Beth Thornburg
@btsmu.bsky.social
Emeritus law professor, civil procedure nerd. Hoping to find my old friends from #LawTwitter. Also interested in supporting museums and other cultural institutions, so needed right now.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=121753
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=121753
Rule 11 sanctions to follow?
OMG - the judge in Florida just sua sponte struck the complaint in the Trump v NYT case for -wait for it - violating Rule 8.
Lawyers, tell the folks at home how hard it is to get the complaint struck outright for something like that in fed eral court.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Lawyers, tell the folks at home how hard it is to get the complaint struck outright for something like that in fed eral court.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
September 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Rule 11 sanctions to follow?
We live in dark times. University president forced to resign after not immediately firing an adjunct children’s literature professor who mentioned transgender issues. www.texastribune.org/2025/09/18/t...
Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III to step down after a week of turmoil over viral classroom video
Calls for Welsh’s ousting intensified over his handling of a student’s complaints about gender identity discussions in a children’s literature class.
www.texastribune.org
September 19, 2025 at 11:59 AM
We live in dark times. University president forced to resign after not immediately firing an adjunct children’s literature professor who mentioned transgender issues. www.texastribune.org/2025/09/18/t...
Hey all you #museums under siege and losing funding. Here is a great toolkit for building support and honing your message that #museumsmatter. It was created for Texas, but would work anywhere. www.texasmuseumstogether.com
Home
MUSEUMS IN TEXAS ARE AT A TIPPING POINT.
www.texasmuseumstogether.com
July 1, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Hey all you #museums under siege and losing funding. Here is a great toolkit for building support and honing your message that #museumsmatter. It was created for Texas, but would work anywhere. www.texasmuseumstogether.com
Woe (again) to residents of the Fifth Circuit. En banc court says public libraries may remove books because they disagree with content. Bye bye books about racism and even In the Night Kitchen. spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-tex...
5th Circuit ruling denies Texas library patrons First Amendment right
Seventeen books addressing racism and transgender topics were removed from Llano County libraries in 2021 after residents deemed them “obscene” and “pornographic.”
spectrumlocalnews.com
May 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Woe (again) to residents of the Fifth Circuit. En banc court says public libraries may remove books because they disagree with content. Bye bye books about racism and even In the Night Kitchen. spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-tex...
Reposted by Beth Thornburg
Art of the Deal
May 12, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Art of the Deal
Has anybody figured out how to REALLY turn off Copilot in Word for Mac. I have deselected it but it keeps offering me “improved” drafts that seem to incorporate their editing changes that I don’t want.
#AI #ShouldBeOptional
#AI #ShouldBeOptional
April 29, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Has anybody figured out how to REALLY turn off Copilot in Word for Mac. I have deselected it but it keeps offering me “improved” drafts that seem to incorporate their editing changes that I don’t want.
#AI #ShouldBeOptional
#AI #ShouldBeOptional
Want a search engine with AI that shows its sources? So far I have been having good luck with Perplexity.
www.perplexity.ai
www.perplexity.ai
Perplexity
Perplexity is a free AI-powered answer engine that provides accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question.
www.perplexity.ai
April 19, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Want a search engine with AI that shows its sources? So far I have been having good luck with Perplexity.
www.perplexity.ai
www.perplexity.ai
A quick 🧵of the incredible sights in cities across the USA right now.
Millions are on the street speaking out against Trump & Musk trampling the Constitution.
Let’s start here with Salt Lake City 😳👏
#HandsOff #HandsOff2025 #FiftyFiftyOne
(📸Nate Blouin)
Millions are on the street speaking out against Trump & Musk trampling the Constitution.
Let’s start here with Salt Lake City 😳👏
#HandsOff #HandsOff2025 #FiftyFiftyOne
(📸Nate Blouin)
April 5, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Beth Thornburg
🚨Georgetown University Law Center students are detailing which law firms have caved and which have stood up to the Trump regime. They have created this spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Please share widely.
Legal Industry Responses to Fascist Attacks Tracker (Public)
docs.google.com
April 3, 2025 at 4:41 AM
🚨Georgetown University Law Center students are detailing which law firms have caved and which have stood up to the Trump regime. They have created this spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Please share widely.
If law schools don’t stand up for the law and train students to do so, it’s a step on the road to “the law is whatever powerful people say it is.”
I’m proud of the deans who signed this letter. If we don’t stand up for the rule of law, what exactly are we doing in law schools? abovethelaw.com/2025/03/law-...
Law School Deans Denounce Trump's Attacks On Biglaw Firms As Unconstitutional - Above the Law
Another core group of lawyers stands up to defend Biglaw against the Trump administration.
abovethelaw.com
March 28, 2025 at 12:31 PM
If law schools don’t stand up for the law and train students to do so, it’s a step on the road to “the law is whatever powerful people say it is.”
Well this sends chills up my spine.
March 5, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Well this sends chills up my spine.
Saying it out loud. Big city newspaper drops Doonesbury because it is “not fair to Trump.” www.dallasnews.com/opinion/publ...
February 19, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Saying it out loud. Big city newspaper drops Doonesbury because it is “not fair to Trump.” www.dallasnews.com/opinion/publ...
I was really hoping this was satire, but apparently it is real. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
February 15, 2025 at 9:07 PM
I was really hoping this was satire, but apparently it is real. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Reposted by Beth Thornburg
Good thing that Republicans are here to promote campus free speech
Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for education secretary, said she’s not “quite certain” whether African American studies would be allowed under Trump’s executive order
Here’s What Linda McMahon, Nominee for Education Secretary, Had to Say About Higher Ed
She discussed dismantling the Education Department, investigating colleges over antisemitism and DEI, and increasing access to noncollege opportunities.
www.chronicle.com
February 13, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Good thing that Republicans are here to promote campus free speech
Laying the groundwork for clear and significant defiance of court orders?
This is an attempt to intimidate Judges who are lawfully performing their jobs.
And it should be called out as such.
And it should be called out as such.
My latest: Donald Trump and his supporters on Wednesday continued to ramp up their criticism of judges who they say have stymied the Republican U.S. president's agenda, with billionaire ally Elon Musk calling for "an immediate wave of judicial impeachments."
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
February 12, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Laying the groundwork for clear and significant defiance of court orders?
Reposted by Beth Thornburg
Indirect Costs and Trump's Attack on Independent Voices.
My latest post:
buttondown.com/sbagen/archi...
My latest post:
buttondown.com/sbagen/archi...
Indirect Costs and Trump's Attack on Independent Voices
By Samuel Bagenstos A strong democracy requires a robust independent sector. Organizations and associations that stand apart from the governing state regime...
buttondown.com
February 8, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Indirect Costs and Trump's Attack on Independent Voices.
My latest post:
buttondown.com/sbagen/archi...
My latest post:
buttondown.com/sbagen/archi...
Agreed order limits DOGE access for now
February 6, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Agreed order limits DOGE access for now
Breaking my heart.
February 5, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Breaking my heart.
Reposted by Beth Thornburg
an important column. This won't revert back to normal by acting like its normal.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...
Opinion | There Is No Going Back (Gift Article)
The president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was.
www.nytimes.com
February 5, 2025 at 1:49 PM
an important column. This won't revert back to normal by acting like its normal.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...
The guidance does a good job tracking the provisions of Judge McConnell’s TRO.
ag.ny.gov/sites/defaul...
ag.ny.gov/sites/defaul...
February 3, 2025 at 3:05 AM
The guidance does a good job tracking the provisions of Judge McConnell’s TRO.
ag.ny.gov/sites/defaul...
ag.ny.gov/sites/defaul...
This may be the scariest so far.
1/ Musk seeking control over nerve systems of the federal government. As someone who spent a decade studying how centralized information systems are used for coercion this is a five alarm fire. We need to name it, identify risks, and seek to mitigate their impacts.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u...
Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Mr. Musk’s representatives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending.
www.nytimes.com
February 2, 2025 at 5:26 PM
This may be the scariest so far.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Texas.
Trump's EO setting out prohibited topics in public schools and encouraging state AGs to sue teachers who recognize trans students is also out.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
January 29, 2025 at 10:51 PM
It’s beginning to look a lot like Texas.
And Leavitt’s tweet is certainly good evidence that the pending lawsuits challenging the freeze are not moot.
1. The executive orders did *not* freeze federal funding.
2. The Monday OMB memo *did* freeze federal funding.
3. OMB rescinded Monday’s memo, thereby rescinding the funding freeze.
4. The EOs (which did not freeze federal funding) are still in effect—and, for these purposes, irrelevant.
Sigh.
2. The Monday OMB memo *did* freeze federal funding.
3. OMB rescinded Monday’s memo, thereby rescinding the funding freeze.
4. The EOs (which did not freeze federal funding) are still in effect—and, for these purposes, irrelevant.
Sigh.
January 29, 2025 at 10:42 PM
And Leavitt’s tweet is certainly good evidence that the pending lawsuits challenging the freeze are not moot.
Reposted by Beth Thornburg
The Inspectors General refuse to leave until the action is taken legally, which they do not believe it was, and neither do senators like Chuck Grassley. This is what not backing down looks like.
static.politico.com/b3/3e/5baf92...
static.politico.com/b3/3e/5baf92...
January 25, 2025 at 6:48 PM
The Inspectors General refuse to leave until the action is taken legally, which they do not believe it was, and neither do senators like Chuck Grassley. This is what not backing down looks like.
static.politico.com/b3/3e/5baf92...
static.politico.com/b3/3e/5baf92...