Chris McLean JD

I do want to go back to putting this case in the broader context because I think it's important to understand how we got here. Historically, the whole way that the tort liability regime worked for government misconduct was that this Court and state courts

looked to existing common law causes of action and focused on immunity defenses as the way of calibrating the harm that citizens and others faced when injured by government officers against the need to protect officers acting in good faith, back to Judge Hand in Gregoire versus Biddle. The Court struck this balance by fashioning immunity defenses where the fight would be over whether the officer was entitled to immunity or not. And for law enforcement officers specifically, this Court has long rejected the argument that there should be any context in which law enforcement officers, because of the frequency with which they interact with average individuals, because of the nature of their interactions, because of the powers they have to search, to seize, to arrest in this context, to use lethal force, did not justify absolute immunity and instead justified a more narrower, qualified kind of immunity for those most likely to come face-to-face with private citizens. Distilled to its simplest, the government's position in this case is that

officers in what is self-described as the nation's largest law enforcement agency should have a functional absolute immunity at least where foreign nationals are concerned. And our submission is that that is not consistent with how this Court has always understood the relationship between causes of action and immunity defenses in this context. It is not required by any of this Court's Bivens decisions. It does not abide by this Court's suggestion in Abbasi that there are strong reasons and powerful reasons to retain Bivens in this context. And it would eliminate the one deterrence that is meaningfully available to ensure that officers in the nation's largest law enforcement agency are complying with the law.

It's worth asking how differently things might look on the ground right now if #SCOTUS hadn't eviscerated Bivens—and made it all-but impossible to bring damages suits against federal officers (like ICE agents) who violate our constitutional rights.

This is from my rebuttal in Hernández v. Mesa:

a flow-chart with 2 islands. "Do I need AI?" that flows into a final island saying "No"

a heartwarming story of how being an unethical and talentless hack is no barrier to success when you are willing to endlessly flatter the wretched views of rich dipshits

Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, accordin...

In case it wasn’t clear, the anti-DEI crusade has never been about merit. Zero news experience. Never been a reporter. Elevated to Editor in Chief of CBS News, one of the most storied news institutions in the nation. www.mediaite.com/media/news/p...

The word that keeps running through my head about this administration (among others) is "adolescent." These are people with a little boy's idea of what sounds manly.

ICE agents raid South Shore apartments; Trump says Chicago could become military training ground ICE agents raided a South Shore apartment building overnight as the city braces for a possible military deployment.

“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’”

It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.

"What you fail to see Mr. Pope" is truly the most incredible assemblage of words I have seen coming out of X, the Everything App, in quite some time.

Oh nothing just the president reposting “Qanon76”

I swear nobody wants to talk about the fact that food prices are still rising faster than prices in general. A year ago all we heard about was the price of eggs.

Food prices are still rising yet the media gives us…crickets…

Vance's most monumental achievement to date has been being told off by two popes in one year.

American Christians deciding the Pope doesn't know the Bible because he said immigrants are human is the perfect summary of the evangelist movement

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated' The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

My god.

“Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”

It seems pointless even to say this, but the Fourth Amendment does not permit federal agents to kick down every door in an apartment building just because *some* people in that building are allegedly undocumented. Even in the unlikely event they had a warrant, warrants have to be specific.

The admin’s efforts to get universities to agree to a list of demands in exchange for preferential access to federal funding isn’t just “troubling” as Ted Mitchell, prez of the @aceducation.bsky.social says in this article; it looks blatantly unconstitutional.🧵
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

WHAT YOU FAIL TO SEE MR POPE

Stephen Miller Implies He Intended for Trump's Nutjobs to Kill Democrats - emptywheel Stephen Miller just confessed on Fox News that when he uses dehumanizing language -- when he calls Democrats "fascists" or "Marxists" or "radical" -- he intends it as a message to "all the crazies and...

Stephen Miller makes a persuasive argument that Stephen Miller is a terrorist.

www.emptywheel.net/2025/10/02/s...

You could not more perfectly invert the whole point of the power of the purse than this false notion the legislature cutting off appropriations means the executive gets more power.

Trump during the campaign: I never even heard of Project 2025, don’t know anything about it, don’t know who is involved.

Trump today:

Fascinating how so many of the professions being targeted right now (libraries, teachers, social services, even the particularly targeted pockets of higher ed like DEI and humanities) are highly feminized. Nah, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.

Trump targets states that voted for Harris in shutdown fight The Office of Management and Budget is withholding billions in energy and infrastructure money in more than a dozen states that voted against Trump.

all presidential administrations are partisan, but trump and the people in his white house are partisans bordering on sectarians, and one result is that they see nothing of actions that strain and weaken the union itself

russ vought saying "no, its a three year term" when Biden asks for his resignation on the naval academy visitors board

Your occasional reminder that Russ Vought, who is claiming the right to fire civil servants for whatever reason he sees it, once refused to quit a political appointment position even after Trump had lost.

This is illegal, and yes this is the same guy who claimed he'd never heard of Project 2025. But there's a larger point to make here about public service. No one who wins elected office wins 100% of the vote. But everyone who holds public office represents 100% of their electorate.

One of my many, many questions about America in 2025 is how long it will take for people to realize they’re on the wrong side of history

The Administrative Procedure Act defines an agency as “each authority of the United States government.” There literally is no such thing as a Democratic or Republican agency. And you know who is tasked with getting rid of agencies: Congress.

Remembering how the media reported that the Trump campaign not only denied intent to follow Project 2025, but insisted that anyone associated would be barred from the administration.

@politico.com had a big piece about it.

See also Joey's thread about what this "deal" means for the schools that *don't* take it.

You don't need a First Amendment law professor to tell you that the govt demanding control over a university's viewpoints or else is patently unconstitutional.

But it obviously is.

$10 Million in Contraceptives Have Been Destroyed on Orders From Trump Officials

Trump and his underlings had $10 million in contraceptives at USAID incinerated at a warehouse in Belgium, even after NGOs like the Gates Foundation offered to buy them from the US.

It is not hard to imagine a scenario where the Trump regime intentionally destroys food aid or medicine next.

It is wildly unusual for lower-court judges to so publicly express frustration with the Supreme Court’s *behavior* (versus, say, a confusing ruling in a specific case).

But the number of *different* examples is completely unprecedented—and pretty powerful evidence that something is seriously wrong.

Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push Citing concerns about DEI, the U.S. Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. “How low can you go?” one advoc...

Citing concerns about DEI, the Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states.

“How low can you go?” one advocate asked. “How can you do this to children?”

By @jodiscohen.bsky.social @jsmithrichards.bsky.social