Matt Banal
mattbanal.bsky.social
Matt Banal
@mattbanal.bsky.social
Union lawyer in Ohio. Which side are you on?
Reposted by Matt Banal
"WE WILL STAND ALONGSIDE UNIONS AND EXPAND LABOR PROTECTIONS" THAT'S THE FUCKING TALKING POINT. EXPAND, NOT JUST PROTECT!
November 5, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Preparing my legal memo for President Pritzker’s 2029 War on White Collar Crime where every white prep school dipshit with a punchable face can be subject to a “brief” raid of his house to ensure he’s not a criminal.
This is a paragraph Brett Kavanaugh wrote on his little computer and then sent out into the world:
September 9, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Having fought long court battles about what a word in a statute means, it’s hard to explain to ppl that SCOTUS thinks “[The President] shall take Care that the Laws are faithfully executed” in the Constitution means the President can simply ignore the laws passed by Congress.
August 26, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Reposted by Matt Banal
There is no single person more responsible for Jeffrey Epstein becoming rich and powerful enough to start a child trafficking ring than Les Wexner. If Wexner doesn't elevate Epstein, none of it happens. Some of Epstein's rapes even happened on Wexner's 300+ acre compound in New Albany, Ohio.
July 18, 2025 at 11:19 AM
While the rest of us are working, grocery shopping, and driving our kids to soccer practice, the prevailing SCOTUS justices have spent decades having their brains cooked by right-wing media and being elevated by weirdo billionaires. Of course they don’t understand how real life works.
June 28, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Matt Banal
Bombshell allegations by a DOJ whistleblower: Emil Bove—whom Trump has nominated to a federal appeals court—lied to courts and willfully defied their orders, then illegally fired the lawyers who tried to tell the truth in court.

A massively damning document. static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...
June 24, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Matt Banal
I need all of #lawsky to see this video from a Colorado appeals court livestream yesterday. I am in actual tears. Sound *incredibly* on, the subtitles will not help.
June 19, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Holy shit they cited Geduldig v. Aiello, a case everyone had a good laugh at in law school for its baby-brained stupidity.
🚨By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court UPHOLDS Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors, concluding that it does NOT discriminate on the basis of sex, is not subject to heightened scrutiny, and survives rational basis review. All three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
June 18, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Matt Banal
“The college is engaging in bad-faith bargaining, because they do have an obligation to sign…I really feel that this is an intention to weaken the contract language” — Biology Professor and United Faculty at COTC President Martin Schmerr
Citing Ohio’s SB 1, College Refuses to Sign Union Contract
Central Ohio Technical College said it rejected a tentative agreement because provisions conflicted with Senate Bill 1. Faculty say the institution acted too late and must sign.
www.insidehighered.com
June 12, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by Matt Banal
the people here probably already know this but really spread this far and wide:

tell your normal offline friends and family to stop using ChatGPT for legal advice. it's happening constantly now. I'm always explaining to people why the advice this silly thing gave them is not real legal advice.
May 29, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Immigrants subject to removal have never gotten full trials, but if you’re sending them to a foreign gulag for life, then that’s the very least you owe them.
Trump: "The courts have all of the sudden, out of nowhere, they said, 'maybe you have to have trials.' Trials. We're gonna have 5 million trials? It doesn't work."
May 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Advisors are just putting pictures and Executive Orders in front of him and he accepts anything they tell him as true. I know ppl in prison for doing this to the elderly over their wills. But here it’s the goddamn POTUS.
This exchange is so very telling.

Trump repeatedly claims the photoshopped MS-13 on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's knuckles is real, Terry Moran keeps telling him it isn't, prompting Trump to say this:

"I never heard of you. I picked you. You’re not being very nice. He had MS-13 tattooed... Just say yes!"
April 30, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Matt Banal
Hey i know there's a lot going on, but you need to know about this bill in #Ohio

bit.ly/OhioSAVEAct
April 28, 2025 at 8:52 PM
My college prof had a good response to appeals to Confederate “heritage:”

“Oh, your great-great-great grandpappy died fighting for the South? Good. He was an asshole and he deserved it.”
NEW: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has declared April 2025 as Confederate Heritage Month.

He did so at the behest of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a neo-Confederate organization that espouses “Lost Cause” ideology, which whitewashes the role of slavery in the Civil War. 🧵
Mississippi Governor Declares April Confederate Heritage Month
Gov. Tate Reeves declared April 2025 as Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi, keeping alive a 32-year-old tradition that began in 1993.
www.mississippifreepress.org
April 22, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Just tell the guy he’s going to burn in Hell and be done with it.
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · Apr 19
Vice President JD Vance has met with senior Vatican officials for talks that follow sharp criticism by Pope Francis of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

The Vatican said that an “exchange of opinions” took place concerning migrants, refugees, and prisoners: cnn.it/3GfOLBr
Vance, Vatican officials engage in ‘exchange of opinions’ over migrants | CNN
US Vice President JD Vance met senior Vatican officials on Saturday for talks that follow sharp criticism by Pope Francis of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
cnn.it
April 19, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Enough with the pollsters and strategists. The Kilmar Abrego Garcia case will help determine if our govt follows our baseline constitutional principles or not. Optics don’t matter.
NEW: A deportation case exposes a rift among Democrats over how to take on Trump

One camp sees a pivotal moment to lean in and fight a lawless move.

Another camp sees a trap and wants to pivot to hitting Trump on his growing economic vulnerability.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...
Abrego Garcia's deportation case exposes a rift among Democrats over how to take on Trump
As some Democrats vocally push for the release of the man the administration says was mistakenly deported, others have sought to steer clear and focus on high prices and economic issues.
www.nbcnews.com
April 18, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Matt Banal
No one should be above the law, most especially the President.

Ignoring a Supreme Court ruling to facilitate Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return isn't just cruel; it's unconstitutional.

They're saying the quiet part aloud — if they get away with it now, they'll do it to anyone.
Trump to Bukele: "Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough."
April 14, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The last 40 years have seen a transfer of trillion$ from workers to the 1%, but fear not, the billionaires who’ve benefited are now in power and are definitely, totally going to reverse things in favor of working ppl.
April 8, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Matt Banal
If you are not furious at what our government did to these people, there’s something wrong with you.
“Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared.”

Lindsay Toczylowski represents 31-year-old Andry, a gay makeup artist from Venezuela who was flown to a notorious prison by the Trump administration after seeking asylum in the U.S.

MORE: www.cbsnews.com/news/venezue...
April 7, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Reposted by Matt Banal
The problem is: they've mistaken correlation for causation. They think their parents and grandparents had a good life *because* of manufacturing jobs. When, in reality, their parents and grandparents had a good life *despite* manufacturing jobs, because of unions, high taxes, and social policies.
April 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Truly one of the most evil documents I’ve seen filed in a US court. An administrative error sends a father to the El Salvador slave prison, and now the govt argues that he can’t be ordered returned. Arrested and flown out within 3 days w/o due process.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
April 1, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Reposted by Matt Banal
Ignoring a court order on the grounds that “ah-ah-ah, the law doesn’t apply once you get to international waters!!” is absolutely sanctionable. 8th grade-ass lawyering. Completely unserious.
March 16, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by Matt Banal
Not one public university president in Ohio is willing to say in public what they all know - that SB 1 is a terrible bill that attacks the heart of higher education. Pathetic cowardice and a shocking absence of leadership from OSU President Carter and all the rest of them.
President Carter told us he was fighting for us. But this article based on public info requests shows that the Ohio presidents jointly decided to stand down before SB1 was even introduced.

signalakron.org/ohio-univers...
Here’s why Ohio university presidents stayed quiet on Senate Bill 1
The lobbying group for the state’s public universities advised them to sit on the sidelines over Senate Bill 1, records show.
signalakron.org
March 6, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Ten Democrats voted to censure their colleague Al Green. Here are their names:

Ami Bera, Calif.; Ed Case, Hawaii; Jim Costa, Calif.; Laura Gillen, N.Y.; Jim Himes, Conn.; Chrissy Houlahan, Pa.; Marcy Kaptur, Ohio; Jared Moskowitz, Fla.; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Wash.; and Tom Suozzi, N.Y.
March 6, 2025 at 4:50 PM