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Patty S.'s avatar

Excellent update, Gabe.

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Janni Martin's avatar

I didn't realize walk in freezers had conversations. Lol. Perhaps you meant condensation.

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Wendy🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🌈's avatar

The Judiciary just is not as predictable as Trump would like it to be. The is an amazing analysis, and certainly better than I can write. I watch the judges do the things they are doing, and then I watch Musk and Trump squirm over their insistence they are being persecuted. This means the system is working as its supposed to work. Or so one would hope anyway.

Wendy the Druid Crew @ https://thistleandmoss.com

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Suzanne's avatar

I doubt it less predictable I think unless it’s going to actually follow the Constitution and precedent. Now THAT would shock me.

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Rosemary Ford's avatar

I think you rely too heavily on charts—maybe because I dislike them. It is the weight of the decisions on lives that matter. Think Brown or Miranda or Citizens United or Roe/Dodd. Think of birthright citizenship--Justice Harlan (he of Plessy) dissented, and the impact of the costs of immigration on our schools—Plyer, a 5-4 decision that relied on burden of proof.

If you can say one good thing about Trump, he has compelled Americans to think about what rights they should be thinking of and the slender and sometimes populist reeds of law and logic undergird them .

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Andrea Lise's avatar

Gabe, I'm terrified of these arrests of immigrants who are here legally, and who are having their visas revoked and being deported.To me this is dictatorship , we've seen it in the dictatorships of Chile, Brazil, Argentina and many other countries. The political persecution is clear, why isn't anyone doing anything about it? Or is it all within the law and we'll be living this nightmare for four years? It seems that the citizens aren't too concerned about this issue! Would you write something about it, please?

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William m Gaffney's avatar

Boasberg was first appointed to the bench by George W

I would agree with you 95% Unfortunately Alioto and Thomas seem to be far right and not moveable The same with the judge in Texas

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Brad Van Arnum's avatar

Excellent piece, Gabe! This was such a good reminder that ideology doesn't always equate to partisanship when it comes to the courts.

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Barbara Fox's avatar

Just curious, did Reagan have a large number of cases due to The Iran/ Contra debacle ?

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Paul's avatar

I know you focus on DC politics but I live in Maine and an interesting thing happened with the budget. Republicans first agreed with the budget but when it came up for a vote they backtracked (they wanted limits on general assistance, work requirements for Mainecare [Medicaid].

Democrats then bypassed Republicans and passed a budget without ANY Republican votes (Dems have the majority), so then a couple of days ago Republicans filed a Peoples Veto and have until early June 2025 to collect ~68000 signatures. If they do it will go to the ballot in November and the $11B budget will be in limbo until then.

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Lekimball's avatar

They are not the least predictable.

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