iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Sharing this piece I wrote with terrific co-authors on the need for states to regulate AI in criminal justice. We discuss Trump’s preemption EO and explain the weakness of its legal arguments. States shouldn’t be deterred.

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Alex Chohlas-Wood @alexchohlaswood.com · 19/04/2026

This week at @brookings.edu, me, @chiraagbains.bsky.social, and Katie Kinsey argue for why states should take the lead on the regulation of AI in criminal justice settings, a high-stakes setting where effective regulation could not be more important.

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Jamal Greene @jamalgreene.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Why would anyone ever design a legal system in which the legislature lacks the constitutional authority to require the president to preserve records for posterity? The unitary executive theorists have completely lost the plot.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Under Biden we limited no-knocks for all feds to cases where necessary to protect physical safety. Breonna Taylor’s horrific killing had exposed the danger. No knocks frankly can be risky for cops too DOJ rescinded our policy Think about what this’ll mean with ICE kicking down doors across America

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

The federal district court in Minnesota released a list of 210 court orders ICE has violated in 143 cases in just the last month. From Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz, GW Bush appointee and Scalia clerk: www.documentcloud.org/documents/27...

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

All of this comes down to the companies’ refusal to bow down to Trump. Same story, every day.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

This administration obviously has no red lines but thank God the American people still do

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

They are going to lose the culture war they’re waging

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Call it what it is: censorship and erasure. And cowardice among university administrators. Students: pick a college that isn’t taking its marching orders from culture-war politicians

nytimes.com

Texas A&M Ends Women’s Studies and Overhauls Classes Over Race and Gender

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Revealing statement from Todd Blanche: “To the extent it needs to involve lawyers at the Civil Rights Division…”? In any credible investigation of a matter this salient, the prosecutors would be involved from the beginning. They would be driving it.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

DHS internal investigations will have zero credibility after Noem asserted Alex Pretti was "brandishing" a gun and "attacked" officers -- allegations contradicted by the video we've all seen. State investigators need to do this job.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Information and analysis are critical, but we also need guidance on what to do about the Trump Admin’s violence and anti-democratic abuses. This roadmap from @sifill.bsky.social helps.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Today, again, we watched a cover-up unfold in real time. This is their playbook: don’t investigate, label the victim a domestic terrorist, claim self-defense, insist things happened that we can see with our own eyes did not. But it’s weakness, not strength. They know how damning the truth is.

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Jeff Rueter @jeffrueter.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti. "Please get the truth out about our son."

Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti
Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti

“We are heartbroken but also very angry.

Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.

I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed.

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

The Senate should not vote to keep funding this rampage. We are not powerless. We do not need to accept this.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Sharing a new report I published — “When Machines Discriminate” — about using disparate impact law to prevent biased AI, with @civilrightsorg.bsky.social. I also dissect the errors and misrepresentations in Trump’s legal assaults on disparate impact doctrine. civilrights.org/disparate-im...

civilrights.org

Disparate Impact

As AI’s role grows in decisions that affect our rights and opportunities, it is imperative that the technology be fair and nondiscriminatory.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Honestly this is the kind of thing we’d open criminal and systemic civil investigations of, back when DOJ protected people’s constitutional rights

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Ken Martin @kenmartin.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

ICE detained a 5-year-old child in Minnesota to use as “bait.” An innocent child. America, let this sink in. This is what the government is doing right in front of our eyes.

MPR News: ICE detains 5-year old Minnesota boy; lawyer says agents used him as ‘bait’

Liam Conejo Ramos, a student at Valley View Elementary, whom school officials and a lawyer for the Ramos family say was detained with his parent by federal agents on Tuesday.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Things you don’t do when trying to uncover the truth: Freeze out the state BCA Refuse to open a civil rights investigation Instead treat it as an assault on the agent Call the victim a domestic terrorist Investigate her grieving widow Investigate the neighbors for monitoring ICE, their 1st Am right

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Yesterday's ruling allowing Trump to deploy National Guard troops - including from other states - should provoke an outcry for DC statehood DC's status as a congressionally created district is the core of the panel's reasoning media.cadc.uscourts.gov/orders/docs/...

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

11 months after Trump blamed “DEI” for the crash on national television, this 209-page DOJ filing says… nothing of the sort

nytimes.com

U.S. Government Admits Liability in Deadly D.C.-Area Air Collision

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Human Rights Campaign @hrc.org · 17/12/2025

@mcbride.house.gov is right. It’s hard enough being a kid — and politicians don’t need to make it harder. Thank you, Congresswoman, for speaking out against the cruel Republican attacks on health care for trans youth.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Tish James' vindictive prosecution claim just got even stronger

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Also, the legal arguments for preemption referenced in the EO (Commerce Clause, 1st Am) are exceedingly weak. This is ultimately about harassing and bullying states into submission. But no state should sacrifice its people in response to this document.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Two holidays celebrating Black liberation and equality, in fact… Other countries that treat a ruler’s birthday as a national holiday: Japan (Emperor Naruhito) Thailand (King Vajiralongkorn) Netherlands (King Willem-Alexander) Tuvalu (King Charles III) See a pattern?

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

The Federal Government under Trump: You will be fired for attending a diversity training or having a pride flag in your office But maybe not for displaying a symbol of racial terror and annihilation

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

The repeated mistakes are egregious, but it's important to understand where they're coming from It's not just inexperience or incomptence It's putting the president's personal revenge and power grabs ahead of the facts, the law, and justice

news.bloomberglaw.com

Trump Loyalists in DOJ Face Criticism as Judges Expose Blunders

Judges’ rebukes this week of blunders by top Justice Department lawyers show the pitfalls of installing President Donald Trump loyalists to their roles, lawyers and scholars said.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

A legislature dictating policies to Americans who have no vote in it. Where have we seen this before...

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Evidence that there are still sometimes consequences for incredibly bad lawyering DOJ's Civil Rights Division sought to pressure Texas to redistrict, as the White House wanted. It did so by demanding an obvious racial gerrymander.

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Indivisible ❌👑 @indivisible.org · 19/10/2025

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

This framing by the Washington Post... Trump hasn’t chipped away at the wall between DOJ and the White House on enforcement actions — he bulldozed it. And early on. We’re just seeing it in its fullness now because he put it on social media.

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlie Kirk’s record. archive.ph/2025.09.16-2...

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

See the forest. Per new @brookings.edu analysis yesterday, "The Trump administration’s broader economic agenda threatens to drastically reduce the financial capacity of Black students to attend college." www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

nytimes.com

Trump Redirects Millions to Historically Black Colleges, Charter Schools

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Yes, this is unconstitutional. It’s also legal malpractice: the Attorney General just served up smoking gun evidence that the enforcement actions DOJ is about to take are in direct violation of the First Amendment. Expect these words to be quoted repeatedly in motions and briefs

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

This 1863 photograph of Peter Gordon's back rebutted the lie that slavery was a "benign institution." It galvanized public support for the Union cause. Slavery's defenders understood the photo's power. They tried to slow its circulation, calling it fake. In 2025, another attempt to hide the truth

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Pay attention. Something dark might be coming. The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent. 1/ Here's what's happening.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

The assassination of Charlie Kirk is utterly reprehensible. All political violence -- which this looks very likely to be -- should be stridently condemned. Anyone celebrating the killing -- and any opportunists using it to stoke a war on "the left" -- should also be condemned.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

It’s transparently pretextual Transforming the Fed from a sober, data-driven, independent entity into another servile mouthpiece for Trump will not work out well for us

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Trump never cared about safety in our city. He pardoned 1600 January 6 rioters, including many who brutalized police officers. This is an attack on DC’s right to self-rule and a desperate attempt to distract from the Epstein files and his job-killing, price-spiking tariffs.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

This stay stops a badly wrong turn in the Eighth Circuit, which departed from decades of case law in ruling that voters can’t sue under the core of the Voting Rights Act (…even though the Supreme Court has repeatedly heard such cases)

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Understand how calamitous this is. Given that Trump controls DOJ—the only entity the 8th Circuit says can file Section 2 lawsuits—this means the core of the Voting Rights Act is effectively dead in 7 states.

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Chiraag Bains @chiraagbains.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

“As violence erupted, his charging document said, he told other rioters who were attacking law enforcement officers, ‘Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!’”

nytimes.com

Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Who Threatened Police Joins Justice Dept.

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