Reed O'Connor is a totally nutso federal judge in Fort Worth.
Last month, DOJ subpoenaed a hospital in Rhode Island to obtain the private medical records of certain trans children. Three government went to Reed O'Connor to enforce this subpoena, which he did.
Within hours of the gov's motion he ruled ex parte to order the hospital to turn over the docs on a short deadline. He didn't give the hospital a chance to respond, which is a big judicial no-no. He also ignored venue rules. Venue rules would indicate that the proper place to file this kind of enforcement motion would be the federal courthouse in Rhode Island, where the hospital is. There's no reason for this case to be in Fort Worth besides the fact that Reed O'Connor is in Fort Worth.
Anyhow, the hospital filed a motion in Rhode Island Court seeking to quash the subpoena, which the Rhode Island judge did. This caused Reed O'Connor to completely lose his shit. He just flat out ignored the perfectly valid court order to quash from his fellow federal judge in Rhode Island. And he ordered the hospital not to file any other motions, lawsuits, or appeals in any other court besides his own. This is a serious violation of the hospital's first amendment right to seek redress of grievances by filing motions, lawsuits, and appeals in courts of law.
Also, earlier this week, Texas and the feds conspired to rewrite immigration rules in Reed O'Connor's Court. The rule in question allows immigration judges to "administratively" close cases which stops a deportation, but leaves the immigrant in legal limbo. Normally, to change a federal rule, you have to spend years collecting public comments and revising before it becomes final.
Here's what happened instead. The state of Texas filed a lawsuit against the federal government that claimed the rule was somehow illegal. The federal government filed a proposed settlement agreement to settle the lawsuit. Then Reed O'Connor filed a final judgement and permanent injunction overturning the rule. This all happened in the span of a few hours instead of years.
It is also very illegal. Because it's obvious that both Texas and the feds want the same outcome, there is no genuine dispute or controversy to this lawsuit. If this is not a genuine "case or controversy", the federal courts have no jurisdiction to do anything.
And so on, and so on. There's a long Wikipedia article full of older stuff from the past. But hopefully you get some idea of how crazy this guy is.
We shoulda let them, honestly. Republicans would never win another election, and their economy would crash without all the welfare they get from the federal government funded primarily by California and New York taxpayers...
Sure, it would suck for all the minorities in Texas. But maybe just create a program to help people relocate to a different state?
More seriously, the process is the same as to impeach the President. File articles of impeachment in the House, pass committee, pass the rules committee, pass the House floor, hold a trial in the Senate, and get 2/3 of Senators to convict.
In the meantime, this man enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for his judicial acts.
It's things like this that make people say Luigi is a saint. There are people just clearly doing awful things with immunity, and there's no lawful mechanisms to deal with it.
This is why confining the scope of your actions to be within the bounds of law that was specifically written to disenfranchise you from your political will and make you subservient to the whims of the owning class is fallacy at best.
One woman got 30 years, because her husband moved PROHIBITED written material from her car. So he's in trouble for moving it (Obstruction, or some such happy horseshit) and she's in trouble for having it in her car. We don't even know what the written material is, but very, very little written material could be prohibited under the 1st Amendment, and it's this MAGA administration claiming it, so you KNOW it's bullshit.
This is clearly using the brute force of the government to hurt critics, and they WANT us to holler about it. Go ahead, tell EVERYBODY what we did.
This is no less than a NEW offensive assault on any potential resistance, making it clear what will happen if anyone tries to commit any real act of protest. It is important to keep in mind a new DoJ policy that was revealed this past week:
The office of the Attorney General, Todd Flintstone, has sole authority over the prisons that inmates get sent to. So Ghislane Maxwell can be sent to a girl's summer camp, while those people, whose crime was protesting the brutal treatment of the government, will be sent to General Population in the worst prisons in the federal system.
This is what we can expect from them over the next two years, under Attorney General Todd Flintstone. They just got the news that they can start deporting anyone they want to, so they are going to do that on an industrial scale. But the For-Profit Prison Corps will not tolerate a dip in their daily bed count, so they will need a new boogeyman to go after, and it will be those ANTIFA Terrorists. DHS sweeps out the Immigrants, AG brings in the Commies. Next will be...journalists, gays, people who criticize the government to dozens of people on Lemmy, why not all?
Eventually, their sentences will be found to be unconstitutional, and they'll be released, if they live that long. One day in a place like that is too much for any innocent American citizen, and these people are likely to spend months or even years in there before they get justice, and are released. Those Parasites who put those people though that ordeal, not for justice for the American people, but to intimidate the American people into not resisting their corruption and brutal assault on our Citizens, need to be decisively handled, except they will have fully EARNED their long prison sentences.
The trauma from spending even a month in prison is enough to fully derail a person's life, even aside from probably losing their job and having it go on their record.
On a psychological level, it's just not easy to recover to a sense of normalcy after spending time in prison. The rest of one's life is haunted by this constant threat, it can make it difficult to participate in social activities, perform basic tasks, or really enjoy doing anything at all. The prison follows you, is a part of you, lives deep within your own mind.
That's one of the reasons for high rates of recidivism, aside from the socioeconomic structures that are baked into the system to present barriers to anyone who's been to prison (or even jail).
The penal institutions are not designed to help people recover or reform their behavior. They're there to punish, traumatize, and exclude, and as a threat to hold over people's heads to keep them in line. And, of course, as a lucrative profit machine with a carve-out for legal slavery...
One of the things I saw in the article was ACAB with a burning police car, which could be considered a "call to violence," but 30 years for that? That's what someone could get if they themselves killed someone...
You know what is really funny About US Americans and their near religious reverence of their political institutions? You people think that the source of the problem is the solution. The constitution won't save you. The constitution of the US describes a state that is incapable of operating and leaves open this sort of tyranny. Due the the broken structure of your government you've been unable to pass meaningful legislation for decades. There hasn't been an amendment since the 1992 and that was to give congress a raise. You raise up normal day to day legislation like funding a small amount of infrastructure "build back better" and a right wing guaranteed profits law that only really benefits the insurance industry "america cares act" as major accomplishments.
The constitution isn't what is going to fix this. The constitution describes a government written in the preindustrial age to maintain slave owner supremacy and protect the interests of the elite. It describes a system that is subject to a tyranny of the majority that has weakness in the very cultural fabric of Americans like hyper individualism, materialism and anti-intellectualism.
These aren't just the rantings of a "tankie" either, this was called out by Tocqueville in 1831 and it has come to pass.
What is unique to the US is their civic religion with the saints of the founding fathers and the reverence of the documents themselves. Most modern countries rewrite their constitutions but the US is stuck with theirs because they worship it.
Many other governments have a better structure, but that isn't the point of what I wrote. Maybe the US Americans can write something new that is even incrementally better and it would be a positive. I was raised in the US but have left it behind.
I do not think things are better in Europe. I would never look to Europe or Europeans for inspiration. I would not be welcome in Europe. Not sure why everyone assumes this from my comments. Just because something is bad doesn't mean that there is something better that currently exists. Describing a problem is the first step to a solution, it isn't simply to imply that somewhere else has it better. Especially because the USA goes out of its way to destroy any alternative to itself and its system with a huge monopoly of violence and nuclear weapons.
You don't need to cite another country as having a better structure to point out the one you currently live in is broken.
the systems that currently exist are not the only systems to have ever existed nor are the the only possibilities to choose from. Other options are possible.
Lastly, nothing about the tone is suggesting this is specific to the US. They are simply describing the US situation. You're the only one comparing it to the situation of other nations.
That’s not entirely true, the constitution gives Americans the opportunity to overthrow tyranny. People will exercise that right one day, maybe it won’t be too late.
Thr classic freedom versus security. But where exactly is security with Trump and fascists? Social media is to blame for making everyone's brain turn to mush; making us fight among ourselves while the oligarchs are laughing themselves all the way to the bank.
63 Comments
mkwt@lemmy.world · 104 pts · 67d
Reed O'Connor is a totally nutso federal judge in Fort Worth.
Last month, DOJ subpoenaed a hospital in Rhode Island to obtain the private medical records of certain trans children. Three government went to Reed O'Connor to enforce this subpoena, which he did.
Within hours of the gov's motion he ruled ex parte to order the hospital to turn over the docs on a short deadline. He didn't give the hospital a chance to respond, which is a big judicial no-no. He also ignored venue rules. Venue rules would indicate that the proper place to file this kind of enforcement motion would be the federal courthouse in Rhode Island, where the hospital is. There's no reason for this case to be in Fort Worth besides the fact that Reed O'Connor is in Fort Worth.
Anyhow, the hospital filed a motion in Rhode Island Court seeking to quash the subpoena, which the Rhode Island judge did. This caused Reed O'Connor to completely lose his shit. He just flat out ignored the perfectly valid court order to quash from his fellow federal judge in Rhode Island. And he ordered the hospital not to file any other motions, lawsuits, or appeals in any other court besides his own. This is a serious violation of the hospital's first amendment right to seek redress of grievances by filing motions, lawsuits, and appeals in courts of law.
Also, earlier this week, Texas and the feds conspired to rewrite immigration rules in Reed O'Connor's Court. The rule in question allows immigration judges to "administratively" close cases which stops a deportation, but leaves the immigrant in legal limbo. Normally, to change a federal rule, you have to spend years collecting public comments and revising before it becomes final.
Here's what happened instead. The state of Texas filed a lawsuit against the federal government that claimed the rule was somehow illegal. The federal government filed a proposed settlement agreement to settle the lawsuit. Then Reed O'Connor filed a final judgement and permanent injunction overturning the rule. This all happened in the span of a few hours instead of years.
It is also very illegal. Because it's obvious that both Texas and the feds want the same outcome, there is no genuine dispute or controversy to this lawsuit. If this is not a genuine "case or controversy", the federal courts have no jurisdiction to do anything.
And so on, and so on. There's a long Wikipedia article full of older stuff from the past. But hopefully you get some idea of how crazy this guy is.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · 35 pts · 67d
Imagine if a Obama or Biden aligned judge did something like this.
tacoplease@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 66d
An Obama or Biden judge could have enforced a littering fine and MAGA would have lost its mind.
Serinus@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 67d
We're well past that.
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 66d
We're way past pieces of paper mattering at all
Serinus@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 66d
Nice try. No.
HasturInYellow@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 67d
There are truly only like 5000 people destroying the planet. I feel like this guy has joined the list.
cyclonedusk@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 67d
I wish I could personally cross off some of those names
huppakee@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 67d
I don't condone violence but if i was granted wishes somehow i'd wish that.
edible_funk@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 67d
Killing fascists is self defense.
Witchfire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 66d
If I had a Death Note...
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 66d
Is there a protocol for expelling a state from the Union?
For fuck's sake, give Texas back to Mexico! We can keep a round 50 states by granting Puerto Rico statehood.
Witchfire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 66d
Texas wanted to secede ages ago whatever happened with that?
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 66d
We shoulda let them, honestly. Republicans would never win another election, and their economy would crash without all the welfare they get from the federal government funded primarily by California and New York taxpayers...
Sure, it would suck for all the minorities in Texas. But maybe just create a program to help people relocate to a different state?
Lemming6969@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 66d
This would actually be crazy fun to watch unfold.
mkwt@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 66d
No. We settled that shit in 1865.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 66d
So now they're going to bring the whole country down with them, while collecting tax money from the coastal states and New England?
Pass...
jtrek@startrek.website · 6 pts · 67d
So... How do we remove this guy from office?
mkwt@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 67d
That's the fun part... You don't!
More seriously, the process is the same as to impeach the President. File articles of impeachment in the House, pass committee, pass the rules committee, pass the House floor, hold a trial in the Senate, and get 2/3 of Senators to convict.
In the meantime, this man enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for his judicial acts.
jtrek@startrek.website · 23 pts · 67d
It's things like this that make people say Luigi is a saint. There are people just clearly doing awful things with immunity, and there's no lawful mechanisms to deal with it.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 66d
This is why confining the scope of your actions to be within the bounds of law that was specifically written to disenfranchise you from your political will and make you subservient to the whims of the owning class is fallacy at best.
DomeGuy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 66d
tacoplease@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 66d
Mario, it'sa me!!!
ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip · 36 pts · 67d
Oh god what did they do this time?
rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 53 pts · 67d
Exactly what's stated in the meme. A person was sentenced to 3 decades behind bars because he moved a box of leftist literature
MightEnlightenYou@lemmy.world · 60 pts · 67d
To any American who knows a little history, this is your "then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out..."-moment
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 66d
We've been speaking out, it doesn't make a difference. The problem isn't that we're not speaking out enough.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 33 pts · 67d
One woman got 30 years, because her husband moved PROHIBITED written material from her car. So he's in trouble for moving it (Obstruction, or some such happy horseshit) and she's in trouble for having it in her car. We don't even know what the written material is, but very, very little written material could be prohibited under the 1st Amendment, and it's this MAGA administration claiming it, so you KNOW it's bullshit.
This is clearly using the brute force of the government to hurt critics, and they WANT us to holler about it. Go ahead, tell EVERYBODY what we did.
This is no less than a NEW offensive assault on any potential resistance, making it clear what will happen if anyone tries to commit any real act of protest. It is important to keep in mind a new DoJ policy that was revealed this past week:
The office of the Attorney General, Todd Flintstone, has sole authority over the prisons that inmates get sent to. So Ghislane Maxwell can be sent to a girl's summer camp, while those people, whose crime was protesting the brutal treatment of the government, will be sent to General Population in the worst prisons in the federal system.
This is what we can expect from them over the next two years, under Attorney General Todd Flintstone. They just got the news that they can start deporting anyone they want to, so they are going to do that on an industrial scale. But the For-Profit Prison Corps will not tolerate a dip in their daily bed count, so they will need a new boogeyman to go after, and it will be those ANTIFA Terrorists. DHS sweeps out the Immigrants, AG brings in the Commies. Next will be...journalists, gays, people who criticize the government to dozens of people on Lemmy, why not all?
Eventually, their sentences will be found to be unconstitutional, and they'll be released, if they live that long. One day in a place like that is too much for any innocent American citizen, and these people are likely to spend months or even years in there before they get justice, and are released. Those Parasites who put those people though that ordeal, not for justice for the American people, but to intimidate the American people into not resisting their corruption and brutal assault on our Citizens, need to be decisively handled, except they will have fully EARNED their long prison sentences.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 7 pts · 66d
The trauma from spending even a month in prison is enough to fully derail a person's life, even aside from probably losing their job and having it go on their record.
On a psychological level, it's just not easy to recover to a sense of normalcy after spending time in prison. The rest of one's life is haunted by this constant threat, it can make it difficult to participate in social activities, perform basic tasks, or really enjoy doing anything at all. The prison follows you, is a part of you, lives deep within your own mind.
That's one of the reasons for high rates of recidivism, aside from the socioeconomic structures that are baked into the system to present barriers to anyone who's been to prison (or even jail).
The penal institutions are not designed to help people recover or reform their behavior. They're there to punish, traumatize, and exclude, and as a threat to hold over people's heads to keep them in line. And, of course, as a lucrative profit machine with a carve-out for legal slavery...
starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 66d
One of the things I saw in the article was ACAB with a burning police car, which could be considered a "call to violence," but 30 years for that? That's what someone could get if they themselves killed someone...
Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 67d
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/24/prairieland-texas-ice-protests-zines
hamid@crazypeople.online · 31 pts · 67d
You know what is really funny About US Americans and their near religious reverence of their political institutions? You people think that the source of the problem is the solution. The constitution won't save you. The constitution of the US describes a state that is incapable of operating and leaves open this sort of tyranny. Due the the broken structure of your government you've been unable to pass meaningful legislation for decades. There hasn't been an amendment since the 1992 and that was to give congress a raise. You raise up normal day to day legislation like funding a small amount of infrastructure "build back better" and a right wing guaranteed profits law that only really benefits the insurance industry "america cares act" as major accomplishments.
The constitution isn't what is going to fix this. The constitution describes a government written in the preindustrial age to maintain slave owner supremacy and protect the interests of the elite. It describes a system that is subject to a tyranny of the majority that has weakness in the very cultural fabric of Americans like hyper individualism, materialism and anti-intellectualism.
These aren't just the rantings of a "tankie" either, this was called out by Tocqueville in 1831 and it has come to pass.
huey_m@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 66d
hamid@crazypeople.online · 3 pts · 66d
What is unique to the US is their civic religion with the saints of the founding fathers and the reverence of the documents themselves. Most modern countries rewrite their constitutions but the US is stuck with theirs because they worship it.
Many other governments have a better structure, but that isn't the point of what I wrote. Maybe the US Americans can write something new that is even incrementally better and it would be a positive. I was raised in the US but have left it behind.
huey_m@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 65d
hamid@crazypeople.online · 1 pts · 65d
I do not think things are better in Europe. I would never look to Europe or Europeans for inspiration. I would not be welcome in Europe. Not sure why everyone assumes this from my comments. Just because something is bad doesn't mean that there is something better that currently exists. Describing a problem is the first step to a solution, it isn't simply to imply that somewhere else has it better. Especially because the USA goes out of its way to destroy any alternative to itself and its system with a huge monopoly of violence and nuclear weapons.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 66d
You don't need to cite another country as having a better structure to point out the one you currently live in is broken.
the systems that currently exist are not the only systems to have ever existed nor are the the only possibilities to choose from. Other options are possible.
Lastly, nothing about the tone is suggesting this is specific to the US. They are simply describing the US situation. You're the only one comparing it to the situation of other nations.
huey_m@reddthat.com · 0 pts · 65d
A404@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 66d
Thank you
Noodle07@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 66d
Amen
CluelessCalls@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 66d
That’s not entirely true, the constitution gives Americans the opportunity to overthrow tyranny. People will exercise that right one day, maybe it won’t be too late.
hamid@crazypeople.online · 1 pts · 66d
you mean the document that defines black people as three-fifths of a person?
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 66d
This guy gets it.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 19 pts · 66d
Remember when we told people Trump would take people's rights away and they thought we were delusional?
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 65d
"Both sides are the same. If you vote for Blue MAGA you're a fascist"
Witchfire@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 66d
A harsher sentence for owning a printing press than child sexual abusers get
Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 66d
This judge should never feel safe again.
danc4498@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 67d
Texas just approved making Bible passages required reading for school children.
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 67d
Institution? 😉
bstix@feddit.dk · 9 pts · 67d
All I wanted was a Pepsi.
EyIchFragDochNur@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 67d
Evolution
Solution
Revolution
Resolution
Retribution
Execution
OwOarchist@pawb.social · 7 pts · 67d
dissolution
prex@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 66d
Redistribution?
davidagain@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 66d
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgZle69Ed3w
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 67d
Constipation?
No, that alliteration.
HrabiaVulpes@europe.pub · 4 pts · 66d
Destitution
Danarchy@lemmy.nz · 4 pts · 67d
Monster douchin’
nanometer1625@thelemmy.club · 3 pts · 67d
Prostitution?
LodeMike@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 66d
Moving. Not distributing.
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 66d
Thr classic freedom versus security. But where exactly is security with Trump and fascists? Social media is to blame for making everyone's brain turn to mush; making us fight among ourselves while the oligarchs are laughing themselves all the way to the bank.
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 66d
Boob Solution
DupaCycki@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 66d
Prostitution?
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 66d
Helicopter helicopter!
No, it doesn't...
StressMaxxing2026@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 66d
Hesitation?
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 66d
Contraception?
Hueristic_Autistic@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 66d
Speak for yourself, I was going to vote for Cornell West but decided to vote for the cackling one.
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 66d
Constipation.