Joseph Mead
josephwmead.bsky.social
Joseph Mead
@josephwmead.bsky.social
Special Litigation Counsel @ Georgetown Law's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP). Former law professor, current litigator. Views are my own, and are subject to change.
Reposted by Joseph Mead
This is essay from @josephwmead.bsky.social is great. Worth taking the time to read it. The correct link is papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
February 18, 2026 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
6. This is totally unrelated to disclosures, but perhaps the biggest change for practitioners. It is now the ELECTRONIC filing that constitutes timely filing, so long as you comply with paper-filing requirements within three days.
February 17, 2026 at 7:14 PM
I was honored to give the keynote at my former institution (CSU Law) a few months ago, and am sharing this resulting short essay about lawyers and the rule of law. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
February 16, 2026 at 9:15 PM
In my last position, as a professor at a public university, state ethics law prohibited me from receiving credit card or airline points. I once had to ask an airline to deduct my account the miles I accidentally earned for going to a conference. (Federal rules are a little more forgiving).
As a White House ethics lawyer I told staff:

“Be allergic to free stuff” and not to even accept a can of soda from someone with business before the White House.

So how has the story of a UAE royal making a deal worth nearly $200m to the Trump family fallen out of news? www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Opinion | How much money has Trump made as president? The answer should worry us all.
Ian Bassin: As an Obama White House lawyer, I counseled staff to behave like they are allergic to free stuff. What the Journal report describes threatens not just the public trust but also our nationa...
www.ms.now
February 16, 2026 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
Come for our deep dive into the Don Lemon indictment and stay for our companion piece about the deeply weird process that led up to it!
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/when...
February 13, 2026 at 7:58 PM
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This is terrific news! Liz Magill is a great choice to lead Georgetown Law.

Regarding the controversy—Elise Stefanik ambushed Magill at that hearing with the evident goal of smearing her as an antisemite, which she is not (obviously). UPenn's loss is our gain.
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
She Resigned as Penn President After a Controversial Hearing. Now She’s Back.
Liz Magill, the former president of the University of Pennsylvania, will be the new dean of Georgetown University’s law school.
www.politico.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
Thrilled that my article Private Governance and Originalism will be published in the Stanford Law Review @stanlrev.bsky.social! The article explains why private groups including schools, corps & other orgs create unique challenges (and opportunities) under originalist "history & tradition" tests
February 11, 2026 at 5:31 PM
The idea that an administrative document signed by some not-neutral law enforcement agent could even remotely be considered a "warrant" for 4th Amendment purposes just because someone wrote the word "warrant" on the top is just exceptionally silly.
Mike Johnson speaks out against the use of judicial warrants in immigration cases:

"Imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant"
February 4, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
"Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005."

"it appears the crime rate of CBP agents and offices was higher PER CAPITA than the crime rate of undocumented immigrants." www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...
Accountability for ICE and CBP
However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse.
www.doomsdayscenario.co
February 2, 2026 at 7:00 PM
WIN: A federal court blocked Texas AG Ken Paxton’s attempt to revoke a pro-voting group’s corporate charter.

The group, which focuses on increasing voter turnout among young Latinos, argued Paxton’s actions were part of an intimidation campaign meant to halt voter registration efforts.
🚨 Jolt Initiative Inc. v. Paxton
Learn more here.
www.democracydocket.com
January 29, 2026 at 9:24 PM
PSA from a native northern midwesterner: having 4-wheel drive does not somehow make you immune to the laws of physics! I've helped push out way too many stranded trucks and SUVs the last few days (and exactly zero cars).
January 27, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
Walz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"
January 25, 2026 at 8:24 PM
My doctor's office offers "Old English" as a language option and I'm excited to see how modern medicine translates.
January 7, 2026 at 5:01 PM
I have been glib and mocking in my attacks on scholarship that uses AI, but people more sophisticated than I am have more nuanced views, which (no matter how flattering Chat GPT is to me) you should always consider more seriously than anything I have to say. Prof. Kreis:
I’ve read the Lash paper. I think it’s entirely reasonable to use AI to help transcribe hard-to-read documents. Done it myself— it’s a tool to aid human judgment.

I am much less comfortable with handwriting analysis from AI work offered as proof for the matter asserted. I need to think more on it.
I regret to report that this is where we are with the anti-birthright-citizenship stuff papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
December 28, 2025 at 10:41 PM
No. NO! This is surely fake.

(Clicks so you don't have to)

Yep, it's a real thing. Beyond parody.
I regret to report that this is where we are with the anti-birthright-citizenship stuff papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
December 28, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
this @jadler1969.bsky.social post is a great summary of the Frost-Eason paper’s findings

reason.com/volokh/2025/...
December 24, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
Big ups to Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social who flagged this argument that SCOTUS relied on (that regular forces refer to military forces, not federal law enforcement).
NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
December 23, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Another article from me on the structure of judicial review of the federal government, now live in Administrative Law Review! administrativelawreview.org/wp-content/u...
administrativelawreview.org
December 19, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
🚨 I’ve been keeping this under wraps until published and it’s out today.

Do judges with background in law enforcement act differently at bail time? Our groundbreaking NYC study estimates that when they set bail, it is a full 32% higher on average compared to other judges. Check it out and share.
Judicial Professional Background and Pretrial Detention Outcomes | Journal of Law and Courts | Cambridge Core
Judicial Professional Background and Pretrial Detention Outcomes
www.cambridge.org
December 18, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
More than 2,900 attorneys quit the Justice Department or were fired during the first 10 months of this year -- about triple the number who depart in a typical year. personnel records obtained by Reuters show.
December 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
In challenge to Secy Noem’s termination of temporary protective status (TPS) to Afghans & Cameroonians in May & June, Judge Chuang lets race-discrimination claims to go forward & grants discovery given “strong showing” of “improper behavior” by Noem ...
1/2
December 9, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Uff da. A good reminder for lawyers not to share confidential client information or attorney work product with AI.
"The judge rejected OpenAI's privacy-related objections...

OpenAI countered that turning over the logs would disclose confidential user information...

Wang ordered OpenAI to produce the logs within seven days of removing users' identifying information."
December 4, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
Smith-Drelich on the Right of Free Movement
Noah Smith-Drelich, Chicago-Kent College of Law, has posted The Forgotten Fundamental Right to Free Movement, which appears in the Northwestern University Law Review:There is a powerful fundamental right hiding in plain sight: the fundamental right to free movement. This right goes beyond the consistently acknowledged—though infrequently applied—fundamental right to interstate travel. The true scope of the Constitution's protection of movement through substantive due process safeguards local, interstate, and international travel. Though overlooked today, the fundamental right to free movement has deep roots in history and tradition, and in the decisions of numerous state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court.  This Article is the first to examine freedom of movement using the history and tradition test for unenumerated fundamental rights. This Article begins by tracing the right to free movement from the Magna Carta, through Blackstone's Commentaries, colonial America, early state constitutions, and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. As this analysis shows, repressive governments have routinely sought to limit movement across and within boundaries. But the English and U.S. legal traditions are marked by repeated affirmations of the right—there is strong and persistent historical support for a fundamental right to free movement.  This Article then turns to judicial discussions of movement rights, both historical and contemporary. Drawing on several previously unconnected lines of decision, this examination surfaces a vibrant picture of the fundamental right to free movement recognized by the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.  --Dan Ernst 
dlvr.it
November 19, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Joseph Mead
ICAP is proud to have defeated Kim Davis's efforts to overrule Obergefell. SCOTUS's denial of review confirms that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and that Davis's denial of marriage licenses plainly violated that right. Love wins!
November 10, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Congratulations to the team on successfully opposing Davis's cert petition!
#BREAKING: Over no public dissents, #SCOTUS denies Kim Davis's petition asking the justices to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges (which recognized federal constitutional protections for same-sex marriage):

www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
www.supremecourt.gov
November 10, 2025 at 3:05 PM