Ian Millhiser Profile Banner
Ian Millhiser Profile
Ian Millhiser

@imillhiser

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Senior Correspondent, Vox. I blame James Madison. Author of The Agenda: How a Republican Supreme Court is Reshaping America

Washington, DC
Joined March 2009
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
7 months
Hey, friends. This hellsite has become too toxic for me. I will still occasionally tweet links to my work here, but I don't anticipate having much to say on Elon's Twitter until the banks foreclose on it and install new management. Please come find me on Zuck's Twitter.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
16 days
One takeaway from today's debacle of a Supreme Court argument is Democrats need to start seriously considering packing the Supreme Court. A Court that would allow Donald Trump to get away with trying to steal a presidential election cannot be trusted.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
25 days
On Monday, the Supreme Court effectively eliminated the right to hold a Black Lives Matter protest in three US states. On Tuesday, the same justices were very, very afraid that January 6 insurrectionists are being treated unfairly.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
26 days
I'm not saying that the GOP-controlled Supreme Court is laying the groundwork for an authoritarian takeover of the United States. But if they are, this is what it looks like.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
26 days
Thanks to a decision by the Supreme Court today, it is no longer safe to organize a political protest in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, or Texas.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
A government body that sets rules for federal courts just demoted King Matthew I, of the House of Kacsmaryk, to the rank of mere federal judge.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
16 days
The most important thing to understand about the justices who control the Supreme Court is that they are Republicans first, and judges second.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
6 months
"There’s been a long-running debate ... as to whether Trump can reasonably be described as a fascist. Between his increasingly fascist rhetoric and increasingly fascist second-term policy proposals, the debate should now be considered settled."
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
6 months
I just want to point out that the caption on the top graphic on this piece is some of the best work I've ever done as a journalist.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
4 months
I'm not saying that the Supreme Court dropped this nightmarish, horribly cruel abortion order at the same time that they dropped the Trump order so no one would notice. But SCOTUS also dropped a nightmarish, horribly cruel abortion order tonight.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
5 months
My friends, the Judge Fairy is not going to wave its magic wand and save us from Donald Trump. Fascism in the United States will be defeated, if it is defeated at all, at the ballot box.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
5 months
The Supreme Court appears likely to rule that hedge fund managers have more constitutional rights than workers.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
22 days
I am begging my fellow journalists to please follow ethical guidelines regarding suicide, and please do not cover a certain recent event in a way that is likely to lead to suicide contagion.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
Today is a good day to remind folks that the judiciary has historically been the most reactionary institution in US government. And the Supreme Court routinely sides with authoritarian movements even when the Constitution's text explicitly says otherwise.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
4 months
Inside me there are two wolves, a lawyer who reads the Constitution and finds that it bans Trump from office, and a jaded political analyst who knows there's no fucking chance SCOTUS will save us from Trump and we should all stop living in fantasy land.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
4 months
I wrote about "Chevron deference," and why you should care that the Republican Supreme Court is poised to make a massive power grab that will make the entire government shittier.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
3 months
Two takeaways from today's SCOTUS argument on whether Trump can run for president: 1) Trump's lawyer was AWFUL. One of the worst performances I've ever seen in a case this important. 2) It won't matter, and Trump will win anyway.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
4 months
By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court just ruled that federal law still applies in Texas. The Supreme Court says no, Texas can’t use razor wire to restrain federal agents
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
23 days
My biggest fear in Trump's criminal trial is the Rodney King effect. Finding a panel of jurors who don't already think Trump is guilty likely means finding a panel of unusually pro-Trump jurors.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
The Supreme Court just handed Trump an astonishing victory
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
4 months
The Supreme Court spent this morning debating whether they should put themselves in charge of everything. It went slightly less badly than I thought it would.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
LOLZ at the ridiculous notion that a written constitution is an effective check on tyrannical government!
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
There are now quite a few signs that the judiciary's center-right (by which I mean, non-MAGA, Mitch McConnell-like Republicans) is fed up with the judiciary's far right.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
4 months
The Supreme Court's Chevron argument went slightly better than I thought it would today. Which means it went horribly.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
“When powerful political movements conflict, the [Supreme] Court honors the law maybe some of the time. And it is just as likely to align itself with an authoritarian faction as it is to choose the rule of law.”
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
@transscribe Brett and Amy are still god emperors. But Matty is not.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
I wrote about the massive, astonishing victory the Supreme Court just handed Trump.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
3 months
I wrote about the core dilemma facing the justices in the Trump ballot disqualification case. It’s nearly impossible to imagine this Republican Supreme Court ruling against Trump. But his brief is awful and gives the GOP justices little to work with.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
Even most of the Republican justices seem to be fed up with Matty Kacsmaryk's cockshittery.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
19 days
I wrote about the sheer nihilism of the Supreme Court's decision to take up the Trump immunity case. And about why Trump has already won.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
5 months
I have no idea why this GOP-controlled Supreme Court decided not to make life worse for queer children today. But good news is good news.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
1 month
@joshtpm FWIW, I don’t think “Cannon is a MAGA hack” and “Cannon is too inexperienced” are mutually exclusive explanations for her behavior. Plenty of hack judges out there, but the experienced ones normally do a better job of picking their spots.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
6 months
So, if you are looking for happy news, the Supreme Court case asking if wife-beaters have a Second Amendment right to own a gun went about as well as it could have for the battered women that the Fifth Circuit's decision would have killed.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
5 months
FWIW, I think the Colorado Supreme Court decision kicking Trump off the ballot is wrongly decided. He should be kicked off if he is convicted of trying to steal the 2020 election. But Colorado's process was inadequate.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
Earlier today I published a piece that was very critical of Barrett's border opinion. A few hours later, the Fifth Circuit issued an order which suggests that her opinion will have more mixed results than I initially thought. So I've updated my piece.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
5 months
SCOTUS has sat on a huge abortion case for a month now. Federal law requires most hospitals to perform abortions if necessary to protect the patient's health. Idaho wants SCOTUS to neutralize that law, at least with respect to abortions.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
“A written Constitution and the courts that are supposed to enforce it are weak guarantors of a liberal democratic society.” I have some thoughts on the Supreme Court order sabotaging Trump’s election theft trial.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
5 months
A year-and-a-half after Dobbs, the Supreme Court is finally taking up the question of whether there is a right to have an abortion when a patient needs one to prevent catastrophic health consequences.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
@transscribe O'Connor? Tipton? Pitman? Hendrix? The short answer is there are still a lot of terrible judges, and Republicans still have a fairly high likelihood of drawing one if they sue in a Texas federal court. But they can no longer choose the specific judge who will hear their case.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
This is my explainer on the Supreme Court's abortion pills case. There are many explainers on the Supreme Court's abortion pills case, but this one is mine.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
3 months
I wrote about the big looming question now that the DC Circuit has ruled that Trump is not immune from prosecution... Will the Supreme Court sabotage Jack Smith's prosecution even more by agreeing to hear this case?
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
I hated everything about the Supreme Court's arguments today in two massive cases about free speech online, and so should everyone else unless they are lawyers for the plaintiffs in this case.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
3 months
Like, seriously, if I’d put this argument in a brief and signed my name to it, I would expect my law license to be so embarrassed that it would quietly ghost me and I’d never see it again.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
3 months
Today, Trump's lawyers will ask the Supreme Court to delay his election theft trial indefinitely. They will frame this case as a constitutional case about presidential immunity. Ignore that noise. The only real issue is whether SCOTUS delays his trial.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
6 months
@aseitzwald My serious answer to this question is that America’s two party system poorly serves big cities where the GOP is anathema. There is a real desire for a more-conservative-than-the-Democrat option in many cities. But there’s no institution to screen and provide such candidates.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
3 months
Here's my explainer on all the weird legal twists and turns in that Alabama decision holding that embryos are children.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
@steve_vladeck How is this case not moot? The law passed using proxy voting expired and was replaced by new appropriations?
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
@steve_vladeck Ah, I see that Texas attacked a piece of permanent legislation attached to the bill. Sucks for SCOTUS that they're going to have to waste time reversing this decision after the Fifth Circuit affirms. I hope that, at some point, Brett and Amy get sick of dealing with cranks.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
1 month
@joshtpm Agreed. I think law professors often have a particular blind spot. Over 99% of legal questions aren’t really politically contested, and most lawyers will never touch the really partisan cases. So every prof’s job is to teach their students to argue like politics doesn’t exist.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
6 months
I feel icky just thinking this thought. But I think the NRA should probably win the big First Amendment case the Supreme Court just agreed to hear.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
2 months
I wrote about Greg Abbott's attempt to use a temporary surge in migrants entering the United States to convince his fellow Republicans on the Supreme Court to rewrite the Constitution.
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@imillhiser
Ian Millhiser
5 months
Highlight of today's oral argument in the wealth tax case was Brett (somewhat diplomaticaly) telling Sammy to STFU. Another highlight was Amy telling Neil to STFU.
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