Mark Joseph Stern

@mjsdc.bsky.social

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Senior writer at Slate covering courts and the law. Co-host of the Amicus podcast. Dad.

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Mark Joseph Stern·Sep 2

The next Democratic president should declare that the National Emergencies Act and Article II of the Constitution allow him to: •admit D.C. and Puerto Rico as states •abolish ICE •grant citizenship to any immigrant •disband the 5th Circuit •expand the Supreme Court Seriously: Why the hell not?

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Mark Joseph Stern·Sep 8

BREAKING: By an apparent 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court halts an injunction that had prevented immigration agents from racially profiling Latinos in central California. Sotomayor, dissenting, says the decision is "unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation's constitutional guarantees."

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26085894-25a169-order/

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Mark Joseph Stern·Jul 14

BREAKING: The Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to move forward with the abolition of the Department of Education. It gives no explanation for its order. All three liberals dissent. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25... From Sotomayor's dissent:

Lifting the District Court’s injunction will unleash
untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities
and leaving students to suffer from discrimination, sexual
assault, and other civil rights violations without the federal
resources Congress intended. The majority apparently
deems it more important to free the Government from paying employees it had no right to fire than to avert these very
real harms while the litigation continues. Equity does not
support such an inequitable result.
* * *
The President must take care that the laws are faithfully
executed, not set out to dismantle them. That basic rule
undergirds our Constitution’s separation of powers. Yet today, the majority rewards clear defiance of that core principle with emergency relief. Because I cannot condone such
abuse of our equitable authority, I respectfully dissent.

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Mark Joseph Stern·19h

This suggests that a majority is at least skeptical of Trump's argument that his deployment of the Guard is totally unreviewable in court, which is a relief. Seems the justices are debating the meaning of the statute—not whether its limits can be enforced against the president in the first place.

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Mark Joseph Stern·21h

Will be on MSNBC at 3 pm to discuss Kim Davis' zombie SCOTUS appeal, which the justices will consider at conference next week. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Mark Joseph Stern·4d

In fairness, the Supreme Court’s Republican appointees regularly “hallucinate” bogus facts without using AI. The praying coach ruling shows that Gorsuch doesn’t need a sloppy robot to make shit up that’s directly refuted by the record!

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Mark Joseph Stern·Oct 23

The DC ACLU is suing on behalf of a man who was arrested by a National Guardsman and MPD officers for playing the Imperial March (from Star Wars) as an act of protest. www.acludc.org/app/uploads/...

Ohio National Guard member Sgt. Devon Beck was not amused by this satire. On
September 11, 2025, Mr. O’Hara saw Sgt. Beck, along with several other Guard members, walking
in uniform in the Logan Circle neighborhood, near the intersection of 14th and R Streets NW. Mr.
O’Hara calmly walked behind the Guard members, began playing The Imperial March aloud on
his phone, and started recording. In less than two minutes, Sgt. Beck turned around and threatened
to call D.C. police officers to “handle” Mr. O’Hara if he persisted. Mr. O’Hara continued recording
and playing the music. Sgt. Beck contacted the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). Defendant
MPD Officers Brown, Campbell, Reyes-Benigno, and Lopez Martinez came to the scene and, in
essence, did what Sgt. Beck had threatened, putting Mr. O’Hara in handcuffs and preventing him
from continuing his peaceful protest.

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Mark Joseph Stern·Oct 22

Baltimore-area friends: I'm moderating this amazing discussion tonight about what happens when courts are ignored. You can join in person, and anyone can stream it for free! Information and registration here: greattalk.org

Mark Joseph Stern·Oct 21

This lawsuit, which demands that the House of Representatives finally seat Rep. Adelita Grijalva, has, um, fairly major implications for our democracy's survival in 2026 and beyond. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

This case is about whether someone duly elected to the House – who indisputably
meets the constitutional qualifications of the office – may be denied her rightful office simply
because the Speaker has decided to keep the House out of “regular session.”
2. If the Speaker were granted that authority, he could thwart the peoples’ choice of
who should represent them in Congress by denying them representation for a significant portion
of the two-year term provided by the Constitution.
3. Fortunately, the Constitution does not give that authority to the Speaker—or anyone
else

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Mark Joseph Stern·Oct 21

Trump Judge Ryan Nelson wants to end all judicial review over the president’s deployment of the National Guard into Democratic cities to suppress dissent. Why that’s (a) howlingly wrong on the law and (b) astoundingly dangerous on the ground: slate.com/news-and-pol...

Before delving into why Nelson's claim is wrong, consider its radical and disturbing consequences. Trump could mobilize a state's National Guard over its governor's objections for blatantly illegal purposes, and courts would be powerless to stop him. He could send in the Guard to punish voters, protesters, and lawmakers who oppose his agenda-as he is doing in Portland and Chicago-responding to political disagreements with a militarized crackdown. He could flood Democratic cities with troops during an election to obstruct people going to the polls. He could dispatch soldiers to surround critical media outlets, sending the message that dissent will be met with force. The opportunities for repression are boundless, which is one reason why the Framers were so hostile to the idea of a standing army responsible for domestic security.
In light of these dire consequences, one might expect Nelson to mount a robust defense of his belief that Trump's mobilization of the Guard
"may not be reviewed by the federal courts." But he devoted a sum total of fewer than six pages to this radical claim and spent most of them mischaracterizing Supreme Court precedent.

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Mark Joseph Stern·Oct 20

Judge Nelson, a Trump appointee, amps up his campaign for a Supreme Court seat with a concurrence asserting that the president can, in effect, deploy the National Guard for any reason, regardless of statutory restrictions, because his decision is unreviewable. An astoundingly dangerous argument.

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Mark Joseph Stern·Oct 20

If you bash the ACA from the left because it failed to achieve truly universal health care, please read this thread. The law isn't perfect. (None are.) It still did a huge amount of good and saved many, many lives.

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Mark Joseph Stern·Oct 20

North Carolina Democrats can counter some of the damage of Republicans' looming post–Voting Rights Act redistricting by electing a progressive majority to their state Supreme Court. That starts with the reelection of Justice Earls next year.

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