Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Steve Vladeck

@stevevladeck.bsky.social

It's worth asking how differently things might look on the ground right now if #SCOTUS hadn't eviscerated Bivens—and made it all-but impossible to bring damages suits against federal officers (like ICE agents) who violate our constitutional rights.

This is from my rebuttal in Hernández v. Mesa:

I do want to go back to putting this case in the broader context because I think it's important to understand how we got here. Historically, the whole way that the tort liability regime worked for government misconduct was that this Court and state courts

looked to existing common law causes of action and focused on immunity defenses as the way of calibrating the harm that citizens and others faced when injured by government officers against the need to protect officers acting in good faith, back to Judge Hand in Gregoire
versus Biddle.

The Court struck this balance by fashioning immunity defenses where the fight would be over whether the officer was entitled to immunity or not. And for law enforcement officers specifically, this Court has long
rejected the argument that there should be any context in which law enforcement officers, because of the frequency with which they
interact with average individuals, because of the nature of their interactions, because of the powers they have to search, to seize, to arrest in this context, to use lethal force, did not justify absolute immunity and instead justified a more narrower, qualified kind of immunity for those most likely to come face-to-face with private citizens.

Distilled to its simplest, the government's position in this case is that

officers in what is self-described as the nation's largest law enforcement agency should have a functional absolute immunity at least where foreign nationals are concerned.

And our submission is that that is not consistent with how this Court has always understood the relationship between causes of action and immunity defenses in this context. It is not required by any of this Court's Bivens decisions. It does not abide by this Court's suggestion in Abbasi that there are strong reasons and powerful reasons to retain Bivens in this context.

And it would eliminate the one deterrence that is meaningfully available to ensure that officers in the nation's largest law enforcement agency are complying with the law.

October 2, 2025 at 5:47 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

Republicans won’t even consider stopping this gerrymandering nonsense until Democrats get serious and redistrict them out of everywhere possible.

September 30, 2025 at 6:40 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

But its the left, right?

September 19, 2025 at 2:55 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

RIP Hulu subscription (2011-2025)

September 18, 2025 at 7:22 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

Blockbuster report and recommendation from the Eastern District of Oklahoma: Tribal citizens have no Section 1983 rights for constitutional deprivations committed by cross-deputized LEOs employed by the state.

July 9, 2025 at 3:25 PM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Joanna Schwartz

@jcschwartzprof.bsky.social

There will now be 10,000 new ICE agents & 100,000 new detention beds--and few safeguards protecting people from constitutional violations by the feds.

Time for states to pass laws allowing people to sue fed agents. Read about it these "converse-1983" statutes here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

July 3, 2025 at 8:15 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

If golf keeps him from making decisions, play all the golf you want

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Jun 18

TRUMP: 35 club championships. I haven't hit a ball in 3 weeks, 4 weeks

CORRESPONDENT: It's time to get out there

TRUMP: Been a little busy. Wouldn't you rather have me doing what I'm doing in the end?

CORRESPONDENT: Of course

June 18, 2025 at 2:51 PM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Taniel

@taniel.bsky.social

important new voting rights law in Colorado

don’t miss it:

Bolts @boltsmag.org · Jun 15

A new Colorado law includes requirements that dozens of cities provide multilingual ballots during local elections, bridging a major gap in access for voting in those races.

Alex Burness reports in Bolts: boltsmag.org/colorad...

Colorado Strengthens Access to Ballots in Spanish

The state adopted a Voting Rights Act to stand in for quickly eroding federal protections. Still, local advocates warn there’s much more Colorado can do to ensure multilingual access.

boltsmag.org

June 15, 2025 at 11:48 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

Bravo to the military band who got away with that one 👏👏👏

Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · Jun 14

I did not edit this, this is the actual parade with the actual music being played.

CINEMATIC

June 15, 2025 at 3:47 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

Also true for people who use free versions of email platforms like Gmail.

Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · May 29

this is a good point that too many lawyers don't understand either:

if you are putting your information into a publicly available, free AI, that information is being used to train the AI. not much from the courts on this yet but there's a real chance of a privilege waiver for this.

eschaton embracer @kvlt.bsky.social · May 29

That shit IS NOT subject to privilege, babes!

May 30, 2025 at 12:37 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

We need one of those regional dialect maps for how people say “voir dire.”

May 29, 2025 at 2:58 PM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Gabriel Malor

@gabrielmalor.bsky.social

10th Cir. holds that it was clearly established law that officer could not shoot (and kill) homeowner while serving a protective order where there was no suspicion of a crime, no weapon, and no threat.

No QI.

www.ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/f...

The panel concluded in the prior opinion that the plaintiff’s version
of events had reflected not only an unlawful arrest, but also excessive
force. Ibarra v. Lee, No. 22-5094, 2023 WL 6939236, at *10–12 (10th Cir.
Oct. 20, 2023) (unpublished). For the claim of excessive force, the panel
reasoned that the jury could reasonably find
• no suspicion of Mr. Martinez for a prior crime,
• no weapon, and
• no threat to Officer Lee.
Id. at 12. Without a threat, weapon, or suspected crime, police officers
couldn’t reasonably believe that the Fourth Amendment would allow them
to shoot Mr. Martinez.
We have often held that even before March 2020, the Constitution
had clearly prohibited an officer from shooting a suspect who poses no
immediate threat. E.g., Huff v. Reeves, 996 F.3d 1082, 1084–85, 1090 (10th
Cir. 2021) (January 2016); Reavis v. Frost, 967 F.3d 978, 982, 995 (10th

May 5, 2025 at 6:15 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

CA10: You can’t shoot a non-threatening dog, it’s “common sense.” QI denied @radleybalko.bsky.social

www.ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/f...

www.ca10.uscourts.gov

April 22, 2025 at 5:38 PM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

Jurors find Saguache County jail liable, pay $4 million to victim

DENVER – A suicide five years ago in the Saguache County jail has led to an April 9 jury verdict in a lawsuit against jail staff that awarded $4 million to the estate of the victim.

www.themountainmail.com

April 16, 2025 at 12:41 PM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Jenn Burrill

@jennburrill.bsky.social

357 police shootings in New Mexico over 10 years...

"only three police departments — New York, Houston and Los Angeles, three of the five largest cities in the nation — actually killed more people than Albuquerque police did during that timeframe"

Reporting by @cosmicbowling.bsky.social

Inside the manslaughter conviction of a Las Cruces police officer | Searchlight New Mexico

Before Brad Lunsford was charged with manslaughter for the 2022 shooting of Presley Eze, Searchlight New Mexico analyzed hundreds of police shootings across the state. We showed that officers are almo...

searchlightnm.org

March 4, 2025 at 2:38 AM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

He got a little carried away

January 20, 2025 at 12:47 AM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Clifton Adcock

@cliftonhowze.bsky.social

The #Oklahoma cabinet secretary of energy & environment learned today via social media
that he had been fired by Gov. Kevin Stitt
because he attended a federal court hearing on the state's decades-long lawsuit against large poultry companies. www.readfrontier.org/stories/stit...

Stitt cabinet member learned of his firing via social media during poultry pollution lawsuit hearing

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he was troubled by the governor’s abrupt dismissal of Oklahoma Secretary of Energy and Environment Ken McQueen. “Water doesn’t make political donations....

www.readfrontier.org

December 4, 2024 at 3:22 AM

jspencerbryan

@jspencerbryan.bsky.social

I have a joke about qualified immunity. I clearly made it up.

Popehat of Serious Proportion @kenwhite.bsky.social · Dec 4

I have a joke about presidential immunity. Sorry how it smells, I just pulled it out of my ass.

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · Dec 4

I have a joke about res ipsa loquitur

December 4, 2024 at 3:30 AM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Sophie Pedder

@sophiepedder.bsky.social

Wow. Here is one to brighten up your morning. The first images of the restored interior of Notre Dame cathedral. Breathtaking. In just five years France did it

November 29, 2024 at 8:08 AM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Okla City Free Press

@freepressokc.bsky.social

An OKCPD Internal Affairs investigation found numerous flaws in a sergeant's response to a noise complaint resulting in a resident's injuries. | Brett Dickerson reports:

OK County DA charges OKCPD officer with assault and battery

An OKCPD Internal Affairs investigation found numerous procedural flaws in a sergeant's response to a noise complaint resulting in a resident's injuries.

freepressokc.com

November 28, 2024 at 10:04 PM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Kara Swisher

@karaswisher.bsky.social

I have covered both Musk and Alex a lot, and only one of them is a useful idiot for Putin and also a heinous person. The other is a patriot who did his job with distinction and is a very good man. Guess which is which: thehill.com/policy/techn...

Musk accuses Trump whistleblower Vindman of ‘treason,’ says ‘he will pay’

Elon Musk on Wednesday suggested retired Army Lt. Col Alexander Vindman “committed treason” and “will pay” after the former Trump impeachment witness accused the tech billio…

thehill.com

November 28, 2024 at 2:57 PM

Reposted by jspencerbryan

Brian Tyler Cohen

@briantylercohen.bsky.social

If you needed even MORE of a reason to switch to Bluesky, China is "troubled" by the fact that they've invested so much time on Twitter buying ads, bots, and influencers... only to see the people they're seeking to manipulate (us) flee the site.
www.semafor.com/article/11/2...