President Trump can call out the (tiny) D.C. National Guard, but there’s little else he can do to “federalize” D.C. without new legislation that overrides the 1973 Home Rule Act. Today’s “One First” on the history and laws governing the nation’s capital: stevevladeck.com/p/172-federali…

Once more, with feeling: The President has no authority to federalize *anything* in D.C. without Congress, and all Congress has authorized is using the (tiny) D.C. National Guard and 30 days of use of the MPD "for federal purposes": stevevladeck.com/p/172-federali…

For those of you on TikTok, I’m going to start posting there more often, especially on #SCOTUS news and other pressing legal topics: tiktok.com/@stevevladeck

By voting to keep Mississippi's social media age-verification law in place even though he thinks it likely violates the First Amendment, Justice Kavanaugh's NetChoice opinion bespeaks an inconsistent approach to how he's voting on emergency applications. stevevladeck.com/p/173-justice-…

For “One First,” I wrote about Lincoln’s commitment to holding the Election of 1864—even when he thought he’d probably lose and his successor would sue for peace (& thus end the Union). Respecting and preserving the will of the people was more important: stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-173-th…

Just posted a video to TikTok about what #SCOTUS did in the NIH funding case. Link: tiktok.com/t/ZPHG5cc895h9…

In Thursday's NIH funding case, Justice Gorsuch claimed that this was the third time in recent weeks that lower courts had "defied" #SCOTUS. As today's "One First" explains, that claim is not only nonsense; it's enabling a dangerous anti-court narrative: stevevladeck.com/p/174-justice-…

The Trump administration's latest application for emergency relief from #SCOTUS rests on a contrived procedural emergency and a forfeited substantive claim—apparently banking on the view that the justices don't mind being played. Me, via "One First": stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-174-pl…

For "One First," I wrote about Friday's rulings in the tariffs and Venezuelan TPS cases, and why they're likely to be just the first of a slew of cases about the *merits* of Trump policies that #SCOTUS will have to address during its October 2025 Term: stevevladeck.com/p/175-tariffs-…

Just posted the latest #SCOTUS update to TikTok: tiktok.com/t/ZP8B7jBAk/

Me on the statute President Trump would rely upon to deploy un-federalized Texas National Guard troops to Illinois; why such a deployment without Illinois's consent *ought* to be unlawful; and the options Illinois will have for litigating that issue: stevevladeck.com/p/176-illinois…

#BREAKING: Fifth Circuit (Southwick & Ramirez, JJ.) holds that President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua is unlawful, and blocks AEA removals in the Northern District of Texas (over a lengthy dissent from Judge Oldham): ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/2…

Today's bonus "One First" critiques the increasingly noisy claim that legal constraints don't matter in the current moment—why it's belied by what's happening on the ground (and by what law can *do*); & why, in many respects, it's affirmatively dangerous: stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-176-la…

Justice Kavanaugh's attempt to re-brand how the Supreme Court handles emergency applications is belied by how the Supreme Court is actually handling emergency applications. That, and a bunch of other #SCOTUS news, in this week’s “One First”: stevevladeck.com/p/177-the-not-…

"If this is the kind of analysis that’s driving the justices’ votes in the other Trump-related cases, perhaps it really is understandable why the Court is so often declining to explain itself." Me on Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence in the ICE raids case: stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-177-a-…