Matthew Cooke

This is almost literally what the English Civil War was fought over.

Justice Kavanaugh: “If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully
in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

Chart shows Detention Population, Among Those Arrested by ICE in the Interior, by Criminal Record. The chart shows three lines; Prior conviction, pending criminal charges, and no criminal record. From 2019 through September 2025, the largest group is people with criminal convictions, with much further down people with pending charges. But starting in January, those without criminal records spikes dramatically. In July it crossed pending charges and in the latest data it jumps above criminal convictions.

🚨NEW: For the first time in history, the single largest group of people arrested in the interior and sent to ICE detention is people with NO criminal record.

As of yesterday's data release, 40%(!) of those arrested in the interior and detained by ICE had no prior conviction or pending charges.

a lot of normal people just think a case happens organically but there’s so much ground to be gained by informing the public that this is how their state governments spend their tax money

New executive order puts all grants under political control All new funding on hold until Trump administration can cancel any previously funded grants.

All scientific grant funding must now be approved by a political appointee and "demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities."

I wonder where innovation will happen in the future? It won't be in the US

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Lisa Murkowski, Charles Sumner, and a cowardice crisis in Congress | Will Bunch The driving force on Capitol Hill is cowardice, as both GOPers and Dems confess to fear of violence. It wasn't always that way.

A senator saw racism, threats to democracy were tearing America apart, so he spoke out, even after colleagues warned he'd be attacked. Charles Sumner was nearly caned to death in 1856, but he lives on as a hero.

Today, fear is winning in Congress. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/lisa...

Opinion | The Civil War That Never Ended

Love this @jamellebouie.net interview with Zaakir Tameez on his biography of Charles Sumner. Great to see George Downing's contributions highlighted. I'm writing about a moment of convergence involving Sumner, Downing, Frederick Douglass, and Andrew Johnson.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/o...

Abrego is the *only* prisoner ever released from CECOT, so this is the sole account we have of the horrifying conditions in the prison in El Salvador where Trump has sent over 260 people from the US.

Reading this … it is just nauseating. And clear why they didn’t want Abrego Garcia to return or be free - to tell this story.

Thinking about the men there - including Andry Hernandez Romero, who Michelle Goldberg wrote about months ago: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/o...

The cruelty in today's politics feels horribly corrosive. Bringing up that hard-working immigrant families — undocumented, yes, but not violent criminals — are being ripped apart based on immigration status doesn't bring compassion or even pause, but gleeful cheers.

L.A. Protests Prompt Calls for Police Restraint After Journalist Injuries

Amazing how hard it is to write: “Police shoot at journalists.”

note that this completely inverts the public justification for the deportation scheme. they claim they’re deporting criminals, but they deported Kilmar without knowledge of a crime, and now that they supposedly found one they’re bringing him BACK.

So after years of bluster, incl yesterday on the courthouse steps, Lindell joins the long list of others (Giuliani, Lake, Fox News) who, when offered the chance to present evidence - in court - of their claims of alleged election fraud, conceded and ran away.

yes this is famously how free societies treat their universities

Jus soli citizenship is one of the few inherently good things about the United States. Giving even a rhetorical inch on in it is a nightmare. It is the great leveler, an inherently democratic mechanism. Everyone born here is the same no matter who their daddy is. Despotically unamerican to end it.

Normatively it should not matter but practically it does, so it’s worth reiterating: all this woman did was write an op ed in a student newspaper. That’s it. She didn’t lead violent or disruptive protests, she didn’t advocate for violence, she co-wrote an op ed calling for divestment. That’s it.

Sen. Van Hollen: "I don't think it's ever wrong to fight for the constitutional rights of one person because if we give up on one person's rights, we threaten everybody's rights...Anyone who is not prepared to stand up and fight for the Constitution doesn't deserve to lead."

Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump admin must facilitate the return of SMART Union Local 100 apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

They need to quit wasting time and bring our union brother home NOW!

If the President can ignore court orders and send anyone he wants to a prison overseas, we are all at risk. An insult to the Constitution and to our values as Americans.

Abrego Garcia must be returned now.

i'm watching a group of conservative law professors insist that there is a grand debate over birthright citizenship that somehow escaped generations of scholarship and only popped into existence after a right-wing president announced an effort to nullify the 14th amendment.

Abrego Garcia's wife: "I will not stop fighting until I see my husband alive. Kilmar, if you can hear me, stay strong. God hasn't forgotten about you. Our children are asking when you will come home ... they miss their dad so much."

The American President pardons guilty insurrectionists but allows innocent men to rot in foreign prisons.

The Year’s Most Urgent Best Picture Contender Is the One Almost No One Has Seen I’m Still Here has a warning—and a reason for hope.

just reupping this, on the Oscar-winning movie about how life under authoritarianism can feel almost normal until people start getting disappeared.

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.

1/

Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs The U.S. government has submitted a two-page memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio as its main evidence in its deportation case against Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil.

"The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil"

"Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs."

Free this man immediately.

apnews.com/article/mahm...

The ICE arrests are meant to terrorize dissenters and crush the intellectual freedom that’s the whole point of universities—and the tactic is having its intended effect. Thanks to these professors for fighting back. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Riddle me this: How do you not mention the Civil War at of all places Arlington National Cemetery?

Killing off our research facilities and talent pipelines is perhaps the biggest, dumbest self-own in American history.

if you find yourself reluctant to support the guy at Columbia because you find some of the politics he espoused distasteful or even abhorrent, you should know that this is exactly the reaction that they hoped for in choosing him as a target for unlawful detention based on political speech.