More of my thoughts about the 7/29/2025 Trump/Bondi DoJ memo instructing all federal agencies as to the policies recepients must follow, and the decision by Columbia, Brown, Paul Weiss, and others, to sign agreements precommitting themselves to the guidelines therein.
Memo at https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1409486/dl
My earlier thread at https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman/114948960978390323. 1/ #LawFedi
Discussion
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@heidilifeldman
These institutions have voluntarily and irrevocably destroyed every ounce of academic and legal credibility they had.
I’m not sure how to quantify that for people who aren’t familiar with the value of such things but if we suggested appropriate name changes?
Columbia -> Pillow-Guy University
Brown -> Proud Boys University
Paul Weiss -> As-Seen-On-TV and Associates
@heidilifeldman
The memo is nothing but a cattle chute leading to a wholly corrupt dictatorship.
The combination of the settlements and then the issuance of "guidance" that tracks what is in the settlements ratchets up the pressure on all federal grant recipients to preemptively censor and monitor themselves. This is an intentional strategy from the Trump/Bondi DoJ. 2/
The settling institutions have double reason to self-censor. The settlements with the universities create extra-judicial monitoring mechanisms and penalties for violating the settlement provisions apart from any actual statutory or constitutional violations. 3/
Getting prominent comparatively long- established institutions to publicly and preemptively announce compliance with guidance, sends a message to less wealthy, less prominent, less well-established federal funds recipients: Not only do you have cultural permission to cave to this guidance, it is the wise, correct, and ethical thing to do. 4/
Institutions like Columbia, Brown, and Paul Weiss have allowed themselves to be used as megaphones and legitimators of the Trump regime's unconstitutional and unethical policies concerning race, sex, and gender. Maybe Brown or Columbia will eventually challenge their monitors' interpretations of the settlements specific applications, but more often than not they will cave, I expect. 5/
@heidilifeldman
DoJ is going to have to hire a bunch of Soviet-style zampolits.
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