David Lat: Lawyers Rally For The Rule Of Law: A Photo Essay
I’ve never seen a protest with this many people in suits.
Yesterday was Law Day—and this year, it took on added meaning for many lawyers.1 Thousands participated in a National Law Day of Action, centered around public events to express support for the rule of law, which were held in more than 50 cities across the country.
In New York City, an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 demonstrators gathered in Foley Square, across the street from federal and state courthouses, to rally for the rule of law—and to protest recent attacks upon it. The event was sponsored by the New York City Bar Association, the New York County Lawyers Association, the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
(David Lat more…)
NY Times: May Day protests mobilize a growing outcry against Trump.
Thousands of people streamed onto the green grass of Union Park in Chicago, the streets of downtown Los Angeles and the Supreme Court steps in Washington on Thursday to celebrate labor victories and oppose actions of the Trump administration.
Demonstrators said they were angered by President Trump’s plans to cut education funding, roll back workers’ rights and carry out mass deportations. “He’s tearing apart our Constitution,” said Bill Hincks, 40, a union leader from the Chicago suburb of Oak Forest.
A separate effort, billed as a National Law Day of Action, brought legal professionals to the Supreme Court and other locations to push for judicial independence and oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to weaponize the Justice Department and intimidate law firms.
(NY Times more…)
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 1, 2025
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In his recent interview with Trump, Terry Moran of ABC News revealed that Trump has a problem with a disconnect between his actions and the country’s principles. Trump had a copy of the Declaration of Independence installed in the Oval Office, and Moran asked the president what it means to him. Trump’s answer made it clear he has never read the document.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Poll Says Most Americans Think Trump is a “dangerous dictator” & Why Athletes Should Stay Away from the White House
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FYI: In 1766, America’s first student protest took place—at Harvard University. It was called the “Great Butter Rebellion” because the students were tired of being fed rancid butter. It resulted in half the student body being suspended. The ringleader of the protest was Asa Dunbar, Thoreau’s grandfather.
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Bulwark: Trump’s Immigration Policy Is a Failure Built on Lies
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Homan is, to put it politely, winging it. This isn’t Russia yet. The “czar” cannot simply declare something to be a crime. Congress decides what is and what is not a federal offense and Congress has decreed that merely being in the country without documentation is not a crime. Certain other acts—such as returning to the country after being deported—can be prosecuted, but just being here without authorization is a civil offense, not a criminal one, as is earning money without a work visa (see, for example, Melania Trump). About four in ten undocumented aliens currently in the United States did not enter the country by sneaking across the border. They entered legally and overstayed.
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The mugshots on the lawn and Homan’s snarling threats are meant to achieve a number of goals, including frightening many illegal (and doubtless some legal) immigrants into self-deportation, but they are also a tell—the administration just hasn’t been able to find those thousands of criminal aliens they claimed were rampaging throughout the nation. Like so many other themes Trump campaigned on, the plague of immigrant crime was a fiction.
(Bulwark more…)
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Bulwark: A Human Sacrifice to the Laura Loomer Lobby
Mike Waltz survived Signalgate because Trump didn’t want to give the media his scalp. But whispers of disloyalty from the MAGA fringe were a different story.
(Bulwark more…)
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Boing Boing: Trump thinks we’re all too stupid to remember his tariff promises
Donald Trump’s biggest lie of the day so far is that he warned everyone about his tariff “transition period” during his campaign.
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In fact, while Trump was campaigning, he promised the opposite: “Starting on day one, we will end inflation” and swore “Smart tariffs will not create inflation.” He even doubled down with “I agree it’s going to have a massive effect – positive effect,” and that his tariffs would make Americans “so rich” that they were “not going to be a cost to you.”
(Boing Boing more…)Steven Beschloss: Trump’s Rising Hostility to Reality
In an Oval Office interview with Terry Moran of ABC News, Trump clearly expected this journalist—and every viewer—to swallow his lies. This is intolerable.
Stephen Robinson: Trump’s brain is gone
It really should be a bigger story.
Donald Trump’s recent interviews with Time and The Atlantic revealed a president who is completely unhinged and incoherent. Sadly, that’s not news. But what stood out is that Trump is consistently confused and disconnected from reality even on issues that are supposedly in his wheelhouse.
Daily Beast: Trump Announces WWII Victory Day on Wrong Date
HISTORY LESSON
The president seemed to forget about Hiroshima, Nagasaki and victory over the Japanese. He also wants to cancel Veterans Day.President Donald Trump announced in a late-night post that the U.S. will now celebrate Victory Day on May 8 to commemorate the end of World War II, but critics quickly pointed out that only the war in Europe came to an end in May. The Americans—quite famously—continued to fight the Japanese until August 1945.
The president also said he wants to replace Veterans Day, which Congress made a federal holiday in 1954, and to go back to celebrating the end of World War I on Nov. 11 instead.
Jeff Tiedrich: Captain Clownpants reshuffles the deck chairs on the Trumptanic
(Jeff Tiedrich more…)
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ABC: Trump says he’s ‘taking away’ Harvard’s tax exempt status
“It’s what they deserve,” he said in a Truth Social post.The decision will likely face legal challenges.
(ABC more…)Cornell Law School: 26 U.S. Code § 7217 – Prohibition on executive branch influence over taxpayer audits and other investigations
Snopes: 2023 video authentically shows Trump announcing plans for a tuition-free college program
Trump said he would fund the American Academy by “taxing, fining, and suing excessively large private university endowments.”
(Snopes more…)Wikipedia: American Academy
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NPR: Trump orders end to federal funding for NPR and PBS
(NPR more…)Fast Company: Trump orders end to NPR and PBS funding—legal experts say he can’t
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The CPB was established in 1967 under the Johnson administration as a part of the Public Broadcasting Act (PBA). Within the Act, Congress explicitly forbids “any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over public telecommunications, or over the Corporation or any of its grantees or contractors”According to the history page on the CPB website, CPB registered as a nonprofit in 1968 and established PBS in 1969 as a means of connecting public television stations and distribute programming. NPR incorporated in 1970 as a public radio program service. In 1975, Congress amended the PBA to advance local programming and further protect public media from political interference.
Mary Geddry: The War on Reality: NPR, PBS, and the Machinery of Control
Trump’s attack on public media isn’t a distraction, it’s a warning. And it’s only the beginning.
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In Trump’s America, lawful is just another word for inconvenient.
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Fast Company: Trump’s Justice Department sues Michigan and Hawaii over plans to take Big Oil to court
The unprecedented suits are an attempt to stop the states from taking climate action on their own.
(Fast Company more…)
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David Brooks: How to Survive the Trump Years With Your Spirit Intact
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If there is one word to define Trump’s atmosphere, it is “pagan.” The pagan values of ancient Rome celebrated power, manliness, conquest, ego, fame, competitiveness and prowess, and it is those values that have always been at the core of Trump’s being — from his real estate grandiosity to his love of pro wrestling to his king-of-the-jungle version of American greatness.
(David Brooks more…)
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Closer to the Edge: Deported into Darkness: Trump’s Regime Vanished Andry Hernández Romero — And Called It “Security”
He followed every rule. That was his first mistake.
(Closer to the Edge more…)
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Closer to the Edge: A Government That Steals Children, A Church That Claps, And a Nation That Watches.
Part I: The Kidnapping
They didn’t need a gun. They didn’t need to kick in a door or leave a ransom note. All they needed was a government badge, a manifest, and the sheer audacity to call theft “policy.”
Part II: The Gathering
The Rose Garden was immaculate. The flags hung obedient. The podium shimmered like a game show prize — and the prize was propaganda. A sanctified set built for one thing only: to let the architects of cruelty bask in the glow of false redemption.
(Closer to the Edge more…)
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AP: The Justice Department ended a decades-old school desegregation order. Others are expected to fall
(AP more…)
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