Quinta Jurecic
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qjurecic.bsky.social
Quinta Jurecic
@qjurecic.bsky.social
83K followers 1.9K following 6.6K posts
Writing about law and democracy at The Atlantic, previously Lawfare. Not a lawyer. It's KWIN-ta.

signal: qjurecic.32
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qjurecic.bsky.social
this could mean several different things, none of which are reassuring
“The question is, is it legal just to kill the guy if he’s not threatening to kill you and you’re outside an armed conflict? There are people who are simply uncomfortable with the president just declaring we’re at war with drug traffickers,” said a former senior official familiar with the debate. “Internally, a lot of people are treating this like the rendition program,” the former official said. “It’s one thing to get rid of [Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein or [Libyan autocrat] Moammar Gaddafi for counterterrorism reasons. This is different.’’
November 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
not the point but I absolutely cannot stand it when judges adopt this writing style
The public perception of this case is that it's about politics. To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map. Here's why.
November 18, 2025 at 6:34 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
the "just trust us" approach to presenting evidence before a grand jury storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Second, the prosecutor told the grand jury that there was [REDACTED] . That statement clearly suggested to the grand jury that they did not have to rely only on the record before them to determine probable cause but could be assured the government had more evidence–perhaps better evidence–that would be presented at trial.
November 17, 2025 at 4:53 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
washpost's ai-generated comment summaries continue to deliver
The conversation explores a range of perspectives on Seattle's decision to elect a socialist mayor with limited management experience. Many participants express skepticism about the editorial's tone and content, criticizing it for being biased, condescending, and lacking objectivity. Some commenters draw parallels between the new mayor's lack of experience and that of former President Trump, suggesting that inexperience is not unique to socialist candidates. Others highlight the dissatisfaction with the status quo and the appeal of socialist policies as a response to unmet needs in the city, such as affordable housing and child care. There is also a recurring theme of distrust towards the editorial board, with accusations of it being influenced by wealthy interests, particularly those of Jeff Bezos. Overall, the discussion reflects a mix of concern, hope, and criticism regarding the potential impact of the new mayor's policies on Seattle.Show less
November 17, 2025 at 4:18 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
This seems fine 👍www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Prosecutor, D.C. metro area: It’s unprecedented to shift resources away from national security to this degree. Virginia and D.C. have the most important offices for counterterrorism and espionage. We get cases from the Middle East, long and complex investigations of terrorist threats from abroad and also domestically. In the Eastern District, there were 12 to 14 lawyers in the national security unit and now there are four, with no deputy or chief. In D.C., the national security unit is down about 50 percent. I was recently on the floor where F.B.I. agents work on domestic terrorism and it was completely hollowed out. You have to have good, experienced, trained people doing this work on a daily basis. If you don’t, because you demand they do immigration shifts, there is real danger to national security and public safety.
November 17, 2025 at 1:25 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
It’s sort of clarifying to see him describe this dynamic so directly www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Summers went on to describe what he saw as his “best shot”: that the woman finds him “invaluable and interesting” and concludes “she can’t have it without romance / sex.”
November 17, 2025 at 2:28 AM
qjurecic.bsky.social
But not for long!
Photo of a still from death by lightning showing Chester Arthur, with text reading “Chester Arthur passed landmark civil service reforms that shape our government to this day”
November 16, 2025 at 1:11 AM
qjurecic.bsky.social
it's HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029569
On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 6:41 PM J wrote: sorry , that was meant as a filler what is important is that she is joining the others priority . and not appearing on your show. ! :) i invite you to appear is DOA On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 7:39 PM Lisa New wrote: this poem about childbirth and is not for children. It's for adults and it raises awareness on the issues of discrimination against women athletes in sports ,and, against women of color in childbirth. These are Serena's big issues now. Lisa On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 6:35 PM J wrote: serena , bill clinon shaque and,,,,, have all on pbs. ? read poetry for children. I would love to have you do the same........blah blah blah do not say come on my show. On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 7:30 PM Lisa New _____________________wrote: Jeffrey, How's this On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 11:05 AM J wrote: Needs edit. Start with id like you to join clinton ..eyc On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 10:52 AM Lisa New wrote: Dear Jeffrey, Here is an invitation you can forward. Fingers crossed.
November 13, 2025 at 1:11 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
new meme
DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT
November 12, 2025 at 4:37 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
Anyhow this morning I'm just remembering Stormy Daniels's testimony about Trump during the Manhattan trial www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
This week, though, prosecutors made the call to put Daniels on the stand. She described her experience with Trump in greater detail than she had on 60 Minutes, saying she’d reluctantly agreed to a dinner with Trump and, when she arrived at the hotel, was told to come up to his room—an echo of Weinstein’s tactics. After a long conversation about business—he was interested in the economics of the porn industry, she said, and suggested that she might appear on The Apprentice—she went to the restroom, and emerged to find him stripped down to a T-shirt and boxers. She was shocked: “I felt the room spin in slow motion,” she testified, and remembered thinking, “Oh my God, what did I misread to get here?” She went to leave, and he stood between her and the door. When she went to put on her clothes afterward, she said, her hands were shaking too hard to buckle up her shoes.
November 12, 2025 at 3:54 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
FWIW in 2025, Wolff described Epstein as becoming a "source" in 2015, the year he sent the email giving Epstein advice washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/20/t...
In 2014, he approached me about writing a book. I wasn’t interested, but he suggested we have conversations to see if I became interested, and I did find them fascinating. At some point, I began recording. In 2015, as Trump started his campaign, Epstein became a source; I had no idea about his relationship with Trump until he began to tell me stories, which were useful. Then Bannon entered the picture. I was privy to both Epstein and Bannon discussing Trump in revealing ways.
November 12, 2025 at 3:50 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
But they also said that Trump is facing far, far more public opposition today than the government ever saw during the McCarthy era. American civil society is weaker than many had hoped, but it's also stronger than it once was. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
When I spoke with Schrecker about her study of the second Red Scare, she pointed to Kimmel’s victory as an indication of the difference between the McCarthy era and today. During McCarthyism, “there was essentially no opposition,” she told me. “People either supported the purges, or else they were too afraid.” One representative anecdote in No Ivory Tower describes a graduate student at the University of Chicago who, during the ’50s, was unable to persuade frightened colleagues to sign a petition—not about any politically sensitive topic but for the university to install a vending machine in their laboratory. In contrast, after Disney pulled Kimmel from the air, petitions and calls for boycotts blossomed. The ACLU launched a campaign to “defend free speech,” and hundreds of actors and artists signed on.
November 10, 2025 at 4:03 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
Of the historians, lawyers, and scholars I spoke to while writing this, many said the same thing: What's happening now is worth than McCarthyism. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The historians, lawyers, and scholars I spoke with were in marked agreement that the current moment is not just comparable to but even more damaging than previous Red Scares. Within higher education, today’s crackdown is “worse than McCarthyism—much worse,” Ellen Schrecker, a historian and the author of No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities, told me. Then, she explained, individual academics were scrutinized and fired for Communist ties. But today, the country is experiencing a “frontal attack on everything that has to do with universities and colleges,” Schrecker said. This assault on higher education is best understood as a means of destroying a locus of political opposition. With growing political polarization along educational lines, college-educated voters have become more likely to vote for the Democratic Party. Trump’s solution is an attempted dismantling of the institutions that helped produce these voters in the first place—and a symbolic attack on institutions of knowledge and expertise that are inherently at odds with Trump’s model of governance by know-nothingism.
November 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
The moral of the story is that you should never answer your email or fill out paperwork
Apparently, he never did. Documents produced in relation to the Daily Caller suit indicate that Richman neglected to sign his reappointment papers. One FBI official emphasized this point in a hand-written note included among the FOIA materials: “Doc drawn up + sent to OGC for Richman signature. Never signed. Never officially reappointed after June 2016.” Which raises an important question: Was he ever “officially” reappointed after his first term expired on June 30, 2016? And if not, was he really “at the FBI” at the time of the alleged communications on which the government’s case depends? But some of the evidence could cut the other way. By January 2017, Richman’s GSA access card—a card used for building access by federal employees and contractors—had expired, according to emails he sent during that time. Additionally, Richman apparently never took a required ethics training for special government employees in 2016
November 8, 2025 at 1:00 AM
qjurecic.bsky.social
A memo from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is circulating among govt agencies, warns that "if we do nothing ... the same deep state actors who have egregiously weaponized counterintelligence for political purposes will be empowered"
November 7, 2025 at 5:33 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
FT chart showing that every governing party in a developed country lost voter share in 2024 and that the Dems did relatively well
November 7, 2025 at 2:43 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
what a time www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...
“The distance between Fuentes and the mainstream Republican Party isn’t really that large,” said Richard Hanania, a conservative writer who once posted under a pseudonym in white supremacist forums. (He has since renounced his past writings.)
November 6, 2025 at 6:50 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
many people are saying!
Opinion interesting times Did Women Ruin the Workplace?
November 6, 2025 at 1:26 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
there's only one conclusion: labor law is woke www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
One of Roberts’s executive vice presidents and new chief of staff, Derrick Morgan, said in an all-staff meeting that he encouraged summer interns to “make yourselves marriageable and go out and seek marriage,” according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Post. Weeks later, an attorney advising executives on labor law specifically warned that those kinds of remarks created significant legal liability for Heritage, according to two people present at the meeting.
November 6, 2025 at 1:25 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
this man is a true poster
The ordeal does not appear to have dimmed Bushart’s zeal for posting. He was back on social media Thursday, posting prolifically about baseball, candy corn and politics.
October 31, 2025 at 2:18 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
this seems like kind of a problem for the comey prosecution! storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
III. THE POTENTIAL INVASION OF MR. COMEY’S ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE WARRANTS DISCLOSURE OF THE GRAND JURY MATERIALS Based on a review of the discovery materials produced by the government, it appears that the FBI Special Agent who testified before the grand jury may have been tainted by information covered by the attorney-client privilege. As noted above, the agent’s name appears on the indictment return sheet and criminal case cover sheet, ECF No. 7, which in this District typically reflects the name of the agent witness who testifies before the grand jury. The agent’s role as a witness raises serious concerns about the misuse of privileged information in the grand jury. The same day the agent apparently testified before the grand jury, he alerted OGC that “ ” ECF No. 89-5 at 2088 (Ex. E). That information apparently related to certain attorneys for Mr. Comey, including Mr. Richman. See id. Nevertheless, the agent testified before the grand jury that same day, and given the content of the resulting indictment, it is clear that his testimony must have referenced Mr. Comey’s interactions and communications with Mr. Richman. This created a high risk that privileged information was presented to the grand jury by a tainted case agent
October 30, 2025 at 9:11 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
Similar signs popped up around DC during the ICE surge
Sign on a newspaper box reading "YOUR NEIGHBOR WAS KIDNAPPED RIGHT HERE" Sign on a tree reading "ICE ABDUCTED SOMEONE HERE"
October 30, 2025 at 1:07 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
this decision to do a hard pivot on gender is very closely intertwined with dismissing previous and ongoing opposition to trump as somehow embarrassing and ineffective, because it wasn't led by men in hard hats www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
That movement’s on-the-ground organizing proved to be quietly, but strikingly, effective. The early phase of the opposition to the first Trump administration—before the racial-justice protests following George Floyd’s murder, in 2020—was largely led by white, college-educated, suburban women, and many of them, yes, wore pink “pussy hats” and T-shirts with slogans such as It’s Mueller Time! But they helped secure the “blue wave” midterm victory in 2018 that flipped the House of Representatives for Democrats and allowed the party to begin clawing back Trump’s power through legislative oversight. And though that congressional response had its limitations—neither impeachment of Trump, after all, successfully barred him from office—the Resistance notched continued successes at a local level in countering efforts to pull books from school shelves and restrict access to reproductive health care after Roe v. Wade was overturned. And, of course, a Democrat won the White House in 2020. As the reference to hysteria suggests, it’s difficult to fully disaggregate the substance of this critique from gender politics, especially because of the predominance of older women in Resistance organizing during Trump’s first term. Liberal politics, the humor writer Clare Haber-Harris assessed in early 2025, had become “middle-aged-women coded” and therefore “uncool.” These Resistance aesthetics contrasted with the macho energy of Trump’s second term, itself a promise that Americans wouldn’t have to listen to those hectoring women anymore.
October 25, 2025 at 3:11 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
Check out that mallard
A very handsome male mallard duck in a scenic woodland creek
October 23, 2025 at 2:14 PM
qjurecic.bsky.social
Sort of an unexpectedly mournful energy to this ad today
Metro ad for “the people’s house: the White House experience”
October 23, 2025 at 2:08 PM