Elie Mystal
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says not on tv anymore, goes in cylcles 5 26
Author, legal analyst, and The Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal joins The Left Hook to break down the roots of MAGA, the modern Republican Party’s embrace of minority rule, and why America is still battling the political legacy of the Confederacy.
Elie and I discuss voter suppression, gerrymandering, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the corrupt Supreme Court, and how billionaire power and white grievance politics continue driving America toward democratic collapse. We also examine why MAGA’s escalating attacks on democracy reveal fear — not strength — as the country changes politically, culturally, and demographically.
The Confederacy lost the war, but the fight over democracy continues.
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AN 10 26
The Supreme Court is kicking off its next term and preparing "to trample even more of our rights," but as one legal scholar argued for The Nation, "we, the people, are not powerless in the face of their power grab."
Elie Mystal is a former litigator turned outspoken legal news analyst and liberal judicial reform advocate, who also works as a justice correspondent and columnist for The Nation. In his latest piece from Monday, Mystal lamented that "things weren’t supposed to play out like this way," as a new Gallup poll found a record-low public approval for the court and a growing frustration among citizens toward its justices getting to "rule over the American people, more or less, without their consent," for lifetime appointments.
"The people who wrote the Constitution wanted the court to be insulated from public pressure, to be sure, but they never intended those insulated judges to be imbued with this much political power," he explained. "In our republic, the representatives are supposed to make the important legal and political decisions, while the unelected, unaccountable judges are charged with mediating disputes between the states. That’s why the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over cases in which one state is suing another."
He added later: "This term, the court will continue its dread work, despite the will of the American people. Human rights will be smashed. Popular laws will be vanquished. And the world the Supreme Court leaves to our children will become ever dirtier and more violent."
Mystal further detailed the various cases before the court and the most likely rulings the conservative majority will hand down, few of which "will be popular."
"Republicans would never be able to overturn popular laws like the National Voter Registration Act or Title IX at the ballot box," Mystal argued. "People in Washington State voted to protect runaways, while people in Chicago voted to ban assault weapons. And the fossil-fuel industry counts among the least-popular mustache-twirling capitalists in our society. The fact that none of these Republican-aligned cases could win in front of the people is the reason they’re in front of the Supreme Court. The court is where Republicans go to do what the people reject."
He added further: "But we are not powerless. While the political branches will never buck the Supreme Court on their own, we can demand it — and push and push until they rein in this rogue branch of government. There’s a lot that our elected leaders can do, much of it through simple legislation. They can change the number of justices on the Supreme Court. They can cut its funding. And, at the end of the day, they can strip its jurisdiction over laws passed by Congress. Indeed, all of these things can be done without the need of a constitutional amendment."
Mystal concluded that "this Supreme Court can be stopped," but also warned that "Congress will not take back power for the people unless the people recognize how much power they’ve lost." Therefore, it falls to voters to demand in large numbers that Washington take action reform the court.
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maj rept
April 21, 2026. Elie Mystal, justice correspondent and columnist at The Nation magazine, joins the program for a conversation about Justice Alito’s future and other recent Supreme Court activity.
ho mascot and ----
kennedy breyer leak? all pol $ no law
...
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this because Andy Olm is coming and Jennifer Mascot is coming and James Ho is coming, people are just like, "Oh god, that sounds bad." Anyway, a rant.
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When Chuck Grasserly said, "We should nominate Ted Cruz." My social media blew up. Just liberals just, "Oh my god, we...
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like when I look at a James Hoe and we're talking about how Clarence Thomas is on uh uh Harlon and Crow's uh uh uh play payroll, you know where James Hoe,
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the current fifth circuit judge, James Hoe, you know where he was sworn in to be a fifth circuit judge in Harlon Crow's library by Justiceclarence
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point they all look the same to me. Like there there three archetypes of Republicans. You've got the superch Christian uh uh uh warrior Republican.
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You've got the super business I'm on Epstein Islands Republican. And I'm not saying those two are mutually exclusive,
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right? And then you got the Mara Lago woman Republican. Like those are your you know the the internalized patriarchy Republican. Like those are your three.
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And they just kind of like, you know,
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find pick one of the three. I think they throw a dart on the board and be like, "Oh, it's time for the Mara Lago face.
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memory because the Federal Society has
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controlled Republican judicial picks going back to George HW Bush and now they're kind of on the outs. So, I got
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two answers for that in the time we have left. One, the new guy to look out is Mike Davis. Um he's a former Neil
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Gorsuch clerk. He was formerly Chuck Grassly who's the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Um, uh, he was his
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guy picking clerks. He is a an odious man. He is a mean person. I personally
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do not like him. Um uh uh uh he's probably the person who is gonna be in
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Josh Orton at uh Demand
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Justice, has been ringing this bell um uh for a couple of months. like you got
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to get ready for this. Um because it seems to me just I I I would bet I mean
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I'm not a betting man but I would bet a lot uh that that Alito is going to retire and and and somebody's going to
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2 26 AN
With President Donald Trump suffering from weak approval ratings in countless recent polls and Democrats having performed well in a series of late 2025 and early 2026 elections, Democratic strategists are feeling cautiously optimistic about their prospects in this year's midterms. A Texas State Senate special election on Saturday, January 31 in the Ft. Word suburbs was especially encouraging for them: Democrat Taylor Rehmet defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss by 14 percent in a district that Trump won by 18 percent in 2024.
But progressive legal scholar Elie Mystal, in an article published by The Nation on February 5, warns that Trump and his allies will do everything possible to rig the midterms against Democrats. And the attorney fears that Trump opponents aren't doing enough to fight back.
"To ignore the threat posed by Trump, to pretend like everything is going to be OK, to assume that upstanding members of the courts will rise to prevent the theft of the election is to stick your head in the sand," Mystal emphasizes. "Trump and the Republicans have no intention of letting the upcoming midterms — in which Republicans are predicted to lose control of the House — proceed fairly. They're attacking the election through legislative, law-enforcement, and political means."
Mystal describes a variety of MAGA tactics.
"Republicans in the House have already passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act)," the legal expert notes. "The bill radically reshapes the voter registration process by essentially repealing the Motor Voter Act. Instead of allowing people to register with a driver's license, the SAVE Act requires them to show additional identification, like a passport or a birth certificate, in order to register…. The SAVE Act isn't even the most dangerous thing Republicans in Congress have cooked up. That dubious honor belongs to the Make Elections Great Again Act (MEGA Act), so named because these people are obviously in a cult."
Mystal continues, "The MEGA Act includes all of the same requirements to register to vote as the SAVE Act, but also, requires these new forms of identification to be shown by voters when they try to cast their ballots…. All of this would be bad enough, but Republicans aren't just hoping for legislation that will allow them to suppress the vote in 2026, they're also putting in place the legal ability to steal the votes that get through these gauntlets. Last week, the FBI raided the Fulton County elections operations center, which covers Atlanta, looking for 2020 ballots…. If the FBI can seize old, 2020 ballots in the name of fishing for 'election fraud,' it's not hard to imagine them seizing ballots and voting machines trying to stop 'fraud' in 2026. Attorney General Pam Bondi has also appointed, essentially, a 'special counsel,' Thomas Albus, and given him the authority to seize ballots."
Mystal points out that Steve Bannon, host of the "War Room" vodcast and former White House chief strategist in the first Trump Administration, is flat-out calling for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to "surround the polls come November."
"Who knows what kind of ICE presence we'’ll see on Election Day?," Mystal warns. "Who knows how much violence they'll use to keep people from voting? But you'd be a rank fool to think the answers to those questions are 'nothing' and 'none.'"
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2,099 views Dec 13, 2025 #109
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like, "Oh, well, it's not illegal. We're
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fine." Like the fascists throughout
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history have always used the courts to
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their own ends. That's why taking over
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the courts is always like step one in
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any fascist authoritarian takeover,
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which is why I've been screaming about
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court expansion for the past 10 years
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because it is the courts are a leading
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indicator of fascism, not a lagging
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indicator of fascism. So that's to...
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system. And that the Supreme Court is
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very interested in doing. Why? Because
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they're a leading indicator of fascism.
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Because they're a leading indicator of
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oligarchy. Like this is how you make the
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oligarchs and the fascists legal, by
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allowing them to spend as much money as
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they want to influence and quite frankly
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buy political candidates and political
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campaigns. And that's that's absolutely
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um what they're doing and what we're
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seeing right now.
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Um and it's bad like
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it's very bad.
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It didn't sound it didn't sound good. It
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ain't sound good, Ellie. I can tell you
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that much.
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Right. You have an argument in front of
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the Supreme Court. The other thing that
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really bothers me about this case is
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that obviously the the legal jargon um
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for why they're saying that they can
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remove the limits is that they're saying
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corporations are people, right? That
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corporations have free speech right.
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Money is speech. Corporations have a
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personhood's free speech right to to
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spend as much speech as they want to, if
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you will. And that again on the
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hypocrisy level rocks into their
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birthright citizenship thing, right? So
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they're basically protecting the
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personhood of corporations
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but not protecting the personhood of
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actual people. Like that's what
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they're act that's what they're doing.
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And again the the hypocrisy is rife and
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and and disgusting.
The Supreme Court is Legalizing Corruption feat. Elie Mystal | Native Land Pod
SCOTUS is likely to approve a change to campaign finance law that will allow wealthy donors to give unlimited money directly to political campaigns, rather than having to funnel their donations through a PAC or party. SCOTUS will also decide whether Trump is allowed to fire independent heads of federal agencies, a move that Elie Mystal says would make government institutions like the Federal Trade Commission more partisan and corruptible. Read More: Campaign Finance: https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case...Federal Agency Independence (Executive Power): https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case...Join Angela Rye, Bakari Sellers, Andrew Gillum, and Tiffany Cross for this is a segment from episode #109 that aired on 12-11-25
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilos3oqj44Q
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The U.S./Mexico border crisis has been a source of major tension between the Biden Administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. President Joe Biden, on Friday, January 26, declared that he will "shut down" the United States' southern border if necessary.
In an article published by The Nation on January 30, progressive legal expert Elie Mystal is vehemently critical of Abbott's handling of the border crisis in Texas — even comparing his actions to a "Civil War reenactment."
"The flash point for this crisis is, of course, the border,' Mystal explains. "I have written before about Eagle Pass, Tex., as a place along the Rio Grande where it is popular for immigrants to make the crossing. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has erected a series of sadistic obstructions across this part of the river — including buoys ringed with razor wire and underwater traps — meant to maim and even drown people trying to swim across the river. Should people, and their children, survive Abbott's gauntlet, Texas officials on the other side have been accused of pushing them back into the river, or denying the survivors medical aid or even water."
Mystal warns that tensions between Abbott and the Biden Administration go way beyond a "constitutional crisis."
"People will say Texas is merely 'causing a constitutional crisis' as opposed to spoiling for civil war," Mystal argues. "But that is the wrong frame. There is no 'constitutional' crisis here, because there is nothing up for reasonable interpretation."
The legal expert continues, "Texas is violating the Constitution, as well as a court order, and it's doing so in order to continue to hurt desperate people.… This is not a legal crisis: This is a rebellion against federal authority and the basic human decency that it's trying to provide…. If Gov. Abbott tries to further obstruct the operations of the federal government and continues to violate the Supreme Court's order, he should be arrested for treason."
READ MORE:Trump calls on 'all willing states' to blatantly defy SCOTUS border ruling in Texas
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Many critics of former President Donald Trump have been applauding a decision handed down by the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 19, when the justices ruled, 4-3, that Trump is disqualified from the state's ballot based on Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. Section 3 states that an "officer" who has engaged in insurrection is barred from running for public office again.
Progressive attorney Elie Mystal, a frequent guest on MSNBC, applauds the ruling in an article published by The Nation the following day. But he also warns that the U.S. Supreme Court will likely strike it down.
"The (U.S.) Supreme Court will almost certainly intervene," Mystal predicts. "And, just to be plain about it, the conservative-controlled Court will almost certainly rule that Trump is allowed on the Colorado ballot. It would be wrong for anybody to get their hopes up: Republican-appointed justices are incredibly unlikely to kick the presumptive Republican nominee off of a presidential ballot."
Mystal continues, "But the Colorado opinion is designed, at least, to make the (U.S.) Supreme Court look very ugly and partisan when it bends over backward to save Trump and preserve his ability to threaten the country. That's because the Colorado opinion is grounded in two things the Republicans on the Court claim to hold dear: textualism and states' rights."
Mystal stresses that "for true textualists," the "text of Section 3 couldn't be more clear" in what it says about insurrection.
"It says what it says: Government officers who engage in insurrection cannot be officers of the government again," the progressive legal analyst argues. "Donald Trump engaged in insurrection. That's not me saying it, or Jack Smith saying it; that's what the first court to hear this case, the Colorado state court, ruled at trial a few weeks ago…. If the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes and overrules Colorado, not only will it be going against the plain text of the 14th Amendment; it will also be trampling over Colorado's right to interpret its own state laws."
READ MORE:George Conway tears apart 'logically weak' dissents in Colorado Supreme Court’s Trump ruling
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gorsuch icwa
https://www.alternet.org/elie-mystal-gorsuch-black-rights/
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an 6 23 brandon
author and justice correspondent forThe Nation Elie Mystal tore into Republicans on Monday for doubling down on their servility to twice-indicted former President Donald Trump.
"The entire Republican party continues to debase itself in service of Donald Trump and in service of that white supremacist base that Kari Lake is talking to, right? Like as you point out, Amy, in a normal party, when one of your rivals is indicted on thirty-seven counts of espionage, the rest of the field is like, 'hmm, maybe you should elect me and not the guy who just got indicted,'" Mystal said to Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.
Although Trump was not charged with "espionage," United States Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's complaint does allege that Trump perpetrated thirty-one violations of the Espionage Act.
"But in the modern Republican party, they're all theming, right?" Mystal continued. "They're all like, jonesing for the next hit off of Trump's white supremacist base. And so they can't risk saying mean things about Trump, even though he's just been indicted. They have to instead placate Trump even as they purport to be running against him."
Mystal also contemplated what potential impact the GOP's sycophancy could have on holding Trump accountable.
"It is pathetic on their part," Mystal added, "but the debasement of one of the two major political parties in the country is an ongoing problem because as you start to kind of work through the kind of practical realities now — not just of indicting Trump, but bringing him to trial and potentially convicting him — that becomes really hard to do if during the course of this process, he is crowned the Republican standard bearer for the 2024 presidential election."
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