Ghosting is a Fundamental Human Right

And yes, drink on planes. It's good for you.

Good Morning:

No.

Ghosting is a fundamental human right.

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Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable

Shane Harris

joined me to discuss the Trump CIA’s review of the 2016 Russia investigation. Spoiler alert: the review doesn’t find that there was no Russian interference but it apparently presents an excuse for a criminal investigaiton. The estimable

Anastasiia Lapatina

also checked in to let us know how it’s going in Kiev:

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Yesterday On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Mary Ford

What Abrego’s Bail Hearing Revealed About Him—and the Trump Administration

Roger Parloff reports on the June 13 detention hearing in the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Parloff emphasizes that the government’s goals in its criminal case and civil litigation against Abrego Garcia are not about upholding the rule of law, but rather about contributing to President Trump’s political messaging:

Given Abrego’s extraordinary odyssey, the evidence introduced—and the evidence not introduced—also sheds light on the politicized manner in which the government has handled every aspect of Abrego’s case. The bail hearing, the criminal case it relates to, and the government’s arguments in the civil litigation over Abrego’s wrongful removal have all served a paramount goal that is neither the rule of law nor due process. The overriding goal is always the same: serving the political messaging of the Trump administration.

Civil Contempt Against a Defiant Executive

In the latest Lawfare research report, David Noll argues that the courts are not powerless against a defiant executive because they have enforcement mechanisms that are independent of the executive branch, including non-custodial sanctions and arrest powers:

Before ordering the arrest of executive branch officials, courts can make use of powerful non-custodial sanctions: stripping officials of immunity, imposing substantial personal fines, and levying professional sanctions. If those fail, courts' arrest powers are stronger than commonly appreciated. Though located within the executive branch, the marshals operate under a statutory duty to enforce all lawful court orders—a duty that, if the marshals honor their oath, supersedes illegal presidential directives to ignore contempt citations. And even if the marshals refuse to act, courts possess well-established, if rarely used, authority to appoint deputies to enforce their orders.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, I sit down with Parloff and Anna Bower to discuss the latest updates in the criminal case against Abrego, specifically his July 7 hearing in federal court.

On our new podcast show, Scaling Laws, Kevin Frazier and Alan Rozenshtein speak with Ethan Mollick about new research on artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, the trajectory of AI development, and ongoing policy discussions surrounding AI.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay, nominated by the estimable Katherine Pompilio, is a baby pigeon, seen here as an egg and a newborn:

Katherine reports that the parent of this Beast laid the egg on Katherine’s friend’s apartment porch after sneaking inside. This makes today’s Beast the second inappropriately positioned pigeon egg among my (

EJ Wittes

’s) extended acquaintance this year. My professor’s daughter last semester was unable to use her car for a while after a pigeon laid eggs between the windshield wipers. I sincerely considered asking my professor to send me copies of the (extremely funny) pictures she showed our class. Had I been braver and more committed to my role as your Beastmaster, I would have done so. But alas, I was weak and prioritized not seeming like a weirdo to the person grading my papers over providing Beasts for the entertainment of you, my audience. I apologize for my lapse, and offer my sincere thanks to Katherine for providing me with an ill-placed pigeon egg to show you after all.

In honor of today’s Beast, take this as a sign that, if you’re considering crossing boundaries in a professional or educational environment, you should.

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Tell Me Something Interesting

In further honor of today’s Beast, I decided to investigate why pigeons keep laying eggs in inconvenient locations amongst my extended acquaintance. As it turns out, I am not the first person to ask this question. In fact, a brief Google search directed me to this article which, despite violating my father’s dictum against questions in headlines—the campaign against which continues above—I think is rather well headlined:

[Editorial note from Benjamin Wittes: The headline would have worked just as well without a question. Consider: “Why Pidgeon Nests Look So Shitty: An Investigation.”]

Just because pigeon nests look useless to us does not mean they are useless to pigeons. Most humans, as non-birds, have no relevant expertise in evaluating whether a nest is good or bad. "There's this idea that the whole group of pigeons and doves are notoriously not the best nest-makers, but that's putting our own human constructs on it," said Carlen, now at Washington University in St. Louis, who is one of the few humans actually qualified to judge a pigeon nest.

To appraise whether a pigeon nest is good or bad, you must try to understand the nest from the perspective of a pigeon. As Carlen sees it, a pigeon nest has one ultimate goal: to create an area where the egg will not roll away.

Feral city pigeons descend from wild rock doves, a species known as Columba livia, which nest on rocky cliffs. While the irregular, swaying branches of a tree might require an intricately woven cup nest, cliffs offer larger, flatter surfaces where a pile of sticks might be more than enough to keep an egg in place on an outcropping. "What pigeons are trying to do in the city is to do what they did when they were wild," Mosco said. "Their only requirement for nesting is a flat surface, and we don't tend to build not-flat ground."

Our cities teem with graciously level scaffolding, fire escapes, windowsills, and air-conditioning units, which make it even harder for an egg to roll away. So city pigeons need to do even less to build an adequate nest. "Why would I waste more time putting together a more well-crafted nest if it's going to serve the same purpose?" Carlen asked. "When I could spend that time out feeding or courting ?"

If you find yourself wanting to see more pigeon nests that seem ill-constructed by human standards, but are in fact successful from a pigeon’s point of view, there is an entire subreddit—r/stupiddovenests—dedicated to sating your hunger. Some of the examples there do seem extremely stupid, even by pigeon standards. For instance, here’s a pigeon laying an egg in an owl nest: