Walter Olson

Headline card with text at the top that reads: "Local police aid ICE by tapping school cameras amid Trump's immigration crackdown". A photo illustration shows ICE officers arresting someone overlaid with a yellow pedestrian crossing sign.

Police departments across the US are quietly leveraging school district security cameras to assist Donald Trump’s mass immigration enforcement campaign, an investigation by @the74.bsky.social reveals.

Federal Judge: Government Is Not Above the Law, Nor Are Former Death-Row Inmates Beneath Its Protection Based on this evidence, Judge Timothy Kelly found the transfer proceedings to be “an empty exercise to approve an outcome that was decided before it even began”—they were a legal pretext for a fundame...

Trump ordered that inmates Biden took off Death Row be sent to the "worst" federal prison. In doing so he ignored a law passed by Congress governing assignments to that prison. Judge Timothy Kelly, himself a Trump appointee, rejected BOP's cover story and halted the transfer [Matthew Cavedon, Cato]

Just wanted to pop in and say I really appreciate your level-headed posts every time he barks. We’re on rather opposite sides at times, as I’m quite a bit more left-leaning but seeing the Cato Institute stand up for civil liberties has been such a breath of fresh air.

It’s easy to get discouraged. (Today he rumbled about banning mail voting and overriding states’ ID systems by executive order.) But….

American civil society is still strong, with Minneapolis setting a splendid example. Our Constitution is still there. Do not be tempted by despair, as he wants. /2

This is the piece you need to read right now about Trump’s election subversion. Yes, he’ll try it. But most of the likely methods just won’t work. The states still run their own show. So do the courts. Of course he’ll cry “rigged” again, but only the usual gullibles of the GOP base will believe him.

Repeat after me:
An executive order is not a royal edict; it is not law. It is a direction to the executive branch as to how to carry out the law.

Also:
Key parts of Trump's last EO on elections have been stopped by federal courts, ruling that the President has no role to play in federal elections

Petition to make "I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future" the opening paragraph on every legal brief going forward.

Election Policy Roundup A roundup of items on voting and elections focusing on whether this year’s midterm elections will be held under normal conditions, including Donald Trump talk of “federalizing” election governance in localities he distrusts, incidence of noncitizen voting, courts reject federal demands for state voter files, alarming comments from presidential allies, and more.

President Trump and his allies are considering unprecedented federal interference in state-run elections despite scant evidence of noncitizen voting. In his Election Policy Roundup, Cato’s Walter Olson explains how courts and state officials are poised to push back.

https://ow.ly/NfXc50YcusI

Audits in Utah, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, and Georgia found a few dozen possible noncitizen registrants out of millions—and virtually no voting. Trump’s claim that noncitizens are swinging elections is false, says Cato’s Stephen Richer.

https://ow.ly/1ky450YewC3

“Not Ready for Prime Time.” A Federal Tool to Check Voter Citizenship Keeps Making Mistakes. The Department of Homeland Security pushed out the revamped tool while it was still adding data. That led to widespread misidentification, particularly for citizens born outside the U.S.

🙄
"The flagged voters’ registration paperwork confirmed Lennon’s suspicions...It later turned out more than half the Boone County voters identified as noncitizens were actually citizens." 1/
www.propublica.org/article/save...

ICE’s Unconstitutional Double Standard for Protesters DHS’s threats to create a database of anti-ICE protesters raise troubling First Amendment concerns.

During a Fox News interview in January, White House Border Czar Tom Homan said that he was pushing DHS to create a “database” of people arrested during ICE protests. Hannah Berkman and Stacy Livingston analyze the First Amendment concerns raised by Homan's plan.

I think struck down. Before I could learn details, however, other dream events intervened.

I actually dreamed last night that the Supreme Court decided the tariffs case. Maybe I'm too close to my material.

President Trump's Pardons: An Embarrassment of Riches At least the specter of corruption in previous presidential administrations (Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich or Biden’s pardon of his son) appeared to be an exception to the rule. Today, however, the ev...

Birds of a feather 🪶
So many criminals, criming in our faces.

How many people in the GOP are happy with these?

www.cato.org/blog/embarra...

Republicans want to throw you in jail if your kid sees a drag queen GOP lawmakers advanced a state bill that would make it a felony to allow a minor to view a drag performance.

Last week, GOP lawmakers advanced a state bill that would make it a felony to allow a minor to view a drag performance.

Here's what to know.

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-bill-would-make-it-a-felony-for-kids-to-see-drag-shows-40642747/ 

The Healthcare Regulation Everyone Should Hate Certificate-of-Need Laws Raise Prices, Reduce Access, and Increase Mortality

In health care, "certificate-of-need laws raise prices, reduce access, and increase mortality" [Gary Winslett, The Rebuild]

The Mellon Foundation: "A multibillion-dollar politicized grant-making entity has a stranglehold over humanities research and teaching, and is using that power to push them in a direction that blurs the boundaries between scholarship and activism, pedagogy and politics."

Advocates of the GOP's SAVE Act often charge critics of the bill with being at best tactical federalists and with simply being opposed to voter ID, but that's pretty silly in the case of those of us who were staunch opponents of the old centralizing H.R. 1 and who have no problem with voter ID.

1/ The FTC has no more business policing the editorial decisions of Apple News under the guise of "consumer protection" than it does the "fair and balanced-ness" of Fox News' coverage--as I pointed out when Ferguson went on his social media fishing expedition.

www.thefire.org/news/ftc-ove...

BREAKING: DOJ moves to drop criminal charges in alleged shovel/broom attack in Minneapolis that led ICE to open fire. "Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the Complaint Affidavit," prosecutors say. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Federal Power Grab Threatens Election Integrity The real threat isn’t widespread noncitizen voting; the evidence simply doesn’t support those alarms. It’s federal overreach that burdens qualified voters and strips states of their constitutional aut...

Cato put out this press release today promoting my availability to talk with reporters about the problems with the SAVE Act on voting, just passed by the House, and the even broader MEGA Act, which would do added things like ban ranked choice voting #RCV in federal elections. @cato.org

The Japanese Love Their Prime Minister. This Is Huge An apolitical nation is genuinely excited about its new leader.

Six-hour daily commute as a student, reading briefing papers at home instead of schmoozing: Quico Toro profiles “Japanese Margaret Thatcher” Sanae Takaichi

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. (1) ALFREDO ALEJANDRO ALJORNA and (2) JULIO CESAR SOSA-CELIS, Defendants. Government’s Motion to Dismiss Complaint with Prejudice The United States of America, by and through its undersigned attorneys, hereby respectfully moves the Court for an order to dismiss with prejudice the Complaint filed in this matter against the defendants, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, pursuant to Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the Complaint Affidavit, filed on January 16, 2026, as ECF 1-1, as well as the preliminary-hearing testimony (ECF 18, 19) that was based on information presented to the Affiant. Accordingly, dismissal with prejudice will serve the interests of justice. Dated: February 11, 2026 Respectfully submitted, DANIEL N. ROSEN

Another shooting case falls apart (this time ICE, not CBP).

These are the Venezuelans that ICE excused shooting by claiming they beat him w/shovels.

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

BREAKING: The Trump administraiton has committed a mass violation of ICE detainees' constitutional rights in MN, effectively blocking their acess to attorneys in the Whipple building, a judge ruled tonight.

The judge: Trump appointeee Nancy Brasel

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

In an alternate world, “Trump could be riding high simply by securing the border [and conducting regular deportations in the manner] the Constitution requires.

“But that is not what the admin is doing. It’s procuring a series of detention facilities that are concentration camps in all but name.”

under questioning by Rand Paul, ICE officials confirm that yelling at officers is not assault and recording officers is not a crime

I haven’t written about mass tort litigation for many years but I’m glad Elizabeth Chamblee Burch writes about it so passionately and well. These women were treated horribly.

Hinds' Precedents 424. The Indiana election case of Lowry v. White in the Fiftieth Congress. A Member who had long been a resident of the country, but who could produce neither the record of the court nor his final naturalization paper, was nevertheless retained in his seat by the House. The House, overruling its committee, admitted parol evidence to prove the naturalization of a Member who could produce neither the record of the court nor his certificate of naturalization. [snip] 427. The case of Anthony Michalek, continued. The House authorized its committee to take testimony in a case wherein the qualifications of a Member were impeached. As to the degree of testimony required to put the burden of proof on a Member whose status as a citizen was impeached. On Jan 29, 1906, Mr H Olin Young, of Michigan, from the Committee on Elections No. 1, submitted the following report: The Committee on Elections No. 1, to whom was referred the protest of citizens of the Fifth Congressional district of Illinois, against the right of Hon. Anthony Michalek, elected as a Member of the House of Representatives from that district to the Fifty-ninth Congress, to a seat in the House, [snip] SITTING MEMBER NOT CALLED UPON TO ANSWER THE CHARGES. While the committee, at the request of Mr. Michalek, permitted him to make a brief statement to the committee, yet the committee has not been of the opinion that any prima facie case was made against Mr. Michalek, and hence has been of the opinion that he should not be put to the trouble or expense of proving by witnesses introduced in his behalf his title to citizenship. Your committee is of the opinion that when charges affecting the eligibility of a Member of Congress to his seat are made, some proof should be offered in their support before putting the sitting Member to the expense and the burden of making a defense. The committee accordingly reported the following resolution, which was, on March 6, agreed to by the House without division

PRECEDENTS: If a protest is made that a House member/member-elect's citizenship doesn't meet the constitutional requirement –
A) S/he can prove it does with just oral evidence – no docs req.
B) And s/he only has to prove it does if the protestant first makes a prima facie case it doesn't.

2/

Screenshot of a post on the other site by Representative Michael Cloud, stating, "Notable that 213 Democrats just used their congressional photo ID to vote NO on a voter ID bill." Attached to his post is screenshot of the video broadcast of the House with text showing the results, by party, of the vote on passage of S 1383. It passed 218-213, with 217 Republicans and 1 Democrat voting YEA, 213 Dems voting NAY, and 1 Repub not voting.

FUN FACT: You can vote in the US House of Representatives without providing proof of citizenship.*

(* – no proof of citizenship required to get a House voting card, or when you show up at a polling station to vote, or you show up on Day One to be sworn, or you register as a candidate for office)

Found an additional graphic that gets even more of these quotes together.

I've kept "I hate myself, I hate clover, and I hate bees" pinned above my desk since I first started studying evolutionary biology as an undergraduate. So relatable to get extremely frustrated with your study system.