All I know is that while this is not unprecedented, we are in dark territory. When you can't criticize your government for fear of losing your job, when the First Amendment is blatantly being shoved aside and run over, days later, run over again and set on fire--we are not the America that made us truly great.
There's a piece of me that feels I'm being told that I must conform to this one thing where it just feels like I'm stuck in a box where everyone looks and has to feel the same, regardless of anything individually. It's that suffocating on both a macro and personal level.
Seeing companies bend the knee is not comforting. Watching a pay to play government doesn't send warm fuzzies up and down my neck. The fact that I can get taken by people in masks, shoved away into a dark hole waiting for due process, which may take months, maybe even years, while not actually having done anything wrong--I can't say that doesn't scare me a little. Because it does.
Regular people, not named Kimmel, are losing their jobs because they pushed back on the Charlie Kirk narrative exalting him from his racist and homophobic views (from what I've heard from reputable people).
It's almost as if I find myself sent via a time machine to the 80's with the Moral Majority.
Censorship and moral guardians.
What's next. Nancy Reagan just saying no?
How are we moving backwards and becoming less progressive? Less open to more ideas and different thoughts? And why does this always involve someone who's more than just a little racist?
I don't know what Kimmel will do. I hope he fights. He's got the resources to do it and I think because of how it happened he can win.
In the meantime--here are some companies and organizations who pushed back and either won, or gained a lot of ground in the right direction--and that's important to remember: that you get to stand up for yourself.
From the interwebs, search machines, and ai hyperbrains:
- Harvard University:
A federal judge ruled against a Trump administration attempt to cut
federal grants to Harvard, ordering the administration to restore more
than $2 billion in frozen funding. Separately, another federal judge
sided with Harvard and blocked an effort to rescind the school's right
to host international students.
- University of California (UCLA):
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore some of the
$584 million in funding it had frozen for UCLA. However, the University
of California system and its unions have filed new lawsuits to fight
further funding cuts and alleged financial coercion by the
administration.
- Perkins Coie LLP, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey:
These four firms challenged Trump administration executive orders that
targeted them for their work, winning favorable rulings from federal
judges. The courts found that the executive orders were unconstitutional
and likely violated First Amendment protections for speech and due
process. The administration is appealing some of these decisions.
- AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) and other unions are part of a lawsuit AFGE v. Trump (2025) in which they challenged massive workforce reductions / layoffs (“reduction-in‐force”) ordered by the administration. They won a restraining order from the district court that temporarily blocked the action. The Ninth Circuit rejected the government’s request to stay that injunction. But later the Supreme Court stayed (i.e., paused) the preliminary injunction.
-
A coalition including AFT Massachusetts, other labor unions, school districts etc. got a preliminary injunction against the Education Dept’s efforts to fire many staff via reductions in force.
American Bar Association lawsuit over Trump’s “Law Firm Intimidation Policy” — targeting law firms via sanctions, loss of contracts, security clearances, as retaliation for representing clients the government dislikes. Some of the individual law firms sued and won in court (judges have temporarily or permanently barred many of those orders). The ABA’s lawsuit is more recent (filed June 2025) and is seeking relief on behalf of all its members; outcome still developing.
V.O.S. Selections, Inc. et al. Challenged “Liberation Day” tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), arguing the administration lacked authority to impose them. The Court of International Trade permanently enjoined enforcement of those tariffs; the plaintiffs succeeded in showing overreach under IEEPA. In appeal by Trump government.
E. Jean Carroll: The writer successfully sued Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. A jury awarded her $5 million in the first trial and $83.3 million in the second trial.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) successfully sued to block a February 2025 directive from the Department of Education that sought to ban race-based programming at colleges.
