Monday in Brief: 6/16/25
A parade of horribles.
Hey there,
Did you hear about the event in DC? No, no, not the parade—obviously we’re talking about Pam Bondi’s brother getting destroyed in his campaign to become the president of the DC Bar. Was something else happening?
Of course, it’s not all fun and games. There are only two weeks left in the current SCOTUS term, and there are a ton of cases still left on the docket (*cough* Skrmetti *cough*). Plus, there’s a lot of ground to cover as we try to deliver you the best of the internet from the past week. So let’s get to it!
Without further ado . . .
Monday in Brief for June 16, 2025:
A federal judge blocked an attempt by MAGA leadership at the CFPB to undo a settlement with Townstone Financial related to the company’s flagrant redlining. The judge called the CFPB’s efforts to undo the settlement “an act of legal hara-kiri that would make a samurai blush,” and said that recission would constitute “a Pandora’s box the Court refuses to open.”
Recall: Townstone said racist things about Black Chicagoans in a podcast (e.g., describing Chicago’s South Side as a “war zone” full of “hoodlums”), essentially hanging a virtual “Blacks need not apply” sign on its doors. The CFPB sued Townstone in 2020 (i.e., under the first Trump admin!) for ECOA violations related to the podcast statements, then settled with the company in 2024. Then, in a bizarre and poorly written March 2025 press release, CFPB leadership from the Trump 2.0 admin said they would be trying to back out of the 2024 settlement and RETURN the penalty Townstone paid as part of the deal.
New reports show Elon’s plan to turn Twitter back to profitability is to sue people who refuse to advertise on the platform, now with an extra sprinkle of help from the FTC. Recall that Elon sued Media Matters (insanely, frivolously) after it showed that advertisers on Twitter/X were likely to end up having their logo next to racist, antisemitic, and other bad content. Now, via WSJ:
On May 20, the Federal Trade Commission sent Media Matters a civil investigative demand, signaling that the agency is investigating the entity. The document, which was reviewed by the Journal, requests information from the group, including: “all documents that Media Matters either produced or received in discovery in any litigation between Media Matters and X Corp. related to advertiser boycotts since 2023.”
The agency is investigating whether ad and advocacy groups violated antitrust laws by coordinating boycotts of certain sites, including X. On Monday, the FTC sent requests for information to ad companies(Opens in a new window) including Omnicom, WPP, Publicis and Interpublic.
The Skadden Foundation modifies its fellowship application to conform with Skadden’s capitulation to Trump. Recall that the Skadden Foundation operates the Skadden Fellowship, which funds (or funded) 2 years of high-impact public interest work for recent law grads. But the Foundation appears to be following the footsteps of the underlying law firm that created it, at least as it pertains to the application for the Fellowship (which is now open):
Last year, applicants were asked to explain “the role of public interest work in addressing systemic racism” and to “describe the intended impact of your project on racial equity in our country.” This year, that language is gone.
Last year, the Foundation encouraged application from “members of groups that historically have been underrepresented in the legal profession,” and who have “deep connections with or insights into the marginalized client communities they seek to serve.” That language is gone too
In further acts of cowardice, Tulane Law apparently censored its environmental clinic because local politicians didn’t like it. Specifically, researchers at the clinic had been doing work showing that local pollution had been particularly harmful for Louisiana’s Black community. That pissed off people who had the power to block an expansion that Tulane has been planning into downtown New Orleans. And so the University tried to silence the researchers. A clinic staffer subsequently resigned.
In her resignation letter, Kimberly Terrell accused the university of sacrificing academic freedom to appease Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. Terrell, the director of community engagement at Tulane’s Environmental Law Clinic claimed the clinic had been “placed under a complete gag order” that barred her from making public statements about her research.
According to emails obtained by The Associated Press, university leaders wrote that the work of the law clinic had become an “impediment” to a Tulane redevelopment project reliant on support from state and private funders. The clinic represents communities fighting the petrochemical industry in court.
It’s not just the cowards, though—it’s also the morons. In particular, this week the morons at the Trump DOJ forgot to insert a table of authorities in a court filing defending the militarization of Los Angeles.
And finally, a brilliant thread from Amanda Fischer of Better Markets on why the rise of retail stablecoins is risky for individuals and the economy:
Have a good week!
