§23 —
On the word itself
Democrat
REMEDIES
A remedy, the way I understand it, is a receipt with jurisdiction — it's what the civil-rights machinery existed to write. The August report on that machinery's dismantling is titled, and I checked this twice, "Remedies Abandoned": roughly 250 of the division's 400 lawyers gone 1, the voting section down to about three 2. Three. I counted the chairs in my own squad room after I read that.
What's left is the remedy's paper. Decrees like 1975's, which made the owners learn the law by name 3. Counter-maps like California's Proposition 50, passed with 64 percent and upheld in January, redrawing the answer where the ruling erased it 4. The project this cycle is unglamorous on purpose: keep the jurisdiction, keep the filings, keep the record the denial has to argue with. I'm going to want to know who, exactly, is left to file. I'll ask on my way out.
Sources
- "Remedies Abandoned": US civil rights enforcement under the administration — Human Rights Watch, 13 August 2026 ↑
- DOJ voting section down to roughly three lawyers — Democracy Docket, 20 May 2025 ↑
- The 1975 consent decree's own language — Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, 10 June 1975 ↑
- Federal panel upholds California's Prop 50 counter-maps — NPR, 14 January 2026 ↑
Republican
RACISM
The word has a longer paper trail than the presidency, and paper trails are my whole life, so bear with me while I read it in order. 1973: the Justice Department sued over the family's 14,000 apartments, and the consent decree ordered the defendants to "thoroughly acquaint themselves personally" with the Fair Housing Act 1. 1992: the casino commission's $200,000 fine — for removing Black and women dealers from the tables at a high roller's demand — upheld on appeal 2.
This term: the refugee program suspended at a record-low ceiling of 7,500, reserved mostly for white South Africans 3; the first 59 landed in May 2025 while the other resettlement pipelines stayed shut 4. And since April's ruling raised the Voting Rights Act's bar, Louisiana has erased its second majority-Black district and Tennessee took Memphis 5. I'm not calling it anything. I'm reading a filing history. Fifty-three years of it, and the file is still open.
Sources
- United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management: the 1975 consent decree — Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, 10 June 1975 ↑
- Trump Plaza loses appeal of discrimination penalty — UPI, 19 October 1992 ↑
- The refugee program: suspended, ceiling 7,500, upheld by the Ninth Circuit — Congressional Research Service, 15 March 2026 ↑
- First Afrikaners arrive under a radically redrawn refugee program — NPR, 12 May 2025 ↑
- Louisiana v. Callais, 6-3; the second majority-Black district erased within weeks — Supreme Court, 29 April 2026 ↑
“I wrote down that the word was called uncivil. Then I went and got the filings, which took a while — a consent decree from 1975 over 14,000 apartments; a discrimination penalty from 1992, upheld on appeal; a refugee ceiling of 7,500, reserved mostly for white South Africans; a second majority-Black district erased within weeks. Oh — one more thing, I almost forgot. If that word is uncivil, what would the civil word for it be?”— Lou
“The civil word is already in the filings: a decree, a penalty upheld, a ceiling, a map. Read them in the order they were signed and you don't need a word. The paperwork pronounces it for you.”
“Heritage. The civil word is heritage. A 1975 decree is history, a 1992 fine is a rounding error, and the refugee program is simply prioritizing applicants who — I'm being told to stop listing the applicants.”