Steve Potts
@otispott.bsky.social
Lawyer. Believer in democracy and the rule of law.
Pinned
Reposted by Steve Potts
I wrote about how I'm seeing America after my long trip around Europe for my newsletter
madness.ghost.io/an-isolated-...
madness.ghost.io/an-isolated-...
An isolated nightmare
An international perspective on what's happening in the United States.
madness.ghost.io
November 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
I wrote about how I'm seeing America after my long trip around Europe for my newsletter
madness.ghost.io/an-isolated-...
madness.ghost.io/an-isolated-...
Reposted by Steve Potts
I scribbled down all my shutdown-related intrusive thoughts and put them in a blog post.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
The Shutdown Surrender
I just... I mean... Whatever.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I scribbled down all my shutdown-related intrusive thoughts and put them in a blog post.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
I first saw this when @brucewilson.bsky.social posted it. youtu.be/GlyFu0kN9r8?...
November 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I first saw this when @brucewilson.bsky.social posted it. youtu.be/GlyFu0kN9r8?...
More than anything Dem voters want and will support candidates who won't sell them down the river. Campaign on that.
Americans showed up in historic numbers last week and proved they're willing to back a party that stands up to Donald Trump.
We cannot have the leader of our party be a man that caves to Trump over and over again. It's long past time for Schumer step aside.
We cannot have the leader of our party be a man that caves to Trump over and over again. It's long past time for Schumer step aside.
November 10, 2025 at 2:42 PM
More than anything Dem voters want and will support candidates who won't sell them down the river. Campaign on that.
Reposted by Steve Potts
They’re wearing masks so they can’t be prosecuted later. As long as they think they can’t be prosecuted, their crimes will intensify. They will torture, starve and kill, as they have already, on greater and greater scale.
Signed, someone who’s covered the unaccountable War on Terror for 23 years.
Signed, someone who’s covered the unaccountable War on Terror for 23 years.
I’ve come to believe that we need to gather considerable forces and a campaign to demand the removal of face masks by ICE, Border Patrol, FBI and police.
It is a practice in conflict with the principles of transparency & accountability that are central to the concept of democracy.
It is a practice in conflict with the principles of transparency & accountability that are central to the concept of democracy.
Video on social media shows an immigration agent pulling a gun in Little Village and holding it to the side — which is not an appropriate or safe way to hold a gun. (Among other issues.)
November 9, 2025 at 2:36 PM
They’re wearing masks so they can’t be prosecuted later. As long as they think they can’t be prosecuted, their crimes will intensify. They will torture, starve and kill, as they have already, on greater and greater scale.
Signed, someone who’s covered the unaccountable War on Terror for 23 years.
Signed, someone who’s covered the unaccountable War on Terror for 23 years.
since the Sandwich Guy verdict I can't stop thinking about this Monty Python skit youtu.be/piWCBOsJr-w?...
Monty Python - Self-Defense Against Fruit
YouTube video by Caio Badner
youtu.be
November 8, 2025 at 7:49 PM
since the Sandwich Guy verdict I can't stop thinking about this Monty Python skit youtu.be/piWCBOsJr-w?...
Reposted by Steve Potts
I also do not use the LLM. The folks I talk to who also don't use the LLM tell me they tried it & found it was stupid & the ideas/information wrong & the citations made up & it was a huge waste of time. These are people who have to provide good advice & correct information. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Recently met someone who was very surprised to hear I didn’t use ChatGPT or any LLM.
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
November 8, 2025 at 1:33 PM
I also do not use the LLM. The folks I talk to who also don't use the LLM tell me they tried it & found it was stupid & the ideas/information wrong & the citations made up & it was a huge waste of time. These are people who have to provide good advice & correct information. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
top stories on NYT. the rich get richer and the poor can suck it.
November 8, 2025 at 7:27 PM
top stories on NYT. the rich get richer and the poor can suck it.
Go off.😍
if you believe fully autonomous robot butlers are just over the horizon you are actually one of the dumbest motherfuckers alive and we should take your money from you so we can put it towards something worthwhile
November 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Go off.😍
Reposted by Steve Potts
Leaving to one side the amorality of this ruling, it is just another example of the Court simply ignoring the longstanding principles applicable to emergency appellate review of such decrees. The Supreme Court is simply acting at odds with the law.
NEW: On the shadow docket, the Supreme Court lets Trump resume misgendering trans Americans on their passports, claiming "the government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment." All three liberals dissent. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
![This case concerns an Executive Branch policy requiring
all new passports to display an individual’s biological sex at
birth. The United States District Court for the District of
Massachusetts preliminarily enjoined the Government
from enforcing the policy, and the First Circuit declined to
stay the injunction pending appeal. The Government then
filed this stay application. Applying our familiar stay fac-
tors at this preliminary stage, we grant the application.
Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends
equal protection principles than displaying their country of
birth—in both cases, the Government is merely attesting to
a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential
treatment. And on this record, respondents have failed to
establish that the Government’s choice to display biological
sex “lack[s] any purpose other than a bare . . . desire to
harm a politically unpopular group.” Trump v. Hawaii, 585
U. S. 667, 705 (2018) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Nor are respondents likely to prevail in arguing that the
State Department acted arbitrarily and capriciously by de-
clining to depart from Presidential rules that Congress ex-
pressly required it to follow. See 22 U. S. C. §211a.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6h7b2i6ttw3l4t7pvbvxdith/bafkreiacrtgoecxjy5y7ojz7xzbun4c4nwutjcvqn4qb4p25ldpt6va5lu@jpeg)
November 6, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Leaving to one side the amorality of this ruling, it is just another example of the Court simply ignoring the longstanding principles applicable to emergency appellate review of such decrees. The Supreme Court is simply acting at odds with the law.
Reposted by Steve Potts
Justice Jackson's dissent focuses on her belief that the government has failed to show any harm it suffers as a result of the policy being blocked, while the plaintiffs can show harm if it is in effect.
November 6, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Justice Jackson's dissent focuses on her belief that the government has failed to show any harm it suffers as a result of the policy being blocked, while the plaintiffs can show harm if it is in effect.
Reposted by Steve Potts
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
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November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
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Reposted by Steve Potts
The conclusion of the dissent, written by Jackson and joined by Sotomayor and Kagan:
November 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
The conclusion of the dissent, written by Jackson and joined by Sotomayor and Kagan:
good question and a revealing answer
Q: Will you assure House Democrats they'll get a vote on ACA subsidies by a date certain?
MIKE JOHNSON: Ah -- no. I'm not promising anyone anything.
MIKE JOHNSON: Ah -- no. I'm not promising anyone anything.
November 6, 2025 at 8:20 PM
good question and a revealing answer
Reposted by Steve Potts
An incredible and prescient analysis by @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social of how our situation harkens back to autocrats past ...
open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/...
open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/...
"Both Sane and Insane": Autocratic Visions of Governance, and Chaos as a Strategy
Plus gratitude practice and a discount on paying subscriptions as a thank you
open.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:52 AM
An incredible and prescient analysis by @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social of how our situation harkens back to autocrats past ...
open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/...
open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/...
ATTENTION so-called centrists: MAGA cannot be reasoned with but can only be defeated
November 6, 2025 at 3:03 PM
ATTENTION so-called centrists: MAGA cannot be reasoned with but can only be defeated
Reposted by Steve Potts
It's more important than ever to understand your First Amendment rights.
What the First Amendment Really Protects
From protests and journalism to social media and campus speech, explore how the First Amendment safeguards everyone — including immigrants — and what it actually covers.
www.aclu.org
November 6, 2025 at 12:36 AM
It's more important than ever to understand your First Amendment rights.
when you need the Mythbusters to determine the pounds per square inch delivered by a footlong chicken bacon ranch
"The sandwich did not impede Officer Lairmore’s duties that night,” Sandwich Guy's lawyer argues. "A footlong from Subway could not and certainly did not inflict bodily harm.”
November 5, 2025 at 8:36 PM
when you need the Mythbusters to determine the pounds per square inch delivered by a footlong chicken bacon ranch
Reposted by Steve Potts
How many kids first experience of the state will be of masked men grabbing people?
Raids inside day cares had been off limits until this year, when, on his first day in office, President Donald Trump removed that protection.
The arrest reportedly took place in front of children.
19thnews.org/2025/11/chil...
The arrest reportedly took place in front of children.
19thnews.org/2025/11/chil...
‘I have papers’: Child care worker detained by ICE officers inside a Chicago day care
Raids inside day cares had been off limits until this year, when, on his first day in office, President Donald Trump removed that protection.
19thnews.org
November 5, 2025 at 5:35 PM
How many kids first experience of the state will be of masked men grabbing people?
Reposted by Steve Potts
District Judge Sara Ellis on the bench for today's injunction hearing re: federal immigration agents' violent behavior in Chicagoland.
If entered, the injunction will replace a restraining order Ellis entered against the feds in early October - which attorneys say the feds have repeatedly violated.
If entered, the injunction will replace a restraining order Ellis entered against the feds in early October - which attorneys say the feds have repeatedly violated.
Now heading inside to attend the hearing proper.
November 5, 2025 at 3:16 PM
District Judge Sara Ellis on the bench for today's injunction hearing re: federal immigration agents' violent behavior in Chicagoland.
If entered, the injunction will replace a restraining order Ellis entered against the feds in early October - which attorneys say the feds have repeatedly violated.
If entered, the injunction will replace a restraining order Ellis entered against the feds in early October - which attorneys say the feds have repeatedly violated.
Reposted by Steve Potts
NEW -- Trump's claim that the alleged smugglers he is summarily killing without charges or trials are bringing deadly fentanyl to the US is a total lie.
DoD, in fact, has told Congress that they haven't found that opioid in the debris. Only cocaine.
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
DoD, in fact, has told Congress that they haven't found that opioid in the debris. Only cocaine.
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
Trump’s Summary Killings Of Dozens Aboard Boats Appear Based On A Massive Fentanyl Lie
The president has said multiple times that the destroyed vessels were carrying the lethal opioid, but officials have told Congress the boats were carrying cocaine.
www.huffpost.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:00 PM
NEW -- Trump's claim that the alleged smugglers he is summarily killing without charges or trials are bringing deadly fentanyl to the US is a total lie.
DoD, in fact, has told Congress that they haven't found that opioid in the debris. Only cocaine.
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
DoD, in fact, has told Congress that they haven't found that opioid in the debris. Only cocaine.
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
Reposted by Steve Potts
Dick Cheney led America into a disastrous war based on false evidence. But he did so with civility, and for that I am eternally grateful.
by David Brooks
by David Brooks
November 4, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Dick Cheney led America into a disastrous war based on false evidence. But he did so with civility, and for that I am eternally grateful.
by David Brooks
by David Brooks
Reposted by Steve Potts
Now in Judge Gettleman's courtroom in Chicago, waiting for the morning hearing on this case - which alleges the Broadview, IL ICE facility is a "black hole" where detainees are deprived of legal counsel and subject to inhumane treatment - to begin.
Update: District Judge Robert Gettleman told the govt to return the immigration detainee plaintiffs in this lawsuit to IL by 4pm yesterday, as they had already been moved out of state.
I finally got word the plaintiffs were back in IL at ~7:45 am. A hearing in the case is set for 9:30 am today.
I finally got word the plaintiffs were back in IL at ~7:45 am. A hearing in the case is set for 9:30 am today.
"You have no rights in here."
Read the harrowing testimony given by people held at ICE's Broadview detention center. ✍️ @djbyrnes1.bsky.social
Read the harrowing testimony given by people held at ICE's Broadview detention center. ✍️ @djbyrnes1.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Now in Judge Gettleman's courtroom in Chicago, waiting for the morning hearing on this case - which alleges the Broadview, IL ICE facility is a "black hole" where detainees are deprived of legal counsel and subject to inhumane treatment - to begin.