Manoj Mate

Some racial profiling was happening from the start, but the operation was supercharged in mid-May when the White House ordered ICE to stop using warrants, targeted operations, and just "go out on the streets" and arrest people. These arrests shot from 500/week to 1,500/week

The president has been briefed by Mark Penn, a pollster who has worked for Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Andrew Stein, a former New York City Council president and decades-long friend of Mr. Trump, on a range of polling that showed Mr. Cuomo could still be competitive as an independent candidate. Both men have pushed Mr. Cuomo as the best candidate despite his loss in the Democratic primary, including in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. One of Mr. Penn’s firms did extensive work for a pro-Cuomo super PAC in the primary. And in a previously undisclosed call in recent weeks, Mr. Trump spoke about the race directly with Mr. Cuomo, an old associate and foil, according to three people briefed on the call, who were not authorized to discuss it.

Bombshell report from The New York Times reveals that President Donald Trump spoke directly to Andrew Cuomo about how to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming NYC mayor. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/n...

Update from Alex Travelli

"China and the European Union also buy goods from Russia... Ajay Srivastava, a former Indian trade official, said he anticipated that “U.S. action will push India to reconsider its strategic alignment, deepening ties with Russia, China and many other countries.”
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

Trump Administration Live Updates: President Says He Is Doubling Tariffs on India

Trump doubling tariffs on India to 50 percent. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

NYT Front Page, Aug 7 1965: Johnson signs voting rights bill, orders immediate enforcement; 4 suits will challenge poll tax

Today we celebrate the Voting Rights Act's 60th birthday! While the VRA has been dramatically weakened in the past 15 years, it remains among the crown jewels of the Civil Rights Movement. Understanding why it's so vital requires understanding its history and context. Time for a birthday thread...

I almost didn't believe it...

Do I have to teach Art. I Sec. 9 and Sec. 10 now now that they're removed from the congressional website?

constitution.congress.gov/constitution/

Article 1, Section 9 & 10 have been removed from the official Govt website on the US Constitution. Among numerous points:
•Section 9 forbids suspending The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus
•Section 10 forbids ex post facto laws

This better be a joke. Ignoring these is full blow dictatorship

Ugh. This isn’t just for UCLA to decide—the Regents and the UC President will have to weigh in—with implications for the whole UC system

50th Anniversary Summit: More Voices, Stronger Democracy

Tomorrow's the 60th anniversary of the VRA - and the 50th anniversary of the language access 2.0 version.

Both need refurbishing.

There's a promising webinar tomorrow on point, and still time to join through the link below (which also features great original LLS student research on the history).

Texas House Democrats flee to Chicago to deny GOP’s congressional redistricting effort Under threat of fines and arrest, Democratic members of the Texas House left for Chicago to deny the GOP a quorum needed to redraw congressional districts.

llinois Gov. JB Pritzker vowed to do “everything we can to protect” the visiting Texas Democrats from threats of arrest by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton because “they’re doing the right thing.”

Trump administration violated impoundment law by canceling NIH grants, slowing new awards, GAO finds The Government Accountability Office found that the Trump administration, by abruptly canceling NIH grants, had violated a 1974 federal law

Trump administration violated impoundment law by canceling NIH grants, slowing new awards, GAO finds www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/g... via @statnews.com

New National UMass Amherst Poll Finds President Trump’s Job Approval Gap Slides 6 Points Since April | UMass Amherst The survey finds Trump’s net approval drops to -20 six months into his term, while his approval rating on immigration falls 9 points since April; additionally, 70% say he has not handled Epstein situa...

UMass Amherst Poll: Trump job approval drops to 38 percent, disapproval rises to 58 percent.

www.umass.edu/news/article...

California's Democratic legislative leaders appear ready to follow Newsom's lead on redistricting The leaders are talking about the effort behind closed doors.

Newsom and CA Dem legislative leaders now exploring special election on measure to allow for drawing new congressional maps.

www.kcra.com/article/cali...

Canada wildfires prompt air quality warnings for Upper Midwest, Northeast Hundreds of wildfires still burning in Canada are expected to undermine air quality across the Upper Midwest and Northeast into Tuesday.

Canadian wildfires continue to produce smoke impacting air quality across the Midwest and Northeast

abcnews.go.com/US/canada-wi...

The economy is on the precipice of recession. That’s the clear takeaway from last week’s economic data dump. Consumer spending has flatlined, construction and manufacturing are contracting, and employment is set to fall. And with inflation on the rise, it is tough for the Fed to come to the rescue. Unemployment remains low, but that’s only because labor force growth has gone sideways. The foreign-born workforce is shrinking, and labor force participation is declining. Telling is the economy-wide hiring freeze, particularly for recent graduates, and the decline in hours worked. It’s no mystery why the economy is struggling; blame increasing U.S. tariffs and highly restrictive immigration policy. The tariffs are cutting increasingly deeply into the profits of American companies and the purchasing power of American households. Fewer immigrant workers means a smaller economy. Any notion that the economic data misrepresents the reality of how the economy is performing is way off base. There are revisions to the data, even big revisions, but they universally say the economy is doing worse. That’s because it is. BTW, the DOGE cuts are a key factor in the revisions—not because BLS has cut staff, although that can’t help, but because the government often reports payrolls to BLS late. It didn’t matter when government employment was stable, but now that it’s declining, the cuts are picked up in the revisions.

Trump is panicking because the economic numbers are giving a recession vibe.
From the Chief Economist at Moody's.

illinois gov. JB pritzker responds to ken paxton's threat to arrest TX democrats who fled the state: "they're here in illinois. we're going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them."

NOTABLY the Paxton opinion that Abbott cites doesn’t actually say lawmakers who break quorum are removable — in fact it says this is a fact-specific question only resolvable by a court.

The opinion also does not say it’s unconstitutional to break quorum.
www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/defaul...

JUST IN: Abbott says he may treat fleeing lawmakers as having “forfeited” their offices and move to replace them. He also suggests they could be subject to felony charges if they accept payments to cover impending fines gov.texas.gov/uploads/file...

The 20 Elections to Watch in August - Bolts Out of 40 special elections for congressional and legislative seats so far in 2025, only two have seen flips; both were Democratic gains. That’s to be expected: Nationwide, most districts... Read More

Did you know THIS Tuesday may be one of the busiest election days before November?

Washington, Kansas, Arizona, Delaware, Rhode Island, Michigan… there’s a lot happening you should know about (and care about!)

so I made this guide: boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

Texas House Democrats flee the state in bid to block GOP’s proposed congressional map The lawmakers’ absence means the lower chamber won’t have enough members present to function, stalling passage of a draft map Democrats have condemned as a political power grab.

www.texastribune.org/2025/08/03/t...

The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact

Why tonight’s earthquake is bad news for Mamdami @nytpitchbot.bsky.social

PBS: Public Broadcasting Service Watch full episodes of your favorite PBS dramas, find in-depth news analysis and explore documentaries on history, science, art and more!

For $5/month or $60/yr you get access to PBS Passport and the entire Masterpiece library plus Great Performances, etc. Defunded but not defeated. www.pbs.org/passport/lea...

Jonathan Nez announces bid for Congress in Arizona’s second congressional district “I am a fighter, and now more than ever we need someone to warrior up and fight for Arizona,” Nez said in a statement.

Former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has announced he’s running for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District in the 2026 midterm elections. If elected, Nez would be the first Arizona Native American in Congress.
coppercourier.com/2025/07/29/n...

Missouri Senate leader says special session is ‘likely’ to redraw congressional map  • Missouri Independent Momentum is building for the Missouri Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional districts with the aim of gaining a Republican seat.

Missouri likely to redraw congressional map to create additional Republican seat.

missouriindependent.com/2025/08/02/m...

This is so dumb it makes my head hurt

Hard to keep up w/ flurry of developments yesterday incl. SCOTUS request for supp. briefing in Louisiana v. Callais re: Sec. 2 of VRA, 9th circuit ruling on Trump order ending union protections for fed workers, Judge Cronan's ruling allowing funding freeze to continue in the NSF funding freeze case.

In our article on Arthrex (forthcoming in @dukelaw.bsky.social’s Duke Law Journal), @rickhills.bsky.social and I use the BLS as a quintessential example of administration, which can properly be insulated from presidential meddling even under unitary executive theory.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

But a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a famously liberal jurisdiction, ruled in Mr. Trump's favor, writing that "the government has shown that the president would have taken the same action even in the absence" of the union lawsuits. Even if some of the White House's statements "reflect a degree of retaliatory animus," they wrote, those statements, taken as a whole, also demonstrate "the president's focus on national security."

But who were the judges on the panel @nytimes.com? Were they famously liberal judges????

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/u...

Judges Keep Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Arrests, in Setback for Trump Agenda

Tonight, in a win for SoCal residents, the Ninth Circuit upheld the temporary restraining order that blocks the administration from conducting racist stops across Los Angeles and surrounding counties.

We will never stop fighting for all our immigrant communities.