Heidi Li Feldman

Law professor (emeritus), philosopher, progressive. Committed to rule of law and pluralistic democracy. Interests include art, books, history, science, cats, sharp wit. Boosts are not necessarily endorsements.

Public speaking: https://womensmediacenter.com/shesource/expert/heidi-li-feldman
Website: https://heidilifeldman.com/
Leaders From Law: https://www.leadersfromlaw.com
Blog - Heidi Says: https://heidi-says.ghost.io/

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Last Notes

2026-04-19 16:59:24 CEST

Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s power plants remains a threat to commit war crimes. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/03/trump-warning-attack-iran-power-plants-is-threat-to-commit-war-crimes/

2026-04-19 02:05:51 CEST

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“Defendants cannot bully or gaslight this Court into ignoring the many procedural and
legal flaws of the Kennedy Declaration by invoking one of the most sacred principles of our
constitutional democracy—the freedom of speech—when that principle comes nowhere close to
being implicated.”
The judge is simply not having any of the executive branch’s bullshit. 14/

2026-04-19 02:04:27 CEST

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“Defendants’ merits briefing takes these absurd
arguments a step further by suggesting that finding the Kennedy Declaration unlawful would
impinge Secretary Kennedy’s First Amendment right to express his views and hinder public
debate on a matter of public importance. … 13/

2026-04-19 02:00:28 CEST

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“Defendants’ jurisdictional arguments are based on the bald-faced lie that the Kennedy Declaration amounts to nothing more than one man’s musings on gender-affirming care. This Court is not persuaded by Defendants’ attempts to gaslight it into believing that the Kennedy Declaration does anything other than what it says:… 9/

2026-04-19 01:57:21 CEST

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Likewise, the judge rejects the claim that Kennedy’s threat to strike off hospitals is not agency “final action”. Judge explains: “it presents healthcare
providers with the Hobson’s Choice to either stop providing gender-affirming care for minors or
risk the loss of critical funding necessary to operate at all.” 7/

2026-04-19 01:54:30 CEST

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The judge rejects immediately the regime’s utterly ridiculous claim that Kennedy’s decree was not a final statement on HHS’s position on a medical standard of care. 6/

2026-04-19 01:50:32 CEST

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The opinion highlights how, without going through the fact-finding and notice and comment required by law, RFK Jr. decreed that gender-affirming care, especially for children, is not a medically appropriate treatment modality and then how swiftly HHS began to threaten major children’s hospitals with being struck off from Medicaid and Medicare so as to coerce these institutions into immediately denying gender-affirming care. 5/

2026-04-15 02:09:13 CEST

I am so lucky to have found an online community here.

2026-04-07 15:28:14 CEST

Not a single Republican in Congress has spoken out to condemn Trump’s genocidal threats. They are all as fascist as he is.

2026-04-02 17:13:27 CEST

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‘Hennepin County attorney Mary Moriarty is actively investigating 17 separate incidents involving federal agents for potential criminal conduct. At least two of those incidents—the January 21 gassing of a crowd in South Minneapolis and a chaotic enforcement action outside Roosevelt High School—involve BORTAC personnel, per videos and photographs taken on scene.’ 5/

2026-04-01 16:09:06 CEST

It is dangerous and wildly wrong for a U.S. President to attend oral argument in a Supreme Court case.

2026-03-30 16:48:00 CEST

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It is hard to maintain an appetite for political reconstruction. People want to forget awful times and awful conduct and paper over problems and conflicts. But we can’t ever have secular, pluralist constitutional democracy in the U.S. if we don’t do the work of disqualifying those who have destroyed it from government. 6/6

2026-03-30 16:44:58 CEST

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Others are going to downplay what they have said and done, arguing that these were “youthful errors.” 5/

2026-03-30 16:43:30 CEST

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If the U.S. pro-constitutional-democracy movement prevails, many now fairly anonymous Republican Fascists, especially, those now under 30, are likely to try to coverup their views and conduct during the past 10-15 years. 4/

2026-03-30 16:36:14 CEST

This guy is the face of the rising generation of Republican Fascism.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/30/kai-schwemmer-college-republicans-livestream 1/

2026-03-26 02:11:18 CET

States using environmental law to stop ICE concentration camp construction. https://www.projectsaltbox.com/p/op-ed-maryland-sued-to-stop-an-ice

2026-03-17 02:14:27 CET

“Marchers deserve First Amendment protections” - oped by me, https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/marchers-deserve-first-amendment-protections/article_1dc820b8-c35a-4873-a398-34b436cef015.html
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/241/861/849/683/442/original/abdd61c636c14beb.jpeg

2026-03-10 06:02:15 CET

You have GOT to read this to this to believe it. https://newrepublic.com/post/207555/pete-hegseth-billions-dollars-fruit-basket-stands-chairs-crab

2026-03-09 16:32:04 CET

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My photos from the event include many of #NewMexico state police vehicles’ location and license plates and of state police themselves. Ditto for Santa Fe City Police. 3/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/199/936/450/661/322/original/8d121306bfc668bd.jpeg

2026-03-09 16:18:26 CET

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I served as a neutral legal observer during the protests. I documented law enforcement and officials’ interactions with protesters. #SantaFe #NewMexico #LawFedi 2/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/199/882/866/293/108/original/aa3686c35cbd4595.jpeg

2026-03-09 16:11:48 CET

Yesterday in #SantaFe #NewMexico Amy Coney Barrett held an event to promote her book. Sponsored by St. John’s College and University of New Mexico Law School, Barrett spoke at the Lensic Theater. There were hundreds of protesters. 1/ #LawFedi
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/199/856/792/428/082/original/e1456591c9e257a7.jpeg

2026-03-07 13:46:56 CET

A murky, deeply troublesome situation has been unfolding in Chicago overnight. It appears CBP detained an American citizen at O’Hare, took her to an ICE detention facility in Chicago. She hasn’t been heard from since and her family cannot locate her. She may or may not have been transported to a different facility in Wisconsin. More details here: https://evanstonnow.com/skokie-woman-detained-by-border-patrol-at-ohare-being-held-at-broadview/ #SundasSunnyNaqvi

2026-03-05 23:21:34 CET

Clear, useful reporting on the Florida bar association’s investigation into Lindsey Halligan, the procedures the bar assn takes before rescinding somebody’s law license, and the possible deterrent effects of a pending investigation on remaining Trump regime lawyers. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/us/politics/lindsey-halligan-investigation-florida-bar.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Q1A.TVkk.zg9fKPrmTMdg&smid=url-share

2026-01-25 01:10:04 CET

Centrist Dem Sen. Slotkin of Michigan is another no on further DHS (ICE) funding.

2026-01-20 07:11:39 CET

Please read this. Do not become inured to what ICE is doing in Minneapolis. https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/ice-st-paul-chongly-scott-thao-saly-hmong-us-citizen-arrest

2025-10-21 22:25:12 CEST

Shaming businesses who do business with the Trump regime is righteous work. https://www.thebanner.com/economy/growth-development/aceco-donald-trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-ballroom-JYH3KX4SYVAG5KWWZZ2NSSPUPE/

2025-10-18 19:28:13 CEST

Today I joined Indivisible Valencia County’s #NoKings protest, where I was invited to speak about the relationship between civil rights and anti-tyranny, and then to introduce the “ICE isn’t welcome here” signs that assert businesses’ rights to exclude ICE from private areas unless agents have a valid judicial warrant. It was a privilege to visit another part of #NewMexico, less populated and redder than Santa Fe but where the protest was vigorous and well-attended. 1/

2025-07-14 21:49:56 CEST

The majority of sitting justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have, once again, greenlit wholly unconstitutional action by the Trump regime. In a shadow docket order, the court has lifted a stay preventing the regime from acting on Trump’s executive order to gut the staff of the Dept of Education so that it becomes de facto defunct. 1/ #LawFedi

2025-06-08 05:43:13 CEST

On the birdsite, Hegseth is announcing National Guard deployments to LA and threatening to put in active duty Marines. This is fascism pure and simple. We have a tyrannical federal executive deploying armed forces to attack peaceful protestors on the streets of a U.S. city. 1/2

2025-04-16 20:59:44 CEST

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He’s in a horrible horrible position. I hope he is alive.

2025-04-16 20:55:15 CEST

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Van Hollen makes a direct plea to Bukele to allow a man illegally abducted to walk out of prison.

2025-04-16 20:54:07 CEST

Van Hollen tells it like it is: he states that Abrego Garcia was “illegally abducted” from the United States. “Disappeared off the streets of Maryland.”

2025-04-15 21:44:19 CEST

We in the U.S are not on the brink of a constitutional crisis nor are we headed toward an authoritarian coup. Both are here now.

2025-04-14 19:36:47 CEST

Harvard squarely standing up to the Trump. Its lawyers to the regime: “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle. … Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.” Full letter in pics.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/337/526/449/622/881/original/68fe79e12b6382b7.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/337/526/742/441/905/original/8b1741ecd897a0f7.jpeg

2025-03-28 23:49:50 CET

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Nobody, other than executive branch officials, is obliged to do anything at all just because of something a President says in an executive order. 4/

2025-03-28 23:44:01 CET

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Whether Trump himself understands that he has no constitutional authority to make laws is, of course, a separate question. 2/

2025-03-18 20:24:57 CET

A federal judge has just found that Musk and DOGE likely acted unconstitutionally in shutting down USAID. He has granted a preliminary injunction which means that for the remainder of proceedings USAID personnel must be reinstated, no buildings may be closed, etc. Text of injunction at https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69636722/75/does-1-26-v-musk/. Opinion in support at https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69636722/73/does-1-26-v-musk/. #LawFedi

2025-03-12 20:30:21 CET

What an appalling argument from DoJ in defense of Trump’s executive order targeting Perkins Coie, just offered in the hearing on the TRO: the President can decide, based on his own personal whims, that a law firm threatens the interests of the U.S. and have the federal government shun that firm in all the ways alleged in the complaint.

2025-03-10 23:55:22 CET

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On top of the disregard for Khalil’s 6th Amendment rights, the government has once again deliberately interfered with the work of the judicial branch. The Trump regime is a lawless effort to achieve a federal executive dictatorship. 8/8

2025-03-10 23:53:17 CET

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It certainly seems that moving Mahmoud Khalil from the New York metro area to Louisiana under these circumstances is a deliberate effort by the Trump DHS/ICE to impede pending judicial proceedings before the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 7/

2025-03-10 23:50:49 CET

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The relocation to Louisiana makes it hard for Khalil to confer with his attorneys, interfering with his right counsel. It also makes it harder for the Southern District of New York to compel Khalil’s release, should the Southern District Court rule in Khalil’s favor on the habeas petition. 6/

2025-03-10 23:44:30 CET

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Notwithstanding the filed habeas petition, ICE transferred Khalil from New York to Louisiana, without notifying his attorney or the court. 4/

2025-03-10 23:35:41 CET

Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil have filed a motion to have ICE return him to New York, asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to protect Khalil from disruption of the underlying habeas corpus proceedings begun before ICE transferred him to Louisiana. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25556767/mahmoud-khalil-motion-to-compel-return.pdf This motion shows how Trump’s treatment of Khalil is also a challenge to judicial authority. 1/ #LawFedi

2025-02-09 10:32:16 CET

Attorney General Bonta in New Court Filing: Trump Administration Not Complying with Court Order to Unfreeze Certain Federal Funding https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-new-court-filing-trump-administration-not-complying-court

2024-09-10 01:28:19 CEST

James Earl Jones died today. What a voice, what a talent. Gift link to the Washington Post obituary for him. https://wapo.st/3Zh3umW

2024-08-27 00:58:46 CEST

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According to Cannon, the U.S. v. Nixon court simply did not settle the issue of whether the AG has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute a U.S. President. She said that any discussion of this power in U.S. v. Nixon was a just “dicta”, comment not central to the decision itself. She is wrong, and I’ll say why, but the most significant thing about this move is the attempt to vindicate a position roundly rejected by the Supreme Court. 14/

2024-08-27 00:51:58 CEST

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But what does this have to do with the U.S. case against Trump for his wrongful retention of national security materials and his obstruction of the investigation into this?
Trump argued to Aileen Cannon that the U.S. Attorney General did not have the authority to appoint Jack Smith or anybody else as special counsel. In agreeing with Trump, Cannon reasoned that U.S. v. Nixon said nothing binding on the question. 12/

2024-08-27 00:48:34 CEST

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The Supreme Court decided that the Attorney General, not the President, had the final say on the scope and nature of the special counsel’s authority: “So long as this regulation remains in force, the Executive Branch is bound by it, and indeed the United States, as the sovereign composed of the three branches, is bound to respect and to enforce it.” U.S. v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 696. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/418/683/ /11

2024-08-27 00:45:13 CEST

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Acting under these statutes, which are still in force today, the then-AG appointed the Watergate Special Prosecutor and gave the special prosecutor plenary authority to investigate all offenses that arose out of the 1972 Presidential Election. This authorization specifically gave the special prosecutor the authority to contest any assertion of Executive Privilege. (See U.S. v. Nixon, footnote 8, for fuller regulation. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/418/683/) 10/

2024-08-27 00:41:14 CEST

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To reach its conclusion on the justiciability issue, the Supreme Court examined the authority granted to the Attorney General by Congress, particularly the Congressional statutes that vest the U.S. AG the power to conduct criminal litigation on behalf of the U.S. and the power to appoint subordinate officers to assist in the AG’s duties. 9/

2024-08-27 00:01:52 CEST

Jack Smith today formally appealed Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the United States suit against Donald Trump for wrongfully keeping national defense materials and obstructing the investigation of his wrongful conduct. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/special-counsel-appeals-court-trump-documents-case/ I thought it might be useful to put the case in the broader context of the fight to hold the U.S. President - whoever holds the office - accountable to rule of law. 1/

2024-08-21 02:14:02 CEST

I love all the delegations celebrating that Kamala Harris is our nominee to be the first woman president of the United States. #DNC2024

2024-08-21 01:15:47 CEST

My mother was a teacher and a union member. When the teachers in our town went on strike, she walked the picket line alongside her fellow union members. I remember her explaining to me what a picket line was and why it is wrong to cross one. What is your earliest memory of union activism?