Philip Hensley-Robin

Pennsylvania ends budget impasse with $50.1B deal Pennsylvania’s final budget boosts school funding, creates an earned income tax credit, and exits the RGGI climate initiative.

News: Pennsylvania has a budget, four months late, after lawmakers passed a $50.1 billion deal that continues to fund public schools, creates a tax credit for working families, reforms permitting, and pulls the state out of a plan to cap carbon emissions from power plants.

I'd rather the next Dem president + Congress put into place a bunch of Court-curbing mechanisms *and* far more strenuous presidency-curbing mechanisms.

I don't think left-Caesarism is the best response here.

This “explicit” is a weird editorial choice. The constitution gives the president no power over this at all. It’s not ambiguous.

The New Super Dark Money Threat to Our Elections In 1954, Congress passed common-sense legislation that required religious, charitable or educational nonprofits to refrain from partisan political activity to maintain their tax-exempt status. The “Jo...

A new Trump administration effort to change IRS rules by executive fiat would add fuel to the raging inferno of unlimited dark money spending during elections. @campaignlegal.org is determined to do everything we can to stop this unlawful abuse of executive power. www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-su...

More than 75 former judges urge Senate committee to reject Trump judicial nominee Emil Bove | CNN Politics More than 75 former federal and state judges on Tuesday called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, to a prestigi...

More than 75 former judges: "Bove’s egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position... [Bove] explicitly plotted to violate court orders and direct law enforcement officers to engage in illegal acts”

I had been doubtful that we were going to have a "this is the crisis moment" with Trump, as opposed to "everything about this is a destructive catastrophe."

But the Abrego Garcia case is the crisis moment.

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Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.

The most blatant, the most corrupt assault on the rule of law since the Nixon administration.

The ABA supports the rule of law It has been three weeks since Inauguration Day. Most Americans recognize that newly elected leaders bring change. That is expected. But most Americans also expect that changes will take place in accor...

“These stories should concern all Americans because they are our family members, neighbors and friends. No American can be proud of a government that carries out change in this way.”

The American Bar Association speaks out. Please read and share.
www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...

Dear Attorney General Bondi: On February 10, 2025, I received a memorandum from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, directing me to dismiss the indictment against Mayor Eric Adams without prejudice, subject to certain conditions, which would require leave of court. I do not repeat here the evidence against Adams that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed federal crimes; Mr. Bove rightly has never called into question that the case team conducted this investigation with integrity and that the charges against Adams are serious and supported by fact and law. Mr. Bove's memo, however, which directs me to dismiss an indictment returned by a duly constituted grand jury for reasons having nothing to do with the strength of the case, raises serious concerns that render the contemplated dismissal inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts. When I took my oath of office three weeks ago, I vowed to well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I was about to enter. In carrying out that responsibility, I am guided by, among other things, the Principles of Federal Prosecution set forth in the Justice Manual and your recent memoranda instructing attorneys for the Department of Justice to make only good-faith arguments and not to use the criminal enforcement authority of the United States to achieve political objectives or other improper aims. I am also guided by the values that have defined my over ten years of public service. You and I have yet to meet, let alone discuss this case. But as you may know, I clerked for the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and for Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. Both men instilled in me a sense of duty to contribute to the public good and uphold the rule of law, and a commitment to reasoned and thorough analysis. I have always considered it my o…

READ Danielle Sassoon's letter to AG Pam Bondi, via @nytimes.com:

"Rather than be rewarded, Adams's advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case." static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...

i don’t even know if crime is the right word for the illegal destruction of USAID. it is an autocratic power grab and a direct attack on the sovereignty of the american people

On Tuesday, the Justice Department said it filed a voting rights lawsuit against Hazleton, Pa., alleging the city's system of electing city council members as at-large representatives of one voting district gives Hispanic citizens an unequal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice

The North Carolina General Assembly’s GOP supermajority just approved a hugely corrupt power grab, seizing authority from the governor and the courts to prevent any meaningful check on legislative abuses. Authoritarian stuff. A very dark day for democracy in NC. amp.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

There are of course countless dedicated city employees working hard to improve things. But yes, tolerance for venality and patronage are symptoms of a deeper problem with city leadership: a long-standing culture of government for and by the favored few.

I spoke to @ryanbriggs.bsky.social about three former officials back on the public payroll after being convicted of crimes.

Out of 1.5 million Philadelphians, the mayor & sheriff want us to believe that these are the best qualified individuals for these roles? Really?

Philadelphians deserve better