Carlos Chévere Lugo

Excellent 🧵 thread. One thing that I find striking is that they told these lies without any foresight. Yes, they're authoritarians, but they're also painfully inept because they don't realize how contemporary surveillance culture undercuts their own narratives.

The events around Chicago exhibit many of the same features as these historical precedents—violent and forceful opposition to the lawful authority of the federal government in its enforcement of particular federal laws. Like the district court, the court of appeals largely ignored that evidence. The court of appeals recognized that “incidents of unlawful activity or even violence” have occurred and that Illinois has been the site of “violent actions [by] demonstrators in protest of the federal government’s immigration policies and actions,” but it sought to dismiss the violence as “isolated” or merely “occasional[].” App., infra, 99a. The record does not bear out those characterizations. See pp. 8-11, supra

The Department of Justice just requested an emergency stay from the Supreme Court allowing Trump to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, something lower courts have blocked as unlawful and unjustified. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Amar is an engaging writer and a splendid storyteller. Alas—to borrow one of Amar's favorite interjections— even at 736 pages, Born Equal omits too much of importance, even as it advertises itself as the definitive account of its subject matter. The result of Amar's attempt to fit an entire century's worth of American constitutionalism into a coherent narrative is never boring. But ultimately, it reveals more about the mapmaker than the territory. Despite Amar's professed commitments to democracy and equality, Born Equal slights the democratic work of multitudes of people who have transformed our constitutional order without sharing Amar's constitutional faith. And it obscures inequalities that will persist as long as the cult to which Amar demands fealty.

ICYMI, I posted a draft review of Yale law prof Akhil Amar’s new book. Alas, I can’t recommend it. Forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This makes sense coming from the guy whose son monitors his porn consumption

Lawfare Live: Trials of the Trump Administration, Oct. 17 YouTube video by Lawfare

In 1 hour, watch @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org, @rparloff.bsky.social, @ericcolumbus.bsky.social, Loren Voss, and @michael-feinberg.bsky.social to discuss the indictment of John Bolton, litigation over the federalization of the National Guard in Illinois, and more.

Tune in here:

VICTORY: Federal court halts Texas’ ‘no First Amendment after dark’ campus-speech ban Passed after protests over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Senate Bill 2972 would have forced public universities to ban “expressive activities” from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., which it defined as “any spee...

“Today’s ruling is a victory not only for our plaintiffs, but all of those who express themselves on college campuses across Texas,” said FIRE Senior Supervising Attorney JT Morris. tinyurl.com/4aw7hpt6

New Okla. schools superintendent rescinds mandate for Bible instruction Many schools districts across the state had decided not to comply with the Bible mandate.

“The attempts to promote religion in the classroom and the abuses of power that the Oklahoma State Department of Education engaged in under Walters’ tenure should never happen in Oklahoma or anywhere in the United States again,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a statement. tinyurl.com/2p9n9pwx

A Georgia Supreme Court Win for an Island Community Descended from Enslaved People Plus: High-stakes supreme court elections in Pennsylvania

In a win for the Gullah Geechee, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the island community descended from enslaved people could proceed with a referendum to overturn zoning changes they argue will price them out of their homes. Check out our Substack for more on this and other state court news.

The Extra Hurdle in State Courts to Prove a Statute Violates the U.S. Constitution Many states require a litigant challenging a statute as violating the U.S. Constitution to prove the statute is unconstitutional “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

NEW: When state courts use the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard— the highest standard in the judicial system—to determine if a statute is unconstitutional, litigants in state courts are left without the same protections from the Constitution as those in federal courts. Katherine Steefel explains:

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

My article, "Pluralism in State Constitutional Law," is now published with the Georgia Law Review! It explores different ways state courts interpret state constitutions and variations in how explicit courts are regarding this interpretive pluralism!

georgialawreview.org/wp-content/u...

Fox interviews Texas residents about the economy:

"Groceries, eggs aren't getting any cheaper... Eating is the hardest part. It's almost becoming cheaper to eat out... The eggs went from $2 to $9. I'm like, okay, when did we get here?"

Jeanine Pirro Strikes Out Yet Again In Federal Court Prosecutor Jeanine Pirro failed to secure a felony indictment against the woman three times, then lost a jury trial on a misdemeanor charge. Ouch.

Jeanine Pirro’s office tried three times to indict a woman on bogus felony charges of assaulting an ICE agent. A DC grand jury turned her down each time. So Pirro brought a misdemeanor charge instead. And now a trial jury has acquitted her of that. www.huffpost.com/entry/sidney...

INDICTMENT The Grand Jury for the District of Maryland charges that: GENERAL ALLEGATIONS At all times relevant to this Indictment, unless otherwise indicated: Introduction The defendant, JOHN ROBERT BOLTON, II ("BOLTON"), resided in Montgomery County, Maryland, and, from the 1980s through 2019, served intermittently in a variety of senior U.S. Government positions, including as an Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice, an Under Secretary of State in the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and, in his last position of public service, from April 2018 to September 2019, as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, which was commonly known as the National Security Advisor. 2. The role of the National Security Advisor varied by presidential administration, but generally the National Security Advisor assisted the President in managing the National Security Council ("NSC). The National Security Act of 1947, as amended, established the NSC to advise

READ the John Bolton indictment storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

🚨WOW. A unanimous per curiam (meaning no named author) panel of the 7th Circuit, made up of a Bush appointee, an Obama appointee, and a Trump appointee, decline to step in and block a lower court order barring the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago!

Before ROVNER, HAMILTON, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM. On October 4, 2025, President Donald Trump invoked his authority under 10 U.S.C. § 12406 to federalize and deploy members of the National Guard within Illinois, over the objection of the state's Governor. He asserted that deploying the Guard in the state was necessary to quell violent assaults against federal immigration agents and property. The State of Illinois and the City of Chicago promptly sued

President Trump and members of his administration, arguing that none of the statutory predicates for federalizing the Guard under § 12406 had been met, and that the federalization also violated the Tenth Amendment and the Posse Comi-tatus Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1385. The district court granted plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order, enjoining the administration from federalizing and deploying the Guard within Illinois. In the district court's view of the factual record, neither of the predicate conditions for federalization proffered by the administration was present in Illinois: There was insufficient evidence of rebellion or a danger of a rebellion, 10 U.S.C. § 12406(2), nor was there sufficient evidence that the President was unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States, see id. § 12406(3). The administration immediately appealed and moved for a stay of the order pending appeal. Because we conclude that the district court's factual findings at this preliminary stage were not clearly erroneous, and that the facts do not justify the President's actions in Illinois under § 12406, even giving substantial deference to his asser-tions, we deny the administration's motion for a stay pending appeal except to the extent we continue our stay of the portion of the order enjoining the federalization of the Guard.

CA7 tells Trump he can’t deploy the National Guard into Chicago as the city and Illinois’s case against him proceeds

Unanimous, bipartisan panel (GHWB-but-liberal, Obama, Trump)

media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/Opin...

This is blatantly unconstitutional and why no Democrat should ever hedge on "well tariffs..."

The President does not have the authority to impose taxes nor does he have the authority to distribute unconstitutionally collected revenue from those taxes.

States sue to stop Trump cancellation of $7 bln solar grant program Nearly two dozen states are suing the Trump administration over its cancellation of a $7 billion grant program aimed at expanding solar energy in low-income communities, according to court papers.

Nearly two dozen states are suing the Trump administration over its cancellation of a $7 billion grant program aimed at expanding solar energy in low-income communities, according to court papers.

In a recent unanimous ruling, the Georgia Supreme Court sided with Hogg Hummock's Gullah Geechee residents in their use of direct democracy to fight their community's displacement. To learn more about this and other happenings in state courts, subscribe to our free weekly newsletter: bit.ly/45IXZ0M

Contrast this report with Brett Kavanaugh's recent description of ICE's raids. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

LAWSUIT UPDATE RE: NATIONAL GUARD IN PORTLAND: District court just extended both TROs and confirmed that an expedited trial on the merits will start on 10/29.

Ninth Circuit has not yet ruled on the first TRO stay motion.

Read more about what happened & what's next.

There are so many obvious constitutional violations in this story. It is enraging.
There is no war, there is no foreign invasion, there is nothing that justify it. This is a choice to create a military presence that will brutalize residents of cities that do not support the President.

The Conservative Justices Have So Many Ideas For How to Kill the Voting Rights Act The Republican justices already know where they’re going. They just have to figure out which route they’re going to take to get there.

The Voting Rights Act has done more than perhaps any other statute to build a multiracial democracy

which is precisely why the Supreme Court’s conservative justices have spent decades casting the law as constitutionally unsound

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/calla...

Abortion Pill “Reversal” Is a Hoax. It's Also a Powerful Right-Wing Legal Strategy. Speakers at a crisis pregnancy center conference made rare admissions about the challenges of providing so-called abortion “reversal,” and indicate its importance as a litigation tool.

NEW: Recordings from a crisis pregnancy center conference, shared exclusively with Autonomy News, reveal that anti-abortion physicians are reluctant to prescribe abortion pill “reversal”—even as the conservative legal movement uses the supposed treatment to expand CPCs’ free speech rights.

Imagine thinking domestic violence isn’t “really serious”

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. 25-385 (25A378) CHARLES RAY CRAWFORD v. MISSISSIPPI ON APPLICATION FOR STAY AND ON PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF MISSISSIPPI [October 15, 2025] The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to JUSTICE ALITO and by him referred to the Court is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari is de-nied. JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE KAGAN and JUSTICE JACKSON join, dissenting from the denial of application for stay and denial of certiorari. Charles Ray Crawford will be executed tonight for a crime that his own lawyers told the jury he committed, despite his express instructions not to do so. Had this case come to this Court on direct appeal, Crawford could have proved that his Sixth Amendment rights were violated under our decision in McCoy v. Louisiana, 584 U.S. 414 (2018), in which we held that lawyers may not override a defendant's explicit and unequivocal decision not to concede guilt at trial. He would also likely be entitled to a new trial, as a McCoy violation is a structural error that mandates reversal.

Charles Ray Crawford has identified an important constitutional issue that this Court has not addressed and has divided courts around the country. The Court refuses to Cite as: 607 U.S. (2025) 13 SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting resolve that question, even though a man's life is in the bal-ance. For these reasons, the Court should have granted Crawford's motion for a stay of execution and petition for writ of certiorari. I respectfully dissent.

The Supreme Court's Republican appointees let Mississippi kill Charles Ray Crawford tonight, despite treatment at trial that was of the same type that SCOTUS later held in another case is unconstitutional.

All three Democratic appointees, in a lengthy dissent, would have kept him alive.

Vance downplays group chat messages: ‘Kids do stupid things, especially young boys.’ The vice president called the texts "edgy, offensive jokes."

last i checked these young republicans were like 25 years old. but this is a classic case of infantilization to diminish the significance of the offense. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

John Roberts Has Positioned the Court to Help Republicans Rig the Midterms and Keep Trump in Control of Congress Roberts Launched His Legal Career Targeting the Voting Rights Act

“John Roberts is not a fair umpire. He has become what I am calling a “Trumpire,” rewriting the law in ways that aid Trump and restrict our rights in alignment with the right-wing political agenda he whole-heartedly embraced as a pre-MAGA Reagan revolutionary.” 🔥 @thelisagraves.bsky.social

The entire Republican Party strategy for achieving what are comprehensively & wildly unpopular policy objectives now consists entirely of bypassing Article I of the Constitution through wildly illegal abuses of both Article II and Article III.

Again, it is a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House or Executive Office of the President to order tax investigations into anyone.

And it's not just a crime to DO it, it's even a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.