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2 days ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance |Preet Bharara
Thanks to those of you who joined Preet Bharara and me last night for his first-ever Substack Live. I was happy he kept the dad jokes to a minimum, but if you were with us, you know we’re that oddball combination of cornball and serious when we get going. This week, Preet brings his Stay Tuned podcast and the rest of the community to Substack. We live in times that require serious contemplation, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun while we educate ourselves.
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2 days ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
On Tuesday, in Atlanta, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in Fair Fight v. Enbelbrecht. Fair Fight is the Georgia group started by Stacey Abrams to fight voter suppression. That’s what the case is about.
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4 days ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
This week, on Thursday, the Supreme Court hears oral argument in the birthright citizenship case. But not exactly, because the issue on the table isn’t whether Trump can undo the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to anyone born in the United States; it’s about a technical issue, one we’ve encountered before.
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4 days ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
To all the moms and all the people who love moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day. Looking for something you can do to honor your mother? Here’s what’s on my list:Protect democracy. Tell Stephen Miller his suggestion of suspending habeas corpus because of an “invasion,” when border crossings, even if they could be considered an invasion (multiple judges have said no), are at an all-time low, is ridiculous.
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5 days ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
This week’s Democracy Index column at The Contrarian starts like this, “This week we saw the consequences of autocratic overreach. Although there are still heartbreaking tragedies and dangers inflicted every day, it’s important to step back and see where democracy has been resilient.” The constant deluge can make it difficult to assess the overall outlook, and that’s what our team tries to do every week with The Democracy Index. Increasingly, the story is less one-sided.
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5 days ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
You probably remember my friend and colleague Preet Bharara, who was President Obama’s U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. Donald Trump abruptly fired Preet (and the rest of the remaining Obama U.S. Attorneys) a few days after Preet declined to take a personal call from the new president. That was back in the quaint old times when the White House didn’t tell U.S. Attorneys what cases to bring. Since then, Preet has written a book, Doing Justice. (It’s really excellent.
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6 days ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
In March, I wrote to you about Zoe Ann Olson, the director of the Intermountain Fair Housing Council in Idaho. Musk, Trump, and DOGE called her work to ensure people had access to fair and affordable housing a waste of taxpayer dollars. It took lawyers to make sure the council’s modest funding, which did so much good for so many people, was restored.
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1 week ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
On April 16, I wrote to you about a hearing in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, which is before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland.
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1 week ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
In just a month, on June 7, Civil Discourse turns three. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been writing the newsletter for that long, but it also feels like we’ve lived through decades together. I started Civil Discourse to help people understand the times we are living through and to share information and context I acquired during 25 years at the Justice Department. I wanted readers to walk away from every post with the kind of power that comes from knowledge. That’s still my goal.
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1 week ago | 
joycevance.substack.com | Joyce Vance
Last night, I wrote to you about Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee to be the United States Attorney in Washington, D.C.. Martin, until quite recently, used the handle “Eagle Ed Martin” on Twitter, a reference to his days working for Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum. Apparently, someone mentioned to him during the last month that the handle wasn’t appropriate for a U.S. Attorney hopeful. Support democracy with a subscription to Civil Discourse. Share knowledge and analysis with the people you care about.
