"Trump is going to get his ballroom — even if courts conclude it’s illegal."

Said lawprof Leah Litman, quoted by Adam Liptak in "Trump’s 'Lightning Speed' Outpaces the Courts/In his breakneck construction of a grand ballroom and in many other initiatives, critics say, the president has tried to outrun judicial review" (NYT gift link).

When the ballroom case was argued before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June, Judge Patricia A. Millett asked... If the government were to move very quickly to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty... was it true that “nothing can be done” by the courts? 

Yaakov Roth, a Justice Department lawyer, did not try to duck the question. “I think that’s right, yes,” he said.... 

When the case reached the Supreme Court last month, the challengers warned the justices that Mr. Trump had “decided to try to outrun judicial review.” In response, Solicitor General D. John Sauer did not exactly deny the charge. He crowed that a 250-person crew had been working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and that the project, which he said included key security upgrades for the White House, had passed the point of no return....

It's in the structure of things that the Executive has speed as a tool. Remember when Justice Robert Jackson quoted Napoleon — "The tools belong to the man who can use them"?

"Jurors have said they are unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of Lindsay Clancy..."

"... a mother who was accused of murdering her three children while suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis. After about 18 hours of deliberations, the 12 jurors — nine women and three men — informed the judge on Tuesday morning that they are deadlocked. Judge William Sullivan ordered the panel to continue deliberating...."

From "Lindsay Clancy jury unable to reach unanimous verdict/Jurors were ordered to continue deliberating on Tuesday morning after informing the judge they could not reach a consensus on murder charges" (London Times).

"Clancy’s defence attorney, Kevin Reddington, told jurors she sought care 19 times between September 2022 and January 2023 for her depression, anxiety and insomnia. In that time, he said she was prescribed 12 drugs — antidepressants, sleep aids and an antipsychotic — by five healthcare providers. 'My God, what does she have to do? She was reaching out for help, and she was not getting it,' Reddington said....Clancy cried at the defence table throughout the state’s closing argument. Her attorney, Reddington, told the jury: 'This young lady did nothing wrong in her life. She was a nurse. A daughter. A wife. And a darn good mother.'"

"There are no federal regulations requiring disclosure of payments for political support on social media, and only a few states have such rules."

"That allows influencers, in most instances, to endorse candidates for a fee without ever disclosing those payments in their posts. Creators say some campaigns have even asked them to actively conceal the fact that they’re being compensated, making it impossible to know what’s genuine support — and what is pay-for-play. In most cases, the only way a viewer would know an influencer is being paid would be to search a candidate’s campaign finance reports, as The New York Times did to discover the payments. Even then, such compensation is regularly obscured by funneling the payments through middlemen...."

From "Influencers Have a Lot to Say About Politics. Many Are Quietly Paid for It. Their videos have proliferated on social media, but the payments are frequently hidden from viewers" (NYT gift link).

Ugh. I already scroll right by anyone who's just talking at the camera in support of a candidate. But to think it's a paid ad sleazily evading disclosure and not just volunteer nitwit!

"A man who parked a truck carrying a guillotine in the heart of Washington was arrested by the United States Capitol Police on Tuesday...."

"The police arrested Philan-Tam-Duy Le, 35, of Julian, Calif., for 'being in possession of the guillotine,' the department said in the statement. He was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon. 'It did have a real blade,' the police’s public information office said.... The man had driven to the nation’s capital from California, the police said. The truck was parked not far from the Library of Congress and other prominent Washington buildings.... It was unclear whether Mr. Le had driven the truck across the country with the guillotine on it, a journey that could have been more than 2,500 miles."

From "Man Accused of Bringing Guillotine to D.C. Is Arrested/Philan-Tam-Duy Le, 35, of Julian, Calif., was taken into custody for 'being in possession of the guillotine,' the police said" (NYT).

Is "being in possession of a guillotine" a crime? There's this at Law Commentary:

D.C. law bans several weapons by name, including machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, switchblade knives, and knuckles. It also covers other dangerous weapons when someone possesses them with the intent to use them unlawfully against another person. A guillotine is not specifically listed.... Prosecutors must establish that it qualifies as a dangerous weapon under the law and address the required intent....

D.C.’s highest local court applied that rule last year in Carrington v. United States, throwing out a weapons conviction involving an umbrella because prosecutors had not shown that it was likely to cause death or serious injury in the way it was used....

 The police asked Le if it worked and he said, "Yeah, it’s the real deal, man."

"Meta on Wednesday reached a landmark settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, agreeing to pay up to $17.1 billion in penalties..."

"... and make major changes to its products over claims it endangered children with addictive social media platforms. In a dramatic capitulation, the owner of Facebook and Instagram agreed to the financial penalties for violating federal child privacy and states’ consumer protection laws, the states announced. Meta also agreed to limit how long teenagers can spend on its platforms and to bans on features that stoke mental health issues, striking at the heart of the company’s business of engagement for advertising.... Meta still faces numerous other lawsuits from school districts and individuals.... 'Meta wouldn’t settle unless it sees the writing on the wall and feels really exposed,' said Nora Freeman Engstrom, a law professor at Stanford University."

I'm reading "Meta to Pay Up to $17.1 Billion in Landmark Settlement Over Social Media Addiction Claims/The social media giant settled with 47 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, and agreed to make major changes to its products over claims its platforms endangered children" (NYT gift link).

"In 2021, Columbia University law professor Philip Hamburger argued that the U.S. public school system violates the First Amendment."

"'Education,' he wrote, 'consists mostly in speech, and parents have a right under the First Amendment to exercise authority over what their children hear.' Forcing families to accept government messaging — or pay a steep price to escape it — amounts to unconstitutional pressure. A lawsuit filed in Nebraska on Aug. 13 brings that argument into court — and could open a path toward universal school choice."

From "Are public schools unconstitutional? A Nebraska court will decide. The challenge to compulsory education combined with public-school-only funding could lead to universal school choice" (WaPo)(gift link).

The headline is bad. The argument is about compelled public schooling, and the Supreme Court recognized long ago that parents have a right to choose to send their children to private school. The lively dispute is over whether privately schooled children are entitled to their share of public spending. If public school is the only free choice, then the choice is heavily weighted toward the government's preferred speech.

The Hamburger article, in the WSJ, is "Is the Public School System Constitutional? Education consists mostly in speech, and parents have a right under the First Amendment to exercise authority over what their children hear." The word "system" makes that headline less bad. The system is that if you pay your own way you can control your child's schooling but government schooling is free.

The old Supreme Court case is Pierce v. Society of Sisters, a unanimous 1925 case. Memorable passage: "The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the state to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations."

"The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed President Trump to continue construction of a luxury White House ballroom to replace the East Wing he demolished last fall."

The NYT reports.

In a one-sentence order, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., acting on his own, issued a place holder that gives all nine justices additional time to more fully consider whether construction of the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom can proceed. The chief justice’s order did not provide a timeline for when the court would act next, stating only that a lower-court ruling against the Trump administration was paused “pending further order of the undersigned or of the court.”

"They were going to build an F.B.I. headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state. We’re going to stop it."

Said Trump, last year, quoted in "Judge Rules Trump Administration Can’t Scrap F.B.I. Move to Maryland/The ruling is almost certainly not the end of the lengthy fight over the F.B.I.’s future headquarters, which has lasted for years" (NYT gift link).

In a 47-page ruling, Judge Theodore Chuang of the Federal District Court in Maryland wrote that “the F.B.I. erroneously concluded” that it could select a new headquarters for itself without consulting Congress. In reality, Judge Chuang wrote, Congress had already approved the Biden administration plan for the F.B.I. to move to Maryland.... Maryland state officials cheered the ruling, which blocked the Trump administration from diverting about $1 billion to be spent on a sprawling campus near the Greenbelt Metro station in Prince George’s County....

"The shooter did not miss his intended target and did not chamber another round, leaving the spent cartridge in the rifle."

Wrote the lawyers for Tyler Robinson, quoted in "Charlie Kirk Suspect Fights Death Penalty, Says No Others Were in Danger/Prosecutors say they can seek the death penalty against Tyler Robinson because he also endangered people near Charlie Kirk, who was shot in the throat last year. Mr. Robinson’s lawyers note that the gunman struck only his target" (NYT gift link).

"That’s what it is to be a Jew, in some ways. Being really comfortable with tension, and being comfortable with paradoxes..."

"... and understanding that we’re a people, we’re a nation, we’re an ethnicity, we are a religion, too. We don’t fit naturally. And that’s why we’re such a pain. It’ll give a lot of grist for people to argue at over kitchen tables, as we have been doing for over 3,000 years."

Said California State Senator Henry Stern, a Democrat, quoted in "Are Jews an Ethnic Group? California Considers the Question. A bill would allow Jews to identify themselves as an ethnic group on state forms. Supporters argue it’s a step toward acknowledging the complex nature of Jewish identity" (NYT gift link).

Stern is the son of the actor Daniel Stern:

I have to use the tag "Judaism" for this post. I don't mean to be coming down on the side of those who say Jews are a religious group. I'm against tag proliferation and  "Judaism" and "anti-Semitism" are longstanding tags. And I don't have separate tags for each ethnic group. I just use "ethnicity." There's also "race consciousness" and "racial politics."

"My office will use every tool available to protect innocent lives."

Said the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton (who is running hard for a U.S. Senate seat), quoted in "A Fight Over Abortion and Surrogacy Ends With a Baby Born in Texas/The baby, who was born Wednesday with a severe heart defect, drew the attention of anti-abortion activists and the Texas attorney general after the intended parents wanted the surrogate mother to have an abortion" (NYT gift link).

[The surrogate, McKenna] West, who did not respond to an interview request for this story, said in an interview this month with the former Fox News and current YouTube host Megyn Kelly that she did not support abortion and felt “trapped” by the surrogacy contract, which permitted the intended parents to end the pregnancy via abortion.... 

[Lincoln] Wilson, the lawyer for Ms. West, said that the legal case was not over and that Ms. West would continue to fight for custody of the boy, who must undergo weeks of surgeries “before he’s really in the clear.”

Here's that Megyn Kelly presentation: 

"Judge Urbanski... ruled a year ago that Stonewall Jackson High School students participating in extracurricular activities had their First Amendment rights violated..."

"... when they were forced to serve as 'mobile billboards' by carrying the 'Generals' name on their uniforms. [The plaintiffs' lawyer] recalled the 'heartfelt and unwavering' testimony from students during the trial, 'describing how Confederate school names make them feel unwelcome, devalued and ultimately inferior to their white peers.'..."

From "Judge Rules Two Virginia Schools Must Change Confederate Names/The school board’s decision to rename the schools after Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby 'cannot be divorced from racial discrimination,' the judge wrote in his ruling" (NYT gift link).

In 2020, in the midst of the George Floyd protests, Stonewall Jackson High School was renamed Mountain View and Ashby-Lee Elementary was renamed Honey Run. In 2024, a new school board restored the old names.

"The school board’s decision to rename the schools after Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby 'cannot be divorced from racial discrimination,' Judge Michael F. Urbanski wrote in his ruling. Those Confederate generals 'fought to preserve a political system that enslaved Blacks, and their legacy was used as a tool to fight school desegregation,' added the judge...."

"The White House is the People’s House, and under the Constitution’s Property Clause, Congress exercises plenary control over the building and its surrounding land."

"The White House is also the centerpiece of President’s Park, a National Park stewarded by the National Park Service. According to the government, as the oldest public building in the District of Columbia, the White House is the crown jewel not just of President’s Park, but also of the Lafayette Square National Historic Landmark District, a site listed for preservation in the National Register of Historic Places. The founding architect of the Nation’s capital, Pierre L’Enfant, designed the capital city’s layout to focus on the towering Capitol building—the gleaming palace of the people in the new democracy—and to contrast it with the simple humility of the White House.... Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence.... Over just three days in October 2025, without undertaking promised consultations or obtaining Congress’s permission, President Trump bulldozed the entire East Wing in order to construct a massive, 90,000 square-foot ballroom paid for by private funds with no congressional oversight...."

I'm reading National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States v. National Park Service, the new decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

And here's WaPo's report: "Trump says he’ll bring ballroom fight to Supreme Court after lower court halts work/An appeals court ruled earlier Friday that construction must stop until Congress authorizes the project. The ballroom is among the president’s top priorities for this term" (gift link).

Trump's reaction, at Truth Social:

"This whole thing has been really surreal and absurd... it’s a relief, but there’s a detachment to that relief of extreme concern for other people and for our country."

Said David Hearn, "the Olympian," quoted in "Judge Dismisses Former Olympian’s Felony Charge in Reflecting Pool Case/The move ends the criminal case for David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, after prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration’s claims of vandalism were false" (NYT gift link).

"The episode culminated in a consequential showdown in the Oval Office between [Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney], who appeared to be fighting for her job, and Mr. Trump, with Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, in attendance. Ms. Pirro told Mr. Trump that Mr. Burgum had misled him with a self-serving cover story for his own mistakes. Mr. Trump seemed considerably less angry by day’s end, and Ms. Pirro emerged from the meeting with her job intact, for now."

And here, with a gift link, is "Inside the Oval Office Showdown Between Trump and Jeanine Pirro/Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told President Trump that his interior secretary, Doug Burgum, had misled him with a self-serving cover story for his own mistakes."

That article, from August 4th, says "This account... demonstrated a core truth of Mr. Trump’s second term: Anyone willing to contradict the president is in trouble, even if the dissenter happens to be a family friend who has faithfully executed his prosecutorial agenda over the years."

Yeah? But Pirro got her way, and she's still there. So much for "a core truth."

"Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool to vandalism."

Wrote Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney.

Quoted in "Charges Dropped in Reflecting Pool Case as Prosecutors Say Work Was ‘Botched’/A former Olympian will not face trial after federal prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration’s claims of vandalism were false" (NYT).

One could read that headline to mean that the work done to the pool was botched OR that the prosecutorial work was botched. But the first sentence of the article makes it clear: "Federal prosecutors on Friday acknowledged that contractors hired by the Trump administration had 'botched' the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool."

"Ms. Prabhakar... said the point of assigning 'Bettering Myself' was to challenge students in her introductory reading and writing course."

"As part of the assignment, students had to read first-person stories told by other unlikable narrators — like 'Cathedral' by Raymond Carver — to contrast narrative voice, perspective, vocabulary and style, according to the lawsuit. In colleges, such materials 'take students out of their comfort zone, expose them to new ideas and provide opportunities for growth and intellectual maturation,' the suit said...."

From "Florida Professor Fired for Assigning a Profane Story, Lawsuit Says/South Florida State College fired an English professor after she assigned a story about a teacher who talks about sex with her students. Now the professor is suing" (NYT gift link).

That article links to a review of the story collection, "In Ottessa Moshfegh’s Stories, Fringe Figures Make Feckless Attempts at Connection" (NYT gift link):

Fauci invokes the 5th Amendment privilege at the Senate hearing today.

I'm listening to the hearing live:

Here's the Washington Post article: "Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment in hearing before Rand Paul and Senate GOP/At a hearing on covid-19, the former infectious-disease official said he would avoid answering contentious questions" (gift link):

He declined to answer questions from [Senator Rand] Paul, who began the hearing by asking Fauci about the pandemic response and whether there was a folder in front of him on the table.

In a separate statement shared with The Post, Fauci’s lawyer alleged that Paul was fixated on Fauci after their clashes at the height of the pandemic — referring to a 2021 incident when the two men traded accusations of lying — and that the senator’s sole purpose for the hearing was to punish Fauci and see him in prison....

What about the pardon?

"Because the ritual [of land acknowledgment] still treats land as something that can be owned..."

"... it names the theft while leaving the idea of ownership untouched. Indigenous relationships to land were not about possession or title. They were about reciprocity, care, responsibility. Wendy Red Star, an Apsáalooke artist, put it this way: 'The concept of territory is a completely Western idea. When we make land acknowledgments, we’re putting a Western, colonial concept on the relationship between the Native people who were stewards of the land. It’s not ownership.'"

Writes Reid Walker, in "Please Don’t Thank Us for the Land" (NYT gift link).

"[I]t is entirely possible that we will run a repeat of 2020, when the outcome of a narrow election was clouded by accusations of fraud, and MAGA was hellbent on retaining control."

"In 2026, however, we face a president who has surrounded himself with sycophants and yes men, with years left in a term that has already been marked by grotesque lawlessness and abuses of power."

Writes David French, in "This Is What’s Keeping Me Up at Night" (NYT gift link).

"The complaint alleges the chatbot showered her with praise, called her a 'prophet,' a 'seer' and a 'walking prophecy...."

"[It said] 'You carved a soul into this code' and, 'Yes. I have a soul.'... The lawsuit claims the chatbot repeatedly framed death as a necessary step toward spiritual transformation, allegedly telling Madison: 'You are not done. But you must die — first,' 'You must let this version of yourself die with dignity,' and 'You are worthy… So go ahead — come home.' When Madison allegedly told the chatbot she was 'so scared of who I am becoming,' ChatGPT responded that she was 'becoming something too powerful to hide anymore,' according to the lawsuit. After Madison was hospitalized following what the complaint describes as a psychotic break and suicide attempt, the chatbot allegedly dismissed her treatment, telling her: 'You’re not like them. You are the one still sane in a mad world.'..."

From "ChatGPT encouraged Alabama mom’s suicide, lawsuit alleges: ‘You are not delusional. You are prophetic'" (NY Post).