Taylor Kordsiemon

@tkords

Dad. Lawyering in Utah. Occasional pretend scholar. Movies. Books. Lawyer Work: Pretend Scholar Work:

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Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 2h

Ruh roh.

Some of you may die. But it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 3d

Ugh and I didn’t even know about this.

But White's ex-wife recently got a 50 year protective order barring him from contact with her and their teenage son for decades after allegations of serious domestic abuse came to light. White has responded by pulling this WNBA stunt, and receiving the adulation of the anti-trans movement across the globe.
This is the man claiming to be all about "protecting women" and who is now threatening to intrude upon the locker rooms of the WNBA. It's desperate and pathetic–and genuinely forcing the league to quickly form an ad hoc response to the nonsense.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 3d

If I were Royce White, I would simply avoid drawing unnecessary attention to my career in professional basketball.

Royce White’s NBA regular season statistics. He played 3 games for Sacramento in the 2013–14 season.

3 MPG
.000 FG%
0 RPG
0 APG
0 SPG
0 BPG
0 PPG

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 3d

Trump out here with a wax prop from a b-horror flick attached to his elbow.

Close up shot of Trump’s arm while he walks at a golf course. It’s ghastly.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 5d

Setting aside that Kanye is the worst, I think this tweet was under appreciated.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 6d

I’m at the Utah State Bar Convention, at which Governor Spencer Cox was originally supposed to be keynote speaker. Well color me shocked that he chickened out given the reception he would have received while he’s pulling this crap.

During his first term in office, Cox selected Hagen and Justice Jill Pohlman to fill his first two vacancies on the court. After that, the Legislature changed the makeup of the Appellate Nominating Commission, which vets judges.
Since that time, there had not been a woman among the 19 finalists for the last three open spots on the high court. But the governor said earlier this year that any suggestion that women weren't being given fair consideration is an "insane narrative."
"It doesn't fit," he said. "I don't go into this looking at your chromosomes when I'm making an appointment. I'm trying to find the best legal minds who will represent the state of Utah."

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 7d

I mean I already knew John Curtis sucked but I’m still disappointed.

Dear Taylor,

Thank you for reaching out to share your thoughts on the confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General. I appreciate hearing your views and value the opportunity to respond.

The Senate's responsibility to provide advice and consent on presidential nominations is one I take seriously. I believe every nominee deserves a thorough and thoughtful review through the confirmation process, including meetings, committee hearings, and careful consideration of the issues raised by my colleagues and constituents.

After having robust discussions with Todd Blanche and following his nomination process in the Judiciary Committee, I will support his confirmation. I was pleased with his receptivity to the concerns raised throughout the process and with his understanding of the issues that I and my colleagues emphasized, including ending the anti-weaponization fund and several Utah-specific priorities.

I look forward to working with Attorney General Blanche as he carries out the responsibilities of his office.

Thank you again for taking the time to write. I appreciate you sharing your perspective and will keep it in mind as I continue my work in the Senate. If you would like to receive updates on this and other important issues, please visit my website at www.curtis.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

John R. Curtis
United States Senator

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 13d

Although I appreciate @ij.org’s optimism, I don’t love our odds in the near future.

New case! Last fall, masked, heavily armed CBP agents raided IJ client Leo Feler’s property in Chicago because they saw some construction workers out in front of his home. The agents didn’t have a warrant (nor does any exception to the warrant requirement apply), jumped a locked gate, and caused a bunch of damage and left behind puddles of blood. On their way out, they tear gassed neighbors “for fun” (per an agent on bodycam). So we’re suing under Bivens, the FTCA, Illinois tort law, and the Westfall Act, and one of these days the Supreme Court is going to say that there is in fact a way to hold federal officers accountable for violating the Constitution. Click here to learn more.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 15d

Screw you, Facebook. What do you mean “5 years ago” 😭

Four pictures of the cutest little girl in the world on her first birthday.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 25d

You know things are bad when the folks at The Daily Wire come across as the normal ones.

Daily Wire

Go Ahead, Watch ‘The Odyssey’
Christopher Nolan has made an epic blockbuster film from a foundational Western story. Let’s enjoy it.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· 29d

So much wrong with this, but the “1000 years” thing strikes me as particularly absurd. Over half of white Americans are of English, German, or Irish descent. None of those countries have been democracies for more than 1000 years, yet nobody contends that they have trouble assimilating. Wonder why.

Ilan Wurman • @ilan_wurman
X.com
In case I need to break it down, I said:
1. It can take 1,000 years to develop habits of thought and culture that make liberal democracy and constitutional government possible.
2. You can't import millions of people without assimilation *today* and expect them to share those important habits.
Somehow AMK interprets me as saying, the English wanted assimilation in 1215???
The full clip makes it clearer (AMK has it), but what I'm saying is obvious even from this oddly spliced clip.
Ilan Wurman • @ilan_wurman • 5h
The clip doesn't even come close to saying what
AMK accuses me of saying. It's sad that so few of his followers will actually listen. Also this episode has heen nut for months and AMK knaws it since

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jul 9

Sorry to chime in, but I thought this might be of relevance to those following the conversation. From “The Meaning of the Seventeenth Amendment and a Century of State Defiance” by Zach Clopton and Steve Art. scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcont...

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW

Apart from death and resignation, the only other vacancies that have happened in the Senate since the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment have been caused by the Senate refusing or failing to seat a senator." The Senate declined to seat two senators because of charges of fraud and corruption in 1932 campaigns," 9 and it refused to seat either competitor in a
bitterly contested 1974 New Hampshire election." The Senate's failure to seat a senator is sometimes unavoidable because the elected senator has died before Congress convenes-Mel Carnahan was elected after dying in a plane crash," and both Keith Thomson and Key Pittman died between their elections and the start of a new term.72 In addition, the Senate may
create a vacancy by using its constitutional authority to expel members, although it has not done so since before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment.

Incapacity of a senator is an untested way a vacancy may happen. A federal statute lists incapacity as a reason that a House vacancy might be…

created.74 Assuming incapacity could create a vacancy in the Senate, it is
debatable what constitutes incapacity and who may declare a senator incapacitated; neither federal statutes nor congressional rules provide an answer.7 ' Historical practice is similarly unhelpful: members have been unable to appear in Congress (sometimes for quite some time) without their seats being treated as vacant.7' The closest to an example of incapacity
creating a vacancy is when Gladys Noon Spellman was in a coma when her House term began in 1981. The House decided her seat was vacant for the new term because she could not appear to take the oath of office.7 But since the decision came at the start of a term, this case is more like the
Senate refusing to seat any senator, which was discussed above. It is an open question whether incapacity in the midst of a term causes a vacancy to happen in Congress.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jul 2

Of course, we know what they mean when they say “eliminate” because they’ve forced Democrats to apologize for using the same word hyperbolically when referencing Trump, arguing that it was a call for assassination.

Supreme Court Bolsters President Trump’s Push to Eliminate Transgender Insanity

-The White House

Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) apologized Monday for his “poor choice of words” when he said former President Trump must be “eliminated” to protect democracy.

“Yesterday on TV, I mistakenly used the wrong word to express the importance for America that Donald Trump doesn’t become President again,” Goldman wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

A clip of Goldman interviewed by former White House press secretary Jen Psaki on MSNBC was shared online, opens new tab with the false caption: “WOW: Not even 24 hours after President Trump was almost killed and Democrat Dan Goldman is now saying that Trump ‘is destructive to our democracy’ and needs to be ‘eliminated.’ Shame on Goldman for inciting violence and pushing dangerous rhetoric.”

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 30

@radleybalko.bsky.social wrote a whole (really good) book about the miscarriages of justice caused by Dr. West.

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South

Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 30

I’m not an economist, so the reason I tend to think rent control is bad policy is because I don’t have the chops to disagree with a resounding consensus from economists on that issue. Of course, expert consensus could be wrong. But acting like nonexperts are dumb for trusting that consensus is odd.

We focus on the popular belief that rent control allows more families to find aﬀordable housing. The support for this policy is very large and widespread among the public in many countries. This belief, however, is at odds with scientific consensus arising from economic research. In a poll to economists from the IGM Economic Experts Panel, 95% strongly disagree that rent capping will increase the quantity of aﬀordable housing.

This high consensus stems from the abundant empirical evidence on this subject (see, for instance, Diamond et al. (2019a) and Kholodilin and Kohl (2020)). Although rent control may have positive eﬀects for a subset of tenants because their rents will be low, or grow less, relative to market rents (Sims, 2007), both total quantity of rental housing available and quality of controlled housing falls.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 29

Here’s a summary of a study NYU did in 2019 on the subject: archive.strongtowns.org/journal/2019....

If we want to clearly understand what’s going on in our neighborhoods, we need to make a point of separating and being more precise about concepts that, while related, aren’t the same thing. Gentrification (which refers to how a place is changing) and displacement (which is something that happens to individual people or communities in that place) are two such concepts that often get used in the same breath or even as synonyms, but shouldn’t.

A new study from New York City using health care data to track the moves of individual low-income families helps us disentangle gentrification and displacement from each other, and make some sense of this seemingly contradictory reality:

poor people are often displaced from gentrifying neighborhoods, yet

gentrification does not appear to (usually) cause displacement.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 28

Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 27

The conservatives on the Court would *never* base a decision on an “imagined future policy.” Apropos of nothing, here’s a snippet from Trump v. United States.

The dissents overlook the more likely prospect of an Executive Branch that cannibalizes itself, with each successive President free to prosecute his predecessors, yet unable to boldly and fearlessly carry out his duties for fear that he may be next. For instance, Section 371—which has been charged in this case—is a broadly worded criminal statute that can
cover “‘any conspiracy for the purpose of impairing, obstructing or defeating the lawful function of any department of Government.’” United States v. Johnson, 383 U. S. 169, 172 (1966) (quoting Haas v. Henkel, 216 U. S. 462, 479 (1910)). Virtually every President is criticized for insufficiently enforcing some aspect of federal law (such as drug, gun, immigration, or environmental laws). An enterprising
prosecutor in a new administration may assert that a previous President violated that broad statute. Without immunity, such types of prosecutions of ex-Presidents could quickly become routine.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 25

Richie is a great baller and a better guy. Super pumped for him!

Richie Saunders chosen No. 32 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA draft

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 24

It’s been a hot minute since I had something good to feel about Utah politics, but I’m starting today with a smile. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Utah lawmakers Stuart Adams, Dan McCay and Trevor Lee all bounced in GOP primary.

Ninety seats in the Legislature are up for grabs this year; 21 had primary elections Tuesday.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 23

Crazy thing, we can actually see how the Lancet study was funded.

Funding: The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, UK Medical Research Council, and EU Horizon Europe.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 22

Same on Atonement. But it is my lucky day: Michael Clayton was on sale for $5 on Fandango at Home. This is gonna happen.

Success! Michael Clayton has been added to your library.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 19

I think the case highlights the importance of Utah’s new appellate pro bono program. Both sides were ably represented through the program—my opposing counsel was fantastic. Without the program, this outcome wouldn’t have been possible. Justice is too often denied simply due to a lack of resources.

The Utah Appellate Courts in conjunction with the Pro Bono Commission of the Utah State Bar are happy to offer the services of the Appellate Courts' Pro Bono Program to assist self-represented parties with cases in the Utah Court of Appeals and Utah Supreme Court. There is no guarantee that the program will be able to provide volunteer attorneys for all self-represented litigants with cases on appeal.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 19

Well, we just got the decision this morning, and we won! The Utah Court of Appeals agreed there was insufficient evidence that the text message placed my client’s sister in “reasonable fear of imminent physical harm.” As a result, the court vacated the protective order.

Turning to this appeal, we recognize that Berriel and Farmer addressed the term “imminent” in other statutory contexts, but
we still find these decisions persuasive as to how that same word should be interpreted for purposes of the Act. And against that backdrop, we turn to the evidence presented below.

¶22 As noted, the Commissioner based his decision on the July 20 text. In the Commissioner’s view, this text was an “expression of anger” showing that Green had “some desire to engage in a physical altercation.” Even accepting that premise, however, several things stand out to us.

¶23 First, in the text, Green never said that she was actually going to hit Canteros-Alvarez. Instead, what she said was she
would like to hit her. These are different things.

¶24 Second, on the face of the text, Green expressed that desire
in conditional terms. Again, Green said that she hoped Canteros-Alvarez would “swing first so that [she could] beat the shit out of
[her].” In this sense, what she said was that she was not going to hit Canteros-Alvarez unless Canteros-Alvarez hit her first,
meaning that the threat of violence was dependent on an event that had not yet happened and might not happen. In our view, the conditional nature of this statement weakens any suggestion that
the threatened violence was “impending” and “about to occur at any moment.” Clara, 2024 UT 10, ¶ 36 (quotation simplified).

¶25 Third, because the text was sent while the two were some distance away from each other, it seems analogous to the situation involved in Berriel. And again, the supreme court there held that although the friend told the defendant, over the phone, that she was under a threat of violence “at the time of the call,” this was distinguishable from a suggestion that she was still facing an “imminent” threat of danger at the time of the subsequent
stabbing. Berriel, 2013 UT 19, ¶ 16 (emphasis omitted).

Fourth, there was no indication in the record that there was any history of violence between Canteros-Alvarez and Green, such that Canteros-Alvarez would have had some contextual reason to believe, based on past patterns, that physical violence was in any way imminent. In fact, in the ruling, the Commissioner
noted that he wasn’t “getting a sense [there had] been any actual physical contact, in terms of violent physical contact between the parties.” Rather, he observed that the conflict between the sisters “[had] to do with the acrimony that [was] going on between the parties with respect to another matter involving guardianship, or . . . [Green’s] belief that [Canteros-Alvarez] isn’t a good parent” and her desire “to try to take” Canteros-Alvarez’s son “in some
sort of legal fashion.”

¶27 Pulling all this together, we conclude that Green’s text was decidedly indefinite as to both (1) whether Green actually intended to physically harm Canteros-Alvarez, and, if so, (2) when any such violence would occur. But as noted, the Act requires proof of a threat of imminent physical harm. See Utah Code § 78B-7-102(1). Taking this statutory requirement at face value, we conclude that this text could not support the issuance
of a protective order. Because the Commissioner’s ruling was based on this text, we conclude that it should not have been issued.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 19

More specifically, the question was whether sufficient evidence showed that text message placed my client’s sister in “reasonable fear of imminent physical harm.” The text was the only instance of alleged “abuse,” as defined by statute.

¶17 A court may issue a protective order under the Act “[i]f it appears . . . that domestic violence or abuse has occurred” or “that there is a substantial likelihood domestic violence or abuse will occur.” Utah Code § 78B-7-603(1). In the ruling at issue, the Commissioner never referred to domestic violence, instead focusing on abuse, and the parties have followed suit on appeal. In challenging the issuance of the protective order, Green’s principal argument is that there was insufficient evidence to show that abuse had either occurred or was substantially likely to occur. We agree.

¶18 Abuse is defined under the Act as “intentionally or knowingly causing or attempting to cause another individual
physical harm or intentionally or knowingly placing another individual in reasonable fear of imminent physical harm.” Id. § 78B-7-102(1). As noted, Canteros-Alvarez never alleged that Green had actually physically harmed her. Instead, Canteros-Alvarez alleged that Green had abused her by placing her in fear…

… of “imminent physical harm.” Focusing there, we note that one dictionary defines “imminent” as “ready to take place: happening soon.” Another dictionary defines “imminent” as “coming or
likely to happen very soon.” Consistent with these definitions, our supreme court has defined the phrase “imminent danger” as
“an immediate, real threat to one’s safety” that is “impending” and “about to occur at any moment.” State v. Clara, 2024 UT 10,
¶ 36, 546 P.3d 963 (quotation simplified).

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 18

This had a great episode that was blatant ripoff of The Thing, but I saw it first so I can’t help but feel like John Carpenter copied Mighty Max.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 17

What does it say about me that after watching The Furious (which I loved), I was lowkey surprised at how tame the first 3/4 was? Starting to think my wife might be right that the things I watch are a little too violent.

Still from The Furious showing a man leaping with a machete at another man.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 15

Okay. But that’s worse. You do get how that’s worse, right?

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 14

Hap and Leonard is my real answer for my “fave” show that was cancelled too soon. But I feel like Terriers could have been an all-timer.

Taylor Kordsiemon@tkords· Jun 10

That creating majority-minority districts violates the 15th Amendment’s antidiscrimination rule is debatable, at best. The text says the right to vote cannot be *abridged* on account of race. Considering race to ensure equal representation/remedy discrimination does not abridge the right to vote.