptable here, then it's unacceptable there.
“To protect his reputation” tells you a lot.

This did go well for a Border Patrol agent charged with running down a migrant with his truck. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
February 3, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
The front page Hachette Book Group website, which just announced it will publish Sam Alito's book this fall, is all about condemning bans on kids' books that discuss LGBTQ identity—the same books that Alito's majority opinion in Mahmoud v Taylor is scrubbing from classrooms across the country
February 3, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
Buried lede: he realizes that it is absolutely impossible to achieve mass deportation if that process is required, which it constitutionally is.
Mike Johnson speaks out against the use of judicial warrants in immigration cases:

"Imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant"
February 3, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
This is just a guess, but maybe the rise in dramatic prose from district court judges is partly due to a growing belief among those judges that it's pointless to try to persuade SCOTUS and they must therefore focus on other potential audiences.
February 3, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
What DOJ is doing is making its attorneys go before the same judges over and over again with the same deficient argument in habeas petitions challenging immigration detention. They're losing nearly every case and torching their reputations in front of federal judges.
BREAKING: 8 more U.S. Attorneys in MN resign from Trump’s DOJ in protest as backlash grows.
This isn’t normal; isn’t routine reshuffling. It’s a rebellion.
Last month, 6 veteran prosecutors quit in protest. Normal staffing for the MN DOJ’s office is around 50 attorneys. They’re down to just 9.
February 3, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Drink wine if you enjoy it. Not too much. Ideally with friends or family. slate.com/life/2026/02...
There’s One Category of Alcohol Taking the Biggest Hit of All. It Should Be the Last.
Big Grape has a message for a nation of neo-teetotalers.
slate.com
February 3, 2026 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
So, I am not quite sure what this is, but it’s hard to believe Pirro is talking with Main Justice here.

DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is suing over DC’s semiautomatic gun ban and the head of the Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, backs a national reciprocity law.
Pirro: "You bring a gun into the District, you mark my words, you're going to jail. I don't care if you have a license in another district and I don't care if you're a law abiding law owner somewhere else. You bring a gun into this District, count on going to jail. And that makes all the difference"
February 2, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Republicans love adding seats to state Supreme Courts! They've done it three times in recent years. This latest court-packing plan will shift Utah's high court far to the right and possibly flip rulings on abortion and gerrymandering.

Democrats should take note that Rs have deemed this acceptable!
This hasn’t received nearly enough attention:

Republicans just passed a law to pack Utah’s Supreme Court after it ruled against their congressional gerrymander.

Cox could appoint two more justices before the court hears the GOP’s latest appeal to preserve their gerrymander
Utah governor signs bill adding justices to state Supreme Court as redistricting appeal looms
Once the new seats are filled, Gov. Spencer Cox will have appointed five of the seven justices.
www.nbcnews.com
February 2, 2026 at 7:34 PM
The rumors are true: Constitution Garden’s pond is completely frozen over! Ice skaters and hockey players are frolicking. Had to go down with Lucy to see for myself.
February 1, 2026 at 11:39 PM
It’s about damn time somebody stood up for the little guy—the real hero, the humble foe of bullies and bigots, the voice for the voiceless: Justice Samuel Alito. Glad to see this meek, powerless man finally receive the defense he deserves.
Because we've been flooded with Mark Joseph Stern and Ian Millhiser garbage about how Alito is the spawn of satan.
January 30, 2026 at 9:28 PM
New: The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the birthright citizenship case on April 1. www.supremecourt.gov/oral_argumen...
January 30, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
The Trump administration recognized that Tulsi Gabbard was wildly unqualified/too much of a nutjob for her post running U.S. intelligence, so they've given her some busy work (the busy work is trying to unravel American democracy). www.wsj.com/politics/ele...
January 29, 2026 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
My New One @slate.com: "Trump’s Continued Obsession With 2020 Is a Joke. His Raid on a Georgia Election Site Is Not."
slate.com/news-and-pol...
January 29, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Talked about the many scams of modern originalism on @legaldefensefund.bsky.social's Justice Above All podcast! I thought it was a great conversation. Listen here: tminstituteldf.org/what-is-orig...
What Is Originalism and Who Does It Leave Out?
The United States is at a tipping point, as the anti-truth movement attempts to erase the history of pivotal moments that advanced racial justice. Related to this movement, the legal theory of origina...
tminstituteldf.org
January 29, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
My New One at @slate.com on the 50th Anniversary of the Buckley v. Valeo Decision: “One Supreme Court Case Is Most Responsible for Our Oligarchy. It’s Not the One You Think.” slate.com/news-and-pol...
January 28, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
The groups and individuals in California that are fighting to block more housing production—many of whom claim to be fighting for progressive values—seem intent on delivering the White House to JD Vance.
#NEW: 2030 Apportionment Forecast based on 2025 Census Bureau Population Estimates (January 27, 2026).

Forecast prepared by Dr. Jonathan Cervas (CMIST) at Carnegie Mellon University
January 27, 2026 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
A truly beautiful and moving piece by Adam Serwer in The Atlantic describing the everyday heroism of people in MN @adamserwer.bsky.social @theatlantic.com :

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
January 27, 2026 at 2:46 PM
To put it another way: Courageous jurists on the lower courts have held back Trump from inflicting even more damage on civil rights and liberties. This timeline sucks, but the one in which the judiciary doesn't even try to push back is FAR worse. We insult these judges when we dismiss their impact.
I’m done with this shit. This isn’t a game. And if you don’t realize that the work of Judges Xinis and Boasberg and Ellis has been an essential part of forcing this administration to account for its actions, you’re not a serious person.
January 27, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
One thing I found deeply moving about resistance in the Twin Cities was the universalism of loving your neighbor, the philosophy driving the opposition to the ICE/BP invasion. I couldn't help but notice the contrast with the blood and soil-ism of Miller and Vance. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
January 27, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
The US Holocaust Museum being more outraged by Tim Walz saying that, like Anne Frank, children today are in hiding from armed agents of the state, than they are about the fact that children are in hiding from armed agents of the state, is why Holocaust remembrance culture is in crisis.
January 26, 2026 at 11:30 PM
The testing ground for Bovino’s Operation At Large was Los Angeles. A California judge initially prohibited ICE/CBP’s most flagrant constitutional violations. SCOTUS overruled her 6–3, handing Bovino a blank check to inflict unspeakable brutality on Chicago and Minneapolis. The 6 bear so much blame.
BREAKING Greg Bovino has been removed as Border Patrol "commander at large" and will return to El Centro Calif, where he is expected to retire soon. A stunning turnaround after Pretti killing. Bovino's traveling blue city crackdown is over www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Gregory Bovino Gets Demoted
The Border Patrol chief was the public face of a traveling immigration crackdown on cities governed by Democrats.
www.theatlantic.com
January 27, 2026 at 1:18 AM
DOJ told a federal judge that it contained and investigated the scene of Pretti's murder. But from this report, it looks like all federal agents left the scene completely unattended within a few hours—a major breach of protocol that contaminated potential evidence. slate.com/news-and-pol...
January 26, 2026 at 9:59 PM
Life on the ground in St. Paul right now, from Council Member @mollycoleman.bsky.social—including a dispatch from "day care patrol," now a feature of everyday life, when parents try to stop ICE agents from kidnapping toddlers and teachers.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
In Minnesota, the Fight Against ICE Is Also the Fight Against Authoritarianism
The community is pulling together. It has been eye-opening.
slate.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:50 PM
The terror that ICE and CBP have inflicted on the children of the Twin Cities is, by itself, a crime of scandalous proportions that will forever stain this country's moral fabric, and all those responsible should never know another day of peace. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
January 26, 2026 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Mark Joseph Stern
Such a waste. The Post was hiring so aggressively for five or ten years that they had one of the very best stables of journalists in the country. Now hollowed out and about to get slashed completely
From Paul Farhi at the other site. Former media reporter there.
January 26, 2026 at 7:45 PM