Danny Cooper
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dannycooper.bsky.social
Danny Cooper
@dannycooper.bsky.social
1.5K followers 4.6K following 1.2K posts
Mets, Knicks, and democracy // lawyer & First Amendment enthusiast
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dannycooper.bsky.social
They know Amerimaidan awaits
December 2, 2025 at 1:58 AM
dannycooper.bsky.social
Yeah nothing about “influence”
November 29, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Danny Cooper
fishkin.bsky.social
The key word is "dictate." As 186 University of California law faculty wrote at the end of our own letter begging our Regents not to sign an agreement with a similar savings clause, the word "dictate" sets the bar WAY too low.
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UC Law Faculty to Regents: Resist the Unlawful Demands
sites.google.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:37 PM
dannycooper.bsky.social
Somehow, Palpatine was fertile.
November 24, 2025 at 9:09 PM
dannycooper.bsky.social
And seeing how quickly a MAGA stalwart like MTG became a target can’t help any on-the-fence congressperson discover their courage
November 24, 2025 at 4:32 PM
dannycooper.bsky.social
The issue may be more that they fear for their safety turning on Trump
November 24, 2025 at 4:27 PM
dannycooper.bsky.social
Nine unleashed
November 20, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Danny Cooper
mikesacks.bsky.social
A fed judge in August struck down Arkansas’s 10 Commandments in public schools law, calling it part of a “coordinated strategy among several states” to get a sympathetic Roberts Court to revisit “precedent on religious displays in the public school context.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
I. INTRODUCTION 1 am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' This is the first of ten commandments that Arkansas Act 573 requires be prominently displayed in every public-school classroom in the State. The question before the Court is whether the law violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, as made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment- which declares that a state "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." U.S. Const. amend. I, XIV. The First Amendment's "Religion Clauses," quoted above, include the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. The Supreme Court has explained that a violation of the Free Exercise Clause depends upon a "showing of direct governmental compulsion" that burdens individual religious belief or practice, whereas a violation of the Establishment Clause depends upon "the enactment of laws which establish an official religion." Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 430 (1962). Americans today might find it far-fetched to imagine a state establishing an "official religion"; but the Founding Fathers were not so sanguine. James Madison, the author of the Bill of Rights, warned that we should "take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties." Abingdon Sch. Dist. v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 225 (1963) (quoting Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments). That "experiment" is happening now, in Arkansas. 1 Exodus 20:2-3. Forty-five years ago, the Supreme Court struck down a Ten Commandments law nearly identical to the one the Arkansas General Assembly passed earlier this year. That precedent remains binding on this Court and renders Arkansas Act 573 plainly unconstitutional. Why would Arkansas pass an obviously unconstitutional law? Most likely because the State is part of a coordinated strategy among several states to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms. These states view the past decade of rulings by the Supreme Court on religious displays in public spaces as a signal that the Court would be open to revisiting its precedent on religious displays in the public- school context. Louisiana began the trend, passing a bill in 2024 that directed the state's public schools to display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms. After a group of Louisiana parents and children sued, the District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana preliminarily enjoined House Bill 71 as violative of both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause, see Roake v. Brumley, 756 F. Supp. 3d 93 (M.D. La. 2024), and the Fifth Circuit affirmed, see Roake v. Brumley, 2025 WL 1719978 (5th Cir. 2025). Undeterred, Arkansas has now passed Act 573, a law closely resembling the one enjoined in Louisiana. This has prompted a group of religious and non-religious parents of children attending public schools in Northwest Arkansas to file the instant suit against their respective school districts, raising almost the same concerns as their Louisiana counterparts. Just ten days after the Arkansas Plaintiffs filed suit, Texas enacted its own public-school Ten Commandments law. Similar laws appear to be in the works in other states, which will lead to more lawsuits-until, it seems, the Supreme Court puts its foot down. As for Act 573, this Court's duty here is to explain in direct and simple terms why the law is unconstitutional under any legal test and award appropriate relief. The rest is beyond its control. Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction is GRANTED for the reasons explained below.2
November 19, 2025 at 4:41 AM