Chris Seaman

I’m a career prosecutor who took a $25,000 check from an affiliated entity of Donald Trump’s while investigating Trump University and later left my lobbying firm to become Donald Trump’s personal impeachment lawyer, White House aide, and Attorney General. So don’t you DARE question my integrity.

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

“Any university leader who signs on to this compact wld betray everything good and solid about the university & would do deep and permanent harm to the United States & the world.”

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down newrepublic.com/article/2013... via @newrepublic.com

A top Trump official accusing federal district court judges, "as a class," of engaging in insurrection is a profoundly dangerous development.

I was told not to teach a class on the intellectual histories of Zionism and Anti-Zionism next year - not because they doubted I could teach it fairly, but because it would attract too many politicians scrutinizing the syllabus.

A society where that is a valid fear is no longer fully democratic.

The Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine and the Compact for Excellence Members of the Trump administration love to say that federal funding is a privilege not a right and therefore something that can be granted or withheld based on changing administrative priorities.

The Trump Administration’s “Compact of Excellence” for Universities is... far from excellent! Indeed, it’s unconstitutional. In this post, let me count the ways.

blog.dividedargument.com/p/the-uncons...

We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.

for any UVA folks that follow me you should circulate this among your networks balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Judge Immergut (my new favorite judge) issued her 31-page opinion, barring federalization of 200 National Guard troops in Portland, <48 hrs after entering the case. It’s a model of restrained but powerful prose & reasoning. Read it yourself ...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
1/3

The very first statute authorizing domestic use of the military during domestic emergencies, enacted in 1792 by a Congress full of the same folks who wrote and ratified the Constitution, expressly provided for judicial review in certain circumstances *before* the President could even send troops.

There has been basically no (public) reckoning with the democratic strategists who said that "raising the salience" of immigration/deportations in ~March would help Trump, which was obviously wrong at the time and has been proved wrong over the last 6 months www.gelliottmorris.com/p/kilmar-abr...

Shutdown Day 3, No Jobs Report, Trump Pressures Universities : Up First from NPR Senators are set to vote again on competing spending bills to fund the government, with neither side budging and looming consequences of a prolonged shutdown. The shutdown is also blinding businesses ...

Here's an episode transcript.

www.npr.org/transcripts/...

News coverage of the Trump administration's proposed "compact" with universities has been, so far, shockingly bad.

I hate to pick on NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny, who's usually a solid reporter, but almost every important thing I heard her say this morning about the proposed "compact" was false.

BREAKING: A federal judge says there is a realistic likelihood that the prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was driven by vindictive motives — reflected in the public statements of Bondi, Blanche, Noem et al.

He has ordered discovery on the question.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I voted

Love the convenience of early voting! In and out in just a couple of minutes. Get out the vote, Virginia!

Colleges weigh whether to sign onto Trump plan or forgo federal benefits A new proposal from the Trump administration would give colleges funding advantages if they adopt conservative priorities.

“No self-respecting university could ever accept something like this,” said Lee Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar and former Columbia University president. “Trying to protect conservative ideas against being ‘belittled’ — that’s about as violative of the First Amendment interests as you can get.”

Universities Must Reject Trump Admin "Loyalty Oath" Compacts The AAUP and AFT warn that the Trump administration’s offer to give preferential treatment to colleges and universities in exchange for allegiance to a partisan ideological agenda is entirely corrupt.

“The federal government should not, under any circumstances, dictate who goes to college, what can be researched,or learned, and what can or can’t be the subject of critical academic inquiry.”

The "compact" is a threat, with the administration explicitly stating that it plans to disfavor universities that don't sign in areas from foreign student visas, student loans, federal contracts as well as grants, and even tax [501(c)(3)] status.

It's a maximalist plan of 1st Amendment violation.

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

Trump targets states that voted for Harris in shutdown fight The Office of Management and Budget is withholding billions in energy and infrastructure money in more than a dozen states that voted against Trump.

all presidential administrations are partisan, but trump and the people in his white house are partisans bordering on sectarians, and one result is that they see nothing of actions that strain and weaken the union itself

Thank you!

what does an "unconstitutional DEI principle" mean in the context of a tunnel project? what, a black person is going to use it?

Ugh. Sounds like a terrible decision. Link to full opinion?

There is no constitutional principle that would differentiate this from the FTC case other than “don’t fuck with the money people”

Court Rules in AAUP v Rubio: Trump Admin Violated First Amendment The AAUP and partners sued to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members for ideological reasons.

Once again, it is *faculty*—not administrators—who brought this case and won. Including UC Faculty Association chapters of the AAUP.

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Entered: 09/30/2025)

Our little AAUP chapter went 2/2 vs. Trump!

Noem and Rubio…misused the sweeping powers of their offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their 1st Am protected political speech. They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizens…

Groups press for release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on Trump's classified documents case A First Amendment group and watchdog organization is pressing a federal appeals court to compel the release of a Justice Department special counsel’s report on the criminal investigation into Presiden...

Both @knightcolumbia.org and @weareoversight.bsky.social filed mandamus petitions with the Eleventh Circuit this morning. We make different arguments in support of the same goal: Disclosure of the Special Counsel’s report. apnews.com/article/trum...

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Additional attachment(s) added on 9/30/2025: # 1 Main Document) (J...

BREAKING: WE WON!!!
💥 💥 💥

Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment.

Full ruling here:

The ruling itself is remarkable, but it closes with something I've never seen: a 12-page assessment of Trump himself as an ignorant bully, braggart and threat to free speech and the republic writ-large. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, delivers the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era, ruling that Trump and his cabinet illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation to "strike fear" into First Amendment protesters. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

basically everything about this is wrong and horrifying but I'm stuck on the absolute fucking chutzpah you'd need to lecture professional military personnel like this after you personally texted wildly classified war plans to the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic