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Mike Fox

@foxmike90.bsky.social
212 followers 64 following 52 posts

Criminal Justice @CatoInstitute | Human-Companion to Miranda the Husky

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Reposted by Mike Fox
Washington Post Opinions @postopinions.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
"Allowing federal agents to turn international travel into an automatic forfeiture of constitutional rights sets a dangerous precedent," @foxmike90.bsky.social of @cato.org writes.
wapo.st
Opinion | Your privacy rights don’t disappear at the border
Congress or the courts need to make clear that a smartphone is not a suitcase.
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Reposted by Mike Fox
Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
What happens at an airport terminal or border crossing when the government demands access to your phone? "Handing over a password under duress can yield self-incriminating evidence. Resisting, however, exposes the traveler to escalation." From my colleague @foxmike90.bsky.social:
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | U.S. customs officers want your password? It’s an insidious trap.
Your privacy rights don’t disappear at the border.
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David J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I obtained records revealing another Border Patrol agent is under investigation for the killing of an unarmed Mexican man who, according to CBP, was trying to get back to Mexico on foot. I worked with @texastribune.org's @lomikriel.bsky.social to get a fuller story... www.cato.org/blog/new-doc...
cato.org
New Docs Show Another Border Patrol Agent Under Investigation for Killing
Custom and Border Protection’s pronouncement accepting the officer’s self-defense claim should carry little weight given the extensive record of agents lying to their supervisors about assaults.
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
A thread on how U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) wargamed an Insurrection Act invocation scenario just five weeks after Trump's second inauguration...and how subsequent DoD actions raise the specter of military involvement in connection with the 2026 midterms.
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Mike Fox @foxmike90.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
One of many reasons I stopped drinking!
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Reposted by Mike Fox
Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
A week after Trump issued his "national emergency" proclamation for the southern border, the military began planning for a potential invocation of the Insurrection Act & much more. Another major #FOIA get, out now. cc: @radleybalko.bsky.social @cjciaramella.bsky.social www.cato.org/blog/northco...
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Reposted by Mike Fox
Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
NYPD not only harvests DNA from adults charged with crimes, but surreptitiously gathers it from those merely being questioned, even choosing to trick children. Second Circuit should protect privacy rights by requiring a warrant. [Matthew Cavedon on Cato amicus brief in Leslie v. City of New York]
cato.org
Leslie v. City of New York Brief: NYC's "Suspect Index" of Secretly Harvested DNA Is Unconstitutional
The NYPD routinely collects DNA samples in an orchestrated surreptitious manner through ruses involving straws, bottles, or even cigarettes, without the knowledge or consent of the searched individual...
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
People need to start getting disbarred for this shit.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
DOJ’s refusal to prosecute or even investigate ICE abuse is significant, @foxmike90.bsky.social, “a legal policy scholar at @cato.org, told TMD. ‘DOJ is sending [DHS] a powerful message that what you’re doing is not only acceptable, but we are encouraging it.’”
thedispatch.com
Will Blanche Be Confirmed?
Plus: Russia launches deadly attacks across Ukraine, U.S. economic growth slows, and no robot dogs on flights.
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Reposted by Mike Fox
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 26/07/2026
Tim Bakken, West Point's longest-serving law professor, says officials never tried to silence him — until Trump’s second presidency, when the military academy revised its faculty speech rules. In September, he sued West Point in federal court.
washingtonpost.com
After Trump’s order, West Point curbed faculty speech. One professor said no.
Tim Bakken argues that the Pentagon's attempt to stifle what teachers can say and write makes the military more susceptible to bad decisions.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Does your state *still* follow the felony murder rule?
reason.com
In 39 states, people can be sentenced to life for murders they did not commit
The Sentencing Project highlights the perverse consequences of the felony murder rule, a vestige of British law that still prevails in federal courts and all but two states.
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David J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
If illegal immigrants could destabilize the financial system, it shouldn't be debanking them AND deporting them. The fact that it's doing exactly what it says would cause instability proves it 1) doesn't believe its own claims or, frighteningly, 2) that it might not care!
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
In Texas, a Border Patrol agent was just indicted by a local grand jury for aggravated assault for running down a migrant with his car on January 31, 2025. Video from a homeowner showed the agent driving straight into a man who was calmly walking on the side of the road. myrgv.com/local-news/2...
myrgv.com
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Wondering about how radical Trump's changes to the federal work force might be? So was GAO. Then OPM told them to go pound salt. My latest, out now.
cato.org
OPM to GAO: Take A Hike
The OPM report is worth reading not for its numbers but for its final admission: the audit arm of Congress asked a cabinet-level agency to explain itself, and was met with outright refusal.
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Reposted by Mike Fox
Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
New at The Watch: More on how and why Democrats should make it possible for victims and their families to sue Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, and other political appointees for violence inflicted by immigration agents.
radleybalko.substack.com
Suing Stephen Miller
It's time to put everyone from Stephen Miller and Tom Homan to the most recent ICE hire on notice: a reckoning is coming
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Reposted by Mike Fox
Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Moving essay from the mother of Ruben Ray Martinez, the first person killed by federal officers during this administration. He too was shot while driving, and after he was given conflicting orders. They also lied about him "weaponizing" his car.
nytimes.com
Opinion | My Son Was Killed by ICE. I Want Accountability.
I deserve accountability and transparency, and so does the public.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
He’d rather mourn the dead ICE agents in his imagination than show an ounce of sympathy for the people his agents have killed. Also, if an ICE agent ever needs to be buried, I’d give it even odds that it will be because they were mistakenly shot by another agent.
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David J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
"Homan is admitting what the record shows: ICE has been endangering its officers and others for no enforcement benefit. Ending vehicle stops won’t end all the problems, or even all the deaths. But continuing them means more danger for ICE personnel and the public." www.cato.org/commentary/t...
cato.org
Trump’s Order to Resume ICE Traffic Stops Means More Danger for the Public
Even his own immigration czar admits that permanently ending the stops would better protect ICE agents, their targets and the public.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
As for Trump's assertion that 278,000 noncitizens are on the voting rolls in 4 states: 1) it's fiction; 2) Trump has every reason to know it's fiction, given the uniform experience by which speculative database comparisons of this sort in the past have invariably melted away on closer inspection.
washingtonpost.com
Trump says 278,000 noncitizens are on voting rolls. Experts say that’s wrong.
The claim came as the Trump administration vowed to withhold funding from states that don’t participate in federal programs purporting to secure elections.
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
When the White House counsel is the declassification authority, the agenda is entirely political.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
From my colleague @foxmike90.bsky.social: State and local authorities aren’t powerless bystanders when ICE kills. Even if they cannot dictate how federal agents operate within their boundaries, Houston Mayor John Whitmire should be ordering a city-led investigation and taking other steps.
cato.org
Mayor Whitmire Is Wrong. Local Officials Can -- and Must -- Stand Up to ICE
Local authorities have the legal authority — and the moral obligation — to resist lethal federal overreach on city streets.
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Reposted by Mike Fox
Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Officers shooting a man, running away from law enforcement, who is not a target of law enforcement, and who poses no threat to law enforcement, is murder. Federal officers do not have the power to commit summary executions because they are aggrieved.
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David J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
WHOA DHS does not say that the agent feared for his life… just the vague concern for “public safety.” So he killed him just because he did not want him in America, not because of any specific threat to agents?
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𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 11/07/2026
We‘re one executive order away from a chocolate fountain.
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 03/07/2026
“Congress should authorize per-day, per-record penalties for agencies that fail to substantively respond to FOIA requests.” trib.al/s1lbvky
trib.al
My Front-Row Seat to the Slow Death of the Freedom of Information Act
I file FOIA requests for a living, and the landmark law—which turns 60 this week—is near a breaking point.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
"The 29-page ruling pulled no punches regarding the ethics of using federal law enforcement as a political tool." @foxmike90.bsky.social on chief judge Patrick Schiltz's scathing arraignment of the Trump administration's bid to prosecute its biggest enemies among Minnesota politicians.
cato.org
Federal Judge Rebukes DOJ Subpoenas as Political Retaliation, Reaffirms Limits on Federal Power
The grand jury system is an instrument of justice, not a weapon for the regime to use at its will.
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Reposted by Mike Fox
Ilya Somin @ilyasomin.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
In this post, I assess today's very good federal court ruling quashing federal immigration-related subpoenas against Minnesota state officials, on grounds they violate 10th Amendment protections against commandeering of states by feds: reason.com/volokh/2026/...
reason.com
Federal Court Strikes Down Subpoenas of Minnesota Officials on Anti-Commandeering Grounds
The court ruled the subpoenas were part of an unconstitutional effort to coerce Minnesota state and local governments into giving up their immigration "sanctuary" policies.
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Reposted by Mike Fox
Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Using criminal charges to scapegoat innocent people for the regime’s mistakes is about as authoritarian as it gets. www.reuters.com/world/us/peo...
reuters.com
People caught vandalizing Washington Reflecting Pool to be fully prosecuted, US Attorney Pirro says
People caught vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Washington’s National Mall ​will be fully prosecuted, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on ‌Sunday.
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The Verge @theverge.com · 20/06/2026
For the past 26 years, American sunscreen has been terrible compared to sunscreens available in the rest of the world. But last week, the FDA approved a new chemical sunscreen filter for the first time since 1999. At last, better sunscreens are on the way. Read more from @vicmsong.bsky.social:
theverge.com
Our long national sunscreen nightmare is almost over
It’s been 26 years since the FDA approved a new filter.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
How comfortably can capital punishment, an irreversible and ultimate sanction, coexist with a system of prosecution and proof that insulates its own actors from any sort of accountability for mistakes or even deliberate misconduct? [@foxmike90.bsky.social]
cato.org
The Impossibility of Reversal: Why Capital Punishment Fails the Test of Accountability
If we lived in a world where police and prosecutors were held personally accountable for misconduct, I’d have no issue with the death penalty remaining on the table for violent offenders. But that isn...
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
In a Cato statement, my colleague @foxmike90.bsky.social applauds today's unanimous SCOTUS ruling in Hemani v. U.S. For "millions of Americans who use medical or recreational cannabis under state frameworks, it rightly removes "the threat of federal criminal liability for peaceful gun ownership."/1
cato.org
Expert Available: Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal Gun Ban for Cannabis Users
While the government may regulate active impairment and immediate dangerousness, the justices determined that the government cannot use ambiguous, status-based categories to disarm citizens in their o...
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Holy shit. The government is conceding it willl pay some amount of fees to the Broadview Six. They are DESPERATE to stop further inquiry into the case. Never heard of such a thing.
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
We might finally end this #surveillance monstrosity after all. 😎
reuters.com
Trump says FISA extension must include voting bill
U.S. President Donald Trump said ​on Sunday he opposes any renewal ‌of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that does not include his Save America ​Act, which would require proof ​of citizenship ...
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
What's bad is that the VA legislature passed & Spanberger signed a bill that clearly violates the Second Amendment. What's also clear is that the prosecutors understand that under existing SCOTUS rulings the bill is unconstitutional & that their oath to the federal constitution comes first.
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
If you didn't get a chance to catch it live today, the only hearing happening in Congress on #surveillance and #FISA Section 702 is now available for viewing:
c-span.org
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Hurray! Unanimous SCOTUS this morning, Kagan writing, reverses Ninth Circuit and reaffirms right to trial where offense occurred. A satisfying win for the Bill of Rights.
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
How much #FISA Section 702 noncompliance incident material is the regime withholding? Lots...as in tens of thousands of pages. My latest, out now.
cato.org
FISA Section 702 Noncompliance Records: 39,650 Pages Worth?
All of this matters because the FISA Section 702 program is set to expire in three days (June 12), unless Congress takes action to temporarily extend the spy power.
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
The only hearing taking place this week on #FISA Section 702 surveillance and other threats to the Bill of Rights prior to FISA Section 702's potential expiration this Friday will be tomorrow. Details here, and I'm among the witnesses.
democrats-homeland.house.gov
WEDNESDAY: Democrats to Hold Hearing on the Growing Surveillance State Under Trump | House Committee on Homeland Security
The Official Website of the House Committee on Homeland Security
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
From my colleague @foxmike90.bsky.social: A new bipartisan bill in Congress takes aim at the "trial penalty" and prosecutorial leverage in today's coercive system of plea bargaining. It would direct that judges review the entire history of plea negotiations in sentencing.
cato.org
Restoring the Right to Trial by Jury: How the Right to Trial Act Helps Reclaim the Sixth Amendment
While this reform will not on its own dismantle the unduly coercive plea-bargaining regime entirely, it strips prosecutors of their ability to act as judge, jury, and executioner through their chargin...
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Courthouse News @courthousenews.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Democrats offer up legal protections for people filming ICE operations @benjaminweiss.bsky.social www.courthousenews.com/democrats-of...
courthousenews.com
Democrats offer up legal protections for people filming ICE operations
Arguing that federal agents have violated protesters' First Amendment rights, lawmakers are proposing consequences for officers who prevent people from recording them.
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
That new Senate #FISA Section 702 reauth bill? Yeah, it's a sham. My latest.
cato.org
The Fourth Amendment Forecloses a Foreign Intelligence Exception: A Brief Case Against the FISA Section 702 Program
The Section 702 program has always been at odds with the plain language of the Fourth Amendment.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Federal law enforcement surveillance of Americans' financial life continues to expand year by year, whether Congress passes any new laws to that effect or not. And now Trump wants to enlist the payments system to bolster his border/immigration policies, among other goals [Nick Anthony]
cato.org
Financial Surveillance Is Expanding Before Our Eyes
Until they act, financial surveillance will continue to get worse every day.
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Ilya Somin @ilyasomin.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
My new @chkbal.bsky.social article "The Case Against Mass Deportation." I summarize current Trump abuses, why many of these problems occur even under more normal presidents, and outline various reforms. Best approach is to massively cut back deportation: chkbal.substack.com/p/the-case-a...
chkbal.substack.com
The Case Against Mass Deportation
The Trump Administration's mass deportation efforts are a cruel, violent affront to the values of our nation.
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Patrick G. Eddington @pgeddington.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Two members of the House think it would be a great idea to put the Secret Service directly under Trump's control. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
ocregister.com
Secret Service in the Executive Office is a recipe for praetorianism
Move the Secret Service into the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and you move its financial crimes jurisdiction there with it.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Cato's @thomasberry.bsky.social discusses originalism, executive power, and the Roberts court on The Politics Guys podcast (58:25)
cato.org
Thomas A. Berry discusses originalism, executive power, and the Roberts court on The Politics Guys podcast
May 26, 2026
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
"So what happens when the Trump Justice Department is weaponized against protestors? Are the protestors entitled to financial recovery from the president’s slush fund? Don’t hold your breath." My Cato colleague @foxmike90.bsky.social on the contrast between the Broadview Six and the Capitol rioters.
cato.org
Justice Denied, Injustice Funded: How the DOJ Shields Misconduct While Bankrolling Extremism
It is the height of corruption for the president to sue his own IRS so that he can out billions to violent criminals who brutally assaulted cops while attempting to overturn the outcome of a free and ...
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Thomas Berry and I join the Cato podcast to discuss Callais, race, redistricting, and how Congress could fix a lot of the worst problems with a simple compactness rule.
cato.org
Louisiana v. Callais and the Future of the Voting Rights Act
Featuring Thomas A. Berry and Walter Olson
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Abrego García should apply for the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” How many other people have a district court ruling actually *finding* vindictive prosecution?
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