Mark Joseph Stern

Trump Just Released His Plan to Revoke Birthright Citizenship. It’s Worse Than Imagined. Try as it might, the government cannot cover up the horrors with bureaucratic legalese.

Chatting with @anacabrera.bsky.social on MSNBC in a few minutes about the Trump administration quietly plotting the first step of its attack on birthright citizenship slate.com/news-and-pol...

Samuel Alito will release new book next year, publisher says | CNN Politics Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative member of the Supreme Court, will publish a book next year, joining several of his colleagues who have inked deals in recent months to publish.

What are we thinking for a title? "If I Did It: Confessions of the Dobbs Leaker"? "Afraid of the Subway”?

I personally envision an unauthorized sequel to Uncle Bobby's Wedding in which Chloe converts to Catholicism then turns him straight: "Uncle Bobby's Conversion."
www.cnn.com/2025/08/04/p...

Conservative legal luminary Jack Goldsmith points out that Justice Barrett's opinion in the universal injunction case rests on an error: For the purposes of historical analysis, she looked at the wrong statute and got the relevant date wrong by nearly *a century.*
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Oh, and this one's also available on YouTube for those who prefer video! (Sorry you have to look at Emily Bove's face.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ztm...

The Supreme Court punting a big Voting Rights Act case on the last day of the term was weird, until last week, when it became very clear that the justices did so because they want to use it to get rid of what remains of the Voting Rights Act

Stacking the Bench with Creeps & Kooks | Crooked Media

I also had the immense honor of guest-hosting an episode of Strict Scrutiny with @leahlitman.bsky.social! There was simply too much legal news for one podcast last week! You can listen here: www.crooked.com/podcast/stac...

BONUS: Is the Bias in the Room With Us Right Now? Podcast Episode · Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts · 08/02/2025 · Bonus · Slate Plus Only · 22m

And as Mark says, our convo is part of the most ambitious legal podcast cross over event in history! Here’s the Amicus episode that’s paired with this Strict Scrutiny! @mjsdc.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Interesting and timely. I broadly share Holding’s view that it’s way too early to abandon hope that the imperfect lower courts can hold the line against Trump and his Supreme Court majority.

The Supreme Court Just Signaled Something Deeply Disturbing About the Next Term A court fundamentally hostile to the rights of voters places the court increasingly at odds with democracy itself.

My New One at @slate.com on the Supreme Court Potentially Killing the Remaining Pillar of the Voting Rights Act: “The Supreme Court Just Signaled Something Deeply Disturbing About the Next Term” slate.com/news-and-pol...

The Trump Administration’s Claims of Judicial Bias Are Absurd. Attorney General Pam Bondi is once again making things up.

And for Plus: A fabulous and infuriating conversation with @leahlitman.bsky.social about Trump's Justice Department lying—a LOT—and actually getting caught. Plus: The first stage of Trump's attack on birthright citizenship is starting to become a reality. slate.com/podcasts/ami...

These Three Judges Might Just Restore Your Faith in the Courts Reynolds Holding’s new book details how a trio of judges are trying to protect democracy.

This week on Amicus: A reason NOT to give up on the courts despite the horrific confirmation of Emil Bove. We look at three remarkable district court judges who refuse to give up on equal justice and use every ounce of their power to fight courageously for the rule of law. slate.com/podcasts/ami...

CORDER LIST: 606 U.S.) FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2025 24-109 24-110 ORDER IN PENDING CASES LOUISIANA V. CALLAIS, PHILLIP, ET AL. ROBINSON, PRESS, ET AL. V. CALLAIS, PHILLIP, ET AL. The parties are directed to file supplemental briefs addressing the following question raised on pages 36-38 of the Brief for Appellees: Whether the State's intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution. Supplemental briefs for appellants are due on or before Wednesday, August 27, 2025. Supplemental brief for appellees is due on or before Wednesday, September 17, 2025. Reply briefs are due on or before 2 p.m., Friday, October 3, 2025. The time to file amicus curiae briefs is as provided for by this Court's Rule 37.3. Word limits and cover colors for the briefs should correspond to the provisions of this Court's Rule 33.1(g) pertaining to briefs on the merits rather than to the provision pertaining to supplemental

😬The Supreme Court will consider whether the intentional creation of a majority-minority congressional district violates the 14th or 15th Amendments.

If the answer is yes, SCOTUS will effectively declare that what remains of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. This is very, very ominous.

So the government made it sound like it was facing significantly worse “harm”—if we’re defining harm as being unable to unlawfully purge civil servants from the federal workforce—and ran to the Supreme Court jumping up and down with these eye-popping numbers. And Judge Illston came back and said: Those numbers were obviously wrong. And the fact that they were wrong shows exactly why I am allowing this discovery, because you are not giving the whole truth. Exactly. I mean, the judge was vindicated. And this is part of a pattern of what the administration is doing with lower courts: It is trying to block them from uncovering the facts, dragging its feet, then waving its hands to create some uncertainty about the facts—all designed to obstruct lower courts’ ability to enforce the law against the administration.

Spoke with @leahlitman.bsky.social about ANOTHER federal judge calling out the Trump administration for lying to the Supreme Court, and where all this legal gaslighting could eventually lead us. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Maryland Bookstore Donates Proceeds From GOP Senator’s Book Sales to Immigrant Charity People's Book says it encourages Dave McCormick to "buy additional books from us so we can give more of his massive piles of wealth to other worthy causes."

One of my favorite bookstores in the DC area, People's Book, revealed the Republican lobbyists who bought bulk orders of GOP Sen. McCormick's dumb new book from the store to goose sales numbers. Then it gave all the profits from the sale to an immigrant charity. www.washingtonian.com/2025/08/01/d...

Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American History Museum A temporary placard, on display since 2021, described the president's historic impeachments. Officials said the exhibit was restored to an earlier version following a review of legacy content.

Under pressure from the White House, the Smithsonian censored an exhibit that mentioned Trump’s impeachments, now inaccurately suggesting to visitors that he was never impeached at all (let alone twice). www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Crowd of people at Butterworth’s for Emil Bove’s confirmation party Photo: Alex Swoyer on Twitter

Bove in a suit gives remarks in front of American flag at Butterworth’s Photo credit: Mike Davis/Article 3 project on Twitter

Todd Blanche gives remarks at Butterworth’s. He’s wearing a suit and speaking into a microphone next to Bove Photo credit: Mike Davis/Article 3 project on Twitter

Drinks at the party included “A Bove & Beyond” Photo credit: Mike Davis/Article 3 project on Twitter

Last night, Emil Bove celebrated his confirmation as a federal appeals court judge at Butterworth’s, the MAGA hot spot in D.C.

The Article III Project hosted the party, with guests including Steve Bannon, Jack Posobiec, Judge Jeanine, Todd Blanche, Chad Mizelle, Ed Martin, and Jeffrey Clark.

Awww I love him! Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos!

The filing, which is not public, was submitted to the inspector general’s office in electronic form on May 2, and a longer, printed version that included documentary evidence was delivered on May 5, according to people familiar with the filing. The inspector general appears to have done nothing with the information for more than two months, and many in that office did not realize they even had the material until a day or two before the full Senate voted on Mr. Bove’s nomination. He was confirmed Tuesday by a razor-thin margin, 50 to 49. Last Friday, when the whistle-blower group went public about the filing’s existence, the inspector general’s office told lawmakers that it had no such complaint, according to people familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. The office only found the documents after lawyers for the whistle-blower presented electronic and FedEx delivery receipts for them. The implications of that inaction are potentially significant, given that Republicans have cast skepticism on another Justice Department whistle-blower, Erez Reuveni, describing his account as part of a politically timed effort by Democrats to scuttle a Trump nomination. That someone appears to have come forward about Mr. Bove’s conduct well before his nomination was known would undercut those claims. The complaint, according to people familiar with it, outlines a set of allegations that largely tracks with Mr. Reuveni’s account.

Oh boy.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/u...

NEW: I spoke with a woman named Andrea about her experience being detained by ICE after calling the cops for help during a domestic violence incident.

She was recently postpartum, breastfeeding & put in an all-male facility. She was detained for 2.5 months.

Emil Bove Is Everything Trump Wants In a Federal Judge A whistleblower report alleges that during his time at the Justice Department, Third Circuit nominee Emil Bove suggested telling a federal judge “fuck you” in response to a court order he did not like...

After Emil Bove’s confirmation, I do not want to hear shit from conservative legal movement types about how they want “good constitutionalist judges who do law, not policy” or whatever ever again

I fear some of you are misunderstanding my complaint ... I am not suggesting that flossing is unimportant, I am saying that dentists don't need to be harshly critical or rude to a patient whose flossing techniques do not satisfy their incredibly demanding standards! Be nice about it!

Why must dentists always criticize me for not flossing well enough? I don't criticize you for not knowing enough about the Supreme Court or the assassination of James Garfield or my other areas of niche expertise. Can't we call it even and make this a judgment-free zone?

😍😍😍He is SO gorgeous! What’s his name?

Brown's capitulation to the state is as great a threat to academic freedom in America as Columbia's cowardice. Anonymous student course evaluations have been potentially weaponized to punish speech that might anger students in the classroom. A serious chilling effect. www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

Correct

Josh Divine was one of the lawyers asking Matthew Kacsmaryk to ban the abortion pill. He just withdrew from the case … because Trump made him a judge. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Trump Just Released His Plan to Revoke Birthright Citizenship. It’s Worse Than Imagined. Try as it might, the government cannot cover up the horrors with bureaucratic legalese.

The Trump administration has quietly released the first stage of its plan to revoke birthright citizenship from the children of immigrants. It uses dry legalese to conceal the barbaric reality of ICE agents in maternity wards and deportation flights for babies. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Green parrot licking rainbow popsicle

To be a bird licking a rainbow popsicle on a hot July day

Republicans Just Confirmed Trump’s Most Ghastly Nominee. Democrats Made It Possible. Last year, Democrats could have used their Senate majority to confirm someone very different to fill the seat.

The ONLY REASON Trump could give Emil Bove this spot on the 3rd Circuit is because cowardly Democratic senators refused to confirm Biden's nominee to the seat following a bad-faith, Islamophobic smear campaign by Republicans.

Utterly shameful and self-defeating. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Today is a good day — any day is a good day — to read and share this February resignation letter from SDNY prosecutor Hagan Scotten to Emil Bove.

It’s the type of thing you show your kids as an example of how to be.