Heidi Kitrosser
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heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Heidi Kitrosser
@heidikitrosser.bsky.social
15K followers 2.2K following 3.3K posts
Law professor focusing on constitutional law, especially free speech, the separation of powers, and government secrecy. Friend to all dogs and cats. Champion procrastinator.
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heidikitrosser.bsky.social
I always loved his desk.
Still frame photo from the Jetsons, featuring Cosmo Spacely at his very cool and futuristic looking U-shaped desk, looking focused and stern with his arms crossed.
November 9, 2025 at 1:45 AM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
And I will provide flying cars, an automated device that showers and dresses you each morning, a dog named Astro, and a competent and considerate robot named Rosie. It’s still in R & D but trust me.
At the meeting, Musk claimed that Optimus robots “will eliminate poverty,” “give everyone amazing medical care,” and will be “bigger than cell phones, bigger than anything.” He also said the robots could be used for “containment of future crime” by following criminals around and stopping them from “doing crime.” There’s currently no Optimus robot on the market, and Musk didn’t provide a target date for reaching those goals.
November 9, 2025 at 1:00 AM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Every day and in every way, the Trump administration embodies the line: "For my friends, everything; For my enemies, the law."

(the screenshot is from the article linked below)
The particular conspiracy charge the Chicago protesters face — conspiracy to impede a United States officer — “was one of the main charges used against January 6th insurrection defendants,” noted civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo on Bluesky. The attempted coup that day had been marked by serious violence: An estimated 140 police officers were injured at the Capitol. The alleged conspiracy in Abughazaleh’s case? All six people facing charges were part of a September protest outside ICE’s Broadview Processing Center. At the demonstration, a federal agent was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed,” the indictment said, so as not to mow down protesters. The vehicle reportedly incurred minor damage.
October 30, 2025 at 3:10 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Adding this doozy from Justice Thomas's concurrence:
"Few things would threaten our constitutional order more than criminally prosecuting a former President for his official acts."
October 28, 2025 at 1:05 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Re-reading Trump v. US to teach it today, and ... 😭😭😭
Excerpt from Trump v US majority, highlighting portion that says: "Coming up short on reasoning, the dissents repeatedly level variations of the accusation that the Court has rendered the President "above the law." As before, that "rhetorically chilling" contention is "wholly unjustified."
October 28, 2025 at 11:26 AM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
JFC this shrieking lunatic never misses an opportunity to emulate Nazis. How not at all terrifying that he's running the U.S. government.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degener...
From wikipedia: Degenerate art (German: Entartete Kunst) was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, was removed from state-owned museums and banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that such art was an "insult to German feeling", un-German, Freemasonic, Jewish, or Communist in nature. Those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions that included dismissal from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art.
October 24, 2025 at 8:36 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
2/2:
Professor Lederman powerfully explains, that can’t possibly be correct; there is significant textual and contextual support for the proposition that “the regular forces” is a reference to the active service federal military. And because there has been no effort “to execute the laws of the United States” with those forces (and no finding that the President is unable to do so), the invocations of § 12406(3) could be struck down on far simpler (and less fraught) grounds than what it really means for the President to be “unable” to enforce federal law, and who decides that question. Here’s hoping that argument gets serious consideration by the Supreme Court, the en banc Ninth Circuit, and any other courts confronting these novel and critically important legal questions.
October 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Characteristically excellent summary by Vladeck on the state of play in the national guard cases. I’m screenshotting a point he makes at the end that I think is especially important and has mostly gotten lost thus far 1/2:

open.substack.com/pub/stevevla...
Second, as my friend and Georgetown Law colleague Marty Lederman argued quite persuasively in an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court in the Illinois case, there’s a pretty good argument that the lower courts have largely sidestepped that would make all of these cases much easier. To federalize National Guard troops under 10 U.S.C. § 12406(3), the President must determine that he “is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” The lower courts (other than Judge Perry in Illinois) have assumed, to date, that “regular forces” includes civilian law enforcement personnel. As
October 23, 2025 at 2:46 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
It doesn’t belong to them. The White House is not Trump’s to manhandle and deface with his tacky, gold-embossed stamps.
Screenshot of X post by White House Comms Director Steven Cheung. It says “The beginning of something beautiful” and includes both a photo of a demolished East Wing of the White House and a rendering of the tacky golden ballroom that Trump plans to force into the space at his whim.
October 22, 2025 at 11:21 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
What a delightful story. I love this part:
“It’s not a huge leap to suspect that a past offender might be the perpetrator,” Ms. Bentall said. “But otters learn from one another. So you might have one otter that starts the behavior, and other otters see it and learn from it.”
October 21, 2025 at 6:23 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
I miss the days when this was unthinkable outside of a movie about invaders from outer space.
Scene from the 1996 film Independence Day showing the White House being blown up by a spacecraft.
October 20, 2025 at 8:44 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Northwestern University Faculty Assembly passes a resolution opposing a “compact” with the Trump administration.

The vote was 595 to 4 with 8 abstaining.

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/10/20/c...
"This Faculty Assembly opposes any capitulation on the part of Northwestern University to these or similar demands that undermine constitutional rights, democratic principles, faculty governance, institutional autonomy, and academic freedom," the resolution read. The second resolution also passed, with 595 for, four against and eight abstentions.
October 20, 2025 at 12:58 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
I love this. Got it from cnn.com. Photo credit Olga Fedorova / AP.

Liberty, the rule of law (no kings), investment in the public good (an incredible subway system). This photo has it all.
Photo of someone dressed as the Statute of Liberty holding a sign that says "no kings," existing the New York City subway through a turnstile at 14th Street and 7th Avenue.
October 19, 2025 at 2:48 AM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Chicago says #NoKings
Photo of grant park in Chicago filled with protestors.
October 18, 2025 at 5:21 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Sides 1 and 2 (my cat wouldn’t get out of the photo for side 2)
One side of a protest poster that says, “keep your tiny, grubby hands off our freedoms” Other side of protest poster that says: Hands Off Chicago “
October 18, 2025 at 1:55 AM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
On that note, Northwestern U. faculty, please attend the faculty assembly tonight (there's a Zoom option if you can't attend in person). We'll be voting on a resolution to reject the Trump shakedown / "compact" / assault on academic freedom.
Screenshot of a poster inviting faculty to tonight's assembly. It features a Zoom qr code to register to attend on Zoom and notes that you can also attend in person at Lutkin hall. The QR code takes you to the following URL address where you can register to attend via Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KqrmQOMxSNCnW3F9qNDpsw#/registration
October 15, 2025 at 7:35 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Just got this news alert from the Evanston Roundtable, a local news organization. It will never not be shocking that blue regions are under attack by their own federal government, using their own tax dollars.
ICE in Evanston: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained two people Sunday morning outside the Home Depot in southwest Evanston, according to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Mayor Daniel Biss. At about 10:30 a.m., ICIRR's Rapid Response Network said agents "abducted two people at the Home Depot on Oakton." AYSO Evanston notified families and coaches, who were given the option to cancel or postpone games. "James Park is directly across from Home Depot," the AYSO email said. "If you do not feel safe playing your soccer game today, do not go!"
October 13, 2025 at 3:10 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Seeing disturbing videos of ppl handled very forcefully by ICE agents in the Chicago area these past couple of days. This seems in conflict with Judge Ellis' order* from Thursday, temporarily enjoining agents from, among other things:

*order here: protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/u...
Screenshot of part of District Judge Ellis's order. The highlighted language says: "Using force, such as pulling or shoving a person to the ground, tackling, or body slamming an individual who poses no immediate threat of physical harm to others, unless necessary and proportional to effectuate an apprehension and arrest."
October 11, 2025 at 9:14 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
ICE is now pulling from a pool of applicants who see televised images of sobbing children in handcuffs, or masked men in tactical gear roughing up Latino laborers, and don't recoil in horror. The administration is also doing its best to send all the worst possible signals to existing agents, from every level of the hierarchy. The president ominously declares we are engaged in a "war within" - with domestic urban populations cast as the enemy combatants.
October 11, 2025 at 5:13 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Just started reading the written opinion by Judge Perry in the Chicago nat'l guard case. Jeebus, the basic record facts are startling. As Perry recounts them, the protests were uneventful UNTIL the feds showed up & then all hell broke loose. Opinion here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Screenshot from a page of the opinion. I've highlighted the following two portions: On September 12, there were between eighty and one hundred protestors present outside of the ICE Processing Center singing, chanting, and holding small musical instruments. Id. Around 10:00 a.m., twenty to thirty federal agents parked across the street and walked toward the ICE Processing Center in camouflage tactical gear with masks covering their faces, which represented a “noticeable shift” from the way agents had previously approached the building. Id. and Throughout the rest of the day, the crowd chanted, and some individuals stood in the driveway to the ICE Processing Center. Id. ICE intermittently grabbed those people to move them physically out of the driveway. Id. ICE agents eventually gave a dispersal order through a loudspeaker, threatening to deploy chemical agents if the protestors did not leave. Id. Approximately twenty to thirty minutes later, ICE deployed tear gas and pepper spray at the crowd. Id
October 10, 2025 at 10:29 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Free idea for a protest costume! (I lack the coordination to wear something that unwieldy in a crowd)

www.spirithalloween.com/product/adul...
photo of an inflatable "stay puft marshmallow man" costume
October 10, 2025 at 7:15 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
www.cbpp.org/research/fed...
A government shutdown does not provide the Administration any additional legal authority to fire federal employees, limit review of its actions by federal courts, or freeze funding once full-year appropriations are provided.
October 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
Beyond the unconstitutional aspects of the compact, there is its odious demand to intrude on the autonomy of these schools. Every aspect of it seeks to dictate decisions that have traditionally been left to each university — a degree of control over higher education that is characteristic of authoritarian countries. As someone who has spent his career as a professor and as a dean, it is chilling to contemplate universities relinquishing their freedom in this way. Indeed, if any of these universities cave, it’s hard to imagine any limit to what the administration might try to demand next.
October 4, 2025 at 7:59 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
The core of the First Amendment is that the government cannot use its power to discriminate on the basis of the viewpoint expressed. But this provision would do just that in treating conservative ideas differently from liberal ones. And any restriction on belittling an idea is obviously unconstitutional; there always is a right to disagree with an idea, even in strong language. (As with “belittle,” the meaning of “conservative” is vague, leaving the definition up to the whims of members of the administration.)
October 4, 2025 at 7:58 PM
heidikitrosser.bsky.social
This is extortion, plain and simple. It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education in America requires that every university reject it. If any schools capitulate, the pressure will be enormous on all to fold. The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education.
October 4, 2025 at 7:57 PM