Chris McLamb

Introducing her view that “commonsense principles of communication” can sometimes help resolve disputes over the meaning of statutory terms, JUSTICE BARRETT points to an old chestnut. Nebraska, 600 U. S., at 512, 514 (concurring opinion). Suppose a legislature used the phrase “who- ever drew blood in the streets” in a criminal statute imposing punishment. As a matter of “common sense,” JUSTICE BARRETT says, it would “‘g[o] without saying’” that the law doesn’t apply to a surgeon accessing a patient’s vein to save his life. Ibid. That is because the phrase “drew blood” is susceptible to two conventional idiomatic meanings: one “applicable to violent encounters with man or beast” and the other “to medical procedures,” A. Scalia & B. Garner, Reading Law 357 (2012) (Scalia & Garner). And any

ordinary person faced with that phrase in a penal law would find it obvious which meaning applies. Ibid.; see also Ne- braska, 600 U. S., at 512 (BARRETT, J., concurring). The difficulty is, our major questions cases are different. Often, little about them “‘goes without saying.’” Ibid. Take FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U. S. 120 (2000). There, the question was whether the FDA could regulate tobacco products. Id., at 125. Looking only to com- mon sense, the answer would have been yes. Congress au- thorized the FDA to regulate “drugs,” which Congress de- fined expressly and broadly as “‘articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body.’” Id., at 126. As a matter of common sense, nicotine qualifies as a “drug” based on this statutory definition, as it might even as a matter of everyday speech. West Virginia, 597 U. S., at 721–722 (noting the “colorable textual basis” for the executive branch’s interpretation in Brown & Wil- liamson). Still, we held the FDA could not regulate tobacco products. Brown & Williamson, 529 U. S., at 159–160. Other cases follow suit. We have ruled that the term “air pollutant” does not include greenhouse gases, even though greenhouse gases pollute the air. Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, 573 U. S. 302, 316, 323–324 (2014). We have held that the phrase “‘[r]egulations . . . necessary to pre- vent the . . . spread of communicable diseases’” does not in- clude eviction moratoriums, even without questioning that eviction moratoriums were necessary to prevent the spread of COVID–19, a communicable disease. Alabama Assn. of Realtors, 594 U. S., at 761, 764. And we have said that clos- ing coal power plants is not the “‘best system of emission reduction,’” even while acknowledging that closing them would reduce emissions. West Virginia, 597 U. S., at 721, 732–735.

Gorsuch is criticizing Barrett’s approach to the MQD here, but I think most people would read this and think, “Sounds like you guys issued some embarrassingly bad decisions in the past.”

Long Road For Kaiser Whistleblowers Ends In Historic Payout - Law360 Healthcare Authority The whistleblowers behind a massive Medicare Advantage "upcoding" case spent years in isolation before a historic settlement was finally reached.

Attorneys Hallie Noecker and Hamsa Mahendranathan were quoted in @law360.bsky.social’s coverage of the $556M Kaiser Permanente settlement. In “Long Road for Kaiser Whistleblowers Ends in Historic Payout,” reporter Hannah Albarazi details Dr. James Taylor’s 12-year whistleblower journey.

An impressive set of resources for potential whistleblowers here:

Holy moly this chart: Cumulative US measles cases

A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.

Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026

Preschooler and three other students detained by ICE, school district leader says The detentions of Columbia Heights students come after weeks of heightened concern and enforcement presence near and on Twin Cities school property.

"Liam’s teacher, Ella Sullivan, teared up when thinking about Liam. 'He’s a bright young student,' she said, 'and he’s so kind and loving. His classmates miss him.'"

www.startribune.com/preschooler-...

Minnesota: "School officials say the [5-year-old] child was used as bait. They say [ICE] agents made little Liam knock on the door to ask to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home."

Here’s the report from KARE. The boy is five-year-old Liam Ramos.

His name is Liam Ramos, and he is 5. He was abducted from Minneapolis and trafficked to a detention camp in Texas.

US citizen says ICE removed him from his Minnesota home in his underwear after warrantless search Federal immigration agents have detained a U.S. citizen in Minnesota at gunpoint without a warrant. That's according to ChongLy “Scott” Thao, who says agents forced open his door, entered with guns drawn and led him outside in his underwear in freezing conditions.

Federal immigration agents forced open a door and detained a U.S. citizen in his Minnesota home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him out onto the streets in his underwear in subfreezing conditions, according to his family and videos reviewed by The Associated Press.

The actual story is that a family of American citizens trying to evacuate from a neighborhood that ICE had made unsafe, and then ICE tossed munitions into the car, causing three kids to be hospitalized and a six month old to stop breathing. DHS called the family “radical agitators”

Incredibly proud of my colleagues and our client for this record-breaking risk-adjustment case. I’m lucky to get to work with the best.

‘She was an amazing human being:’ Mother identifies woman shot, killed by ICE agent Renee Nicole Good, 37, lived in the Twin Cities with her partner.

"Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” her mother said. “She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.” www.startribune.com/she-was-an-a...

And there it is...

Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide Trump administration is pausing naturalizations for immigrants from 19 countries.

“She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social

Don’t forget, you can also discriminate based on race if you’re doing “immigration enforcement”

what you can't do, of course, is admit students based on race in order to achieve an ideologic and experiential balance.

you can only discriminate based on race if you're doing it for partisan advantage

Primaries for senators

It wasn’t so much what Zohran Mamdani said. It was how he said it. “We’re going to stand up for Haiti, because you taught the world about freedom!” the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York exclaimed to an elated crowd at a Haitian music festival in June, fresh off his upset victory in the primary. Mr. Mamdani pronounced the island nation’s name “AH-ee-tee” — near-perfect Creole elocution. “When I heard him say that, I smiled,” recalled Brian Purnell, one of Mr. Mamdani’s former professors at Bowdoin College. He also noted that Mr. Mamdani’s reference to freedom was a nod to Haiti’s status as the first republic founded by former slaves. “That’s straight out of the lessons from the Haitian Revolution that we teach in Africana studies,” said Dr. Purnell, who is now the chair of the Africana studies department at Mr. Mamdani’s alma mater. “I will claim that,” he added with a laugh.

Finally someone bold enough to ask, is new york ready for a mayor who opposes slavery? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/u...

Justice Sotomayor with a graphic dissent as the Supreme Court allows Alabama to move forward with the execution of Anthony Boyd by lethal gas:

Here it is... John Tesh's 'Roundball Rock' to tip off the return of the 'NBA on NBC' and the 2025-26 NBA season.

Mike Tirico has the Rockets-Thunder call for NBC. 🏀 📺 🎙️ 🎶 #NBA #NBC #NBAonNBC

Trial shows that ICE agents lied, concealed evidence in an illegal effort to convict the "libtard" who filmed them.

Excerpts

Excerpts

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

John Roberts was part of the 3-judge panel presiding over Hamdan v. Rumsfeld while actively interviewing for a seat on the Supreme Court. He didn't recuse himself, didn't inform Hamdan's lawyers, and ruled in the Bush admin's favor the day before he interviewed with Bush himself.

Man in custody after 3 killed, at least 8 injured in shooting at a waterfront bar in North Carolina, officials say | CNN A 40-year-old man is facing murder charges after allegedly pulling up on a boat to a waterfront bar in North Carolina Saturday night and opening fire, killing three and injuring at least eight others.

Targeted attack on a dockside restaurant in North Carolina. Three dead. Suspect a former Marine sniper in Iraq and Haiti who tried to sue the US govt for “genocide against straight men by the LGBQT community.”

Flags at half mast? Endless op-eds? Victims’ faces on coins?

www.cnn.com/2025/09/28/u...

3 fantasy leagues: One at work where you can side text w your colleagues about your boss’s awful trade proposals, one with your high school friends with a group chat where no one ever talks about their personal lives, one 14 team dynasty league that’s so deep you end up streaming Tyler Allgeier

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people to build on the rubble of what’s being destroyed before our eyes. Private corporations bending over to forcefeed everyone government-approved speech is evil and amoral, but more than anything this creates boring, inauthentic, unwatchable shit.