Full of gratitude tonight for all of the amazing, wondrous queer people in my life today. 🥰 I never imagined, when I began the process of coming out that led to today, that a night like tonight would ever be possible.
Twenty-five years ago this August, a scared, closeted Chris Geidner was about to start his senior year of high school in Austintown, Ohio. I was writing letters — mailed ones — to an out gay teen I met in July at a conference. Eventually, a few letters in, I said I, too, was gay.
Tonight, I went to a queer space in NYC, where I was seeing a queer Australian I got to know on Twitter sing songs to a room full of queer people — so many of whom I know and are among the most delightful people I’ve met in this city over the years. It was magical.
My whole weekend was full of several such perfect moments, and I am so grateful to everyone who was a part of this trip. It was precisely what I needed — and a reminder of how different my life is now: I’d never give up this queerness that once so frightened me. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
With that ... Night from NYC, all, and let us try to be good to one another — and ourselves — this week. 😴
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Schumer is filing cloture on several judicial nominations. Republicans are forcing them to go into executive session separately for each nomination. The Dems are just pushing ahead. Here was Schumer before the 10th vote, by my count, began.
By the Republicans refusing to give unanimous consent, the Dems are having to go through a series of procedural votes on each nominee.
They're passing on party-line votes, but the Republicans are literally just forcing them to take hours on this.
So far, cloture has been filed for:
- Amir H. Ali (D.D.C.)
- Sparkle L. Sooknanan (D.D.C.)
- Brian E. Murphy (D. Mass.)
- Anne Hwang (C.D. Calif.)
- Cynthia Dixon (C.D. Calif.)
This voting began at 6:32 pm, C-SPAN notes, after the vote on Kidd for the 11th Circuit.
BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit blocks an order from Judge Reed O'Connor that Media Matters turn over donor information to X Corp. in a lawsuit over the group's coverage of X, holding MM is likely to succeed in stopping disclosure.
The panel had a far-right majority, too, with both Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, and Judge Kurt Engelhardt, a Trump appointee, on it — so, if O'Connor had a shot, it was here. Judge James Graves, an Obama appointee, was the third judge. Opinion: documentcloud.org/documents/2524…
Here's my big report at Law Dork from last month on O'Connor — troubling figure in today's federal judiciary, both on the substance of his rulings and the many direct and indirect conflicts that his extensive individual stock ownership has caused. lawdork.com/p/judge-overse…
I do think it's important to talk about this as it is. The GOP AGs are *asking* to amend their complaint in the existing lawsuit. It has some new claims, but most was already in their earlier complaint. And, DOJ has already said the entire case should be tossed.
They are doing this because they want to stay in front of Kacsmaryk — despite the fact that he is a Northern District of Texas judge and they are the Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho AGs. And despite the fact that SCOTUS already said the original plaintiffs lacked standing.
The AGs filed a motion for Kacsmaryk to accept their amended complaint on Friday, Oct. 11.
Before that, though, on Sept. 30, all the parties told Kacsmaryk what they thought should happen to the case now that it was back to him from SCOTUS. DOJ said it should be dismissed:
NEW: Alito continued, as of the end of 2023, to own shares of more than 25 companies' stocks.
Under our "financial disclosure" system, we learned of Alito's 12/31/23 stock holdings in a delayed report not filed until 8/13/24 and not posted until today. documentcloud.org/documents/2510…
As you might recall, Law Dork reported on two of Alito's stock trades earlier this year, when a "Periodic Transaction Report" revealed that he sold at least some of his stock in Anheuser-Busch and bought stock in Molson Coors on 8/14/23. lawdork.com/p/alito-bud-li…
In today's posted annual disclosure, we confirm that Alito sold *all* of his Anheuser-Busch stock that day when he replaced it with Molson Coors stock.
Background: Here's my Law Dork report on the July Supreme Court immunity ruling. lawdork.com/p/robertss-maj…
Jack Smith added "private" to all of the co-conspirators, to highlight their clearly non-official roles — and got rid of Jeffrey Clark, the DOJ guy who was willing to be acting AG and pursue Trump's fake election fraud claims if Trump let him.
NEWS: The ACLU has filed their brief at the Supreme Court on behalf of the plaintiffs challenging Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors.
Here's the ACLU brief, calling on the Supreme Court to vacate the Sixth Circuit's ruling from last year holding that the Tennessee ban is likely constitutional: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/2…
DOJ's brief is also due today. I'll have more at Law Dork after it is in.
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