Since its inception over a month ago, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has identified cost savings of $105 billion—which may be an overestimation. Regardless of the exact figure, DOGE has brought to light some (of the many) layers of wasteful spending within the federal government, which includes the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office […]
Humphrey’s Executor may be in the crosshairs. President Trump’s decision to remove a range of agency officials, including the Chair of the National Labor Relations Board and the Special Counsel of the Office of Special Counsel, and the Department of Justice’s announcement that it will no longer defend Humphrey’s Executor as a correct constitutional decision certainly […]
Last week, during a press conference in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance excoriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not sufficiently showing gratitude to the U.S. The entire affair was shameful, but it could potentially cause European leaders to step up their own support of Ukraine, which would be a […]
Friday’s contentious White House meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, following peace talks between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, has the world wringing its hands. More ink has been spilled in recent weeks over who has been jilted in multilateral talks than about the actual […]
I am not typically one to pay any attention at all to the Oscars. But my attention was piqued by Anora, a Sean Baker film that centers on a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, being up for awards in six categories this year—awards that it largely won. Anora took best […]
The Supreme Court does not hear many cases these days. It is very stingy in granting certiorari, even in cases that present clear circuit splits. This morning’s Order List provides a good example, as the Court denied certiorari in Speech First v. Whitten, which presented the question whether university “bias-response teams” objectively chill students’ speech […]
Vice President J.D. Vance appears to have masterminded a whole blowup between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump: Zelenskyy had been invited to the Oval Office for a press conference related to the signing of a rare earth minerals deal between Ukraine and the United States, through which America could maybe begin to […]
Back in 2023, I blogged about S.B.B. v. L.B.B., a New Jersey intermediate appellate court case: [T]he plaintiff husband and defendant wife were getting divorced, and the wife claimed that the husband wasn’t giving her a Jewish religious divorce. (The husband “denied withholding the get, claimed he had given the get to the Chief Rabbi […]
An excerpt from Friday’s order by Judge Kathleen Williams (S.D. Fla.) in U.S. v. Martinez: On February 29, 2024, Martinez was indicted on the sole count of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce … after uploading to his private Instagram account a thirty-eight-second recording of him inside his vehicle, pointing a sight-equipped firearm in the […]
[1.] An excerpt from the long decision in Braun v. Day, decided by Judge Mary Rowland (N.D. Ill.) Friday: [Plaintiff] Propson is a resident of the state of Wisconsin and a licensed mortician. Propson operates at least one social media account under the handle “Lauren the Mortician,” where she posts about matters related to her […]