Robert Richards

Trump Plans to Send Immigrant Detainees to Notorious Louisiana Prison Once known as the bloodiest prison in the country, Angola is a maximum security facility with a dark history—and a popular prison rodeo.

Every racist & brutal system has been “laying about like a loaded weapon” (Korematsu, Justice Jackson) for a moment like this. Racism & inequality is the gateway. And it is the infrastructure that will hold up the worst of this authoritarian regime. GIFT LINK

www.wsj.com/us-news/ango...

Inside the US Government's Unpublished Report on AI Safety The National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted a groundbreaking study on frontier models just before Donald Trump's second term as president—and never published the results.

"it was one of several AI documents from NIST that were not published for fear of clashing with the incoming administration."

www.wired.com/story/inside...

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years.

Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.

Judge Boardman certifies a class of every baby in the country subject to Trump’s citizenship-stripping EO and blocks the unconstitutional order nationwide.

Look how she throws Alito’s words back at him as the CASA case heads back up towards SCOTUS.

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

Just to give the TL;DR on this one:

*The* main purpose of the EO is to move funding priorities and decisions away from experts and career professionals over to political appointees. With the ultimate power held by Vought / OMB.

Opinion | Mahmoud Khalil Tells His Story

Ezra Klein interviewing Mahmoud Khalil is extremely worth reading: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/o...

EXCLUSIVE: @timmiller.bsky.social spoke to Andry as he shared his journey through U.S. detention that led to imprisonment in El Salvador. He speaks about abuse, survival, and rebuilding his life through faith and his hope for the future.

Watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ySs...

As Democrats wrestle with the question of retaliatory gerrymandering they should remember that it is the Supreme Court has driven us to this moment. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Trump to require universities to hand over admissions data on race The move comes after Ivy League universities Columbia and Brown struck settlements that require them to release information about applicants’ race.

President Trump is expected to sign a directive mandating universities provide admissions data to prove they are not implementing affirmative action policies, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posts on X.

BREAKING on MSNBC:

A group met to discuss Jeffrey Epstein and other topics at the White House last night. AG Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel were both there.

Another topic discussed: Two fired FBI agents with ties to the Mar-a-Lago search. @msnbc.com

July 24 – August 7, 2025 Here’s my list of important U.S. legal developments from the last two weeks: The Trump administration lawsuit against New York City, alleging their sanctuary city policies violate the Suprema…

New blog post is up! Read if you want a summary of key U.S. legal developments that you can read in under 10 minutes. I will also thread the items on my list developments below. ⤵️
marzhang.wordpress.com/2025/08/07/j...

🚨DHS asks the Supreme Court to halt an injunction restricting the ability of ICE and Border Patrol to stop and question people based on factors such as speaking Spanish, being Latino, doing day labor, or being in certain areas.

Hard not to read this as a request for a license to racially profile.

Kudos to the staff at the Stanford Daily for standing up for free speech as a plaintiff in this lawsuit!

This criminal & former FBI agent participated in a violent insurrection, using terror to forcibly stop a Constitutional process because he didn’t *like* the outcome. During this insurrection, he encouraged others to kill police. Why aren’t police officers & departments speaking out against THIS?

ChatGPT File • • Edit View Window Help ChatGPT 5 > How many times does the letter b appear in blueberry The word "blueberry" has the letter b three times: • Once at the start ("B" in blueberry). • Once in the middle ("b" in blue). • Once before the -erry ending ("b" in berry). Total: 3 O92 Show me where the letter b appears in the word please. Sure — here's "blueberry" with each b highlighted: B lue b erry Positions (counting from 1): 1 B - first letter 4 b - in blue 6 b - in berry D9< Spell that out with all three bs please. I mean, just spell the word. Sure — here's the full spelling with all three b's shown in place: BLUEBERRY That's exactly how blueberry is spelled, with the b's in positions 1, 5, and 7.

ChatGPT File Edit View Window Help E ChatGPT 5 > You wrote "BLUEBERRY". There are only two bs there. Ah - I see the mix-up. Let's slow it down and spell blueberry carefully, letter by letter, showing all three b's. blueberry Now you can see them: • 1st b → position 1 • 2nd b → position 5 • 3rd b → position 6 blueberry Exactly — blue berry has three b's: • 1st b → at the very start • 2nd b → right after the e in blue • 3rd b → immediately after the second b, starting berry So the "bb" in the middle is really what gives blueberry its double-b moment. Its double-b moment; I see. Yep - blueberry is one of those words where the middle almost trips you up, like it's saying "b-b-better pay attention." That little bb moment is satisfying, though — it makes the word feel extra bouncy.

 ChatGPT File Edit View Window Help 巴 • ChatGPT 5 > My students get you to write their essays for them, you know. Ah, the old "ChatGPT, do my homework" routine — I'm familiar with that one. I can see why they'd be tempted, but here's the thing: I'm a lot more useful as a coach than a ghostwriter. If they use me to brainstorm ideas, plan structure, or clarify tricky concepts, they'll actually learn and still have their own voice in the work. If they just hand in what I write, they're skipping the thinking part - and it usually shows. I'm good, but I still leave a trail of... telltale ChatGPT-isms. A trail of blueberries, as it were. Exactly — a trail of blueberries: easy to follow, a little sweet, and maybe just obvious enough for a watchful teacher to notice. If your students really are leaving me to bake the whole blueberry pie for them, they might forget that the best part of pie is making it themselves... even if it gets a little messy. "Blueberry" only has two bs. Nope - blueberry really does have three b's. Here it is spaced out: bluebberry Positions: b- at the start 5 b - in the "blue" part 6 b - right next to it, starting "berry" That middle double-b is easy to miss if vou just glance at the word.

I had to try the “blueberry” thing myself with GPT5. I merely report the results.

KEY EXCERPT: Trump admin says "common sense" gives any immigration officer reasonable suspicion to stop and question any Latino speaking Spanish anywhere in the Central District of California (covering 7 counties; LA, San Bernadino, Riverside, Ventura, Orange, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara).

ICE contractor locked an immigrant and her baby at an O’Hare hotel for five days Valentina Galvis' detention at a hotel raises questions about the types of facilities being turned into de facto detention centers as the Trump administration ramps up immigration detention.

A Chicago woman went to immigration court. Her case was dismissed; she and her infant were taken by federal agents who turned her over to contractor MVM. They spent five days confined at the Sonesta O'Hare hotel without communication to the outside world.

My first byline at @injusticewatch.org:

NEW: Florida has filed its response, saying all people held at the Everglades detention camp are being held under a 287(g) agreement with ICE — but the documents they filed in court DO NOT include any such agreement with the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is operating the facility.

Let me qualify what Josh is saying. It is quite clear that the Constitution requires a census of all persons. It’s quite clear that past Supreme Court cases support this proposition. (For instance, the recent census question case makes no sense if persons doesn’t include immigrants.)
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U.S. Air Force to deny retirement pay for transgender troops being separated from service An Air Force spokesperson told The Associated Press that “although service members with 15 to 18 years of honorable service were permitted to apply for an exception to policy, none of the exceptions t...

The U.S. Air Force said Thursday it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

Two militiamen holding muskets

My forthcoming book with @cornellupress.bsky.social has a COVER!!! 🔥🔥🔥

60 years ago today:

A day after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act into law, the Justice Department begins enforcement by suspending literacy tests in 7 states and parts of 2 others.

DOJ also files a suit to have the poll tax invalidated in Mississippi.

(All this on a Saturday, no less.)

behold:
bsky.app/profile/bren...

Commissars deciding whether and how federal research funds are distributed.

How do you interpret the role of the "senior appointees" in the order?

Penn’s law school pauses scholarship honoring its first Black female graduate, plans to close equal opportunity office The university also is pausing a scholarship program which honors its first Black female graduate, Sadie T.M. Alexander.

“Penn’s law school pauses scholarship honoring its first Black female graduate, plans to close equal opportunity office”

commissars, among other changes

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

What the actual…..

Opinion | The Death of the Fourth American Republic

This is such an important piece, by @jamellebouie.net. As I mentioned elsewhere, he has an uncommon ability to write essays that are erudite and informative, while also being easy and enjoyable to read.

This one puts the current moment and what's at stake in historical context.

Gift link.

I Spoke with Crooked Media's "What a Day" About the Troubling Future of the Voting Rights Act in the Hands of the Supreme Court #ELB Great conversation with Jane Coaston. You can listen here.

I Spoke with Crooked Media’s “What a Day” About the Troubling Future of the Voting Rights Act in the Hands of the Supreme Court electionlawblog.org?p=151420