Mark Carroll's Journal

“It's like trying to see yourself in the bottom of a Coke can.” Destry McKinney was brushing his teeth one morning in an Alabama prison when he looked up and noticed, to his surprise, a cookie sheet-sized glass mirror among the other seven rusted metallic mirrors. The standard mirrors had distorted the way McKinney and other incarcerated men had viewed themselves for years. The happy discovery prompted him to ask his family to research the psychological effects of not seeing oneself clearly, and they quickly found that such deprivation leads to what’s called “Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder.” In collaboration with the Prison Journalism Project, here is the latest installment of our “Life Inside” series. The Marshall Project

Trump reclassifies state-licensed medical marijuana, in a historic retreat from federal law. The Justice Department on Thursday announced it would shift licensed medical marijuana use under the Controlled Substances Act from Schedule I — which includes heroin — to Schedule III, which will allow state-licensed operators to get a tax break and permit more research on cannabis. NBC News The move gives federal approval to programs in 40 states that permit medical marijuana use. The Associated Press There will likely be legal challenges to the move. The Christian Science Monitor TMP Context: Medical marijuana is legal in Oklahoma, but prosecutors are charging women for using it while they are pregnant. The Marshall Project

The Trump administration intensifies its targeting of naturalized citizens. The Justice Department has identified 384 Americans whose U.S. citizenship it wants to strip in expedited fashion through federal civil prosecutors across the country. It’s not clear who is on the list or how Trump administration officials decided who should be on it. Department of Homeland Security officials were ordered months ago to refer up to 200 denaturalization cases per month to the Justice Department, which has traditionally assigned the process to its immigration litigation group. Traditionally, those targeted for denaturalization are accused of making materially false statements on their naturalization documents. The New York Times

Autocracy watch. The FBI has spent years secretly investigating the Cato Institute, the libertarian advocacy organization, without bringing charges. Is it still doing so? Cato Institute The FBI investigated a journalist after she reported on Director Kash Patel’s decision to give his girlfriend government transportation and security. The Justice Department refused to continue the investigation or press charges. The New York Times House Republicans want the chief executive of ActBlue, the liberal fundraising organization, to testify next month about its fundraising practices. The New York Times Related Analysis: How the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority treats Democratic presidents more harshly than it does Republican ones. One First

Immigration nation. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has cut green card approvals in half to make it easier for ICE agents to arrest and deport legal immigrants. Cato Institute More than 13,000 immigrants who are living legally in the U.S. while their asylum cases are pending have been served with deportation orders. PBS/The Associated Press House Republicans did not show up on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to hear the testimonies of U.S. citizens who were shot or injured by ICE agents. Minnesota Reformer In a policy shift, federal immigration agents were instructed weeks ago to get judicial warrants before entering the homes of people they suspect are undocumented immigrants. Bloomberg Law

A North Carolina man — a former police officer — was arrested in Florida late Wednesday for allegedly plotting to commit a mass shooting at this week’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, including planning to commit “suicide-by-cop.” NOLA Christopher Gillum was found with a gun and 200 bullets and said he was seeking to harm Black people, law enforcement officials say. NOLA

Dolores Bustamante Romero, a well-known advocate for farm workers in New York with no criminal record, was arrested by ICE agents on Wednesday when she showed up for a routine immigration appointment in Buffalo. Investigative Post The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is in full force in Nassau County, New York, where some longtime Long Islanders are now living in fear of ICE raids. The New York Times

Renea Gamble was arrested at a “No Kings” protest in Fairhope, Alabama, last October while wearing a penis costume. Prosecutors insisted on taking the case to trial, leading to an absurd proceeding that ended with the inevitable dismissal of charges. “I’m standing on the foundation of our democracy,” Gamble said during the trial. “If we don’t have free speech, what do we have?” The Intercept

DNA from chewing gum has cracked a cold case in Washington. Mitchell Gaff pleaded guilty last week to raping and murdering two women in the 1980s. Investigators pretended they were representatives from a chewing gum company testing flavors and got Gaff to chew some gum that they later tested for DNA. It matched DNA taken decades ago from the two crime scenes. The New York Times

It’s been 50 years since a bomb ripped through a courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, injuring nearly two dozen people in a spasm of violence tied to the city’s controversial school desegregation program. It was part of a series of bombings in the area. Edmund Narine lost his left leg in the blast. “I lost my leg for no good reason,” he said in a recent interview. “Changed my life, absolutely, with a lot of pain behind it.” The Boston Globe

The bipartisan case for the Pardon Integrity Act. “Our proposal is straightforward: when 20 members of the House and five senators agree that a pardon warrants scrutiny, Congress would be required to take a vote on its merits within 60 days. These votes would require a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers to overturn a pardon. That is a deliberately high bar. It ensures that only the most egregious abuses are addressed.” The Guardian

The Constitution’s Takings Clause and police power. Columnist George Will makes a conservative argument for how to cut through the ever-widening doctrine of qualified immunity that insulates police officers from the financial consequences of their brutality, discrimination or other misconduct. The Washington Post

The problem with designating cartels as terrorist organizations. “If terrorism can be defined at will, counterterrorism becomes an open-ended mandate, expanding executive power while contracting the operating environment for civil society. That is not security. It is the normalization of legal overreach, and it corrodes the very rule of law it claims to defend.” Lawfare

New York’s evidentiary laws shield defendants like Harvey Weinstein, who is on trial for sexual assault for a third time in the state. “Jessica Mann shouldn’t be forced to stand alone to tell her story in court for the third time. She should be joined by dozens of other victims who can testify to Weinstein’s undeniable propensity to commit sexual assault. With that other testimony, it wouldn’t be hard for the jury to convict Weinstein again, like they did in 2020.” Slate

Mercy and the death penalty in Ohio. “Executive clemency has functioned as an indispensable safeguard in Ohio’s capital system, and the findings underscore the continuing importance of clemency as a mechanism for mercy and a necessary corrective when legal processes prove insufficient.” Arizona State University

Fewer than half of the people who filed claims against Purdue Pharma will receive proceeds from a new $7.4 billion bankruptcy plan approved by a judge last fall. The U.S. Supreme Court voided an initial deal. “Estimated settlement amounts for people whose family members fatally overdosed dropped to as little as $8,000; the previous payout for an OxyContin death had been $48,000.” ProPublica/Philadelphia Inquirer

The harm censorship creates behind bars also applies to a free society. “Inside the Texas prison system where I’ve spent nearly three decades, I have personally witnessed the harm of the government choosing the media the people consume. Propaganda can turn people into individuals they would have once despised.” Freedom of the Press Foundation

California dreamin.’ Elizabeth Short’s unsolved murder in Los Angeles in 1947 helped fuel generations of true-crime junkies. “If you look closely enough at the Black Dahlia, you can see the whole playing field of the American true-crime genre that was to come.” Slate

“I think most likely you’ll have some injunctions filed immediately in court saying we don’t have to comply with this.” As a major surveillance law approaches expiration, tech companies are pushing back at government demands for user data. Politico

Learning life after reentry. “[A] growing proportion of people are returning home after long-term confinement due to our nation’s harsh sentencing laws. Black Americans, who are not only disproportionately incarcerated, but disproportionately incarcerated for longer periods of time, comprise a large share of this population. As the sentencing reform movement scales back extreme sentences, it is critical to understand the obstacles to returning home after decades of imprisonment.” The Sentencing Project