L. rufus

The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. JUSTICE KAGAN would grant the petition for a writ of certiorari. JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE JACKSON joins, dissenting from denial of certiorari. This case asks whether federal law prohibits the poorest prisoners from splitting the $350 fee required to file a federal lawsuit when it allows everyone else to do so. The answer statutorily appears to be no. Because the decision below held otherwise and deepened a split among the Courts of Appeals, the Court should grant the petition for a writ of certiorari.

Petitioners Topaz Johnson and Ian Henderson were incarcerated at High Desert State Prison in California when they filed this lawsuit in federal court. According to their complaint, corrections officers forced them and a third prisoner to stand in filthy cages that reeked of urine and measured 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet. They alleged that the officers forced them to stand in those cages for nearly nine hours with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

By a 6–3 vote, SCOTUS refuses to review a judge-made rule that bars indigent prisoners from splitting the filing fee among themselves when filing a federal suit—even though everyone else is allowed to split that fee. These defendants were allegedly tortured. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

YouTube video by BruceSpringsteenVEVO Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - The Ghost of Tom Joad (Live ft. Tom Morello)

so amped that Bruce Springsteen will have the two Toms with him on this tour, Morello and Joad

"i fucked around and the Supreme Court found me out, but they don't count because i'm going to appeal to the Even Supremer Court that tells me what i want to hear because i am spoiled and emotionally fragile. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER"

it's bc so many of Trump's supporters themselves want to bask in what they (wrongly) believe to be Trump's glory. they also want to feel like winners, and reasonably question whether they're going to get that feeling from the party that calls them a basket of deplorables. so dumb and shiny it is

there are lots of reasons not to confirm Means for Surgeon General, but the fact she has tried psychedelic mushrooms is not one of them

I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day | Anonymous Objectification, hate, rape threats: the politicians debating online abuse mean well, but to truly understand, they need to see what I see

you should read this, especially if you're male

so noble!

DHS is holding a 2-month-old BABY at a detention facility in Texas.

Last night, Juan Nicolás was rushed to the hospital after choking on his own vomit & being unable to breathe.

This demands accountability — not a blank check for more cruelty.

in my first week of college, my first gf and i got together after discovering we shared HAROLD AND MAUDE as our favorite movie.

thank you, Bud Cort, and rest in peace. for real this time i guess

i'm so sorry, Drew. saying goodbye to a dear friend is one of the most painful things we can endure. but i'm sure she experienced so much joy through her time with you, and she'll forever be a part of the person you are and the person you're always becoming

an excerpt from page 187 of the novel The Rest of Our Lives, by Ben Markovits

i immediately like this character more knowing he eats Grape Nuts, the goat of breakfast cereals

i thought i'd do some reading, but Audrey had other ideas

YouTube video by dorcm1973 The Muppet Show: Koozebanian Mating Ritual

a version of the Muppet Show is airing again, and the first episode was . . . just okay. if you're reading this and are too young to have seen the original -- or sufficiently venerable that you've forgot it -- it was unhinged and glorious in all the best ways, maybe never moreso than here:

tomato has entered the conversation

The Evolution of Shōjo Manga in the 1970s with Curator Rei Yoshimura The manga studies specialist talks about the diversity of shojo and its reflection of girls' and women's lives across decades.

an informative interview with Rei Yoshimura, a curator at the National Arts Centre in Tokyo, about 1970s shoujo manga

besides libraries, i generally use bookshop.org, an association of independent bookstores. if you have a favorite indie bookstore, you can select them to support. when buying books for a friend in the UK, i use the Guardian's bookstore, which supports their journalism. a good alternative to Bezos

New York City’s real animal welfare crisis isn’t the Westminster Dog Show | Lauren Caulk As Westminster spotlights dog breeding ethics, Peta’s message is sharp. But on cats, TNR and urban policy, that same moral certainty becomes harder to find

a good article on the importance of community investment in trap-neuter-release programs and removing structural barriers to sterilization for improving animal-welfare outcomes for both pet and feral cats

"On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: “America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions.”1 More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington’s vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254a (TPS statute). It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually. See Part VI. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has a different take. [screenshot of tweet].

So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) “damn” countries is Haiti. Relevant here, three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti’s TPS designation as of February 3, 2026. See 90 Fed. Reg. 54733 (Nov. 28, 2025) (Termination). Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies.” They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease, Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl. (SAC)) ¶ 1; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank, id. ¶ 2; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, id. ¶ 3; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major, id. ¶ 4; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse, id. ¶ 5. They claim that Secretary Noem’s decision violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2), and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Government counters that the Court does not have jurisdiction, and, in any case, the Secretary did not violate the law. Plaintiffs seek to stay the Secretary’s decision under 5 U.S.C. § 705 pending the outcome of this litigation. See Dkt. 81 (§ 705 Mot.). To decide their motion, the Court considers first whether it has jurisdiction. It does. See Part II. It then considers: whether Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; whether they will be irreparably harmed absent a stay; and whether a merged balance of the equities and public interest analysis favors a stay. See Part III. Each element favors Plaintiffs. See Parts IV, V, and VI. Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants. This seems substantially likely. Secretary Noem

has terminated every TPS country designation to have reached her desk—twelve countries up, twelve countries down. See Section IV.A.2. Her conclusion that Haiti (a majority nonwhite country) faces merely “concerning” conditions cannot be squared with the “perfect storm of suffering” and “staggering” “humanitarian toll” described in page-after-page of the Certified Administrative Record (CAR). See Section IV.A.3.a. She ignored Congress’s requirement that she “review the conditions” in Haiti only “after” consulting “with appropriate agencies.” 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(b)(3)(A); see Section IV.A.1. Indeed, she did not consult other agencies at all. See id. Her “national interest” analysis focuses on Haitians outside the United States or here illegally, ignoring that Haitian TPS holders already live here, and legally so. See Section IV.A.3.b. And though she states that the analysis must include “economic considerations,” she ignores altogether the billions Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy. See id. The Government’s primary response is that the TPS statute gives the Secretary unbounded discretion to make whatever determination she wants, any way she wants. And, yes, the statute does grant her some discretion. But not unbounded discretion. To the contrary, Congress passed the TPS statute to standardize the then ad hoc temporary protection system—to replace executive whim with statutory predictability. See Section I.A. As to irreparable harm, the Government contends that, at most, the harms to Haitian TPS holders are speculative. But the Department of State (State) warns [screenshot]

Dkt. 100 (§ 705 Reply) at 20–21.4 “Do not travel to Haiti for any reason” does not exactly scream, as Secretary Noem concluded, suitable for return. And so, the Government studiously does not argue that Plaintiffs will suffer no harm if removed to Haiti. Instead, it argues Plaintiffs will not certainly suffer irreparable harm because DHS might not remove them. But this fails to take Secretary Noem at her word: “WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.” See Section IV.B.2.b. Finally, the balance of equities and public interest favor a stay. The Government does not cite any reason termination must occur post haste. Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. She complains of strains to our healthcare system. Her answer? Turn the insured into the uninsured. This approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of them. For the reasons below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for a Stay Under 5 U.S.C. § 705, Dkt. 81.

Even if you don't have time to read all 83 pages of Judge Reyes's opinion barring the Trump administration from rescinding Temporary Protected Status for 350,000+ Haitians, please at least check out the four-page introduction.

It's a tour de force:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Supreme Court further closes the prison gates Civil Rights and Wrongs is a recurring series by Daniel Harawa covering criminal justice and civil rights cases before the court. On Jan. 20, in what would be an otherwise […]

a good article on the Supreme Court's abuse of its discretion to prospectively deny IFP status to indigent prisoners

‘Adjustments must be made’: how to live well after mid-life We are living longer and longer, but many of us are unprepared for the challenges age brings, says the novelist and psychotherapist Frank Tallis

"Awe does not have to be vast; it can be quotidian, found in the appreciation of the inspirational behaviour of others, for instance, of nature, of art, and especially music"

YouTube video by Liz Phair - Topic Shatter (2018 Remaster)

celebrating the end of Dry January w a glass of wine and one of the best songs ever

Screenshot of a TikTok video with error message at top saying “your video is under review and can’t be shared right now.”

This morning, I recorded a video on TikTok about why DHS’s arguments for the power to enter homes without judicial warrants in immigration cases are bunk.

Nine hours later, TikTok still says my video is “under review,” and can’t be shared.

Well, here’s a link:

georgetown.box.com/v/Vladeck-IC...

some accumulation here in Maryland

Week in wildlife: a proud eagle, an adorable axolotl and a goofy seal This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

all these pictures are great, but the one w the albino squirrel is amazing

“.. He cared about people deeply ..,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong ..”

@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/national/202...

jury duty is a great experience: the sole remaining institution in modern life where we're grouped together with people representing a diverse set of experiences and politics and perspectives and talk things out until we reach a consensus.

a photo i took of Rob Hirst, drummer for the band Midnight Oil, at the band's concert in New York City on June 19, 2022

RIP Rob Hirst, an absolute force of nature. i only got to see seven #MidnightOil concerts, but they were all among the best concerts i've seen

i love that your image is from With You and the Rain, which probably was my favorite new anime from 2025