Geoffrey T. Blackwell
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gtblackwell.atheists.org
Geoffrey T. Blackwell
@gtblackwell.atheists.org
2.6K followers 1.1K following 230 posts
Atheists.org Legal Director, #FirstAmendment attorney, co-host of @notsograndjury.bsky.social.

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
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gtblackwell.atheists.org
Geoffrey T. Blackwell @gtblackwell.atheists.org · Nov 22
One wall of the #JeffersonMemorial bears an inscription that I like a lot, for a couple reasons:

First, it amounts to Thomas Jefferson telling #originalists to grow up and put their big-boy pants on.

Second, it's a great object lesson in *why* originalism is both futile and self-defeating. (1/10)
Jefferson's statute inside the Jefferson Memorial, in front of a quote engraved on the wall. "I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
gtblackwell.atheists.org
Whatcha doin?
Blurry close-up image of a cat's face as it inspects the camera lens.
January 26, 2026 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Geoffrey T. Blackwell
sethandrews.com
As of a few minutes ago, calling it a "scam, spam, or deceptive," YouTube deleted the entire "The Thinking Atheist" channel.
January 13, 2026 at 8:53 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
Why?!?!
A pop-up in Windows Solitaire: "You need an active connection to the Internet to play this difficulty. You can still play Easy or Random decks offline. Would you like to play online?"
January 13, 2026 at 9:34 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
#WakeUpDeadMan has a lot of interesting legal issues going on in the background. If you want to hear a few attorneys analyze the movie, check out the latest episode of #NotSoGrandJury!
notsograndjury.buzzsprout.com/2413122/epis...
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery - Not So Grand Jury
Geoff, Mike, and Derrick discuss the latest installment of the Knives Out movies, Wake Up Dead Man, which was released for a brief theatre run on November 26, 2025 and started streaming exclusively on...
notsograndjury.buzzsprout.com
December 21, 2025 at 10:43 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
Susie Wiles has strong Dolores Umbridge energy.
December 19, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Geoffrey T. Blackwell
americansunited.bsky.social
BREAKING: Americans United CEO Rachel Laser appointed to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

www.au.org/the-latest/p...
Americans United CEO Rachel Laser appointed to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom - Americans United
Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser was appointed by Sen. Chuck Schumer to serve on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
www.au.org
December 11, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Geoffrey T. Blackwell
holt.bsky.social
Perhaps the first empirical observation that AI are better than us: telling them they are a lawyer does not make them worse.
emollick.bsky.social Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · Dec 8
We tested one of the most common prompting techniques: giving the AI a persona to make it more accurate

We found that telling the AI "you are a great physicist" doesn't make it significantly more accurate at answering physics questions, nor does "you are a lawyer" make it worse.
December 9, 2025 at 1:21 AM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
I just got the cutest new mouse pad!
A cat lays on a desk next to a keyboard. A computer mouse is sitting on the cat's back.
December 9, 2025 at 5:07 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
DoorDash and GrubHub should just default to 20% tips, right? Am I crazy?

Don't make me do math. Make other people feel like the cheap assholes they are.
December 5, 2025 at 3:34 AM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
Two large bins, one cardboard moving box, and one tote bag.
david.noll.org David Noll @david.noll.org · Nov 23
Bluesky, how big is your box of old cables? If you know you know.
November 24, 2025 at 4:04 AM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
It's good to hold judges accountable when they "fail to maintain the dignity appropriate of judicial office." Now, if all he'd done was accept gifts from individuals with business before him, he would be fine. But an Elvis wig?! No, no, no!

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...
Missouri Judge Who Wore Elvis Wig in Court Agrees to Resign
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Geoffrey T. Blackwell
shakespeare.lol
Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.
November 10, 2025 at 2:28 AM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
The @democrats.org know they just won an election, right? A win that sent a clear signal which side Americans are on in this? Did they forget that after only five days?!

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11...
"Mr. King said that the length of the shutdown and the pain it was inflicting on Americans had changed the calculus for some of his Democratic colleagues, pushing them to support a deal with Republicans that would reopen the government without the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies they had originally sought."
November 10, 2025 at 2:58 AM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
Schumer is "In danger of" looking out of touch?

That ship has long since sailed, @nytimes.com.
NY Times headline: "As Mamdani Surges Ahead, Schumer Risks Finding Himself Left Behind" Subhead: "The rise of Zohran Mamdani comes at a complicated moment for Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who is in danger of looking out of touch back home."
November 6, 2025 at 2:12 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
Good to know he acknowledges that the shutdown is hurting his party. Maybe they can address the AHA concerns and get this resolved?

Probably not.
Trump's post: "TRUMP WASN'T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT," according to Pollsters.
November 5, 2025 at 3:33 AM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
#NotTheOnion

A guy is suing his former employer for not accommodating his religious belief that he should never be alone in a room with a woman to avoid "the appearance of evil."

So the argument is it's religious discrimination to *not* engage in gender discrimination.

Wild.
October 22, 2025 at 4:17 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
Just unreal.
annabower.bsky.social Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · Oct 20
EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.

I glanced down at the message.

“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.

So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
"Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here." Anna Bower Monday, October 20, 2025, 5:40 PM Share On: f X inK My Signal exchange with the interim U.S. attorney about the Letitia James grand jury.
October 21, 2025 at 2:19 AM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
I feel so seen.
friendlyatheist.com Hemant Mehta @friendlyatheist.com · Oct 17
According to Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY), the "No Kings" rallies are being led by "far-left activists" like #ResistTrump and...

American Atheists.
October 17, 2025 at 8:16 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
Was there actually a time when being a lunatic disqualified you from polite society or are we now just far more aware of "polite" society's inner thoughts and they were always this way?
sharonk.bsky.social Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · Oct 12
thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about
He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war: The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work. Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure. In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation. Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.
October 12, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Geoffrey T. Blackwell
briankaylor.bsky.social
2nd meeting of White House's "Religious Liberty Commission" is occurring. I reported on problems with 1st meeting: publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/when-chris...
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is chair, which shows group is fraud. He doesn't believe in religious liberty: www.youtube.com/shorts/LZhNn...
September 8, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Geoffrey T. Blackwell
ajfidalgo.com
I am constantly frustrated at the judiciary's and bar's unwillingness to take a stance against AI. Instead we get uncritical hype pitches disguised as seminars and CLEs, and otherwise crickets until it's a problem like this. Then suddenly the judicial claws come out like it's an isolated problem.
ericgoldman.bsky.social Eric Goldman @ericgoldman.bsky.social · Aug 16
Yet another hallucinated citations case. Sanctions this time include:

* lawyer kicked off the case
* lawyer must notify all judges in the lawyer's other cases nationwide
* lawyer must write to judges who were falsely cited
* lawyer reported to state bar

www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

🤖😵
1. The pro hac vice status of Counsel shall be revoked and Counsel will be removed from this case; 2. Plaintiff’s Opening Brief shall be stricken; 3. Counsel will be ordered to promptly serve a copy of this Order on Plaintiff, who will in turn be afforded time to engage new counsel or proceed as a selfrepresented litigant; 4. Counsel will be ordered to write a letter to the three Judges to whom she attributed fictitious cases, Hon. Douglas L. Rayes, Hon. Michael T. Liburdi, and Hon. John Z. Boyle, notifying them of her use of fake cases with their respective names attached; 5. Counsel will be ordered to transmit a copy of this Order to every Judge who presides over any case in which Counsel is attorney of record; and 6. The Clerk of Court’s Office will be directed to serve a copy of this Order on the Washington State Bar Association, of which Counsel is a member.7 If Counsel is a member of any other state’s bar, she shall serve a copy of this Order on that state’s bar office.
August 16, 2025 at 11:07 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
I guess I always assumed he would draw like an uncoordinated five-year-old but it's weird to see proof of it in the goddamn @nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/u...
Trump Says He Doesn’t ‘Draw Pictures.’ But Many of His Sketches Sold at Auction.
www.nytimes.com
July 18, 2025 at 9:23 PM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
I'm curious to see what #copaganda CBS replaces the @colbertlateshow.bsky.social with.
July 18, 2025 at 2:32 AM
gtblackwell.atheists.org
This provision in the Senate version of the bill would violate the #FirstAmendment guarantee of access to the courts. At least, if would under any sane judicial interpretation. With the extremist Supreme Court we have now, though? Who's to say?
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Jun 13
As I just flagged, this has been replaced with something which is arguably worse; requiring that basically every plaintiff seeking a preliminary injunction against the federal government pay millions or billions of dollars in "security" to pay for "costs" to the federal government if they later win.
June 13, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Geoffrey T. Blackwell
skepchick.org
With anti-Trump protests ramping up, I’ve seen some misinformation being spread even by people with good intentions. So here’s a quick correction on what the science says about dealing with tear gas 🧪 skepchick.org/2025/06/how-...
How to ACTUALLY Deal with Tear Gas
Transcript: Hello from California, where things are finally getting spicy. In case you missed it, Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to go help our secret police disappear people off the stree…
skepchick.org
June 13, 2025 at 3:02 PM