OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

RACE AND GENDER PRIVILEGE ON DISPLAY FROM THE CRAZY WHITE WOMAN CONTINGENT:

He gave her the proper degree of respect.

NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE JUDICIAL DRAWER:

A non-lawyer friend texted that she was listening to the argument and couldn’t believe how dumb Justice Jackson’s questions were — “word salad” was her description, and it’s apt.

TRANSGENDER WARS: ย Two cases were argued before the Supreme Court today on whether “transgender women” (i.e. biological men) are entitled to compete on women’s teams despite state laws in West Virginia and Idaho that prohibit the practice. ย I didn’t listen to the arguments, but I am told that at least two of the Justices and possibly more were specifically interested in the argument that Joe Bingham, Pete Kirsanow, Dan Morenoff and I made in our amicus brief on behalf of the American Civil Rights Project. ย That argument was itself derived from a Comment that Pete and I filed with the Department of Education a few years ago.

One way or another, the Supreme Court should uphold the state laws that forbid such foolishness. ย I personally believe that our analysis of Title IX is the correct one (though there are other arguments that get to the same result).

NIFTY: Lockheed Martin delivers record 191 F-35 fighter jets in 2025.

The current annual production rate for the F-35 now stands at five times higher than that of any other allied fighter platform still being manufactured, according to company figures.
Earlier this year, the F-35 programme surpassed one million flight hours.

In 2025, the project team also rolled out its latest software release, TR-3, and maintained a global fleet approaching 1,300 operational aircraft.

Over the same period, the aircraft saw operational use in several military contexts.

These included its involvement in suppressing Iranian air defences during Operation Midnight Hammer, accumulating nearly 5,000 mishap-free flight hours in a US Marine Corps F-35B deployment, and the shooting down of Russian drones over Poland by NATO F-35s.

Not bad for a “failed” platform.

A TECHNIQUE THAT DRAGS ON TOO LONG BECOMES A DRAG: