Joseph Mead

“I ain’t ever bought no prostitutes. I ain’t never raped nobody. I ain’t never paid anybody off. None of that stuff,” said G, a resident from one of the photographed tents. “He’s much more of a criminal than I am.” G says the worst thing he does is drugs, and he would willingly go to jail if Trump went with him. He moved to the green along the interstate because it felt safer than his apartment building. He’s found a community in his encampment over the last two months, but plans to move on Monday because of the attention from Trump and media outlets.

Interviews with people living in DC encampments.
streetsensemedia.org/article/home...

Here's a short new paper from my @umichlaw.bsky.social colleague Ellen Katz about the Texas redistricting.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I’ve covered this case for years. It’s the kind that keeps me up at night.

Police in NC arrested a homeless veteran—who has service-related PTSD—for allegedly panhandling. A cop tased his service dog, who ran away & was later killed by a car.

Four years later, he's *still* trying to get justice.

New! Today a federal judge granted a classwide preliminary injunction against the President's attempt to limit birthright citizenship.

Joshua's service dog ran away after being illegally tased, and died. And then the official Police Department Facebook page undertook a campaign of harassment, taunting, and defamation. Here are some of their hundreds of posts. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Why they chose to write the brief they did is a great question for the clinic.

This was a hard essay to write. For personal reasons (my own experience, and that of family) and professionally (as one of the lawyers for the class of homeless people before the Supreme Court in Grants Pass)

Being without shelter should not be a crime. I've posted my essay about Grants Pass -- my criticism of the decision, and what it did not decide -- onto SSRN. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

| Knight First Amendment Institute

Recent law grads — we're now hiring for legal fellows to begin in Fall 2025. Our First Amendment rights are under daily assault. I hope you'll consider applying to work with us at @knightcolumbia.org to push back.

knightcolumbia.org/page/legal-f...

Being without shelter should not be a crime. I've posted my essay about Grants Pass -- my criticism of the decision, and what it did not decide -- onto SSRN. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Totally agree! Thank you for your response

The Court was wrong, and shamefully so. But there are many other constitutional protections that apply to people without shelter.

Grants Pass said making it a crime to be a person involuntarily without shelter does not violate the 8th Amendment. The court did NOT say that any law that criminalizes homelessness is constitutional. Both the majority and the dissent acknowledge there are many other constitutional rights at stake.

Nice!

Homelessness is not a crime.

So lawyers representing prisons and landlords have been the latest to face ethical accusations based on their abuse of AI and citation of fabricated cases... and let's just say that in my experience I have not been overwhelmed with the ethical scruples of lawyers in those practice areas.

Thank you. This is extremely helpful!

Last year, I was hired by the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) to offer recommendations on which court should review federal agency rulemaking. I had some thoughts... papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

News reports say Columbia paid a "fine" of $200 million, which is grossly excessive, given the lack of any government authority to impose such a fine. On the blog, I parse the agreement and the stakes to explain what the dollar figure really reflects and its ominous implications. 👇

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s order seeking to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, affirming a lower-court decision that blocked its enforcement nationwide.

apnews.com/article/immi...

Paul Clement and his team are very good at what they do.

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

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER In the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), Tennessee's trigger ban took effect and prohibited abortion with limited medical emergency exceptions. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-15-213. A few years later, in 2024, Tennessee enacted a law to prohibit "abortion trafficking of a minor." Id. § 39-15-201(a). The law makes it a crime to "intentionally recruit|]... a pregnant unemancipated minor" in Tennessee "for the purpose of" obtaining an abortion that would be illegal in Tennessee. Id. But § 39-15-201 does not merely bar recruitment of minors to facilitate illegal abortions in Tennessee; it bars recruitment of minors to facilitate abortions "regardless" of where the procedure occurs. Id. In other words, the law prohibits recruiting an out-of-state abortion that is entirely legal in that state, so long as it would be illegal in Tennessee.

Plaintiffs Rachel Welty and Aftyn Behn, both advocates of abortion rights in Tennessee, seek to counsel pregnant, unemancipated minors in Tennessee and to help them access legal abortion in other states. They moved to enjoin enforcement of § 39-15-201, arguing that it is an unconstitutional restriction on their fiee speech and void for vagueness. This court granted the motion on both grounds, and defendants appealed. With the appeal pending, both parties now move for summary judgment. Section 39-15-201 prohibits speech encouraging lawful abortion while allowing speech discouraging lawful abortion. That is impermissible viewpoint discrimination, which the First Amendment rarely tolerates—and does not tolerate here. And because the statute discriminates in a substantial amount of its applications, it is facially overbroad. Thus, the court grants summary judgment for plaintiffs on their free speech claims and enjoins enforcement of the recruiting prong of the statute. The statute is not, however, void for vagueness. The court therefore grants summary judgment for defendants on plaintiffs' vagueness claim.

BREAKING: Federal judge bars enforcement of the part of Tennessee's "abortion trafficking" law that criminalizes "recruiting" minors to obtain abortions on First Amendment grounds, finding that the law is unconstitutionally overbroad b/c it criminalizes communication about lawful abortions.

New! The 4th Circuit has temporarily halted DHS's efforts to end TPS for Afghans and Cameroonians. TPS protections were set to expire today for Afghans; as a result of today's order, Afghans will continue to have this status for at least another seven days.

Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit The U.S. Justice Department unit charged with defending against legal challenges to signature Trump administration policies - such as restricting birthright citizenship and slashing funding to Harvard University - has lost nearly two-thirds of its staff, according to a list seen by Reuters.

“The U.S. Justice Department unit charged with defending against legal challenges to signature Trump administration policies - such as restricting birthright citizenship and slashing funding to Harvard University - has lost nearly two-thirds of its staff”

ICE memo outlines plan to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens The dramatic shift in policy could result in thousands of immigrants being deported to places where they lack family ties or even a common language.

Breaking news: Federal immigration officers may deport immigrants with as little as six hours’ notice to countries other than their own, even without assurances that the arrivals will be safe from persecution or torture, a top official said.

Lawyer Support Project | Association of American Law Schools On March 22, 2025, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum entitled “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court”, which instructs the U.S. Department of Justice to seek profe...

This new initiative is great. The AALS has organized a consortium of lawyers to represent lawyers who may be targeted & subjected to bar disciplinary complaints by this DOJ pursuant to Trump’s EO ordering AG Bondi to review cases in which lawyers have sued the Admin.

www.aals.org/lawyer-suppo...

Me: I love my job because I'm always learning new things and forcing to think through different paradigms

Also me: I no longer can use my phone because an operating system update moved the buttons around

Breaking: Trump's birthright citizenship order is blocked nationwide again, after a judge in New Hampshire said he would certify a nationwide class of children who would be deprived of citizenship if the policy took effect.

The 14th Amendment was ratified on this day in 1868. It guarantees:

✔️ due process for all
✔️ birthright citizenship
✔️ equal protection under the law

Now more than ever, we're determined to protect these essential rights.

(ORDER LIST: 606 U.S.) WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2025 24A1269 ORDER IN PENDING CASE UTHMEIER, FL ATT'Y GEN., ET AL. V. FL IMMIGRANT COALITION, ET AL. The application for stay presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court *denies* Florida’s request to let it enforce its state crime immigration law during litigation.

No noted dissents and no one wrote anything.

The provision of the state law remains blocked.