Blake Feldman
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3lake.bsky.social
Blake Feldman
@3lake.bsky.social
230 followers 470 following 51 posts
senior policy counsel at Southern Center for Human Rights • was at MCJ, SPLC, ACLU of MS • here in my personal capacity • he/him
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Reposted by Blake Feldman
pdefenselesspod.bsky.social
Today, I spoke w/ @3lake.bsky.social Senior Policy Counsel at Southern Center for Human Rights. We discussed a new slate of "tough on crime" laws in Gerogia that might make communities even less safe.

spotify.link/rbTWQjHVEXb
October 22, 2025 at 12:12 AM
3lake.bsky.social
“So far, only the University of TX system has publicly indicated support for the administration’s proposal. Dartmouth College, U of AZ, U Penn, the University of Southern CA, UVA and Vanderbilt have said little about their views.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...
Brown University Rejects White House Deal for Special Treatment
www.nytimes.com
October 15, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Reposted by Blake Feldman
pressfreedom.bsky.social
Today marks 100 days of journalist Mario Guevara’s detention by U.S. law enforcement for livestreaming. Guevara, the only journalist behind bars for his journalism, faces the very real threat of deportation for doing his job.

We demand Mario’s immediate release. freedomformario.com

#FreeMario
September 22, 2025 at 8:19 PM
3lake.bsky.social
“The Atlanta-area journalist whose immigration arrest sparked national conversation is facing imminent deportation to his home country of El Salvador, following an immigration appeals court’s decision to order him removed.” www.ajc.com/news/2025/09...
Atlanta journalist detained by ICE is ordered deported
Mario Guevara faces imminent removal to El Salvador. He was arrested while covering a protest in metro Atlanta and has been in ICE custody for over three months.
www.ajc.com
September 19, 2025 at 8:02 PM
3lake.bsky.social
My U.N. Commission’s Finding: Israel Is Committing Genocide www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/o...
Opinion | My U.N. Commission’s Finding: Israel Is Committing Genocide
www.nytimes.com
September 17, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by Blake Feldman
matthewstiegler.bsky.social
September 11, 2025 at 10:48 PM
3lake.bsky.social
Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Plotting Coup in Brazil www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...
Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Plotting Coup in Brazil
www.nytimes.com
September 11, 2025 at 11:03 PM
3lake.bsky.social
“A Georgia judge on Tues. said he’ll toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a yearslong conspiracy to halt the construction of [Cop City]. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in US history” apnews.com/article/atla...
Georgia judge to toss landmark racketeering charges against 'Cop City' protesters
A Georgia judge says he's going to dismiss racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of trying to stop the construction of a police and firefighter training facility known as “Cop City."
apnews.com
September 9, 2025 at 5:52 PM
3lake.bsky.social
in @ccrjustice.org’s case challenging SB 185—the new GA law prohibiting the use of state resources to provide ppl incarcerated in GA prisons w/ medical treatment for gender dysphoria—Judge Calvert grants Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction & orders GDC to stop implementing SB 185. #gapol
Case 1:25-cv-04470-VMC Document 50 Filed 09/04/25 Page 1 of 64 PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION ORDER AND OPINION This case raises a constitutional challenge to a Georgia law that prohibits the use of state resources to provide hormone replacement therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria to those who are incarcerated in Georgia Department of Corrections ("GDC") facilities. The Court held a hearing on Plaintiffs' Motion for Provisional Class Certification (Doc. 2) and Plaintiffs Motion for Preliminary Injunction (Doc. 3) on August 29, 2025. Prior to the hearing, Defendant Centurion of Georgia, LLC ("Centurion"), the contract medical provider for the GDC filed a response essentially stating its intent to comply with the state law at issue to the extent it is enforceable. (Doc. 24). The remaining Defendants, Defendant Tyrone Oliver, Commissioner of GDC, Defendant Randy Sauls, Assistant Commissioner of the Health Services Division of GDC, and Defendant Dr. Marlah Mardis, Statewide Medical Director for GDC (collectively, "State Defendants," Doc. 1 11 26-28), opposed both motions filed by Plaintiffs. (Docs. 25, 26). At the hearing, the Court took the matters under advisement.1 At its core, this case is no different from any case challenging prison medical care. When prison officials present expert evidence that they have made a treatment decision based on medical judgment, the Court will ordinarily defer to that reasonable exercise of judgment. But when a prisoner presents evidence that the treatment decision was based on something other than medical judgment, and backs it up with uncontroverted expert evidence that the prison's decision put them at a serious risk of harm, the prisoner generally prevails. When properly framed this way, the result here is straightforward. For the reasons that follow, the Court grants Plaintiffs' Motion for Provisional Class Certification and Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction. Background This is a constitutional challenge to Georgia Senate Bill 185, 2025 Georgia Laws Act 69 (("S.B. 185"), which went into effect upon approval by the Governor on May 8, 2025. (See id. § 2). S.B. 185 amended O.C.G.A. § 42-5-2(e)(1) to preclude "state funds or resources" from being used for, among other purposes, "[hormone replacement therapies" to treat gender dysphoria, as the Court explains further below. FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction (Doc. 3) is GRANTED, and the Court ENTERS the following preliminary injunction: As to Class A: Defendants are DIRECTED to immediately cease tapering hormone therapy doses to class members for the purpose of S.B. 185 compliance. Defendants are FURTHER DIRECTED to resume providing class members hormone therapy according to the applicable standard of care without regard to S.B. 185 compliance. Nothing in this injunction requires Defendants to increase the dosage of hormone therapy (i) against the wishes of the class member or (ii) at a rate that puts an inmate at an unnecessary risk of harm based on the reasonable medical judgment of Defendants' medical professionals. As to Class B: Defendants are DIRECTED to evaluate class members for hormone therapy according to the applicable standard of care without regard to S.B. 185 compliance. For the avoidance of doubt, this injunction does not require Defendants to affirmatively identify class members and schedule them for evaluations. It only requires Defendants to follow their usual procedures for evaluating class members who request or are referred for medical evaluation, or who requested or were referred for such evaluation prior to May 8, 2025, without regard to S.B. 185's ban on hormone therapy.
September 4, 2025 at 10:50 PM
3lake.bsky.social
"Community safety, not personal wealth, best determines who's released & who's detained... The goal of a fair justice system isn’t to detain ppl who've been accused as the default—it’s to uphold the presumption of innocence & reserve pretrial jailing as a last resort" www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
Opinion | One Concrete Way to Make the Justice System Fairer
www.nytimes.com
September 2, 2025 at 5:26 PM
3lake.bsky.social
Remember when the MS state govt attempted to takeover JXN’s criminal legal system (from policing to the courts) in 2023?

Well, they tried to do it as an expansion of the Capital Complex Improvement District, which began as a state-initiated beautification project in JXN.
Screenshot of tweet from Blake Feldman @bfeldman89 on 9/21/23: In an 8-0 decision, MSSC holds that HB1020's addition of 4 unelected circuit judges violates the constitution. 6-justice majority holds that the 1020's creation of a CCID court is constitutional. Justices Kitchens and King dissent. [img of portion of Court’s opinion]
August 29, 2025 at 9:59 PM
3lake.bsky.social
The “Beautification” of D.C. Has a Real Dark Side
The National Guard doing yard work is a perfect distillation of the Trump era.

by @dahlialithwick.bsky.social

slate.com/news-and-pol...
The “Beautification” of D.C. Has a Real Dark Side
The National Guard doing yard work is a perfect distillation of the Trump era.
slate.com
August 29, 2025 at 9:49 PM
3lake.bsky.social
Federal court in Jackson, MS “hereby grants the challengers' request for, and so orders, a preliminary injunction, by which the defendants are enjoined from enforcing select sections of HB 1193, pending the final resolution of this matter” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
August 19, 2025 at 1:26 AM
3lake.bsky.social
The parole eligibility of [ppl] like Buttrum has become “label-only,” said Mark Loudon-Brown, an SCHR attorney who has represented Buttrum through the parole process.

“People who deserve parole all over the state are getting these arbitrary denials.”

www.courthousenews.com/when-a-child...
When a child goes to prison for murder
A growing body of research shows that juvenile offenders are immature and impulsive. But in spite of landmark Supreme Court rulings, many so-called juvenile lifers are growing old behind bars.
www.courthousenews.com
August 12, 2025 at 1:58 AM
3lake.bsky.social
Order granting TRO in MS Association of Educators v. IHL Board of Trustees storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
As mentioned above, Plaintiff's request a TRO to enjoin enforcement of only certain provisions of HB 1193 codified April 17, 2025. These provisions, say Plaintiffs, violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Having reviewed the briefing, amended complaint, the law, and the record, this Court grants the requested temporary restraining order for the reasons set forth below. I. BACKGROUND HB 1193 imposes sweeping restrictions on Mississippi public institutions of education, prohibiting speech and programming related to so-called "divisive concepts." Plaintiffs challenge the following provisions: • Section 3(b): Bans engagement with "divisive concepts" as defined in Sections 2(d) and 2(e); • Section 3(f): Prohibits maintenance of programs that promote diversity, equity, inclusion ("DEI"), or endorse concepts such as gender identity and gender theory; • Section 3(g): Prohibits requiring any DEI training as a condition of enrollment, employment, or contracting; • Section 3(i): Prohibits any required activity that increases "awareness or understanding of issues related to race, sex, color, gender identity, sexual orientation or national origin." The statute threatens withdrawal of all state funding after two violations (Section 8) and requires institutions to implement complaint and investigative mechanisms (Section 7).
July 21, 2025 at 2:19 PM
3lake.bsky.social
Gates: it’s going to be millions —

Wallace-Wells: You mean millions of additional deaths?

Gates: Because of these cuts, millions of additional deaths of kids.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/m...
The $200 Billion Gamble: Bill Gates’s Plan to Wind Down His Foundation
www.nytimes.com
May 8, 2025 at 1:04 PM
3lake.bsky.social
Holy shit y’all! Its happening. I think I’m on the verge of following enough smart and relevant ppl on here that it’s 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 2010s era Twitter.
April 19, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Reposted by Blake Feldman
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
ICE is reportedly loading people onto buses right now to be imprisoned in El Salvador without a day in court, in violation of a Supreme Court order.

That includes at least one person with Temporary Protected Status and a 19-year-old accused of being in TDA because of a water pistol.
. Attached to this motion are two additional attorney declarations, one describing how another Venezuelan national at Bluebonnet has received such a notice that he refused to sign and then being taken away (Collins Decl.) and the other relaying how five Venezuelan men last night were told they had no choice to sign and would be deported (Petty Deck). The last declaration is from a Venezuelan man with Temporary Protected Status who nevertheless received an Alien Enemies Act Notice, and how around 30 other people have received notices (RJRS Decl.). 3. Y.S.M. is a citizen of Venezuela who was born in 2006. He entered the United States in 2022 as an unaccompanied minor. 4. Once in the United States, Y.S.M. reunited with his father I.S.G. and other extended family. I.S.G. filed a timely asylum application and included his son Y.S.M. as a derivative. 5. On March 14, 2025, Y.S.M. was detained by immigration agents, along with other relatives. Y.S.M. was later questioned by immigration and federal agents about a photograph. The agents stated that the photograph, found on Facebook, proved the Y.S.M. was a member of Tren de Aragua and that one of the persons in the photograph had a gun. Y.S.M. pointed out to the agents that the gun in question was in fact a water pistol. I have seen and reviewed the Facebook photograph in question and have confirmed that the gun in question is a water pistol.
April 18, 2025 at 8:22 PM
3lake.bsky.social
“The gov’t is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons w/out the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our
constitutional order… This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that [all] Americans… still hold dear.”
mjsdc.bsky.social Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · Apr 17
Judge Wilkinson: "If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will
not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?" storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
The Executive possesses enormous powers to prosecute and to deport, but with powers come restraints. If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?∗ And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present, and the Executive’s obligation to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” would lose its meaning. U.S. CONST. art. II, § 3; see also id. art. II, § 1, cl. 8.
April 18, 2025 at 8:08 PM
3lake.bsky.social
It feels like it’d be the easiest decision in the world if I were considering firms — whether it be as cocounsel to help build a big impact litigation case or personal representation — and my choices were a firm that stood up for itself and a firm that didn’t. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/b...
Five More Big Law Firms Reach Deals With Trump (Gift Article)
Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft agreed to do free legal work on causes the White House supports.
www.nytimes.com
April 12, 2025 at 10:44 PM
3lake.bsky.social
Julia Gelatt (Migration Policy Institute): “Revoking TPS for Afghans would be a stark reversal in the country’s treatment of Afghan allies who fought & worked alongside the US. Most Afghans in the US have strong asylum cases based on their US affiliation. This is even more true for Afghan women.”
April 11, 2025 at 7:38 PM
3lake.bsky.social
Cravath, Swaine & Moore removed asylum & racial/gender discrimination, & a list of non-profits it has partnered with

Kirkland & Ellis removed its relationship to nonprofits & its death penalty work

Davis Polk removed mention of immigration & racial justice www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
US law firms quietly scrub DEI references from websites to appease Trump
Changes at two dozen prestigious firms underscore Trump’s successful intimidation campaign against legal profession
www.theguardian.com
April 11, 2025 at 3:07 PM
3lake.bsky.social
SB 12 is no longer an alarmingly terrible bill for govt transparency and accountability! #gapol
April 4, 2025 at 6:25 PM
3lake.bsky.social
Take Action on Sine Die!

Today marks the last day of the 2025 session. While we are excited about several important bills that have passed, our priority today is to oppose five Senate bills in the House and one House bill in the Senate. #gapol

secure.schr.org/a/sinedie2025
Take Action on Sine Die!
secure.schr.org
April 4, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Blake Feldman
samatl.bsky.social
as @maggie-lee.bsky.social taught me - never take your eyes off any bill involving title 50 until they throw the papers in the air.
3lake.bsky.social Blake Feldman @3lake.bsky.social · Apr 3
Since moving to GA last year, I’ve repeatedly expressed excitement for how much more transparent the state is than MS. Last night, however, the House Rules Cmte. amended SB 12 so that GA’s Open Records Act would be even worse than MS’s when it comes to police reports. #gapol
50-18-72. (a) Public disclosure shall not be required for public records that are: (1) Specifically required by federal statute or regulation to be kept confidential; (2) Medical or veterinary records and similar files, the disclosure of which would be an invasion of personal privacy; (3) Except as otherwise provided by law, records compiled for law enforcement or prosecution purposes to the extent that production of such records is reasonably likely to disclose the identity of a confidential source, disciose confidential investigative or prosecution material which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or persons, or disclose the existence of a confidential surveillance or investigation; (4) Records of law enforcement, prosecution, or regulatory agencies in any pending investigation or prosecution of criminal or unlawful activity, other [striking “than imitial police arrest reports and initial incident reports”] [adding “the first incident report completed on a standard incident report form”]; provided, however, that an investigation or prosecution shall no longer be deemed to be pending [striking “when all direct litigation involving such investigation and prosecution has become final or otherwise terminated”] [adding “upon a final disposition of the accusation, indictment, or complaint and exhaustion of any right of appeal for all individuals charged on the same accusation, indictment, or complaint”]; and provided, further, that this paragraph shall not apply to records in the possession of an agency that is the subject of the pending investigation or prosecution; and provided, further, that the release of booking photographs shall only be permissible in accordance with Code Section 35-1-19;
April 4, 2025 at 1:54 AM