Heather Johnson

The Sixth Circuit seems ready to strike down Michigan law after the a hearing on the preliminary injunction held yesterday.

It was great to be included in this list of scholars!

Judge rules Trump’s NIH grant cuts reflect anti-LGBTQ+ bias and racial discrimination

“I‘ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” said Reagan appointee Judge William Young.

🔗: bit.ly/3I0B3mA

Congratulations to all of the advocates that competed last weekend!

For a complete list of award winners & link to the final round webinar please visit: www.law.msu.edu/gender-sexua...

Thank you to the SBM LGBTQ+ Law Section for sponsoring the awards and to all the volunteer bailiffs and judges!

Join us online to watch the final round of 2025 Gender + Sexuality Moot Court Competition! The Awards ceremony will follow the final round. Register to watch here: bit.ly/3FFwUDB

FOUR OPINIONS: An Obama and Trump appointee are in the majority, a 95-year-old Ford appointee dissents, and *both* judges in the majority write concurring opinions to have a fight over the future of substantive due process.

Last Call for judge and student bailiff volunteers! Be part of MSU Law's 4th Annual Gender + Sexuality Moot Court Competition. Witness teams from law schools around the country argue for top honors March 22-23, 2025. Learn more information and sign up here:https://bit.ly/3FexDvd

Judge Blocks Trump Orders to Stop Funds for Trans Youth Health Providers The ruling affects hospitals nationwide, putting on hold the administration’s plan to withhold research grants from those that offer gender transition treatments to young people.

“The injunction issued on March 4 signals that the government will need to overcome significant legal challenges to carry out its plans.” Thank goodness! Those anti-trans plans are both unconstitutional and cruel.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/u...

Martin E. Marty, Influential Religious Historian, Dies at 97 A staunch champion of pluralism, he was described in Time magazine as “the most influential living interpreter of religion in the U.S.”

The great religious historian Martin Marty has passed away at age 97.

His books were so eye opening as an undergraduate. They changed the way I thought about society and culture and how history happens. RIP.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/u...

So the President not only fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He also fired the top JAGs at the Army, Navy and Air Force. Those are the lead people who determine what is a legal order and what is not. So if you're planning to do things that are illegal they're the most obvious obstacle.

BREAKING: A fed judge just issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in NADOHE v. Trump, the case against the Anti-DEI EOs brought by the Nat’l Assoc of Diversity Officers of Higher Ed, American Assoc of University Professors, Restaurant Opportunities Center United & City of Baltimore.

A news headline in white text on a black background reads: "Trans Man Killed in New York Was Tortured for Two Months, Police Say." Below the headline, the article snippet states: "The body of Sam Nordquist, 24, was found in a field after he had been reported missing. The district attorney in Ontario County, N.Y., called the circumstances surrounding the death ‘beyond depraved.’"

This is the ultimate result of a hate campaign against the trans community. Depraved violence and murder against our community.

archive.ph/G4U6J

In the weeks since January 20, we have already seen attempts to sideline congressional authority, dismantle federal programs without statutory justification, and target employees and agencies for doing their jobs. These actions not only threaten the legal foundation of our democracy but also destabilize public trust in our institutions. Recent actions have further eroded ethical oversight within the executive branch. The Trump-Vance administration dismissed the Director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), a position whose independence is crucial for maintaining ethical standards in government operations.

This dismissal, along with the recent firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel, raises significant concerns about the administration's commitment to ethical governance and the preservation of checks and balances. We support and commend the American Bar Association, the nation's leading association for the legal profession, in encouraging attorneys across the nation to defend our Constitution and the rule of law in this time.

At Democracy Forward, we are committed to holding government leaders accountable to the law. We have been in the courts every single day, representing the American people and communities against this unprecedented executive overreach. We will continue to use the courts as the frontline and challenge unlawful actions that threaten the rule of law and the rights and freedoms of people and communities and encourage all lawyers to join our efforts.

The American Bar Association (@americanbar.org) called on "every attorney" to “insist that our government, a government of the people, follow the law.” @democracyforward.org is heeding that call and will continue using the courts as the frontline to challenge unlawful actions... (1/2)

“Trump has packed so much illegal, unconstitutional, lawless activity into three-and-half weeks that the press, politicians, and many Americans have already forgotten or normalized activity that can only be described as a coup.” — Robert Hubbell Newsletter Feb. 13, 2025

How Trump Could Remake the Supreme Court for a Generation Donald Trump is poised to become the first president since FDR to have appointed the majority of high-court justices. His potential picks are terrifying.

Trump is now poised to be the first president since FDR to pick *a majority* of the Supreme Court justices. Here are his 5 most likely replacements, should Sam Alito and/or Clarence Thomas retire.
My latest print feature in @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Universities Have Been Doing Trump’s Work for Him The University of Chicago, despite its free speech reputation, has laid the groundwork for the president's threats against students who protest for Palestine.

One of our brilliant students wrote an analysis of how Universities laid the groundwork for Trump's repressive policies. www.thenation.com/article/acti...

The Story Behind That U. of Michigan DEI Story Part 2 of 2: Nicholas Confessore’s New York Times Magazine article on a $250-million diversity program galvanized debate and fueled criticism. How does he feel about that?

In this week's College Matters from The Chronicle, we spoke with Nicholas Confessore, a reporter at The New York Times and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, about one institution's decision to double down on DEI and later walk back some of its decisions. chroni.cl/4gFj3Ke

Looking at Women, Looking at War by Victoria Amelina review – in memory of the Ukrainian novelist who catalogued war crimes A powerful, posthumous collection of diary entries, interviews, war reports and poetry has the late author’s tragic absence at its heart When Russia attacked Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Victoria Amelina was a novelist and children’s writer, and the…

Looking at Women, Looking at War by Victoria Amelina review – in memory of the Ukrainian novelist who catalogued war crimes

This includes for existing contracts and grants that already went through peer review and are in the field

FILED: If you are willing and meet the qualifications to defend our country, you should be able to serve in our military. That’s why the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and @lambdalegal.bsky.social have filed a lawsuit to BLOCK President Trump’s cruel trans military service ban.

point out, it is also unworkable. (See Dkt. No. 69-1 at 17.) The recordkeeping and administrative burden from such an arrangement, (see id.), ' also mandates nationwide relief. Nor is it clear what, if any, prejudice the Government would suffer from nationwide relief. In its brief in opposition, it points to none. (See Dkt. No. 84 at 57-59). For all these reasons, the Court finds that relief must be nationwide. Anything less is ineffectual. III. CONCLUSION Citizenship by birth is an unequivocal Constitutional right. It is one of the precious principles that makes the United States the great nation that it is. The President cannot change, limit, or qualify this Constitutional right via an executive order. The Court GRANTS the i Plaintiffs' motions for a nationwide preliminary injunction (Dkt Nos, 63, 74) and ENJOINS enforcement or implementation of the Order on a nationwide basis.

Birthright citizenship remains the law of the land. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Today I joined a coalition of publishers including @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social, authors @dashkaslater.bsky.social and David Levithan, @authorsguild.bsky.social, and Idaho librarians, parents, and students, in a lawsuit against Idaho's book banning law, HB 710. I'm proud to be part of the fight.

Before folks start comparing this to European autocracies, pause and ask why so many folks - Black and white - didn’t know about the Tulsa Race Massacre. Or the Wilmington Coup. Or the Colfax Massacre. Or the Elaine, Arkansas massacre.

Erasure has been a key tactic of white supremacy. Right here.

MINUTE ORDER: The Court ORDERS that the parties shall appear for a hearing on Plaintiffs' motion 3 for a temporary restraining order in 25-cv-325, and Plaintiffs' motion 2 for a temporary restraining order in 25-cv-328, on February 6, 2025, at 10:30 AM. This hearing shall be on the record before Judge Jia M. Cobb in Courtroom 9. The Court will hear from the parties and set an expedited briefing schedule if necessary. The Court will also hear any objections to consolidating these two cases. If the government intends to take any action related to the claims in this case in advance of tomorrow's hearing, the government shall alert the Court immediately and the Court will set an earlier hearing time and compressed briefing schedule.Public access line: Toll Free Number, 833-990-9400; Meeting ID: 251046985. Signed by Judge Jia M. Cobb on February 5, 2025. (lcjmc2)

NOTE: There is a 10:30a hearing in the FBI cases.

TRO request 1: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

TRO request 2: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

DOJ's opposition, filed this morning: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Federal Unions Sue DOGE Over Department of Labor Data Access Read more here.

Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit Wednesday — on behalf of a coalition of federal unions — against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to block access to Department of Labor (DOL) data. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

West Point Disbands Clubs for Women and Minorities After Trump DEI Orders The military academy ordered the closure of a dozen clubs for students affiliated with its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office.

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point ordered 12 officially sanctioned clubs for women and ethnic or racial groups to shut down immediately, in a drive to comply with the Trump administration’s directives on diversity, equity and inclusion, the academy said on Wednesday.

YouTube video by Nicolas Papernot SaTML 2023 - Timnit Gebru - Eugenics and the Promise of Utopia through AGI

Worth listening to @timnitgebru.bsky.social and @xriskology.bsky.social about what they’re really talking about. Hint: it’s a million times darker, more vile and stranger than you expect. youtu.be/P7XT4TWLzJw?...

This former Kentucky county clerk went to jail rather than issue marriage licenses to a gay couple, and now she's gunning to overturn marriage equality in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Read more: www.advocate.com/news/kim-dav...

The Logic of Destruction And how to resist it

The logic of the coup that is going on now. And how to resist it.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-logic-...

I talked with @chasestrangio.bsky.social and @shannonminter5.bsky.social about this in today’s Law Dork video discussion: www.lawdork.com/p/trump-anti...