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Joe DeMartin

@joedemartin.bsky.social
129 followers 255 following 156 posts

Davidson College 2021 AUWCL 2026 Working to safeguard and expand the franchise

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Reposted by Joe DeMartin
Martin Austermuhle @maustermuhle.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The D.C. Board of Elections says it’s asking the National Guard to avoid standing near D.C.’s ballot drop boxes, which opened today, in the wake of video footage showing them near a box in Foggy Bottom this week: www.washingtonsun.com/metro/nation...
washingtonsun.com
D.C. Elections Board Asks National Guard to Stay Away From Ballot Drop Boxes
Guard members were seen standing next to a drop box in Foggy Bottom this week.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
imagine if the mainstream media covered Republicans' number one donor — the biggest political donor in US history! — and his controversial views with as much scrutiny as they covered Hasan Piker's
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 06/10/2026
I LOVE how @propublica.org dealt with official comment here, editorially and stylistically.
The Trump administration says none of this is happening. 

"DHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake." "There are no 'indiscriminate' stops." Allegations of "racial profiling are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE." "The pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force." "ICE does not zip tie or restrain children." 

But that is precisely what is happening, and at a far larger scale than previously reported.
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 06/10/2026
Since Sam Alito's book comes out today, here is your reminder that his publisher, Hachette, has a whole website condemning bans of LGBTQ-themed books as "especially concerning," even as it publishes a sitting Supreme Court justice who supports those bans ballsandstrikes.substack.com/p/sam-alitos...
ballsandstrikes.substack.com
Sam Alito’s Publisher Wants You to Buy the Children’s Books He Just Made It Easier to Ban
The author of Mahmoud v. Taylor is writing a book for a publisher that calls the push to ban books with LGBTQ characters an attack on “one of the most important foundations of a free society.”
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Dan Weiner @danw329.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
We’ve dispensed with even the pretense that Trump’s super PAC is “independent” from him — the whole reason it could raise hundreds of millions of dollars in the first place, according to the logic of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
brennancenter.org
Citizens United, Explained
The 2010 Supreme Court decision further tilted political influence toward wealthy donors and corporations.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
one of the ways the media shows which side they prefer, is which politicians they quote uncharitably out-of-context and which they clean up for even when what they actually say and do is offensive (the Biden story ran on the front page less than a week before the 24 election)
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Somehow not everyone is aware of fact alluded to below. So one more time: John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett were all on GWBush 2000 'Florida Recount' team. (Which made GWB first prez in 112 yrs to 'win' after losing popular vote. Now they 'impartially' rule on our future.)
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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026
Vacating a stay of execution, and without even a word, is in-sane and horrific (Yes I know they've done similar shit before, that was wildly fucked up too)
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Justice Kavanaugh, please explain to me — and Christa Pike— how this is an “interim” decision? Justice Barrett, please explain to us how this is merely a “preliminary” ruling?
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Rick Hasen @rickhasen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
FINALLY, It’s a big contrast today where the Court truly balanced the equities in this case, compared to where it barely went through the motions of balancing the equities in the SAVE database case. It’s curious why the voters’ interests did not even deserve discussion by the majority in that one.
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Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Now there's finally some legal relief to rein in the depravity of these unacceptable detention facilities. Grateful for the countless court-watchers, advocates, lawyers & allies — and Judge Kaplan — who delivered this important legal victory. We won’t stop fighting to protect our neighbors.
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Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
After I was arrested demanding access there last year, I made the decision to take my case to trial to help expose the staggering extent of ICE's inhumanity. The American public deserved to know all about the abuses happening behind those walls.
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Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This ruling affirms what we've long known to be true. The holding room conditions at 26 Federal Plaza are completely deplorable.
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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Onward. Forward. With your help. Happy birthday to Democracy Americana! One year ago, I started this experiment. To keep it going, I need your support. Let me make my pitch and tell you what Democracy Americana can offer:
steady.page
Onward. Forward. With your help.
Happy birthday to Democracy Americana! One year ago, I started this experiment. To keep it going, I need your support.
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Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
this is FAR more demotivating than some left wing shitposting or podcasting critic of the democratic party can ever be
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Matt Negrin still host of Hardball on MSNBC @mattnegrin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
im confused how was propublica able to do journalism without having daily access to donald trump in the oval office where he calls everyone stupid
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Advancement Project @advancementproject.org · 17/09/2026
Today, we're excited for @carmen.advancementproject.org to step into the role of Executive Director with a bold vision for building the future, not just in moments of crisis but in the everyday, difficult work of building power. “Let’s build the world we’re all dreaming toward, together.”
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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Sending a message to your current audience that you'd prefer to have a different audience results in losing the former without gaining the latter. www.thewrap.com/creative-con...
thewrap.com
Refurbished ‘60 Minutes’ Debuts to a 19% Ratings Drop
The “60 Minutes” Season 59 premiere drew 7.7 million viewers, down 19% year over year.
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 15/09/2026
Genuinely an insane paragraph from Sam Alito. “Voter fraud is real and scary and we have to stop it, so the fact that implementing Trump’s mail ballot rule will disenfranchise millions is legally irrelevant.” Brain melted. A right-wing podcaster in a robe. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
___, (slip op., at 9) (internal quotation marks omitted).
As for the equities, the Government has a strong interest
in enforcing the rule, and implementing it will also “en-
hance the visibility of Federal Ballot Mail” in order to better
detect election fraud. 91 Fed. Reg. 54972. On the other side
of the balance, the plaintiff States invoke the practical ef-
fects of implementing the rule close to the midterm elec-
tions. I take that problem very seriously, but it is not
enough to convince me to deny the application.
First, as the District Court acknowledged, the States dis-
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Doug Lindner @douglindner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
SCOTUS Republicans have been hard at work on blocking this exact kind of climate regulation for a decade. From April:
nytimes.com
The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court
Secret memos obtained by The New York Times illuminate the origins of the court’s now-routine “shadow docket” rulings on presidential power.
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Cedichou @cedichou.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Let's all admire some incredible sanewashing. The US media is trying to push @froomkin.bsky.social over the edge. A tale of two evenings....
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 11/09/2026
promises made promises kept
ballsandstrikes.substack.com
John Roberts Is Not an “Institutionalist”
Based on recent history, if Roberts is the “only person” who can preserve the Smithsonian’s independence, the Smithsonian’s independence should be dead by the end of June.
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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The paragraph before seems equally detached from events—this would-be stumper of a question about the Court overturning executive orders is a lot less of a stumper when the executive orders keep violating laws passed by Congress!
Screenshot of text: 

The Supreme Court’s self-granted power to declare executive actions unconstitutional hardly appears in Bowie and Renan’s history. But [highlighting begins] it’s hard to see how this power could be legitimate by their logic. If the Court is trammelling democracy when it overturns acts of Congress, isn’t it doing the same when it overrules a popularly elected President? [highlighting ends]
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The Supreme Court blocked the student loan forgiveness despite there being explicit statutory authority for Biden to do it and allowed the Iran War despite an explicit Constitutional prohibition on anyone besides Congress declaring a war.
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Wallachia rides again @jmwallach.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
There are different rules for their friends the Republicans.
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I still think the most telling episode about how the Times covers Trump is when the Access Hollywood tape dropped, their very first print piece on it led with his apology.
FRONT PAGE Donald Trump Apology Caps Day of
Outrage Over Lewd Tape
By ALEXANDER BURNS, MAGGIE HABERMAN and JONATHAN
MARTIN| A vulgar discussion recorded in 2005 on a soap opera set added to evidence that Mr. Trump has a record of
sexist behavior.
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
BTW, when I bring this up, it's not to complain about the NYT going too hard on Biden, it's to establish they do have the will to go full klaxon blaring emergency mode about a President's mental condition if they want to. That they haven't been all summer is telling.
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
How many front page stories about Biden's mental status ran after the debate? One or more every day for a week. I stopped counting after that, but I'm sure there were more until he pulled out. Then a few more after that for good measure.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Imagine if every story abt DHS' hunt for election fraud included, as boilerplate, "instances of INDIVIDUAL voter fraud are rare, but Donald Trump was charged w/election fraud in 2023, Elon Musk is being sued for election fraud, & GA says Musk broke election law." edition.cnn.com/2026/08/31/p...
Still, the administration has touted alleged election fraud arrests. Last week, the Justice Department announced that a Honduran national who was legally living in the United States had been arrested and charged with fraudulently registering to vote and falsely claiming to be a US citizen.

“Today’s arrest is the first of many to come,” First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement.

Mullin, meanwhile, has positioned himself as a leading enforcer of Trump’s voter-fraud crackdown. Earlier this summer, his department announced an audit of public voter rolls had identified more than 250,000 registered noncitizens in just four states: California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada.

“One thing that I love about numbers, and I love about facts, is they don’t lie,” Mullin told reporters at the time, warning that election officials who fail to secure the midterms could face fines or even jail time.

But the numbers have, thus far, proved far less definitive than DHS initially suggested. The department publicly claimed it had found nearly 16,000 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter rolls. But behind closed doors, the department acknowledged to the state’s top election officials that it had “confirmed” just 185 of them, according to internal records reviewed by CNN. Another 6,200 were labeled “higher confidence matches” — but still required further vetting.
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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
It really sounds like we're hurtling toward a crisis here. The USPS seems determined to disenfranchise MILLIONS of Americans, and there is no reason to believe the Supreme Court won't let them do it. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/u...
nytimes.com
USPS Is Building a Mail-In Ballot Screening System Despite Legal Battles Over Trump Order
Election officials warn that the creation of a new online portal for states to upload voter information is already fueling confusion and could ultimately disenfranchise voters.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Awful. Just awful. A promising young man, a high school honors grad who joined JROTC and dreamed of becoming a doctor, killed himself because of the Trump admin’s obsession with hurting Haitians and the humiliating shame of an ICE ankle monitor. His blood is on their hands.
A picture of a young black man, dressed in a light blue suit with a smart black bow tie, smiling as he is handed a diploma from a school official, a white man in his 40s-50s who is also smiling. Underneath is the caption “Pierre Damas Bel receives his high school diploma. (Family Photo/Instagram)”Bel arrived in the United States in 2024 in order to reunite with his parents, who had fled Haiti three years before. The family was granted temporary protected status, purchased a home in Springfield and settled into life in the U.S. Bel dreamed of studying medicine and graduated high school last May with honors and as a proud member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), his father said. He was the eldest of three siblings and his family described him as smart and responsible.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Guys don't worry Trump throwing my ballot in the trash and disenfranchising me is just a strict new rule
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 25/08/2026
crazy the way they glaze this man. they treat him like a deity. the only good one!meanwhile, his signature opinion, bruen, is a total, incoherent mess.
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Joe DeMartin @joedemartin.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Which Court is that again, bud?
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
5 bylines and the only evidence for the claims presented is "Musk says" — and he is one of the biggest liars in history! bsky.app/profile/joed...
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A year ago, the New York Times reported that Musk was disillussioned and exiting politics. Now he is going to set a record as the biggest Republican donor in history. Why did they print such a false and inaccurate story? www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/u...
nytimes.com
A Disillusioned Musk, Distanced From Trump, Says He’s Exiting Washington (Published 2025)
The billionaire has made clear he is frustrated with the obstacles he encountered as he tried to upend the federal bureaucracy.
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 19/08/2026
Come ON
a post from marc elias

"while others bend a knee, democracy docket is fearlessly pro-democrayc. it won't share your email address, send you spam or try to sell you junnk. you will just get the information you seek, subscribe now"This investigation was originally developed for The New York Times, where it underwent eight months of editing, multiple rounds of fact-checking, and independent replication of the underlying methodology. The piece had a scheduled publication date when requests for comment were sent. It was only after the Times reached out to the subjects of the investigation for routine comment that the Elias Law Group, representing the DCCC and DSCC, sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding the paper not publish. Although the paper’s fact-checkers and legal department later cleared the piece before sending out a second round of requests for comment, the Times ultimately decided to kill the piece.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Who painted a more accurate picture of the US-Iran MOU? NYT: Deal Set to Open Strait NYT: Trump Lashes Out at Critics Me in @liberalcurrents.com: US and Iran Agree to Talk More, negotiations have been entirely on Iran's terms Me in @ms.now: Trump wants a shortcut to peace in Iran. It won't work.
New York Times front page June 17, 2026, with the top headline "Deal Set to Open Strait, But New Hurdles Arise From Months of Closure"New York Times front page June 18, 2026, with the top headline "Trump Lashes Out At Critics of Deal as Details Emerge"Liberal Currents headline, June 16, 2026: U.S. and Iran Agree to Talk More
Negotiations have been entirely on Iran's terms
By Nicholas Grossman

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/u-s-and-iran-agree-to-talk-more/MS.NOW headline from June 23, 2026: Trump wants a shortcut to peace with Iran. It won't work.
Trump keeps delivering "peace" deals that try to circumvent, or outright ignore, the groups actually doing the fighting

https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-iran-agreement-israel-lebanon
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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
👀 @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social leans into #scotus reform ▶️ ““There’s a variety of different options that are on the table. And I think that we can’t foreclose any single one of them.”” www.c-span.org/clip/public-...
“House Minority Leader Jeffries Calls for "Dramatic" Supreme Court Reform
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) says "dramatic" Supreme Court reform is necessary. "The conservative right-wing majority on the Supreme Court has become, basically, a subsidiary of the MAGA Republican Party," Jeffries says of their rulings, including the landmark 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais decision striking down Louisiana's congressional map as a unconstitutional racial gerrymander. "It tells me that they don't have the credibility for us to move forward, acting like everything is okay, and the status quo is acceptable, it's not, and we're gonna push for dramatic reform for the Supreme Court," Jeffries says of the Callais decision.”
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
i mean it's just an objective fact that they find elected officials plotting to violently overthrow our system of government to be less objectionable than, say, the president of harvard having sloppy citations in her phd thesis
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Josh Sternberg @joshsternberg.com · 12/08/2026
A reminder that the media is not liberal or objective. Notice the editorialization in the headline and deck. Why is it "stunning"? etc This is both agenda setting and manufactured confrontation, designed, over time, to make readers think a certain way. Also never see "limits of the Right" frames
A Stunning Loss in Wisconsin Shows the Limits of the Left
Francesca Hong’s defeat in the Democratic primary for governor defied expectations and may have shown the democratic socialist wave cannot reach beyond urban centers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/us/elections/david-crowley-wisconsin-governors-primary.html
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
“This is not a black or white decision.” - man whose job is to cast “yes” or “no” votes
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
MLB GMs will be like "fielding consistently competitive teams is a bad strategy. its better to lose 110 games for a few years in order to build a team that can compete in the playoffs" and then not compete in the playoffs
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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
this issue was just in front of the Supreme Court, and the case was the state of West Virginia against a middle school girl. which side sounds braver to you?
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 27/07/2026
"We'll be discussing all the very most important things the Supreme Court is up to this term, as that phrase is understood by our supporting sponsors: four BigLaw firms, a consulting firm, and a conservative litigation shop"
presenting sponsors: Cooley, Latham, W&C, Weil, Pacific Legal Foundation, some consulting company
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 27/07/2026
A pretty clean illustration of how SCOTUSblog's editorial coverage has shifted since its merger with a conservative media outlet: At its big-ticket Supreme Court term preview conference in the fall, the marquee event is...a panel featuring the GCs of Boeing, TD Bank, and ExxonMobil
Mark your calendar! SCOTUSblog and Johns Hopkins University are proud to convene The SCOTUSblog Summit: 2026 Term Preview, an afternoon of conversations and analysis on the Supreme Court, to be held at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. on September 16. 

 

The in-person program will feature a live podcast recording of Advisory Opinions with special guests, a keynote address, a panel featuring Brett Gerry (CLO of Boeing), Brian Callanan (GC of TD Bank), and Jeff Taylor (GC of ExxonMobil), and more. A cocktail reception will follow.

 

Registration will open soon – keep an eye on your inbox for additional event details.

 

Team SCOTUSblog

 
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Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · 20/07/2026
It's a scam all the way down. Taylor Farms gave MAGA Inc. $1M USD less than a week after FDA postponed implementation of food traceability rules. www.patreon.com/mattbc/posts...
FEC Schedule A itemized receipt, line C. Contributor: Taylor Fresh Foods Inc, 911-B Blanco Circle, Salinas, CA 93902. Date of receipt: 03/26/2025. Transaction ID: SA17.4550. Amount of receipt this period: $1,000,000.00. Marked "Memo Item" and labeled "NON-CONTRIBUTION." Receipt-for boxes (Primary/General/Other) are blank. Aggregate year-to-date: $1,000,000.00.
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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
AOC: I said this a couple of weeks ago: I would not be surprised if, when ICE funding started up again, we would start to see more civilian deaths at the hands of ICE. And that’s exactly what has happened. We didn’t see things like this happening with the same degree when we froze ICE funding.
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