Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Today, the Tompkins County district attorney’s office has re-opened the criminal investigation into the Cornell 7, two babies in Pennsylvania have died from congenital measles, Trump has asked the Supreme Court to let him gut transgender care in prisons, ICE has purchased $1.3M in robot dogs, Donald offered to sell arms to China, the 5 men arrested in the alleged terror plot in the UK are out on bail, and a whistleblower says the administration halted repairs on the Kennedy Center despite arguing that it’s in desperate need of attention.
GUEST: Steve Vladeck: Professor of Federal Courts at the Georgetown University Law Center, and writes the One First newsletter on Substack. He is the author of the New York Times-bestselling book The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic. And has a new book coming out on May 4th 2027 called The Court We Need: What's Really Wrong with the Supreme Court–and How to Fix It.
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Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/arts/music/kennedy-center-trump-renovations.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/us/politics/trump-weapons-sale-china.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/28/transgender-care-prisons-supreme-court-appeal
America had wiped out measles. As Pennsylvania outbreak grows babies are infected at birth.
Thank you, Allison. Anxious for Jack Smith’s testimony today! 😄
The Shadow Docket has to be one of the most undemocratic things that this court does, among so many others. Love how they get to decide so much for themselves, since they're the last stop. Such a poor system -did the FF just get tired by the time they got to this branch? Among many overhauls of our government, this enormously powerful part of the judiciary needs to be rebuilt.