Pema Levy

Washington, D.C.

Reporter @MotherJones Send me secure tips: pemalevyATprotonDOTme pemalevy.33 (Signal) Also find find me at @pemalevy.bsky.social

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Articles

The Trump Administration Is Already Ignoring the Supreme Court

1 week ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

On May 16, the Supreme Court handed down a significant order in one of the many swirling cases over the Trump administration’s efforts to seize immigrants and deport them to foreign prisons. In an unsigned opinion, seven of the court’s nine justices reaffirmed that immigrants needed a reasonable amount of time to challenge their deportations. Reading between the lines was an alarming recognition by the seven justices: The Trump administration was already violating their orders.
The Supreme Court Makes Sure the Law Does Not Get in the Way of Trump’s Takeover

2 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

On Thursday night, the Supreme Court’s six Republican-appointed justices allowed President Donald Trump to remove two executive branch officials: Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board. In doing so, the court refused to enforce a major precedent. The decision indicated that, despite recent rebukes, the court is willing to disregard longstanding precedent for Trump to proceed with his overhaul of the federal government.
House GOPers Just Voted for the Biggest Medicaid Cuts in History-After Promising to Protect It

2 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

House Republicans whose seats are not safe in the 2026 midterm elections voted early on Thursday morning to advance the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, endangering health care for millions of the poorest Americans. Several cast these votes after making promises to protect the Great Society program that provides health care to millions. Democrats are already hoping the vote will cause them to lose re-election next year.
Trump asks the Supreme Court for a ‘catch me if you can’ system of justice

3 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

Not even a year ago, though it feels like a decade, the US Supreme Court granted presidents immunity from criminal laws when they act in their official capacity. In other words, presidents don’t have to worry about breaking the law, as they will never be held to account. On Thursday, the Trump administration was back at the court with a related request: Will the justices please allow us to enforce illegal orders against anyone who fails to sue to stop us?
To end birthright citizenship, Trump Is rewriting Civil War history

3 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

When the Trump administration asks the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow it to deny birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants and visa holders, its legal theory will rest on a reinterpretation of a critical phrase of the Constitution. But when you plug their preferred meaning back into the historical context in which the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause was enacted, the results are nonsensical. In other words, the crux of the government’s argument simply makes no sense.
Will the Supreme Court let Trump target babies for the “sins of the parents”?

3 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

In 2022, Florida Republicans enacted the Stop WOKE Act, which sought to remove from school curriculums any lessons that might cause students to feel “discomfort,” “guilt,” or any other “psychological distress” because of their race. It went without saying that the legislation’s authors were referring to white students who might experience a sad feeling because of what their ancestors did to Black people in the United States.
The Supreme Court is really “just vibes”

1 month ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

In Donald Trump’s second term, a familiar pattern is emerging: the president does something illegal, someone sues to stop him, and eventually the Supreme Court decides the case. From which agencies Trump can effectively shutter, to which agency heads he can depose, to whether or not he can disappear people into a Salvadoran gulag or deny infants birthright citizenship, the buck stops with the nine justices on the nation’s highest court. But that court is not acting…normally.
The dangerous legal theory behind Trump’s power grabs

1 month ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

It all started with Richard Nixon. It was the summer of 1974, and Watergate was closing in on his presidency. A grand jury had subpoenaed secret recordings of Nixon and his aides that would show the president had been involved in the criminal conspiracy. A judge had ordered Nixon to honor the subpoena. The president’s lawyers faced a daunting task: block the release of those damning tapes.
The Supreme Court is about to let religion ruin public education

1 month ago | lgbtqnation.com | Pema Levy

This article first appeared on Mother Jones. It has been republished with the publication’s permission. In modern America, religious education is offered in private schools or in a homeschooling setting. Public education, by contrast, is secular, because the government is not in the business of sponsoring religious indoctrination.
The Supreme Court is about to let religion ruin public education

1 month ago | motherjones.com | Pema Levy

In modern America, religious education is offered in private schools or in a homeschooling setting. Public education, by contrast, is secular, because the government is not in the business of sponsoring religious indoctrination. But in two cases the Supreme Court heard over roughly the last week, the justices appear ready to throw out public education as we know it and usher in a new era where tax dollars flow to religious schools and religion can dictate what is taught in public classrooms.