Supreme Court Blesses Human Trafficking With No Explanation In Stunning Abandonment Of Rule Of Law
The Supreme Court just gave the Trump administration a green light to traffic humans to random countries around the world—including war zones where migrants face torture, slavery, or death. And they did so while offering literally zero explanation for why this is legal or constitutional. In a shadow docket ruling yesterday, the Court stayed a […]
CBS Execs Have Second Thoughts About Paying Trump Bribe Money After California Threatens Bribery Inquiry
When last we checked it with the feckless execs at CBS/Paramount, they were preparing to pay Donald Trump tens of millions of dollars to settle a completely bogus lawsuit designed to bully the media giant into compliance. CBS desperately wants the Trump administration to sign off on their pointless $8 billion merger with Skydance. Trump […]
RFK Jr. Responsible For More Loss Of Brain Mass At HHS Than A Worm Could Hope To Achieve
By now, it is common knowledge that RFK Jr. had a brain worm that consumed a portion of his brain. It’s actually not as rare or crazy as it sounds at first blush, mind you, but it’s also not terribly common in the United States. And, at the end of the day, a worm ate […]
Mahmoud Khalil Finally Released Months After Being Illegally Kidnapped By ICE For His Speech
After months of what can only be described as government kidnapping, Mahmoud Khalil is finally out of detention and released on bail. The Columbia grad student and green card holder was detained by ICE for the heinous crime of participating in pro-Palestinian protests—or as Marco Rubio apparently sees it, having opinions Rubio doesn’t like. It […]
Arizona Sheriff Gets Shitty Because People Protested An ICE-Led Drug Raid
What a surprise. The most intellectually dishonest people in the nation still have the biggest bullhorns. That’s why a regular-ass drug raid that occurred in Tuscon, Arizona somehow makes headlines in New York City. Here’s the New York Post, disingenuously reporting the (Arizona) news: A massive raid on a suspected cartel member found in Arizona […]
While District Court Judge Questions Trump’s Military Deployment; Appeals Court Shrugs
The normalization of authoritarianism is happening in real time in federal courtrooms. While district court judges try to apply actual legal standards to Trump’s near constant attempts to find ever more constitutional crises to create, appeals courts are busy treating the wholesale dismantling of constitutional constraints as just another political disagreement. Take, for example, what’s […]
ICE Is Now Trying To Convince Congress Members It Needs 72-Hours Notice Before Facility Inspections
This was never an issue before, but it’s suddenly an issue now that ICE has gone full Gestapo to keep up with Trump’s mass deportation demands. ICE’s tactics — unmarked vehicles, masked officers, and untargeted raids of any place that might contain foreigners — have earned it all the criticism and hatred it now faces. […]
Daily Deal: The All-in-One Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing Bundle
The All-in-One Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing Bundle has 9 courses to help you go from beginner to expert in hacking and pen testing. Courses cover everything from social engineering to working with Metasploit to cloud security, and more. It’s on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. […]
Judge Shreds DOJ’s Manufactured Case Against Abrego Garcia: Evidence ‘Defies Common Sense’
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia (who we now find out, via his lawyer, prefers to be called Kilmar Abrego) keeps getting more and more bizarre. After being “accidentally” shipped to El Salvador — despite a judge’s order directly barring such a move — the Trump regime has spent months (1) denying that they could […]
Amazon Ramps Up Enshittification With Even More Ads On Prime Video
Back in early 2024 Amazon announced that Prime Video customers (who already pay $140 per year) would be charged $3 extra every month just to avoid ads that didn’t previously exist. It was just the latest example of “enshittification” in a streaming sector all out of original ideas, desperate to provide Wall Street with impossible […]
Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson with a comment about ICE arresting Brad Lander: Republicans keep saying no one is above the law, but they keep referring only to other people and not themselves. They don’t need warrants. They don’t need to provide due process. They get to assault […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/22/funniest-most-insightful-comments-of-the-week-at-techdirt-164/
This Week In Techdirt History: June 15th – 21st
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests were having an impact, with one court citing the incident in denying immunity to officers in another case, more schools moving to end contracts with cops, and Minneapolis city council voting unanimously to disband its police department. Meanwhile, Devin Nunes’s […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/21/this-week-in-techdirt-history-june-15th-21st/
Buc-ee’s Sues Parody Apparel Shop For Parodying Its Brand
A couple of weeks back, we discussed famed southern convenience store chain Buc-ee’s and its penchant for initiating all kinds of trademark related threats and lawsuits. While we talk about this sort of thing a lot around here, the company’s actions have been particularly silly. When taken in sum total, you’re left with the idea […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/20/buc-ees-sues-parody-apparel-shop-for-parodying-its-brand/
The Way Forward For AI: Learning From The Elephant & The Blind Men
This series of posts explores how we can rethink the intersection of AI, creativity, and policy. From examining outdated regulatory metaphors to questioning copyright norms and highlighting the risks of stifling innovation, each post addresses a different piece of the AI puzzle. Together, they advocate for a more balanced, forward-thinking approach that acknowledges the potential […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/20/the-way-forward-for-ai-learning-from-the-elephant-the-blind-men/
The Shell Game Of Fascist Gaslighting
I need to say something that will be deeply uncomfortable for many of you: if you have friends, family, or colleagues defending what’s happening right now, their old sane selves may not be coming back. Let me be specific about what I mean. This week, Donald Trump posted explicit orders on Truth Social directing federal law enforcement […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/20/the-shell-game-of-fascist-gaslighting/
ICE Tells Agents They Can Start Making Unjustified Arrests Again
It has never been about removing dangerous criminals — the “worst of the worst” — from the United States. Under Donald Trump, immigration enforcement has been about removing immigrants from the country. Period. That’s the whole thing. (And, apparently the only immigrants welcome to seek shelter in the US are those of the whiter variety […]
Community And Choice Are Not Bubbles
Disclosure: I am on the board of Bluesky and am inherently biased. Adjust your skepticism of what I write on this topic accordingly. It seems a bit odd: when something is supposedly dying or irrelevant, journalists can’t stop writing about it. Consider the curious case of Bluesky, which, according to various pundits, is a failed […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/20/community-and-choice-are-not-bubbles/
Daily Deal: The 2025 Java Bundle
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https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/20/daily-deal-the-2025-java-bundle/
US Marines Witnessed Detaining A US Citizen In Los Angeles
As Mike Masnick noted late last week while covering yet another extremely disturbing development in the ongoing horror show that is our current government, the Trump Administration isn’t fucking around. It wants to destroy America so it can have the only kind of America it’s willing to put up with: one it can rule, rather […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/20/us-marines-witnessed-detaining-a-us-citizen-in-los-angeles/
Salt Typhoon Hack Keeps Getting Worse, Telecoms Tell Employees To Stop Looking For Evidence Of Intrusion
Late last year, eight major U.S. telecoms were the victim of a massive intrusion by Chinese hackers who managed to spy on public U.S. officials for more than a year. The “Salt Typhoon” hack was so severe, the intruders spent a year rooting around the ISP networks even after discovery. AT&T and Verizon, two of the compromised companies, […]
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Outsourced But Not Out Of Mind
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed. In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/19/ctrl-alt-speech-outsourced-but-not-out-of-mind/
Former LAPD Chief: Sending Troops To Los Angeles Is A Major Mistake
At some point, there’s supposed to 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines added to a volatile mix that already includes peaceful protesters, some not-so-peaceful protesters, definitely-not-peaceful peace officers, and a large migrant community already on edge. Piled on top of this is mindless, harmful rhetoric steadily flowing from the mouths of Donald Trump, Secretary […]
Daily Deal: WED The JavaScript DOM Game Developer Bundle
The JavaScript DOM Game Developer Bundle has 8 courses to help you master coding fundamentals. Courses cover JavaScript DOM, Coding, HTML 5 Canvas, and more. You’ll learn how to create your own fun, interactive games. It’s on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/18/daily-deal-wed-the-javascript-dom-game-developer-bundle/
Feds Arrest Yet Another Democrat For The Crime Of Helping Others Under Attack From ICE
I’m old enough to remember Republicans claiming that any lawsuit against a Republican was “lawfare” and political persecution. But, as with so many things in the modern MAGA GOP, the reason they said such things was because, given the chance, they would totally seek to engage in actual political persecution and lawfare against anyone who […]
Yes, The FTC Wants You To Think The Internet Is The Enemy To The Great American Family
This is a combo piece with the first half written by law student Elizabeth Grossman about her take on the recent FTC moral panic about the internet, and the second part being some additional commentary and notes from her professor, Jess Miers. The FTC is fanning the flames of a moral panic. On June 4, […]
How The Republican Party Became A Party That Believes The Constitution Only Applies To Its Enemies
Let’s talk about constitutional hypocrisy so brazen, so comprehensive, so morally bankrupt that it would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous to the republic. I’ve learned something about modern Republicans that crystallizes everything wrong with our current political moment: they care more about the constitutionality of Biden’s student debt forgiveness than they do about […]
DOJ’s Constitutional Dodge: When One Detention Reason Fails, Just Try Another
When a federal judge ruled last week that Marco Rubio can’t just declare that the US can detain green card holder Mahmoud Khalil based on the Secretary of State’s “vibes check” assessment of his political beliefs, you might think Khalil would finally be free to return to his family. You’d be wrong. The DOJ has […]
Daily Deal: Rosetta Stone (All Languages)
Embark on the journey of language learning with the Rosetta Stone lifetime subscription for all languages. Trusted by top-tier organizations like NASA, Calvin Klein, and TripAdvisor, Rosetta Stone has been the go-to software for language learning for the past 27 years. With its immersive and intuitive training method, you might be reading, writing, and speaking […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/17/daily-deal-rosetta-stone-all-languages-8/
Trump, ICE Briefly Decided Maybe It’s Not A Good Idea To Mass Arrest Employed Migrants… But Then Reversed Course
For a brief moment, it looked like real life was finally having an effect on Trump’s “immigrants are inherently evil” fantasies. There was a brief window, last week, where Trump indicated he’d roll back some of his deportation goons because it was going too far. The fact that this moment of realization has arrived at […]
Agent Mulder Was Right! (Sort Of)
It’s one of those things I don’t discuss on main. I’m not really sure why. Maybe it was my strict religious upbringing, which made discussing anything outside of preferred interpretations of the Bible sacrilegious, if not actually blasphemous. Or maybe it was a concern about being a bit outside of the mainstream, which might result […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/16/agent-mulder-was-right-sort-of/
In The Vax Wars, RFK Jr. Predictably Wields Misinformation As A Weapon
The second most frustrating aspect of RFK Jr.’s performance as the head of Health and Human Services has been just how predictable the actions he’s taken are. When you start with a simple premise, that Kennedy is a vehement anti-vaxxer, the view that measles is less harmful than the MMR vaccine makes sense. The appointment […]
Why Centralized AI Is Not Our Inevitable Future
Sam Altman’s vision of a “gentle singularity” where AI gradually transforms society presents an alluring future of abundance and human flourishing. His optimism about AI’s potential to solve humanity’s greatest challenges is compelling, and his call for thoughtful deployment resonates. Altman’s essay focuses primarily on the research and development side of AI, painting an inspiring […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/16/why-centralized-ai-is-not-our-inevitable-future/
Trump’s FTC Turns Consumer Protection Into MAGA Protection Racket
When Andrew Ferguson made his pitch to Donald Trump to take over the organization, his one-page “pick me” plea talked about “ending” former FTC Chair Lina Khan’s “politically motivated investigations.” We pointed out at the time how hilarious it was that he then made it clear he fully intended to abuse the power of the […]
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Embedded systems are at the heart of modern innovation, powering everything from smart devices to automotive technology. This Embedded Systems Engineer Mastery Bundle has 10 courses to help equip you with the skills to design, program, and implement microcontroller-based solutions. Gain hands-on experience with Arduino, PIC, and ESP32, master C programming for embedded applications, and […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/16/daily-deal-the-2025-embedded-systems-engineer-mastery-bundle-4/
LA Law Enforcement Agencies Rioted So Hard They Ended Up Shooting Each Other
While Donald Trump was trying (and failing) to cheer himself up with a self-congratulatory birthday parade — I mean, just look at this sad boy: — the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriffs Department were busy turning peaceful protests in violent protests. Throughout the nation, millions gathered peacefully to protest Trump’s military parade. […]
Noem Announces Military Will ‘Liberate’ LA From Democracy, Then Watches Security Throw Senator To Ground
Editor’s Note: As I was getting this article ready to publish, a judge granted California a Temporary Restraining Order against the deployment of the National Guard. We’ll have a separate write up of that later. When the Secretary of Homeland Security announces that federal forces will remain in an American city until they “liberate” it […]
A Manufactured Crisis: How A Few Hooligans In LA Became The Pretext For Military Rule
Today we need to examine something that reveals the machinery of authoritarian propaganda with surgical precision: how a handful of violent incidents across a few city blocks in Los Angeles was transformed into a “crisis” justifying the deployment of federal troops against American citizens. And how easily that transformation succeeded. I write this from Los […]