Clark Neily

One of the Constitution’ most brilliant features is that govt can’t punish anyone without persuading 12 members of the community—unanimously—that the person not only violated the law but also *deserves* whatever punishment the govt proposes to inflict. And the judiciary burned that protection to the waterline. To our enormous cost.

@scottlincicome Dammit, now I feel like I gotta go back and push through, like with season 2 of Breaking Bad. At a certain point, you just feel like you’ve seen Jeremy Clarkson buy enough fertilizer and tractors. But if there’s a commercial for libertarianism on the other side… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

CLARKSON'S FARM S2 is basically one long commercial for libertarianism. My goodness.

@pjaicomo @MorosKostas Congress: “You had us at ‘completely meaningless gesture.’”

@MorosKostas It's also a completely meaningless gesture because you can't sue federal officials in the first place. x.com/pjaicomo/statu…

QI should not vary based on whether Dems like the mission or not. Maybe it should be weakened or go away, I certainly lean that way. But nor only for ICE.

"The World’s Dumbest Tariff Just Got a Lot Dumber" bloomberg.com/opinion/articl… "Trying to find logic in the White House’s trade policies has been a fool’s errand."

Translated: DOJ lawyers rarely try cases anymore. Instead, they bring the full weight of the US govt to bear to induce guilty pleas and civil settlements. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong. But neither they, we, nor the judges who sign off have any idea how often.

Whenever I see DOJ advertising an opening for a “trial attorney,” I imagine my Uber driver referring to himself as a “coachman.” “Tally-ho, sir: convey me to Ronald Reagan National Airport—post-haste!”

@ASFleischman In fairness, most modern-day prosecutors don’t have a whole lot of experience with cross-examinations. Now, if there had been more opportunities for her as a senator to coerce witnesses into waiving their constitutional rights…

It's so nice to see an effective cross examination from a senator. Here, confronting the witness with his own statement and asking him if it's true or not. So much better than, for instance, Kamala Harris.

@scottlincicome I mean, obviously “congressional hearing” is a glaring non sequitur these days, but a quaint little nod to history felt right for the idiom.

@ConLawWarrior Yeah, I could definitely work with this.

Lawyer and historian Philip Zelikow says that Trump's new tariff toy - Sec 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 - is defunct ("effectively repealed and superseded by section 252 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962"). Let the litigation/chaos begin! reason.com/volokh/2025/06…

@Charlie33912230 @mollyretweets And don’t even get me started on all the food you had to eat in order to stay alive long enough to pull that caper and have the energy to pull it off!

@ConLawWarrior @mollyretweets Lol, I rather like that “air that crossed state lines” argument!

Dubious commerce clause hooks in federal criminal laws?

Yesterday, the White House quietly admitted its 50% aluminum tariffs aren't working: "the domestic production and supply of primary aluminum, which is critical to the U.S. economy and defense industrial base, is still in insufficient supply" whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…

NEW: Trump promises to use Section 338 - a short, vague, 96YO law that's never been used (and that most experts think is defunct bc it was superceded by Sec 301) - to impose 50% tariffs on Canadian imports. Tariff Crazytown is officially BACK, baby. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Just filed: cert petition asking the Supreme Court to strike down the federal home distilling probition and overrule Gonzales v. Raich dropbox.com/scl/fi/305jmba…

The @CatoInstitute is hiring a full-time, permanent legal scholar for our Constitutional Studies Team, minimum 4 years legal experience. You'll supervise amicus briefs, write commentary, and educate the public about our classical liberal Constitution. recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/job…

Question for @USPS & @USPSHelp: I had a letter in my mailbox w/ the flag up for 3 days. Finally took it to my branch and explained the issue. A clerk got my letter-carrier on the phone, who said she doesn't pick up outgoing mail when there's none to drop off. Please fix this.

Are you an experienced libertarian/classical liberal lawyer with strong opinions, excellent writing skills, and a burning desire to advance the cause of liberty and limited gov't? We just might have a job for you if so... @CatoInstitute @Thomas_A_Berry recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/job…

Border Patrol pulls over a 20-year-old in Slidell, LA for “white lights on the back of your vehicle… your reverse lights are on the whole time.” Then, before writing a single ticket, the agent asks: “What’s your citizenship?” The driver, Alan Laureano, was born in Slidell. His passenger — his 13-year-old stepbrother — was born in Pearl River, Louisiana. Both are U.S. citizens. Didn’t matter. Twice, on camera, the agent tells Laureano he’s going to “check” the kid and “if he’s illegal, I will take him.” He tries to open the 13-year-old’s car door himself. Laureano locks it and rolls the window down instead. The agent then interrogates the child directly — full name, spelling, date of birth, birthplace — while Laureano stands his ground and refuses to hand over his own ID, telling the agent he doesn’t have the right to stop him over a taillight. Immigration attorney Michael Gahagan reviewed the video and called it what it is: “an illegal detention.” Border Patrol isn’t authorized to detain someone over a traffic violation — they need independent reasonable suspicion of an immigration violation, and that has to come first, not get invented after the stop. DHS’s after-the-fact statement claims the stop was based on “reasonable suspicion or probable cause of federal law violations” — but doesn’t say what that violation was. WWL Louisiana asked twice. No answer either time. This is the pattern: pretext stop, pivot to citizenship, threaten a kid with removal before confirming anything. It only looks “routine” until you’re the one being asked to prove you belong in the country you were born in.

@JellyKind Me too. Really appreciate it.

@ConLawWarrior Oh, that stinks. I'm really sorry. I hope your son isn't too disappointed.

To the person who contributed to the cancellation of my flight to go see my son at camp and subsequent destruction of the entire trip by exiting the plane, propping your shoe in the door to the jet bridge so it wouldn’t lock behind you, and then *reboarding*—thanks a lot, cretin.

@DeTahmineh True fact. Got it from the pilot himself as we were deplaning after six hours of bouncing back-and-forth between the gate and the runway.