Pema Levy

As Trump plans to steal $230 million from taxpayers, we can thank John Roberts Shall we call it a "Roberts reward"?

John Roberts' decisions gave the president total control over the executive branch. Trump is now using that power to pay himself $230m.

Roberts claims he was promoting democratic accountability. Is this how someone who feels accountable to the public would act?
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I feel like something is off when we are learning about the literal destruction of the White House through press scoops

A fun byproduct of unitary executive theory—if the president controls everyone under him, he can demand they transfer hundreds of millions in tax dollars into his bank account

Republicans are making one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation even more rigged North Carolina Republicans just passed a new Trump-inspired congressional map to oust a Black Democrat.

North Carolina already one of most gerrymandered states. Now GOP passing new gerrymander giving Rs nearly 80% of seats in state where Trump got 51%. Specifically targets Black Dem Don Davis. This is preview of what post-Voting Rights Act America will look like www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear."

About two dozen "said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones."

Feds use a dangerous tactic of ramming a car with their vehicle in order to stop it, then throw tear gas in a crowd, then detain a US citizen, who is a child, for hours without letting him make any calls

Voting rights are on the Supreme Court’s chopping block Wednesday's case pits fanciful claims of racial harmony against the reality of ongoing discrimination.

The Supreme Court is about to hear oral arguments in a case over the load-bearing pillar of American multi-racial democracy: the Voting Rights Act.

The GOP appointees have been chipping away at the VRA for over a decade. Now, they may finish the job.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The attack dog targeting Trump opponents over their paperwork hasn’t even filed his own As chairman of the board of Fannie Mae, Bill Pulte was required to file a disclosure form with the SEC. He didn’t.

NEW from @h-lev.bsky.social: As chairman of the board of Fannie Mae, Bill Pulte was required to file a disclosure form with the SEC. He didn’t.

Holy crap the @pemalevy.bsky.social interview is not to be missed. An eye-opening look at the Nazi-esque dual-state that SCOTUS is enabling

Neo-Confederacy making moves.
bsky.app/profile/kris...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

FULL STORY HERE: Emails began flooding CDC inboxes late Friday night announcing dozens of layoffs. HR people brought back from furlough to oversee the RIFs. Disease detectives, entire Washington office, global health, injury prevention, MMWR staff among those hit.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

You break it, you own it. Kudos to @akalhan.bsky.social.

The “dual state” theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there. Authoritarianism—but make it look like the rule of law.

Story we discussed is here: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Thanks to @onthemedia.bsky.social for a great conversation about how the Supreme Court is facilitating a “dual state” form of authoritarianism!

📻On this week’s show: @gregsargent.bsky.social on Stephen Miller’s plan to “sleepwalk” America into authoritarianism; @pemalevy.bsky.social on the highest court citing the "dual state;" & @jakelahut.writes.news on the rise of the Ellisons' tech-media dynasty. https://lnk.to/onthemedia/bluesky

Lawyers have been publicizing a new term to describe ICE's racially targeted detainments: a “Kavanaugh stop.”

Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy explains in this new video:

Remember, the Supreme Court okay’d this without explanation on the shadow docket

A year and a half ago, @hencarnell.bsky.social and I investigated the movement to resurrect conversion therapy

Now, oral arguments are about to begin in a Supreme Court case, Chiles v. Salazar, that could overturn bans in 23 states.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

SCOTUS wades back into the war on trans kids—and considers greenlighting conversion therapy The science is in: The anti-LGBTQ "treatments" are ineffective and dangerous.

Anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy is ineffective and dangerous, leading to suicidality and depression.

Today, the Supreme Court will consider bringing this torturous practice back from the dustbin of history where it belonged. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Why would the Republican appointees want a dual state? In an authoritarian state, the justices are revealed to be rubber stamps for the leader, without real authority. Their legitimacy, power, and prestige rests on the rule of law—or at least the illusion of it.

The normative state illusion is sustained by a healthy economy. But Trump is threatening that by trying to hijack the Fed and impose steep tariffs. SCOTUS will confront both issues this term. Will it manage the tricky balance of giving Trump power without tanking the economy and scaring the markets?

@evanbernick.bsky.social: “ICE is the face of a prerogative state, emerging or actual: It swoops in, it ignores safeguards, you can’t escape it. A Supreme Court that gets out of the way in that context...and tries to manage everything else as normal, is a dual state Supreme Court."

The Supreme Court facilitates a dual state by switching off the law for Trump. Take ICE. We now call its brutal, illegal stops "Kavanaugh Stops" because the GOP appointees let ICE racially profile people, and Justice Kavanaugh promised everything would be fine www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

To Fraenkel, the prerogative state like a black hole, says Aziz Huq: “It’s this void, but it’s a void that exerts a gravitational pull on everything around it... And there are these moments where some piece of the normative state just gets collapsed and blown away.”

Ernst Fraenkel used the idea of a "dual state" to describe the legal system in 1930s Germany:

A zone of lawlessness, the "prerogative state," swallows the regime's enemies while the rest of the population lives in the law-bound "normative state." Except, the normative state is never really safe...

The “dual state” theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there. Authoritarianism—but make it look like the rule of law.

“The reality is that the court is adjusting the law to make place for arbitrary power.”

To understand the Supreme Court's role in Trump's authoritarian project, I turned to the idea of a dual state: an authoritarian regime that keeps up a facade of normalcy

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The “dual state” theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there. Authoritarianism—but make it look like the rule of law.

We are experiencing a "dual state" phenomenon, writes @pemalevy.bsky.social, when "a dictator can exercise unfettered power " ensuring a "'zone of lawlessness' can swallow some, while the rest go about their lives under the protection of the law." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

essential read: @pemalevy.bsky.social does an excellent job of bringing it full circle & making it relatable & plain - that if read - no excuse for anyone to pretend, or think it’s temporary or it will revert back, or ‘it doesn’t affect me’. Your ‘normalcy’ is an illusion on the verge of collapse.

A WILD ONE: A man broke his leg during an arrest by ICE at a car wash south of L.A.

ICE has held him under 24/7 guard at a hospital, registering him under a pseudonym, for *37 days* without telling him why.

A judge has ordered his immediate release.

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

Taking stock of the Roberts court at 20—and the shadowy forces that built it "Roberts will go down in history as the most destructive chief justice."

“This is now a MAGA court, and Roberts is at the helm.”

I spoke with @thelisagraves.bsky.social about John Roberts' road to Supreme Court, his legacy after 20 years as chief justice, and how he's empowered Trump.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...