Chase Strangio

BREAKING: We're asking the Supreme Court to reject the Trump administration's attempt to revive its discriminatory passport policy.

Lower courts were right when they stopped the the State Department from denying transgender, non-binary, and intersex people accurate identification.

The very first statute authorizing domestic use of the military during domestic emergencies, enacted in 1792 by a Congress full of the same folks who wrote and ratified the Constitution, expressly provided for judicial review in certain circumstances *before* the President could even send troops.

The ICE agents deploying these are people without necessary training, those who couldn’t cut it in police training or didn’t want to join the military.

They are in this to hurt people and play Call of Duty on our streets, deploying chemical weapons on our neighbors as if they’re pressing L1.

They have done so in reasoned and thoughtful written opinions—opinions that, in the nor- ‘mal course, we would get to parse, assess, and embrace or reject, while fully explaining our reasoning.

I really appreciate Justice Jackson contrasting the lower courts' meticulous and responsible approach to judging—extensive deliberations, written opinions—with the Supreme Court's slapdash, unreasoned work over the shadow docket. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

The Supreme Court Will Do Four Things This Term That Tell You Everything You Need to Know In the week before the October 2025 Supreme Court term opens, the impulse among court watchers will again be to do what we always do.

Next Monday's "One First" was going to be about how we should stop covering new #SCOTUS terms through the "big" cases the Court will hear; and instead focus on how the Court is behaving.

Fortunately for me (and you), @dahlialithwick.bsky.social and @mjsdc.bsky.social did it first—and *way* better:

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

Important to note that Congress has never passed any law giving the President authority to designate anything as a “domestic terrorist organization.”

As a result, this would appear to have no direct legal effect beyond acting as a statement of policy for the Executive Branch.

I dissented from the majority's prior stay orders, and today do so again. Under existing law, what Congress said goes-as this Court unanimously decided nearly a century ago. In Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), we rejected a claim of presidential prerogative identical to the one made in this case. (Indeed, the suit emerged from a discharge at the very same agency.) Con-gress, we held, may restrict the President's power to remove members of the FTC, as well as other agencies performing "quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial" functions, without violating the Constitution. Id., at 629. So the President can-not, as he concededly did here, fire an FTC Commissioner without any reason. To reach a different result requires reversing the rule stated in Humphrey's: It entails overriding

rather than accepting Congress's judgment about agency design. The majority may be raring to take that action, as its grant of certiorari before judgment suggests. But until the deed is done, Humphrey's controls, and prevents the majority from giving the President the unlimited removal power Congress denied him. Because the majority's stay does just that, I respectfully dissent. Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars. Still more, it should not be used, as it also has been, to transfer government authority from Congress to the President, and thus to reshape the Nation's separation of powers.

In dissent as to the stay, Justice Kagan — joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson — lays out the lawlessness of the majority plainly.

"Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars."

Order/dissent: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

A screenshot of two tweets from the Politico reporter Joe Anuta. The 1st: ".@NYCMayor elaborates on his comments yesterday that boys and girls should not use the same bathroom. He says he will review the policy of his own education department, which allows students to use restrooms “consistent with their gender identity” and potentially change it" 2nd: "He says students whose sex at birth differs should never be allowed to use the bathroom at the same time, regardless of gender identity"

Awful and dangerous to hear the Mayor echo the transphobic bigotry coming from the Trump administration. It's completely at odds with the values of our city and another reason why his single, disgraced term in office cannot end soon enough.

FCC Chair Carr’s post from 12/30/23: Free speech is the counterweight—it is the check on government control. That is why censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.

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Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

This is utterly ridiculous. Karen wrote multiple threads over the last few days condemning gun violence and political violence. She wrote one post about Kirk directly and that was only quoting him. She’s an opinion writer. She did her job.

The thing to emphasize here is that this treatment is *utterly normal.* It's part of the system of detention which has existed for decades. Folkston has been like this for many, many years,

I absolutely condemn the killing this week. But let’s be clear: Turning Point USA and its allies have been harassing professors across the nation for years. 4/

I abhor violence, even as I was targeted with violent threats. Turning Point USA has a professors watchlist: it has been used to harass hundreds of academics, many women, people of color and LGBTQ people. 3/

The ONLY thing the two have in common is that BOTH were murdered on video by white men.

It’s also worth noting that as soon as it became clear the Trump shooter had no real legible politics and certainly not from “the left” he completely vanished into anonymity. No one knows his name.

And then print them knowing the harm it will cause….

Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith with Hala Alyan, Aubrey Hirsch, Mira Jacob, and Chase Strangio at SJNY Brooklyn independent bookstore

NYC PEOPLE: You can catch me, @theferocity.bsky.social, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social, @mirajacob.bsky.social, @chasestrangio.bsky.social and Hala Alyan in Brooklyn on Wednesday talking about The People’s Project!

Friends, this book is SO GOOD!!

There's nothing chaotic about the race! The runaway winner of the Democratic primary has a comfortable ongoing lead in the polls! The only chaotic element is the mind-traffic of the small circle of self-appointed civic elites melting down over their refusal to accept a straightforward situation.

I will remind folks those images of Nazi book burnings aren't burning just any books. They're burning the library of Magnus Hirschfeld; a gay, Jewish doctor who created an institute dedicated to LGBTQ sex education and healthcare. And a man who pioneered gender affirming care surgeries.

YouTube video by Associated Press LIVE: CDC staff plan walkout at Atlanta HQ after Trump firings

AND NOW THE SENIOR CDC LEADERS HAVE JOINED THE WALK OUT! www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ7Q...

I have never seen so many public servants protest the mismanagement of a government. Trumpists will point to this as proof of the deep state, but the reality is that these are professionals who are desperately trying to get the public to understand how bad things are.

Now this is a journalist who deserves respect.

Dear journalists:

The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her.

Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.

This scavenger hunt is so charming and smart and actively engaging. It gets New Yorkers out and about, exploring the city, talking to one another, taking advantage of public transportation and working toward a common cause. The levels! It’s just so great.

"Democrats can't stop saying this thing they said exactly once, four years ago."

Ok - so I'm going to do a real context+write up but for now, here's what some of these things look like.

To start my data reference is DCinbox which is ~208,000 official e-newsletters over the past 15 years.

🎉We’re thrilled to introduce the honorees for this year’s Dignity, Community & Power Awards gala:

✨Brad Lander, @nyccomptroller.bsky.social
✨‪ @chasestrangio.bsky.social, Co-Director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project
✨ @chirla-org.bsky.social, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights

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SCOTUS Undermined Trans Rights: How Do We Protect Them in NY - NYCLU

On our latest episode of Rights This Way, we sit down with Chase Strangio, the @aclu.org lawyer who argued against the anti-trans Tennessee law in U.S. v. Skrmetti.

He explains the flawed logic behind the conservative majority’s decision, what it means, and what its nationwide implications are.