In Lafayette, police and state/federal partners announced the arrests of five suspects tied to the Jan. 18, 2026 shooting of Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, who were both wounded but are expected to fully recover. Investigators say the attack was targeted at the judiciary and linked to an alleged plot to derail an …
The United States has been named the focus of the 2026 International Day of the Endangered Lawyer, marking it as a country where the rule of law is under threat due to political intimidation of lawyers and judges. An international coalition of legal groups selected the US—previously seen as a global model of judicial independence—because …
A PBS NewsHour segment examines how President Trump’s second-term policies are placing unprecedented strain on the U.S. judicial system. Constitutional law professor Steve Vladeck argues that recent executive actions—especially on immigration enforcement, including proposed warrantless home entries—push beyond established constitutional limits and conflict with Fourth Amendment protections. Federal courts have acted as a key check …
This piece examines how large U.S. law firms have responded to political pressure from the Trump administration, especially efforts to punish firms representing government critics. While some firms settled or retreated from controversial litigation, others have recently stepped up to defend civil rights, sanctuary cities, academic institutions, and government accountability. The author is skeptical that …
Levesque, C., DeWaard, J., Chan, L., McKenzie, M. G., Tsuchiya, K., Toles, O., … Boyle, E. H. (2023). Crimmigrating Narratives: Examining Third-Party Observations of US Detained Immigration Court. Law & Social Inquiry, 48(2), 407–436. doi:10.1017/lsi.2022.16 Crimmigrating Narratives: Examining Third-Party Observations of US Detained Immigration Court examines how U.S. immigration courts criminalize non-citizens through what the authors call …
In this Bloomberg Law commentary (Jan. 5, 2026), attorney Abbe David Lowell argues that authoritarian-leaning leaders often target lawyers first because lawyers are essential to protecting rights and checking executive power. He reframes Shakespeare’s “let’s kill all the lawyers” as a warning: eliminating lawyers makes it easier to undermine democracy. Lowell says President Donald Trump’s …
In early 2026, the legal fight over President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting major U.S. law firms is moving into a new phase. The orders sought to restrict lawyers’ security clearances and encouraged federal agencies to scrutinize government contracts connected to firms’ clients, citing firms’ political ties or high-profile adversarial hires. Four firms—Perkins Coie, …
Landau, D., & Dixon, R. (2019). Abusive judicial review: courts against democracy. UC Davis L. Rev., 53, 1313. Both in the United States and around the world, courts are generally conceptualized as the last line of defense for the liberal democratic constitutional order. But this Article shows that it is not uncommon for judges to issue decisions …
In a significant ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to the Chicago area, delivering one of its first major setbacks to Trump’s expansive claims of executive power in months. The decision was heavily influenced by an unusual source: a friend-of-the-court brief submitted by Georgetown law professor …
In December 2025, a bipartisan group of Members of Congress sent a formal letter to Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche raising serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest and ethical lapses within the U.S. Department of Justice. The letter documents a pattern of DOJ interventions, dismissals, and discretionary decisions in …