We've gotten numb to it, but what Trump/Hegseth is now doing to Anthropic—and what Trump did to the law firms—are not just tantrums, they are impeachable abuses of power. They are, in effect, executive branch bills of attainder. ... 1/3
This declaration from Paul Smith, Anthropic’s CCO, gives the flavor. The dispute is over autonomous lethal weapons & mass surveillance of US citizens. Yet the govt is sabotaging Anthropic's contracts with grocery chains, pharma, financial services, fintech ... 2/3
The status conference in the Anthropic case in ND Calif just ended. Judge Rita Lin set a preliminary injunction hearing for 3/24 at 1:30pm PT. DOJ wanted later, but would not commit to not taking additional onerous actions against Anthropic before then ...
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Atty Michael Mongan (WilmerHale) for Anthropic said they feared invocation of the Defense Production Act to "commandeer our technology" and threats of criminal consequences. Said that more than 100 enterprise customers had already expressed doubts about continuing to use them ...
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said that a fintech company cut a contract from $10M to $5M and that universities & business-to-business companies have switched to other providers. Said govt is affirmatively reaching out to their customers & urging them to stop working with Anthropic. They fear an executive order may soon target them ...
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After MN's US Atty Rosen attacked the accuracy of his figures, Chief Judge Schiltz double-checked his list of 96 violations of court orders in 74 cases in MN for January. The recount showed 97 violations in 66 cases. But there’s more ... 1/4
Schiltz then asked his judges do more research. Today he released a new list of 113 orders that were violated in 77 other cases—all in addition to his corrected original list. 2/4
Schiltz comments: “The court is now aware of another occasion in the history of the US in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt—again and again and again—to force the United States government to comply with court orders.” 3/4
The @ACLU has filed a class action damages suit against federal & state officers over an Idaho immigration raid last October. 200 armed officers raided a horse-race festival, detaining 400 Latinos for 4 hrs. All adults & many teens ziptied & searched. 1/8 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Complaint alleges 200 officers descended on the families, guns drawn, with a helicopter, 2 drones, 5 armed vehicles, rifles, tasers, pepper balls. They allegedly grouped the Latinos (mostly ethnically Mexican) by skin color as a proxy for presumptive citizenship. No water, few bathrooms.
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Zipties cut into wrists. When a 15yo said they were too tight, an agent allegedly tightened them further. Adults were searched & items from their pockets were put in plastic bags strung around their necks. ... 3/7
The transcript of the MN hearing where an AUSA said “This job sucks” is remarkable for more reasons than that. It’s a searing portrait of a crisis perpetrated by depraved & oblivious high-level officials. Read it all. ... 1/7 documentcloud.org/documents/2687…
Judge Jerry Blackwell’s own comments deserve attention: Unlawful detention “falls on the heads of those who have done nothing wrong to justify it. ... The overwhelming majority of the 100s seen by this Court have been found to be lawfully present ... in the country.” 2/7
“[Y]ou cannot ... detain first & sort out lawful authority later. ... Continued detention is not lawful just because ... an operation has expanded beyond the Government's capacity to execute it lawfully.” ... 3/7
Attys for class of refugees have asked Judge Tunheim in MN to hold govt in civil contempt for alleged failure to comply with his 1/28 order to unconditionally release refugees detained under a new DHS policy that, they say, departs from 45 yrs of practice. 1/4 documentcloud.org/documents/2680…
In Jan. DHS started subjecting 5,600 MN refugees to warrantless mandatory detention 1 year from admission if they hadn't yet become permanent legal residents. On 1/28 Judge Tunheim issued TRO to stop the policy & immediately release those detained. ...
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Refugees allege DHS dragged feet & imposed onerous conditions on those released, retaining their IDs & work permits. DHS has moved to dissolve the TRO, alleging “detain-and-inspect” policy is lawful & mandated by statute below, even if never before interpreted that way. /3
The Trump Adm is arresting Don Lemon and overcharging disruptive protesters at Cities Church to posture as if it’s protecting Christians. It’s not. DHS is staging disruptive ops at other churches, at least one of which has had to go online. ... 1/4
ICE vehicles commandeered that multicultural church’s private-property parking lot for staging purposes; staff experienced burning eyes from nearby chemical irritants & pepper balls, per declaration of MN AG investigator.
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Other church services—a healthcare clinic and preschool—have had to shut down or go online, per declaration of MN AG investigator, based on interview with the pastor).
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