Lisa Rubin

So it’s Friday night and Rumeysa Ozturk is out on bail, Ras Baraka is in Homeland Security custody, and Stephen Miller is casually toying with suspending habeas corpus. Do I have that right?

I am struggling to understand why, when as the Deputy Attorney General acknowledged, it is not appropriate to comment on a pending criminal investigation, it is ok to disparage Newark’s mayor, who now faces charges under a federal criminal complaint, on national TV. 1/

First time for everything. Hello, friends. 💙

NEW: DOJ says the ongoing dispute over Alina Habba is one about titles, not authority. What does that mean? And why is their fallback position more frightening for the rule of law than their insistence on keeping her as Acting U.S. Attorney? Read here: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: In an email to her now-former colleagues today, veteran SDNY prosecutor Maurene Comey says she was “summarily fired” by “Main Justice” and urges that fear not “seep into the decisions of those who remain.” Read her whole email here: www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...

Pete Hegseth's not the only Trump ally nor the only Trump nominee to express doubts that the executive branch should follow court orders, full stop. It's a disturbing trend, especially when the doubters are themselves federal judicial nominees. My latest for @msnbc.com: msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

The court battles between the Trump administration and Harvard are now so extensive and critical to Harvard that, as I just said on @msnbc.com, collectively, they remind me of this scene.

The Trump memo launching an investigation into the Biden White House’s use of the autopen allegedly to conceal his mental state is something else. Why is the White House Counsel in charge of this investigation? That is one indicator that something is awry. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

NEW: I watched today’s nomination hearing for the first of Trump’s judicial nominees, and spoiler alert: they are willing to go places unthinkable for legal conservatives even 4 years ago. My latest for MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: The first judicial nominees of Trump 2.0 get a Senate Judiciary hearing this morning starting in 2 min. Watch along with me? www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-ac...

NEW: Everyone's got a hot take on Trump's beef with the Federalist Society. Mine? Trump wants to eliminate both FedSoc and the ABA's influence over judicial nominations so he's the sole arbiter of nominees' qualifications & fitness. My latest for MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: Pam Bondi & Kash Patel are under increasing pressure to release more info about Jeffrey Epstein’s life and death. But putting aside our own curiosity, doesn’t federal law enforcement owe his victims a review of their own failure to act? My latest at MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

NEW: Are the courts holding in Trump 2.0? Well, that depends. No court can hold if its orders are flouted—and one immigration case highlights how willing the administration seems to disobey. My latest for MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...