Jun 08, 2025
NATIONAL NUTCASERY
look over there!
I’m sure you heard about how the girlies are fighting, but that’s just a fun distraction from so much buffoonery.
Trump is back at it again with another travel ban, and this time, it’s bigger and broader, but just as controversial as his first-term version. 12 countries are fully banned from sending immigrants or visitors to the U.S. (Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Eritrea), and 7 more countries face partial restrictions, meaning travelers from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela will have extra hurdles to enter the U.S.. The ban does make exceptions for Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas, generally people who worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade-long war there. Trump tied the new ban to Sunday’s terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, though the suspect in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump’s restricted list.
The travel ban results from a Jan. 20 executive order Trump issued requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the U.S. and whether entry from certain countries represented a national security risk. It goes into effect tomorrow.
LA survives fire, now deals with ICE
For immigrants already within the US, the Trump Administration has escalated their campaign to forcibly deport people, increasingly without due process. Last Thursday, ICE detained more than 2,200 people, most people it has detained in any single day. They have already arrested 100,000 people in Trump’s second term and the numbers will likely continue to increase as the administration wants ICE arresting 3,000 people per day.
Protests in and around LA began on Friday after ICE conducted citywide raids, rounding up over a hundred people. The raids targeted workplaces, day labor centers, and even a doughnut shop. Apparently, Homeland Security thinks undocumented immigrants are hiding behind the glaze. Protests have included tear gas and allegations of violence and vandalism, including a car set on fire in Compton. News reports have estimated the number of protestors in the hundreds, and Gov. Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass have said there has been no shortage of law enforcement necessary to handle any issues. The cops are so unbusy that approximately 50 LAPD officers marched in today’s Pride parade!
As citizens gathered to protest the situation, Trump sent in members of the national guard to intimidate them, with around 300 out of the proposed 2,000 national guard troops arriving today to California over the Governor’s objection. The National Guard can be activated by governors for local or statewide emergencies, and U.S. presidents can also call up the National Guard for federal missions using their authority under Title 10.
Under this authority, troops are not allowed to engage in ordinary law enforcement activities, they are only allowed to protect ICE personnel. Fomenting further escalation may in fact be the purpose of their deployment, but they are as of now not authorized to arrest immigrants or conduct raids without violating the Posse Comitatus Act which was passed to ban martial law. However the Insurrection Act, if invoked, would allow it. That law empowers a president to deploy the U.S. military to enforce the law and suppress events like civil disorder.
Coincidentally, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called the protests a “dangerous invasion,” tweeting that he would activate the U.S. Marine Corps if protests in L.A. persisted. Trump said that any protest or act of violence is a “form of rebellion.” JD Vance called the protestors “insurrectionists.” Senior White House aide Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump immigration policy, described the protests as a "violent insurrection."
By invoking rebellion language, blurring the lines between immigration enforcement and military authority and using the words “invasion” and "insurrection," the Trump Administration is laying the rhetorical and legal groundwork for suppression of dissent. The deployment of federalized National Guard troops, over the objections of elected state leaders, represents a dangerous federal overreach. More at NPR.
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eyes on SCOTUS
Buckle up—June’s just getting started. Six decisions were released on Thursday this week, four of them unanimous:
Mexico vs. Smith & Wesson: Mexico tried to sue American gun manufacturers for the havoc their weapons wreak south of the border. The Supreme Court unanimously shut that down (decision written by Kagan), saying Mexico failed to prove that gunmakers actively participated in illegal sales, and their complaint is barred by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA, which protects gun makers and sellers from being held liable when crimes have been committed with their products. Basically, the Court told Mexico, “We get it, but you can’t just blame the manufacturers for what criminals do with their products”
Catholic Charities vs. Wisconsin: Wisconsin argued that Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) shouldn’t qualify for a religious tax exemption because its work helping the elderly, low-income individuals, and people with disabilities was charitable but not inherently religious. The state’s position was that only organizations engaged in direct religious activities (like worship or evangelism) should get the tax break. The Supremes said Wisconsin went too far in denying the tax exemption to the Catholic group. By basically punishing Catholic Charities for not proselytizing during their work, Sotomayor wrote, they were privileging certain religious groups over others.
Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services: Marlean Ames, a straight woman, sued her employer for allegedly favoring LGBTQ employees in promotions. The lower courts had dismissed her case using a decades-old rule requiring “background circumstances” to prove discrimination against majority groups. The Supreme Court said, “Yeah, no. Discrimination is discrimination, no matter who’s on the receiving end” Brown-Jackson wrote this decision. Elie Mystal wrote an excellent summary of this decision and how though this is probably the correct decision, it still kind of sucks.
CC/Devas (Mauritius) v. Antrix: This one is wonky, and Clarence Thomas wrote the decision. In 2005, Devas Multimedia (an Indian company) signed a satellite-leasing agreement with Indian-government-owned Antrix Corporation. In 2011, Antrix tried to ghost Devas on the billion-dollar contract, but an international tribunal ruled that Antrix had breached their contract and awarded Devas $562.5 million in damages. Devas dragged the fight to U.S. courts, but Antrix was like, “I don’t even go here!” and U.S. courts don’t have jurisdiction over them under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). SCOTUS shut that down, making it clear that foreign state-owned companies can’t just wiggle out of U.S. court rulings if they’ve already been properly served. Moral of the story? If you’re a government-backed corporation, don’t sign billion-dollar contracts you plan to bail on. Eventually, someone’s going to come collecting, and thanks to this ruling, they can do it in U.S. courts.
In the non-unanimous decisions, the court was considering whether victims of terrorist attacks or their surviving family members could reopen their case against a bank that had allegedly aided and abetted terrorists by providing financial services (Blom Bank v. Honickman). The Supremes ruled that the people who brought the case didn’t meet the high standard required to reopen it. Eight of the justices joined the decision in full, but Jackson only joined it in part.
In Lab Corp v. Davis, the justices were considering whether a federal court can certify a class action suit if some of the parties in the suit lack legal standing. A majority of the justices decided to dismiss the case as improvidently granted, meaning that they felt the court should never have agreed to weigh in, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented to that decision, writing that it was possible to rule and a ruling would be valuable.
The Opening Arguments podcast had a nice rundown of the first three decisions: Three Unanimous Supreme Court Decisions and Why They Sound Bad but Aren’t Really.
Stay tuned for the rest of the decisions! Enjoy your rights while you have them!
STATEWIDE SHENANIGANS
brains vs. Braun
The attacks on higher education continue in the MAGA administration, and Gov. Mike Braun can’t let Trump have all the fun! After a last-minute addition to the Indiana budget gave Braun the power to appoint all members of IU’s board of trustees (previously, 3 of the 9 seats were elected by alumni), he said he would leave all members in place and replace them as their terms ended. Well, that all changed on June 2nd, when 3 trustees were fired and replaced with Republican ghouls. “It’s so close to [the end of their terms] anyway, and you can’t believe the number of individuals that came forward wanting to be considered in those slots,” Braun said. “So, with that kind of enthusiasm and the fact that it really didn’t make a lot of difference one way or the other, we made the decision to go ahead and do it.”
Braun claims he just wants to ‘guide IU back in the right direction,’ which is WILD because Republican governors have had the ability to appoint 66% of the board for the last twenty years, so like, what have you been doing? So now Vivian Winston (a month away from finishing her term), Donna Spears and Jill Maurer Burnett (one and two left years, respectively) have been replaced by an anti-vaxxer fired from ESPN, Sage Steele; an Indianapolis attorney and wealth consultant, Brian Eagle; and the Right’s legal wrecking ball, Jim Bopp, who you may remember as the originator of Citizen’s United, or as the guy who said the Ohio 10-year old who came to Indiana for an abortion “would have benefitted” by giving birth to her abuser’s baby. The ACLU of Indiana has already filed suit, since IU is now the state’s only public university without alumni-selected trustees.
LOCAL FOCUS
NIMBY or nah?
Dozens of residents attended the Terre Haute City Council meeting Thursday night to discuss the proposed Ohio Boulevard Project, which will include single-family homes and multi-family units located between Ohio Boulevard and Edgewood Grove. Many residents voiced agreement with the housing side of the project, but not the apartment side. I’m more suspicious of the price tag on those sub-2000 sq. ft. homes. The whole 4-hour meeting is available on Youtube, where you can watch on 2x speed. The proposal was tabled until June 12th.
ISO: one (1) US rep
Indiana Democrats are struggling to find a candidate to run in the 8th Congressional District against current Rep. Mark Messmer. It doesn’t help that 8th district chair Dave Crooks is searching for a unicorn candidate who has “the right combination of money [at least $3.5 mil], time [no full-time job], fortitude [understands they will probably lose] and voter appeal [able to win in one of the nation’s reddest districts].” Send any viable options to [email protected]. Democrats lose 100% of the elections they don’t run in.
GOOD TROUBLE
Today is my birthday! For this week’s good trouble, scroll all the way to the bottom, click the big ‘share’ button, and send this newsletter to someone you think would like it!
RESOURCE CENTER
The Resource Center has been refreshed to include all the links from the last few month’s of posts, all gathered in one place!
I’ve been using ResistBot for years, first through Facebook Chat, then just texting keywords to 50409 from my phone (like the graphic above about ICE). This week I larned there is also an app! Apple iOS only, sorry! Everyone else can still send ‘resist’ to Resistbot on Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, or by text to 50409 and answer the questions texted back to send the messages to our US Congresspeople.
UPCOMING EVENTS
***don’t forget to check out the Nasty Women events calendar!***
Indivisible Wabash Valley has launched a calendar for the Southern Indiana/Wabash Valley area
Tuesday, June 10th at 5pm: Indiana Nasty Women - Vigo County meeting at the Vigo County Public Library
Saturday, June 14th at 10 am: National Day of Action "NO KINGS" Rally Indivisible Wabash Walley will also be holding a Food Drive for Brown Baggers School Food Program of Sullivan County
Friday, June 20th at 5:30 pm: Vigo Dems ‘event’ at 1111 Vetran’s Square. Special speaker: Vigo County assessor Kevin Gardner.
Wednesday, June 25th at 8:30 am: County Update with the Vigo County Commissioners at Hulman Center. The Vigo County Commissioners will provide an update on county projects and issues of great importance to Vigo County. Individual tickets are $40. (what is this money going to?) more info here.
END ON A HIGH NOTE
A high school student in Massachusetts who ICE agents arrested on his way to volleyball practice has been released from custody after a judge granted him bond.
Kilmar Albrego Garcia is back in the US! He is facing criminal charges (for “allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S.”), but due process win! Someone came back from CECOT!
A Guatemalan man deported to Mexico, known as OCG in court documents, landed in the United States on Wednesday, his attorneys confirmed. The man, who is gay, was protected from being returned to his home country under a U.S. immigration judge’s order, but the U.S. put him on a bus and sent him to Mexico instead, a removal that U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy found likely “lacked any semblance of due process.”
Democrats had a strong night in Mississippi on Tuesday, flipping several seats from red to blue. They even defeated a few incumbent Republican mayors.
Democrat Keishan Scott defeated his Republican rival in a landslide win for a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Scott, who is 24, secured over 70% of the votes cast in Tuesday's special election.
The Utah Legislature’s own newly released study found that gender-affirming care benefits trans youth. The study was commissioned under the state’s 2023 law that prohibited gender-affirming care for minors — and the findings completely contradict the basis of that law.
Trump's time in the White House runs out in:
Q is the only letter that does not appear in a US state’s name. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.