iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

JUDGE: Well? GEORGE WASHINGTON: I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down many trees at the golf course without providing adequate notice to my litigation adversaries

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

It's typically a form of discrimination by race or national origin: "this Bad Place infected people with its badness." Sadly, it has become popular among people of all political stripes; they just disagree about which are the Bad Places.

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Reposted by Matthew Segal

Molly Roberts @mollyroberts.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

"I am thoroughly unamused," says Judge Reyes

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I litigated a Remain-in-Mexico case. IMHO, its awfulness flew under the radar. It forced asylum seekers into dangerous places — for which the U.S. State Dept issues "Do Not Travel” warnings — where they were predictably threatened or assaulted.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

October is a big month not only for SCOTUS but for state supreme courts too. Today the Mass. SJC hears a case involving a defendant who was detained by ICE in the middle of his state criminal trial. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

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Owen Barcala @obarcala.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Arizona Court of Appeals reverses sentencing of defendant where the state presented an AI video of the deceased addressing the court, and lawyers everywhere breathe a sigh of relief Here is the opinion - coa1.azcourts.gov/Portals/1/Op... apnews.com/article/ariz...

apnews.com

Sentence tossed in Arizona case where deceased victim was depicted speaking in AI-generated video

An Arizona man’s 10-year manslaughter sentence has been tossed in a case where a video generated by artificial intelligence portrayed the deceased victim addressing a judge before the punishment was i...

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Andrew @andrewhsowards.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A lot of the work that went into this was done by my former colleague at the FPD, one of the smartest and most dedicated lawyers I ever knew, Paula Harms. She passed away last year unexpectedly and I really wish she could see this.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Watching the Red Sox travel to New York every fall only to lose to young men who grew up here is the closest people in Massachusetts will come to understanding how the British must have felt about the Battles of Saratoga.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

NEW: For years, NY's Office of Court of Admin has refused to turn over its legal memos to judges in NY's Unified Court System, claiming it has an *attorney-client relationship* with *all* UCS judges. NY's Appellate Division has now rejected that argument. www.aclu.org/press-releas...

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I agreed to participate in a lot of panel discussions this fall so I guess what I'm saying is that I'm presently swimming in a sea of tote bags.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

In a single 5-page order, SCOTUS: (1) respected a state court interpreting a state constitution; (2) confirmed that federal doctrines (like Purcell) don’t always apply in state court; (3) chastised the Eighth Circuit for making mischief; and (4) spoke with one voice. Pretty good imho.

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Danny Miller @danielmilleresq.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm proud to have helped organize this. If you're a lawyer or law student, sign up for this nonpartisan rally next Tuesday. You'll hear from @meiselasb.bsky.social and @normeisen.bsky.social among other champions of the rule law about what YOU can do to protect our free and fair elections.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This was really fun but I’m kicking myself for not eating more cheese while I was in town.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Here is a model instruction empowering juries to devalue or disregard officer testimony if they find an unreasonable or bad faith failure to record: www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/u...

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Unsolicited advice for college/law students: *Profs & employers will increasingly distrust take-home writing as a barometer of student aptitude. *So it's probably wise to practice speaking, including to authority figures, about complex issues. *Use class discussions & office hours to practice.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Beyond the substance of the Missouri litigation, having diferent tiers of federal courts operate as though they are unaware of each other does not inspire confidence that the federal judiciary is functioning as it should.

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Josh Block @joshablock.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

1. Under what possible procedural mechanism can a court of appeals affirm a TRO and remand for entry of a *permanent injunction* when there hasn’t even been an answer to the complaint? 2. This just openly defies Kavanaugh’s stay of the order until disposition of a cert petition.

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

NEW: Eighth Circuit orders the district court, on a TRO appeal in the Onder case, to issue a permanent injunction that Missouri use the 2025 maps. This changes nothing immediately, however, and almost surely won't change anything for the 2026 elections. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Before LOKEN, STRAS, and JUSTIN D. SMITH, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
On November 3, 2026, Missourians will vote for federal and state candidates in this year's general election. Spirited congressional and ballot measure campaigns have intersected in federal and state courts. The question presented to this Court is which congressional district map Missouri should use for the November 2026 elections: the map adopted in 2025 and used in the August 2026 primary election, or the map adopted in 2022. The people of Missouri deserve an answer to this important question.
This Court holds that Missouri's current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution. Only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution and federal law. We affirm the district court! and remand for entry of a permanent injunction.

To allow for appellate review, the district court should administratively stay its permanent injunction until September 28, 2026, at 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
Without any stay, Secretary Hoskins and local election authorities would be required to immediately begin implementing the 2025 map before the Supreme Court receives or decides any appeal. And without a limit to the stay, PNP could wait to file its petition for a writ of certiorari until the December 21, 2026, due date, see SUP. CT. R. 13.1, thus preventing the Supreme Court from considering the merits of this case until after Missouri has conducted the November 2026 general election.
The mandate shall issue forthwith.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“When the government targets… particular views taken by speakers on a subject, the violation of the First Amendment is all the more blatant.” — Rosenberger v. University of Va., 515 U.S. 819 (1995).

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Happy Constitution Day! But yes, especially these days, when thinking about constitutional law, it’s better to think about our *constitutions* — plural.

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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Trump is dead serious. See this chart from March: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Chart showing that prior presidents including Trump’s first term grant disaster requests from blue and red states roughly equally before Trump 2 started rejecting most requests from blue states

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

1. Thank you for reading. 2. The piece expressly supports the equal application of antidiscrimination principles to all groups. See, e.g., screenshots below. 3. If you think insulting me is going to get me to engage with you any further, you are mistaken.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Once again, people are debating what does or doesn't constitute discrimination against Jews. Relatedly, UCLA Law's Jon Michaels and I have an article entitled "Misdiagnosing Anti-Jewish Animus," forthcoming in the Cardozo Law Review: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Definitely won't watch this. But I could be tempted to watch "THE HABEAS LITIGATION EXPERIMENT," which follows 30 lawyers, half of whom are assigned to represent the Dept of Corrections and half of whom are assigned to represent prisoners.

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ACLU of Massachusetts @aclum.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The Supreme Court’s decision means that all 50 states can continue to use their existing processes for mail voting, which have proven for decades to be safe, secure, and reliable. Every eligible voter has the right to exercise their constitutionally protected right to vote. Period.

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ACLU @aclu.org · 15/09/2026

BREAKING: The Supreme Court blocked USPS from enforcing key parts of a new rule that would've restricted mail-in voting for the November election. This is a major win for voting rights.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

#BREAKING: Over public dissents from Justices Thomas and Alito, #SCOTUS *denies* the Trump administration’s request for a stay in the mail-in ballots case. The USPS Rule will remain blocked—almost certainly through the midterms.

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NYU Law Democracy Project @democracyproject.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

🚨Next up in the Elections 2026 series: Faculty Dir. Bob Bauer — "In Missouri, A Judicial Response to Politicized Election Administration" We're publishing daily essays on potential threats to the election process & mechanisms available to manage them Read here: democracyproject.org/posts/in-mis...

democracyproject.org

In Missouri, A Judicial Response to Politicized Election Administration

A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

FWIW, as an application of current doctrine to a handgun ban that applies to houses of worship but exempts other comparable private establishments, this decision strikes me as... correct.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A federal district court has now issued a preliminary injunction, holding that the plaintiffs' Free Exercise and Second Amendment claims are likely to succeed against Montgomery County's ban on firearms at houses of worship. Opinion here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

storage.courtlistener.com

Memorandum Opinion – #35 in Silver Spring Jewish Center v. Montgomery County, Maryland (D. Maryland, 8:26-cv-02963) – CourtListener.com

MEMORANDUM OPINION. Signed by Judge Deborah K. Chasanow on 9/10/2026. (sat, Chambers)

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

On the morning of 9/11/01, I was a law student running an errand. People in the store were discussing the attack. I got in my car and turned on the radio. I vividly remember the newscaster breaking character and begging first responders to head to the towers. Which they did.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Hopefully today's news is a sign that SCOTUS won't stymie state courts when it comes to partisan gerrymandering. In Rucho, SCOTUS decided only “whether there is an ‘appropriate role for the Federal Judiciary’" on partisan gerrymandering. It said no. But state courts should be allowed to police it.

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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Happy 72nd Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools. She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama. The past isn’t past.

Ruby Bridges flanked by three U.S. Marshals on the steps of her school

Norman Rockwell’s painting depicting the event, “The Problem We All Live With,” originally published as a centerfold in the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine.

Ruby Bridges talking with President Obama as they look at Rockwell’s painting while it was temporarily displayed at the White House in 2011.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Even assuming driverless cars will mess up sometimes, it will presumably be rare, and traffic enforcement might need to change. If a driverless car makes an error, do you ticket the person in the back seat?

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

So, while one type of technology might make pretextual traffic stops even more feasible in the short term (i.e., cameras), another type of technology might make pretextual traffic stops less feasible in the long term (i.e., driverless cars that obey all traffic laws).

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Traffic laws make it impossible to drive without committing an offense, and camera systems increasingly enable police to find traffic offenses by *anyone of their choosing.* Weirdly, this problem might eventually be solved, not by law reform, but by driverless cars.

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onekade @onekade.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Yesterday a Boston state judge ordered the Massachusetts State Police to release public records the @aclum.bsky.social has been seeking since 2020 about the department’s statewide license plate reader surveillance network.

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Zach Montague @zjmontague.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Judge Talwani reaffirms once again that the USPS rule on mail-in voting appears to be an unconstitutional regulation of election mail, violating of the elections clause. Trump admin may have to return with a new SCOTUS application.

nytimes.com

Judge Once Again Blocks Trump Administration’s Plans to Restrict Mail-In Ballots (Gift Article)

The ruling arrived before the Supreme Court could decide whether to intervene but appeared certain to set off yet another round of appeals.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I really don’t know. But since the line between disagreement about the facts and refusal to follow instructions may be difficult to discern for an appellate judge reviewing the cold record — particularly on an emergency basis — deference to the trial court seems wholly unsurprising.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

A single justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has DENIED Lindsay Clancy's petition for emergency relief.

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Chapter 211, §3 concerns the SJC's broad "superintendence" power. The SJC has used this power to overturn 1000s of wrongful convictions in the Massachusetts drug lab scandals, and to prescribe rules for lower courts. This is one way state courts can be different from fed courts.

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