Adam Davidson

I want to be clear: this is what American prisons are like.

I spent years posting about the humanitarian crisis in U.S. prisons. The criminal legal system consigns Americans who are incarcerated to live like this FOR YEARS. DECADES.

Again, the administration’s basic strategy is to use SCOTUS to bail it out of inconvenient district court injunctions against doing probably-to-almost-certainly illegal things. Then it does the things. Then later by the time the merits are considered, the damage has been done. Repeat.

Americans Must Prepare to Fight for the Citizenship Rights of U.S. Prisoners Trump's Plan to Render U.S. Citizens to Foreign Jails Seeks to Exploit Americans' Disinterest in the Rights of Prisoners

I flagged this in April and have been howling it into the void. Trump wants Black & Latino incarcerated U.S. citizens sent to CECOT in El Salvador, Congo, South Sudan. These are the “homegrown” Trump talked about with the Salvadoran PM.

Please. Take this seriously.
open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

“Independence day is canceled because of fear of secret police raids” is really a level of on the nose political symbolism you just can’t make up.

University of Virginia President Resigns Under Pressure From Trump Administration

This is naked authoritarianism. It is exactly what happened in Turkey. There is nothing to stop this regime from demanding that faculty be purged too. Everyone must stand up and push back.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...

Sometimes the bad thing is exactly as bad as the thing seems and trying to tell people "it's not that bad" isn't being *postive,* it's just normalizing the incredibly bad thing.

semiregular reminder that good things are different from bad things

Their whiteness.

“And what do you call your act?”
CJ Roberts: “The Institutionalists!”

it’s even more demoralizing when the history you’re repeating is history you were around for the first time

one other side of this is something that I try to emphasize to my students: "what does freedom actually mean" is not a 21stC issue anachronistically read backwards into the 18thC. The US, French, and Haitian Revolutions happened at more or less the same time, with an overlapping cast of characters

There was a survey a few weeks ago that found half of Americans thought ICE was just hunting criminals. The institutional press have failed to make clear ICE’s primary strategy today is capturing people through the use of compliance traps, and shipping them off to substandard prisons in the South.

That’s a tough question. Resisting masked armed thugs in any circumstance can get you beaten or killed by the armed thugs. If the masked armed thugs are agents of the U.S. government it will also get you prosecuted for “assault on a federal officer” or “resisting arrest.”
/1

The claims that McIver, Padilla, and Lander were committing assault should make you question every other time LEOs claim assault or resisting arrest, if you weren’t already.

Brad Lander is shown being detained by federal agents in a courthouse. Lander wears a dark blue suit, blue shirt and blue striped tie. The agents wear sweatshirts and blue jeans. A headline reads: "Brad Lander Is Detained By ICE Agents at Immigration Courthouse." Photo by Olga Fedorova/Associated Press.

Breaking News: Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who is running for mayor, was detained by ICE agents at an immigration court as he tried to escort a migrant out of the courthouse to prevent his arrest. nyti.ms/4jWkANE

If you are arrested during a protest or action against ICE or CPD in Chicago, I can represent you pro bono. Email me at sheryl@weikallaw.com.

(This is an offer for criminal defense; I unfortunately don't do immigration law.)

Check out Volume 2024 of the Supreme Court Review, with works by @williambaude.bsky.social, @sonofdavid.bsky.social, and @tonycasey.bsky.social. Congratulations to all! t.co/3ay4KblXg8 @uchicagolaw.bsky.social

So… Abrego Garcia… still down there huh?

This would be appointment viewing for me.

There is one place, however, where Musk, with the help of his minions, achieved his goals. He did indeed shred U.S.A.I.D. Though a rump operation is now operating inside the State Department, the administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.

Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

In a dramatic incident captured on video, U.S. Department of Homeland Security police Wednesday handcuffed one of Rep. Jerry Nadler aides in the congressmember's Manhattan office, which is in the same federal office building as an immigration courthouse. In the video, which was shared with Gothamist and filmed by a person who was monitoring activity in immigration court, DHS officers entered Nadler’s district office and accused staff members of “harboring rioters.” A Nadler staffer is seen crying and being handcuffed. Another officer is at a door trying to enter a private area of the office while a staffer asks for a warrant. DHS later said in a statement that “one individual” — the woman seen being handcuffed — had blocked police from performing a security check they intended to do based on information there were protesters in the lawmaker’s office. Later that day, protesters gathered outside of the federal building, demonstrating against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Department of Homeland Security officers invading a congressman's offices and arresting a staffer who tried to stop them is very, very bad. gothamist.com/news/homelan...

New article based on data from my organization Mapping Police Violence shows police killings have surged in Red states. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/u...

Well, the unspoken "principle" ("We agree with Congress that the Fed should be independent, but we're indifferent (at best) to the reasons why Congress thinks the MSPB should be independent") is a problem, too. It's unarticulated b/c it's indefensible as law.

The real problem with the Supreme Court’s expected Fed carve out is not that it lacks a principle but that the real principle isn’t articulated. The reason it will carve out the Fed is functional but it won’t say that. And its jurisprudence doesn’t leave room to ventilate the functional arg.(1/8)

U.S. citizen with REAL ID handcuffed and held in immigration raid before being released The man told Noticias Telemundo that authorities took his ID from his wallet and told him it was fake before handcuffing him.

The man told Noticias Telemundo that authorities took his ID from his wallet and told him it was fake before handcuffing him.

Man solves problem; is promptly arrested for it.

really bleak to pop on to the former twitter and see people i thought were reasonable palling around with race science maniacs

Lawyer for Venezuelans deported to El Salvador prison arrested Ruth López held without access to lawyers at secret location accused of ‘embezzlement’ a decade ago

None of the 278 men sent to CECOT have been returned. Meanwhile their lawyer has been arrested and "disappeared" in El Salvador.