If you wanted to know what a Constitutional Crisis looks like…

What happens when the Attorney General refuses to follow a Supreme Court order? We are about to find out.

Last week, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the federal government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. from his deportation to an El Salvador torture prison. The decision was clear: the deportation was illegal, and the government was required to undo it.

Yet, Attorney General Pam Bondi is refusing to comply. She has made no efforts to return Mr. Abrego Garcia, despite a binding court order. "He is not coming back to our country," according to Bondi.

That is not how the rule of law works.

Heel turn? How a dress code became an ADA problem.

This case started with a pair of Skechers, and will end with a jury trial.

A cocktail server at MGM National Harbor, Rebecca Lopez-Duprey, suffered from foot conditions—Achilles tendonitis and Equinus deformity—that made wearing heels painful and medically inadvisable. Her doctor recommended she wear flat, supportive shoes. Eventually, MGM granted her an ADA accommodation to do just that.

Lopez-Duprey wore Skechers-style black shoes for over two years without issue. Then came a policy change.

In late 2021, MGM issued a memo updating the dress code and specifying which shoes were allowed, even for employees with ADA accommodations. Skechers weren't on the approved list. The company disciplined Lopez-Duprey multiple times, including once for showing up to work in her doctor-recommended sneaker. She protested internally, and her doctor even submitted another note, this time stating she needed those shoes permanently.

MGM terminated her shortly thereafter for violating its appearance standards.

Lopez-Duprey sued for failure to accommodate under the ADA. 

Damage caps for discrimination claims don't work

$75,000. That’s what Morton Salt just paid to settle a lawsuit brought by the EEOC.

The agency alleged that Morton Salt discriminated against a Black employee because of his race and disability—and then retaliated against him for reporting it.

The allegations are disturbing:

• A white coworker allegedly used the n-word repeatedly, including calling employees "worthless [n-words]"—something Morton knew about.

• A Black employee reported the racist behavior.

• Instead of addressing or investigating the harassment, Morton reprimanded and ultimately fired the person who spoke up.

And what did it cost them? Seventy-five grand.

WIRTW #755: the 'seuss' edition

ChatGPT continues to amaze me with what it can do. Last week, I asked it to write a parody of "Green Eggs & Ham" about tariffs. You can read that story — called This Tariff Sham — over on LinkedIn.

This week, I decided to take it a step further: "Can you write a story in the style of Dr. Seuss's 'The Cat in the Hat' about the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and the increasing threat to the rule of law posed by the current Trump administration?" Then, I asked it to illustrate the results in a complete children's book. The results? Simply stunning. Read the story below, or download the fully illustrated book here.

* * *

The Man in the Red Tie
A Cautionary Tale in the Style of Dr. Seuss

The sun wasn't sunny. The news made us frown.
The Rule of Law seemed to be sliding down.

We sat in our house. We felt anxious and stuck.
We read every tweet and just whispered, "Oh… yuck."

Then THUMP!
Something boomed like a cannonball blast.
We turned to the screen — and he strode in fast.

He wore a red tie, too long and too wide,
With a smirk on his face and a puffed-out pride.

"I am the Man!" he said with a grin.
"I'll make us all great by just keeping me in!"

He stomped and he shouted, he pouted and screamed.
He flattered the rich and he schemed while they beamed.

He scolded the courts, he mocked every norm,
He said, "I alone will reform the reform!"

He fired the watchdogs who'd barked at his lies.
He said, "Loyal dogs are the very best guys."

He told folks in uniforms, "Do what you must.
If I tell you it's legal, then you know it’s just."

He roared at the press and he called them "fake."
He branded all truth as a liberal mistake.

He built up a wall, not just out of brick—
But out of division, and anger, and schtick.

He courted the chaos, the proud and the cruel.
He said, "I don't care — I make the rule!"

And some folks just cheered, "He tells it like so!"
(Though what "so" was… they weren't sure they'd know.)

But the skies grew darker, the air full of dread,
As the books stayed closed and the laws grew dead.

Then came the Day — the one we all feared.
The vote loomed large, and the stakes had cleared.

Would the people still matter? Would ballots be true?
Would justice be blind, or just red, white, and blue?

Then YOU stood up tall — yes, you, in that chair!
You said, "This is still our Republic to care!"

"The law is not his — it belongs to us all.
It's strong when we stand, and weak when we fall."

You voted. You marched. You wrote and you spoke.
You called out each lie. You challenged each joke.

And maybe, just maybe, the tide turned again—
The Rule of Law held, with paper and pen.

Now kids, let me tell you — remember this day.
Democracy isn't just kept safe by what we say.

It's guarded by people who act when things tilt,
Who patch up the cracks before freedoms wilt.

So the next time a man comes to town with a grin,
And says, "I alone can make your side win,"—

Say, "Thanks, but no thanks. We've read this old plot.
We're the People. We matter. Like it or not."

---

Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.

Documentation wins cases

Charles Carroll worked as a high-ranking exec at IDEMIA, the company behind TSA PreCheck. He ran a new initiative called "Trusted Fan" and was involved in renewing a major TSA contract.

He was also in his 60s and had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

A year after disclosing his diagnosis, and after delivering the TSA contract renewal, he was fired. The company said it was due to performance issues: lack of leadership, mishandling the Trusted Fan rollout, and frustrations around the contract renewal process.  

The Sixth Circuit upheld summary judgment for the employer across the board, including on Carroll's disability and age discrimination. Why? One word: documentation.

American Gestapo

Federal agents at Detroit Metro Airport detained attorney Amir Makled for 90 minutes. They asked him about his clients. They asked to search his phone.

Why? Because he represents a pro-Palestinian protester arrested at the University of Michigan.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Makled refused to turn over his phone, citing attorney-client privilege. But the message was clear: represent the "wrong" person, and you might be next.

This is not an isolated incident. It's part of a dangerous pattern. It's evidence of our quickening slide into authoritarianism. When the authorities target lawyers just for doing their jobs, democracy is on life support.

WIRTW #754: the 'due process' edition

"If you violated the law, you are not entitled to due process."
– Rep. Victoria Spartz, March 2024

Let that sink in. An elected official—sworn to uphold the Constitution—said that people who allegedly violated the law are not entitled to due process.

That's not just legally wrong. It's dangerous.

Due process is the mechanism by which we determine whether someone did violate the law. It's not a prize we give afterward. It's the protection we guarantee beforehand. That's literally the point.

We don't just arrest people and skip the trial part. At least, we're not supposed to.

But we're increasingly seeing a frightening trend of "disappearing" people:

⮞ Immigrants detained indefinitely without hearings, or worse, sent to awful prisons overseas never to be heard from again.
⮞ Protesters and students punished based on accusations, not findings.
⮞ Politicians demanding instant penalties before any legal process unfolds.

That's not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

We can't cherry-pick the Constitution based on who we like or what someone's accused of doing. Once we start deciding who "deserves" due process, we're no longer a nation of laws—we're an authoritarian regime of vibes and vengeance.

Due process is what makes our system fair. It's what makes us America. If that's controversial, we've got problems bigger than politics.

---

Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.