The shutdown begins

 

❤️ Donate Wednesday, October 1, 2025

🍂 Sunny, with a high near 62. Good Morning Boston, The Yankees offense wasn't the only thing that got shut down last night. We're now hours into the first federal government shutdown in nearly seven years, after Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate failed to reach a funding deal. Let's start with a look at the local effects: Mass disruption: About 25,000 federal employees across Massachusetts could be affected in some way by the shutdown. WBUR's Anthony Brooks reports that many will be furloughed, expected to work without pay — or even fired, as the White House has threatened. "As a federal employee, it's about time we stopped being used as pawns," Beth Willwerth, a worker at the IRS office in Andover, told Anthony. Zoom in: Willwerth, who is also a local union chapter leader, says IRS employees will keep working and get paid from a contingency fund for five days. But after that, they could be required to work without pay, which is what happened during the 2018 shutdown that lasted 35 days. "There were individuals who were going to food pantries, who missed car payments," Willwerth said. (Only members of Congress and the president are guaranteed paychecks during a shutdown, while hundreds of thousands of federal workers and military members will miss paychecks if it continues through mid-October; most will get back pay after it ends.) Zoom out: Across the federal government, many services like the post office, air traffic control, Social Security and Medicare benefits are expected to continue. But certain safety net programs and other federal functions could see delays due to furloughs. For example, Viviana Abreu-Hernández, the president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, worried that new applications for Social Security, Medicaid, and food and housing assistance could be delayed or stopped. NPR has an overview of what is expected to be affected (or not) here. What's this fight about? Democrats primarily want Republicans — who control both chambers of Congress but need 60 Senate votes to pass a funding bill — to extend enhanced tax credits that help people buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act as part of any deal. The pandemic-era expansion of the credits is set to expire at the end of the year, leading to 75% premium hikes for the average enrollee. Republican leaders say the issue shouldn't be part of the funding debate, but have left the door open to address the credits later this fall. Blame game: In internal emails to federal workers and at least one public government website, the Trump administration is blaming Democrats for the shutdown (a potential violation of ethics laws against using taxpayer money for political activity). Meanwhile, Sen. Elisabeth Warren told NPR's Morning Edition yesterday that Democrats' position is a "righteous" stand. "Democrats are not going to stand by while millions of people lose their health insurance," she said. (An NPR poll released this week found a plurality of Americans blame Republicans.) What's next: Senate Republicans plan to continue holding votes on their stopgap funding bill, since a few Democrats have already defected to support it. Meanwhile at the Moakley Courthouse: Academic groups are celebrating after a federal judge in Boston ruled the Trump administration violated the free speech rights of foreign scholars who took part in in pro-Palestinian protests. Judge William Young ruled noncitizens have the same First Amendment rights to free speech as citizens — a win for the American Association of University Professors, which originally brought the suit.  "The court affirmed what we knew from the start," Todd Wolfson, the president of the AAUP, told WBUR's Todd Wallack. "The Trump administration's policy of targeting faculty and students for deportation because of their political views is unconstitutional, unlawful and profoundly dangerous." What's next: According to the Associated Press, Young will hold a separate hearing on the relief requested by the plaintiffs, which is likely to be a request that the government stop engaging in ideological deportations. In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson accused Young of “smearing and demonizing federal law enforcement," but did not address the ruling. In related news: A federal court in New York held back-to-back hearings yesterday on the Trump administration's appeals of lower court decisions to release Mohsen Mahdawi and Rümeysa Öztürk after the two graduate students were detained by ICE over pro-Palestinian activism. Vermont Public has more here on where the three Republican-appointed judges appear to be leaning in the case. P.S.— Today is the last day of our fall fundraising campaign. We’re facing a $1.6 million shortfall following the loss of federal funding. To meet this moment, we need each and every one of our readers, listeners and Members to step up this year. If you can’t imagine Boston without WBUR, please consider donating today. Nik DeCosta-Klipa Senior Editor, Newsletters The Rundown 'Stunned. Silence. Shock': Cape Cod couple loses their home to bridge replacement The state plans to take 13 homes through eminent domain for the massive $4.5 billion Sagamore and Bourne Bridge project. Read more. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu wants to talk about crime In an interview with WBUR’s Morning Edition, Wu said Boston police don’t need federal help to combat crime and disorder in the city. Here are key takeaways from that conversation. Read more. Federal agencies are rehiring workers and spending more after DOGE's push to cut Eight months after the Department of Government Efficiency effort to shrink the federal workforce began, some agencies are hiring workers back – and spending more money than before. Read more. Brigham and Women's plans to modernize Longwood campus with new inpatient building Officials at the state's largest hospital network said they want to replace the 50-year-old Braunwald building on Francis Street. Read more. Change is brewing in the coffee industry. What lies ahead? Coffee growers are facing climate change, labor shortages and incomes below the poverty line. On International Coffee Day, we take stock of the industry behind the beverage. Read more. Anything Else? This first weekend of October brings a few events to Boston that foreshadow the impending spookiness of Halloween — including a haunting production of “Macbeth” and a special screening of “Hocus Pocus." Get the details in our weekly roundup of things to do. In a unusual crossover, late night TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert were guests on each other's shows last night. The pair traded stories about how their shows were canceled (temporarily for Kimmel, but permanently for Colbert). The doorbell company Ring launched a new feature this month that allows police officers to request camera footage and live-feed access from users. It's not the first partnership with police. But what does it mean for your privacy? Here & Now dives deep into the subject. Massachusetts native Lily King's new novel captures the highs and lows of a college romance. In her review, Carol Iaciofano Aucoin writes that the book "seems to dance between fiction and real life." What We're Reading 📚 Trump Claims White House Is Nearing a Deal With Harvard (The Harvard Crimson) Meanwhile: Harvard Says Trump Administration Botched Its Antisemitism Findings (The Harvard Crimson) SJC says police must prove they were not racially biased when using social media for undercover investigations (The Boston Globe) Octopuses Invade the English Coast, ‘Eating Anything in Their Path’ (The New York Times) Tell Me Something Good 'Always Sunny' star Charlie Day on Rhode Island love and how Merrimack College 'changed the course of my life' (Boston.com) New Englander Charlie Day discusses his love for Rhode Island, his time at Merrimack College, returning to Boston to promote his whiskey, and his favorite seasons of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” Read more. Play: WBUR's daily mini crossword. Can you keep your streak going? Before you go: Something tastes different about this ice cream. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up here. 🔎 Explore WBUR's Field Guide stories, events and more. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. Check out all of our newsletter offerings.

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🎧 Episode Release | Running Out of Time.

 

New Episode of UNFTR

Running Out of Time. The Political and Economic Realization of Project 2025.

We continue to build on the idea that white Christian nationalism is, was and has always been the foundation of this country. To suggest otherwise is to be both ahistorical and absent in our politics today. The violent response to a concept so utterly innocuous such as “Black lives matter” should tell us everything. Before it was a movement (of sorts) it was a simple statement. But the reality is that they don’t. We need to stop calling it “Trump’s America” and just call it what it is. America.   Here’s a snippet from the pod: Max: So why is this important and how does it all tie together? Deep breath. You ready? They want to drastically cut rates to stimulate the top end of the corporate economy to cover for the other areas of the administration’s agenda that are going to tank it for the vast majority of us. And they want to take control of Fed operations and powers so they have exclusive authority to print money and direct it when the shit hits the fan.

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Free Speech Just Won, Again

Landmark Ruling Gives Non-Citizens Their Voices Back

Anthony Davis Oct 1

Donald Trump has always bragged about being the law-and-order president. But today, a federal judge in Massachusetts made clear that under Trump, “law and order” meant something else: silencing dissent, crushing academic freedom, and turning immigration enforcement into an ideological weapon.

In a blistering 161-page opinion, Judge William G. Young ruled that the Trump administration’s practice of arresting and deporting foreign students and scholars for their pro-Palestinian views was unconstitutional. Young, an 85-year-old Reagan appointee, didn’t mince words. He said the administration had transformed immigration law into a “tool of oppression” and compared its tactics to those of secret police.

Anthony Davis' Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The case wasn’t hypothetical. It centered on real people - students and researchers who suddenly found themselves yanked out of classrooms, detained, and threatened with deportation. Their crime? Speaking out. Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Badar Khan Suri weren’t accused of terrorism, fraud, or violence. They had voiced political opinions that the Trump administration wanted suppressed.

To build its case, the government leaned heavily on Canary Mission, a shadowy blacklist site notorious for targeting pro-Palestinian activists. State Department officials admitted they were told to dig up dirt, often recycling Canary Mission smears, to justify why certain students should be removed. The message to campuses across the country was unmistakable: criticize U.S. policy or Israel, and you might lose your visa - or worse, your freedom.

Judge Young saw this for what it was: state-sponsored intimidation. “No law means no law,” he wrote, invoking the absolute language of the First Amendment. While the government can regulate immigration, it cannot use deportation as a political cudgel. “This is more invidious,” Young explained - because it doesn’t just punish individuals, it terrifies entire communities into silence.

And it worked. One Harvard professor testified that after his colleague was arrested, he canceled academic travel, scrapped research, and even avoided visiting his terminally ill brother abroad, fearing he wouldn’t be allowed back into the U.S. The chill was so deep that people stopped writing, publishing, and teaching. That isn’t freedom. It’s coercion.

When government lawyers tried to brush this off as paranoia, Young shot back. “It is an odd kind of freedom that compels one to leave writing unpublished, leadership positions unpursued, and terminally ill relatives unvisited,” he wrote. That sentence alone should be taught in every constitutional law class in the country.

But Young went further. He ripped ICE for conducting masked raids on campuses, calling the practice “squalid and dishonorable.” America, he wrote, has never tolerated a “masked, armed, secret police.” Yet under Trump, ICE acted more like a militia than a law enforcement agency, hiding behind balaclavas as it dragged students into vans.

This was not just a rebuke of ICE. It was a rebuke of Trump himself. Young concluded that by defending and continuing this policy, Trump had violated his oath of office. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2024 immunity ruling, Trump won’t face personal consequences. But Young made sure the historical record is clear: this was unconstitutional, it was deliberate, and it came from the top.

The ruling also revealed something deeper about Trump’s style of governance. For all the talk about patriotism and defending the Constitution, his administration actively undermined its core protections. Free speech? Sacrificed. Academic inquiry? Muzzled. Dissent? Criminalized. Trump didn’t just bend the rules—he tried to remake America into a place where the government decides what you can and cannot say.

Judge Young refused to let that stand. In one of the ruling’s most memorable passages, he responded to an anonymous postcard he’d received that read: “Trump has pardons and tanks… what do you have?” His answer: “Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, We the People have our magnificent Constitution.”

That is the heart of this case. For all the tanks, agents, masks, and secret lists, Trump’s machinery of suppression was stopped by a single principle: the First Amendment. A principle older than any one president, more enduring than any administration, and powerful enough to beat back even the most heavy-handed attempt to silence speech.

Trump’s defenders will say this was about national security, or about controlling immigration. But that spin collapses under the evidence. This was about silencing political views Trump didn’t like. Judge Young called it out. And in doing so, he didn’t just protect a few students - he protected the very idea of free speech in America.

The ruling will likely be appealed, of course. But the damage to Trump’s legacy is done. History will remember this case as a line in the sand: a reminder that the presidency does not give anyone the right to decide which opinions are acceptable, whether that be about support for Palestinians, or criticism of Trump himself.

Anthony Davis' Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We must never stop fighting for the kind of nation we know we can become.

 

It’s Bernie Sanders. In just a moment, I’m going to ask you to make a contribution to the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC. But first, I want to explain why this request is so important. We are living in one of the most consequential moments in modern history. Together, under Trump, we are fighting Oligarchy, authoritarianism, kleptocracy, and a corrupt campaign finance system that allows billionaires like Elon Musk enormous power over our elections and legislative process. We are fighting, to quote President Abraham Lincoln, for “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” makes the billionaire class even richer while attacking the most basic needs of working families and the most vulnerable members of our society. Trumpism is about the belief that we live in a “dog eat dog world” – where it is moral and appropriate for the big dogs to eat the little dogs, where the billionaires get tax breaks while children go hungry and workers sleep in their cars. Well. We disagree. That is not our value system and that is not the value system that most Americans adhere to. In my view, in order to defeat Trumpism we need a multifaceted approach: We must rally and educate the American people against all aspects of his reactionary agenda. We need to expand our grassroots organizing. And we must support progressive candidates. We must elect a U.S. House and a U.S. Senate that will prioritize the needs of the working class in this country, not the billionaire class. Now is the time to restore the faith of the American people that they have a government in this country that is working for them, not just the 1%. Now is the time for us to come together to fight for progressive candidates and a progressive agenda that puts working people first. And today, I am asking for your help to do that: Can you please make a contribution of $27 or whatever you can afford directly to the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC before the end-of-quarter deadline? Your donation will directly support the Progressive Caucus and progressives who need our help to win in the next election. If you've stored your info with ActBlue, we'll process your contribution instantly: DONATE $27   DONATE OTHER We must never stop fighting for the kind of nation we know we can become. Thank you for all you've done, and will do, to carry our progressive movement forward. In solidarity, Bernie Sanders

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