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Category Archives: Censorship

What Trump Did on Day 1: Executive Orders

Here are list of the most significant moves the president made on Day 1. unpaywalled New York Times – [Note – All Presidential actions are published here]

  • Mr. Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, issuing pardons to most of the defendants and commuting the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy. The pardon order also directed the Justice Department to dismiss any pending indictments against people facing charges for the riot.
  • Mr. Trump moved to withdraw from the World Health Organization, an act that had been foreshadowed by the president’s frequent attacks against the health agency over its approach to the coronavirus pandemic. Public health experts say that the withdrawal will undermine America’s standing as a global health leader and make it harder to fight the next pandemi
  • A series of orders Mr. Trump signed set off a policy barrage aimed at sealing the nation’s borders to migrants and cracking down on immigrants already in the country. Those orders included a declaration of a national emergency to deploy the military to the border and a bid to cut off birthright citizenship for the children of noncitizens. Many of the orders test the legal limits of his authority, and birthright citizenship in particular is protected by the Constitution.
  • Mr. Trump signed an executive order aimed at delaying a federal ban of TikTok. It is unclear if that order could override the law that banned the social media app, but the measure instructs the attorney general not to take any action to enforce the ban for 75 days.
  • Mr. Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, which would make America one of only four nations — along with Iran, Libya and Yemen — not party to the agreement, under which nations work together to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Mr. Trump ordered a hiring freeze across the federal government that would remain in place pending the completion of a broader plan for reducing the federal work force, and mandating a full-time return to in-office work for government employees. The order singled out the Internal Revenue Service, which received a large financial boost from President Biden and Democrats in Congress, calling for the freeze to stay in place longer for that agency.
  • He gutted racial equity policies and protections for transgender people.
  • Mr. Trump ordered his administration to dismantle federal programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and to gut Biden administration policies that protect transgender Americans.
  • Mr. Trump said he planned to impose a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico starting on Feb. 1 because those nations were allowing “mass numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in.” He also said that he “may” impose a universal tariff on all imports, adding that “essentially all countries take advantage of the U.S.”
  • Not included in the Times articleRegulatory Freeze Pending Review – Do not propose or issue any rule in any manner, including by sending a rule to the Office of the Federal Register (the “OFR”), until a department or agency head appointed or designated by the President after noon on January 20, 2025, reviews and approves the rule.

When Do Parties Lie? Misinformation and Radical-Right Populism Across 26 Countries

Törnberg, P., & Chueri, J. (2025). When Do Parties Lie? Misinformation and Radical-Right Populism Across 26 Countries. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612241311886 “The spread of misinformation has emerged as a global concern. Academic attention has recently shifted to emphasize the role of political elites as drivers of misinformation. Yet, little is known of… Continue Reading

Strict Scrutiny

“A podcast about the United States Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. Hosted by three badass constitutional law professors– Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray– Strict Scrutiny provides in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities. Each week, Leah, Kate, and Melissa break down… Continue Reading

On The Fragility of Our Knowledge Base

JSTOR Daily: “Historian Glenn D. Tieffert shows how state interests in the People’s Republic of China can be protected by editing online databases and collections. Digital databases are vulnerable to authoritarian regimes. In fact, argues historian Glenn D. Tiffert, “no corner of the knowledge economy lies beyond their reach.” “Digital platforms offer [censors] dynamic, fine-grained… Continue Reading

2025: Keep democracy alive. Our New Year’s resolution

FrameLab – Advice for defeating the authoritarian threat – “It is hard to compete with Woody Guthrie’s timeless list of New Year resolutions from 1943, which includes these ever-relevant goals: Work more and better. Read lots of good books. Keep hoping machine running. Help win war – beat fascism. Wake up and fight. But here’s… Continue Reading

The Ethics Complaint Against Liz Cheney: Blue Smoke Without Fire

Just Security: “A recently released House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight report accuses former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney of unethical conduct and concludes that “the Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney.” The report is the House Republican majority’s investigation of the House’s own January 6 report, created when the Democrats still controlled the… Continue Reading

A Spy in Your Pocket?

DemocracyNow – Ronan Farrow Exposes Secrets of High-Tech Spyware in New Film “Surveilled” –  “Is that a spy in your pocket? In a holiday special we speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and filmmaker Matthew O’Neill about Surveilled, their new HBO documentary looking at how high-tech surveillance spyware is threatening democracy across the globe.… Continue Reading

Some Justice Department Lawyers Look for Protection and the Exits

WSJ  via MSN – “Justice Department lawyers who have angered President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are facing tough  decisions about whether to stay in government—and how to best protect themselves from threats of retribution after Inauguration Day. Dozens of prosecutors and agents have worked on cases that potentially make them vulnerable, such as special counsel … Continue Reading

New Site for Federal Government Workers

Civil Service Strong – “Our nation depends on a strong, non-partisan civil service. The U.S. civil service — 2.2 million federal workers who live and work in every state across the country — works for the American people, safeguards our democracy, and upholds the rule of law. Strong civil servants embody the values of integrity,… Continue Reading

HHS launches campaign against vaccine misinformation

Beckers : “In response to declining childhood vaccinations and rising infection rates across the U.S., HHS haslaunched a vaccine education campaign, encouraging parents to make informed healthcare decisions for their children based on more balanced information. The Let’s Get Real campaign aims to “cut through the noise of misinformation” and “provide verifiable facts” to parents while also serving… Continue Reading

New law in NJ limits the banning of books in schools and public libraries

WHYY: “When Martha Hickson was the librarian at New Jersey’s North Hunterdon HighSchool, she fought against attempts to ban books that her critics labeled as inappropriate because they contained sexual content, and she became a target of book banners. “I received hate mail, shunning by colleagues, antagonism by administrators, and calls for my firing and… Continue Reading

Arkansas Law Criminalizing Librarians Ruled Unconstitutional

AP: “A federal judge on Monday struck down key parts of an Arkansas law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors. U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks found that elements of the law are unconstitutional. “I respect the court’s ruling and will appeal,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim… Continue Reading