I cannot urge you enough to not travel to the states shown here in dark maroon. It's not safe for *any* woman or lgbtq person.
Also do not buy products manufactured in any of those states - including Ky Bourbon.
Boycott any biz that has their headquarters in these states unless you know for a *fact* they support LGBTQ rights and are not right wing nut jobs. There aren't two sides here. No money for fascists.
Link: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/anti-trans-national-risk-assessment
"Ask yourselves this. If one of the largest, wealthiest, and best politically connected with some of the brightest lawyers couldn’t withstand the attack, what chance do average lawyers representing progressive causes have? It’s a question whose answer involves careful thought & preparation – ahead of time."
Link: https://www.resilience.org/stories/2025-03-25/the-time-is-now-and-it-means-real-sacrifice/
"Strategize ahead of time about your vulnerabilities and do something about them...You might lose, but it’s the only chance of winning."
The result is an extraordinary threat to fundamental #constitutional rights of #DueProcess & #LegalRepresentation….
#Legal scholars say no previous US admin has taken such concerted action against the legal establishment, with #Trump’s predecessors in both parties typically respecting the constitutionally enshrined tenet that everyone deserves effective representation in court & that #lawyers cannot be targeted simply for the cases & clients they take on.
#Trump’s crackdown on #lawyers is having a chilling effect on his opponents’ ability to defend themselves or challenge his actions….
#Biden-era ofcls said they’re having trouble finding #lawyers willing to defend them. The volunteers & small nonprofits forming the ground troops of the #legal resistance to #Trump admin actions say that the well-resourced #LawFirms that once would have backed them are now steering clear.
Unsurprisingly
#LawFirms refuse to represent #Trump opponents in the wake of his attacks
Trump issued yet another #ExecutiveOrder Tuesday sanctioning yet another #law firm, Jenner & Block. The result overall has been called an extraordinary #threat to #constitutional rights of #DueProcess & #legal representation & a far weaker effort to challenge Trump’s actions in court than during his first term.
#RevengePolitics #CivilRights
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/25/trump-law-firms/
"I came to the U.S. Department of Education to what I thought was a dream role at the Office for Civil Rights and a role that would allow me to marry my legal background with my #education background and help enforce protections of Title VI, Title II, and Title IX [of the Civil Rights Act] ... We made sure that we protected all students, regardless of race, sex, or disability."
https://www.texasobserver.org/department-of-education-trump-union-cuts/
The #Trump admin invokes the #StateSecrets privilege, saying it will give Judge #Boasberg no more information about the #deportation flights to inform his decision about whether the govt defied his order.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.56.0.pdf
After securing the craven surrender of high profile liberal law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP without even entering a courtroom, an emboldened Downmarket Mussolini has ordered his comically corrupt Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to seek disciplinary actions against lawyers who are "filing frivolous claims designed to cause delays." What's a "frivolous claim?" Only Trump and Bondi know, but the note about delays makes it clear that Der Führer is angry that his fascist agenda is being blocked by numerous judicial restraining orders and hopes to do an end around the courts by threatening lawyers and law firms into not even filing suits to halt the regime in the first place.
Trump ramps up retribution campaign against legal community
"The memo, as a result, created a formal mechanism for Trump to unilaterally decide whether to impose politically charged sanctions through executive orders that strip lawyers of the security clearances they need to perform their jobs or prevent them from working on federal contracts.
Multiple legal experts suggested the memo would theoretically allow Bondi to decide a particular lawsuit that triggered a temporary injunction was causing an unnecessary delay, and refer the firm that filed the suit to face the effects of a punitive executive order.
That could cause a chilling effect and lead to the volume of litigation against the Trump administration to decline, the experts said. Even if the lawsuits are in fact for a legitimate purpose, there’s fear that their representation could put them in the president’s cross hairs and endanger their legal practices.
Trump also directed Bondi to open a review into the “conduct” of lawyers and their respective law firms in litigation against the federal government reaching back to the start of his first term in 2017 – and recommend whether it warranted additional punitive actions.
The memo comes as Trump in recent weeks has used executive orders targeting law firms to great effect."
Frankly, I don't have much to add here that we didn't already look at when I wrote up the Paul Weiss surrender situation we discussed a few days ago. The fact is that Trump has no legal authority to harass and punish lawyers for bringing cases before a judge to stop the Trump regime's often illegal, and frequently unconstitutional activities. Providing a check to the executive branch's power when it violates our civil rights, exceeds the President's authority, or is just straight up criming, is literally the prescribed role of the judiciary branch in the American system of government; the lawyers filing suits to stop Trump's fascist agenda aren't doing anything wrong, they're in fact doing their job as defined in the US Constitution. Trump just doesn't give a shit, and if he can't break the judges ruling against him, he'll happily try to further his authoritarian agenda by using his Department of Justice to harass the lawyers filing against his actions, and starving the law firms of federal access and contracts.
The good news here is that unlike some of their cowardly brethren in white shoe DC law firms, numerous legal advocacy organizations more closely associated with civil rights litigation, are openly stating that they have no intention of backing down. Groups like the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Democracy Forward, have all issued statements pushing back on Trump's claims and promising to not only continue the fight, but also to keep bringing more cases against an overreaching Trump regime now acting unlawfully pretty much every day.
I'm not sure how much faith I have in the lawyers and the courts to stop fascism; after all, none of these folks have an army or a police force at their disposal to enforce court orders against a fascist regime and a president already granted virtual legal immunity by a 6-3 fascist high SCOTUS. But as I mentioned elsewhere, you can't win if you don't fight, and it is impossible to install a fascist dictatorship without a whole lot of collaboration, cowardice, and capitulation by the society the fascists are trying to dominate. Win or lose, fighting back is the first step towards stopping fascism, and as a society our best hope of resisting remains acting in infinite ways, across every sector, to make it cost more in time, effort, money, and if necessary in blood, to impose fascism, than the folks doing so stand to benefit from that fascism. Saying "no" is at least a start.
via Chris Newman:
Judge Chen asked attorneys for #Trump admin whether there is any evidence in the administrative record to support its claim that the #Venezuelans are members of so-called “Tren de Agua” gang.
Their response: “We don’t have any specific answer to that…”
[classic]
Holy crap
In a new affidavit in #AEA by someone turned around in #ElSalvador, they swear the following:
"Within a couple of minutes of take off I heard two US government officials talking and they said 'there is an order saying we can’t take off but we already have.'"
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.55.1_2.pdf
The oral arguments in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals for #Trump’s #AlienEnemiesAct appeal is will be live streamed starting at 1:30pm ET today.
You can watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DoTLGECQSU
Or if you prefer to listen, audio will be available here:
!["[T]he most reasonable inference is that it hustled people onto those planes in the hopes of evading an injunction or perhaps preventing them from requesting the habeas hearing to which the Government now acknowledges they are entitled."](https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/114/218/141/077/533/175/original/bc82acf77b4690f3.png "\"[T]he most reasonable inference is that it hustled people onto those planes in the hopes of evading an injunction or perhaps preventing them from requesting the habeas hearing to which the Government now acknowledges they are entitled.\"")
#UnitedStates govt affidavit saying: "While it is true that many of the TdA members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States"
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.26.1_7.pdf
DOJ brief signed by #Trump’s AG #PamBondi & the senior leadership at the #DOJ saying, "Plaintiffs have not established irreparable harm."
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.26.0_3.pdf
Judge #Boasberg terrifyingly describes the #ElSalvador prison #CECOT knowing that:
- The #Trump admin admitted "many of the TdA members ... do not have criminal records”
- Several cases of misidentification have emerged
- The most senior #DOJ ofcls signed a brief saying these detainees would not suffer "irreparable harm"
!['highly Likely to face immediate & intentional life-threatening harm [El Salvador] govt has boasted that inmates in CECOT "never leave"; indeed, one expert declarant alleges that she does not know of any CECOT inmate who has been released. In a sample of 131 cases, [it was] found that 115 family members of detainees have not received any info about the whereabouts or wellbeing …rarely allowed to leave their cells, have no regular access to drinking water or adequate food, sleep standing up because of overcrowding & are held in cells where they do not see sunlight for days. "tuberculosis, fungal infections, scabies, severe malnutrition & chronic digestive issues are common." disciplined through beatings & humiliation. One inmate clamed that police beat prison newcomers with batons. When he denied being a gang member, they sent him to a dark basement cell with 320 detainees, where prison guards & other detainees beat him every day. On one occasion, one guard beat him so severely that [he] broke a rib." Three prior deportees from the United States reported being kicked in the face, neck, abdomen, & testicles, with one requiring "an operation for a ruptured pancreas & spleen." Needless to say, the risk of torture, beatings, & even death clearly & unequivocally supports a finding of irreparable harm](https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/114/218/062/180/713/879/original/9c38e9095241315a.png "'highly Likely to face immediate & intentional life-threatening harm [El Salvador] govt has boasted that inmates in CECOT \"never leave\"; indeed, one expert declarant alleges that she does not know of any CECOT inmate who has been released. In a sample of 131 cases, [it was] found that 115 family members of detainees have not received any info about the whereabouts or wellbeing …rarely allowed to leave their cells, have no regular access to drinking water or adequate food, sleep standing up because of overcrowding & are held in cells where they do not see sunlight for days. \"tuberculosis, fungal infections, scabies, severe malnutrition & chronic digestive issues are common.\" disciplined through beatings & humiliation. One inmate clamed that police beat prison newcomers with batons. When he denied being a gang member, they sent him to a dark basement cell with 320 detainees, where prison guards & other detainees beat him every day. On one occasion, one guard beat him so severely that [he] broke a rib.\" Three prior deportees from the United States reported being kicked in the face, neck, abdomen, & testicles, with one requiring \"an operation for a ruptured pancreas & spleen.\" Needless to say, the risk of torture, beatings, & even death clearly & unequivocally supports a finding of irreparable harm")
Just released a 37-page ruling from Chief Judge James #Boasberg, denying the #Trump administration request to vacate its TROs preventing the government from enforcing the #AlienEnemiesAct against #Venezuelans.
No one subject to the #AEA can be deported without a hearing.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.53.0.pdf
So as I mentioned yesterday, I'd like to share this Majority Report interview with trans actress Laverne Cox about the fascist assault on trans rights, the dehumanization of trans people, and how what I've come to define as the anti-trans pogrom fits in to the larger capitalist, patriarchal, white supremacist, and ultimately fascist project. While Cox is a well informed, focused, and insightful guest that's worth listening to in any setting, as a trans woman one of the things I liked best about this interview is how the two cisgender hosts of the show allowed her to control the discussion and ultimately create a conversation that I think is equally valuable for trans people, other members of the LGBTQ community, and cis-het folks who want to serve as accomplices, not just allies, for a trans community in the fascist crosshairs as we speak.
Cox and the hosts discuss the recent history of anti-trans legislation, the larger fascist quest to eras trans people in public life, and how dehumanizing language and anti-trans propaganda serve as a permission structure for both eliminating trans people's civil rights and further dehumanization. They also talk about the reality that this project to justify and create the anti-trans pogrom is a well-funded, highly coordinated endeavor with architects across the entire American right, as demonstrated by the fact that almost everything to demonize, oppress, and erase trans people that GOP fascists have accomplished since Trump took office, was laid out in advance in Project 2025. Cox even articulates what most trans people already know in their hearts but many cis liberals treating us like a political football don't seem to understand; that the path the fascists are adopting here may lead to the genocide of trans people.
The group then shifts focus to talk about the relationship between the anti-trans pogrom, white supremacist patriarchal Christian Nationalism, and a larger fascist project that ultimately serves to enrich and empower predatory capital. Cox notes that what folks who aren't on the firing lines call a "culture war" is really about civil rights for those who are. The gang points out that policing of trans people in public life, is really just an extension of an ideology that views women as property, and that opens up a pathway to gendered power dynamics and enforced policies that harm *all* women, not just trans women. As both Cox and Vigland note, the fact that dehumanizing anti-trans propaganda ultimately serves as the thin end of the wedge for this larger fascist project and touches on other forms of targeted oppression towards non-white people, women, migrants, and young people, means that taking about the anti-trans pogrom is not a distraction, but rather a vital step towards defending us all from fascism.
Finally Cox talks about the importance of folks who support trans people actually rehumanizing trans folks in the broader culture, why allowing the right to force the discussion into a lens of medicalization is an unworkable strategy, and why nobody who isn't trying to get trans people murdered should be "consorting with the likes of Charlie Kirk." In a moment that may come as a surprise to cis people, she points out that even conceding to the idea that trans identities, trans rights, or trans existence are topics to debate, is an unacceptable level of dehumanization and helps the fascist cause. As Cox poignantly notes, "there is no middle ground when someone wants you extinguished."
The Majority Report: Humanizing Trans People with Laverne Cox.
Whelp, given the news that Columbia University has also surrendered to Trump's fascist demands to avoid retaliatory (and likely illegal) funding cuts, I guess this Vichy establishment thing is a whole ass beat now. Hiding behind the laughably dishonest idea of fighting a grossly distorted definition of "antisemitism" the regime is moving towards the standard authoritarian goal of controlling higher education institutes; it's first target, Columbia, has surrendered without offering even token resistance and as you can imagine, the decision was not popular with people who aren't sniveling collaborators:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-columbia-demands
'Columbia Has Lost Something It May Never Regain': Outrage as the University Yields to Trump's Demands
"Columbia University received a wave of criticism on Friday after it agreed to a number of demands from the Trump administration as part of negotiations over $400 million in federal grants and contracts that the Trump administration had pulled due to the school's alleged "inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."
The school agreed to a ban on masks and to appoint a senior vice provost with broad power to oversee both the department of Middle East, South Asian, and African Studied and the school's Center for Palestine Studies, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. Also, Columbia has hired over 30 "special officers" who will have the ability to remove individuals from campus and arrest them, per the memo from the school announcing the update."
Although this article is short, and mostly focuses on (wholly deserved) criticism of Columbia University for caving completely to fascist intimidation, there's actually a lot to unpack about the larger situation here:
- as in the case of the Paul Weiss capitulation story, the greater evil here remains a fascist Trump regime engaging in what amounts to extortion, to further its attacks on protesters, civil rights activists, and higher education in America.
- while on the surface Columbia's concessions to the regime may appear small, they foundationally attack free speech rights on campus, and the academic freedom of the institute, to the point that I'm not even sure you can still call Columbia a university now. Allowing a Trump regime that defines opposing genocide as antisemitism, protest as terrorism, and criticizing the US government as a threat to national security, to influence a department's curriculum, helping it to identify students engaged in constitutionally-protected protests, and literally embedding a small police department's worth of goon squad murderpigs inside the facilities to more expediently violate the rights of protestors, are each in and of themselves damning examples of fascist collaboration that fundamentally invalidate everything Columbia claims it stands for.
- as I've mentioned elsewhere, it's important to understand that "Trump is not threatening to jail or deport anyone running these big law firms and prestigious universities. He's threatening them with funding cuts, lack of access to federal contracts, and harassment investigations." This in turn means that by collaborating with the Trump regime (based on fascist word games and lies that, by capitulating, Columbia itself is helping to transform into enforced reality) the administrators running Columbia, just like the law firm Paul Weiss above, are effectively declaring that there is a monetary cost above which they will happily collaborate with fascism to actively harm their own students and our larger society.
- I realize that $400M in government funding is a lot of money, but we're talking about a university with a $14.8B (with a b) endowment, and one of the wealthiest alumni and donor bases in America. I don't find the senior administrator quoted in this story's excuse that "the federal government had too many ways to take back money from the university" credible, and even if I did you're still saying there's a price point where you'll normalize authoritarianism and support the activates of a fascist regime against your own students. If the price of keeping grand ole Columbia in a "recognizable form" is helping a fascist government install a fascist dictatorship that *will* end in mass graves, then that price is too damn high.
- they literally didn't even *try* to take the Trump regime to court over this.
- since there was no court case, and no legal settlement, the Trump regime is not bound by anyone to cease its attacks on Columbia, or barred from issuing further demands. If tomorrow, Trump decides that the University has to open up a phrenology department, devote its resources to investigating "anti-white racism" on campus, and let one of Elon Musk's DOGE minions run all of its scientific research, he can simply threaten Columbia's funding again to get what he wants. The university now works for Trump; even if they don't realize it yet.
Don't for a moment think this is just about so-called illegal-aliens.
Should the Trump Regime and Supreme Court achieve the abolition or an end run around Birthright Citizenship and the Alien Enemies Act for Deportations, then anyone deemed an enemy of the Regime, is an enemy of the state, can be considered a non-citizen and disappeared.
#US #Culture #Politics #Law #Constitution #CivilRights #EqualJustice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBFX4EuAWHc
