Holy Nationwide Injunctions!

An unprecedented number of nationwide injunctions has been issued against Trump

April 14, 2025

A few days ago, a generous subscriber sent me an article in The Free Press titled, “The Legal Trick Being Used to Trip Up Trump.” The article is about a slew of nationwide injunctions that various federal courts have issued on a variety of topics, including the January 27 Executive Order on “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” and the January 28 Executive Order on “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”

She asked me if I might provide more insight into the article to paid subscribers, and I’m happy to do that. But first, a word about why I put certain content behind a paywall here on Substack.

I recently received a complaint from an anonymous account on X. It said:

EXCUSE me KD. I'm getting tired of paywalls & posts for subscribs only on substacks.

It's not just you. There are a few GC/Terfy writers who I frequently can not read bc of paywalls.

I await my flogging for being critical of GC women writers.

Need grocerie$ and rat trap$.

First, I get it. I do. I often wish I had free access to lots of things, including many of the Substacks of other “GC/Terfy writers.” I’ll get to the paywall in a post by someone whose writing I admire and think, “Damnit!” Meghan Murphy is one of them. Meghan, come on, give me free access to all your stuff!¹

And of course I understand the need for many people to be anonymous. Clearly, going public with TERFy opinions is risky, after all!

What this person may not understand is that: (1) this is work; and (2) many of us “GC/Terfy writers” have lost jobs (and in some cases entire careers) due to TERFing. At this point in my life, there is approximately zero chance that I could get a job in government, or at a university, law firm, or nonprofit, even if I wanted to. This person also doesn’t appear to understand that if I got a job at one of those institutions, I would have no time to write on Substack at all, for free or otherwise. That would be the case if I were to get any full-time job.

For many of us, this is our job. We also need groceries and rat traps (or similar). Perhaps against my better judgment, I continue to pay for subscriptions to the New York Times and Washington Post. That’s just life.

Most people reading this probably have no idea that I spent nearly twenty years using my law degree to fight for criminal justice law and policy reform, in one way or another. I was senior counsel at the ACLU from 2012 to 2014, where I worked on its campaign to end mass incarceration. I authored its 2014 report, “War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing.” I was published in CNN and The Nation. Amy freaking Goodman interviewed me on Democracy Now! The idea that any of those outlets would go anywhere near me these days is laughable.

In 2017, I had a contract with a nonprofit organization to work on a project involving the intersection of criminal law and immigration law at the US-Mexico border. My contractor told me that she had to terminate the contract because an ACLU affiliate told her that my presence on the project was “toxic” because I was a known TERF.

A friend recently asked me if I know any immigration lawyers I could put her in touch with and my honest answer was, “I used to, before I became a TERF. Now, none of them will talk to me anymore.”

That was the first time I lost employment for TERFing, but it would not be the last. Public TERFs and TERF-adjacent men are not, for the most part, allowed to have jobs or public profiles (at least not in the US). I’m hoping that will change, but here we are.

I spend all day, every day, engaging in TERF analysis and providing TERF content. Some of that content goes on X for free. Some of it goes on Substack for free. Some of it goes into op-eds and letters to the editor, the overwhelming majority of which go ignored. This is all I do. Incidentally, law school is neither easy nor cheap. The really hard work that requires me to use my legal education and experience goes behind the paywall, for the most part. And why shouldn’t it?

When I’m done writing this, I plan to finish filing my taxes. The IRS, after all, doesn’t care that I’m a TERF.

Paid-only content follows. If you are not already a paid subscriber and would like access to content that delves deeper into the movement to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls and to stop the abolition of sex, please consider becoming one today.