David Venturella, who spent more than a decade as an executive at the private-prison behemoth GEO Group, will be the next acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. GEO Group's biggest client? ICE.

#OpenAccess from the Journal of Law and Courts - The Prosecutor Paradox: Understanding the Public?s Low Knowledge About Chief Local Prosecutors - cup.org/4dVw70v - @jktboston.bsky.social, @annagunderson.bsky.social, @davidryanmiller.com & @kirstenwidner.bsky.social #FirstView

New paper @ Journal of Law & Courts with great coauthors on the accountability gap for local prosecutors: (1) the public knows little about prosecutors, (2) knowing less decreases prosecutor approval, but (3) most prosecutors are reelected time and again. Open access below!!

New article with @mgmacdonald.bsky.social on the use of police social media around the 2020 policing protests in @urbanaffairsreview.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

ICE has now carried out two summary executions of innocent people in the streets of an American city. If you work for ICE, there's no denying that's the mission you're supporting now. You don't get to claim in one year or ten or twenty that you didn't know what ICE was doing. You're complicit.

Hot off the presses @polbehavior.bsky.social with stellar coauthors: "Gender Stereotypes Across Electoral Contexts" asks whether and how candidates use feminine + masculine stereotypes differently across office type. More here: 👇

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

Attention #polisky! Apply for @utaustin.bsky.social LBJ School of Public Affairs with a focus on American Political Institutions. I'm on the committee, so please reach out with questions. See below: apply.interfolio.com/170943

From May 2025 - Gendered Expectations: Do Voters Reward Women for Supporting Women’s Interests? - cup.org/3YTHTQJ - Nichole M. Bauer, @annagunderson.bsky.social, @jeonghyunkim.bsky.social, @elizabethlane.bsky.social, Belinda Davis & @kesearles.bsky.social #OpenAccess

NEW - Gendered Expectations: Do Voters Reward Women for Supporting Women’s Interests? - cup.org/3YTHTQJ - Nichole M. Bauer, @annagunderson.bsky.social, @jeonghyunkim.bsky.social, @elizabethlane.bsky.social, Belinda Davis & @kesearles.bsky.social #OpenAccess

New article hot off the presses from American Politics Research - "State Courts, Public Opinion, and the Changing Abortion Landscape after Dobbs" with a stellar group of coauthors. See more below 👇

60 Minutes could find no criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans the U.S. sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. https://cbsn.ws/4clubLP

1/ I wonder if there's a complement to Mettler's _Submerged State_ thesis: the successful state thesis. In brief: American government has *in many ways* been so successful for so long that Americans have forgotten why they need it, making anti-government rhetoric more appealing.

This is absolutely devastating for public health, for scientific integrity, for innovation, for all Americans. I can't string together more coherent thoughts - just absolutely devastating.

#HHS isn't being transparent about the cuts occurring within the department or its agencies such as #CDC, #NIH, #FDA. If you've received a RIF notice today, @statnews.com wants to know. www.statnews.com/2025/03/27/h...

“Prosecuting people for migration is big business.” Our top story: Over the past four years, the Texas Legislature has allocated more than $11 billion to fund the sprawling tentacles of the Operation Lone Star.

New, from me @theatlantic.com: *No, the federal government is not too big *It has real human capital needs *Firings are indiscriminate, weakening state capacity *Creating a toxic and politicized workplace is driving away dedicated employees www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Damon Hininger, CEO of private prison giant Core Civic, just told investors: " I've worked at CoreCivic for 32 years, and this is truly one of the most exciting periods in my career ... we're anticipating .. the most significant growth in our company's history." theintercept.com/2025/02/11/c...

What can you do about the assault on USAID? Share this far and wide. Do your part! Please do retweet 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Very hard to imagine any social science that would not be flagged by NSF's new censorship regime

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

This is illegal. These are crimes!

These teenagers and young men — 95% of whom are Black, Latinx, or Filipino — earn between $2.20 and $4 per hour, plus an additional $1 an hour when they’re actively fighting fires, according to the DJJ. ⤵️

Hot off the presses @igajournal.bsky.social with @kirstenwidner.bsky.social and @mgmacdonald.bsky.social! We look at inside + outside lobbying strategies of social media groups on Facebook and Twitter. Check it out here 👇 link.springer.com/10.1057/s413...

“The nearly 1,500 individuals who received commutations today have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the COVID-era CARES Act.” This is an action that people have been pushing for since before Biden took office, and it’s very good to see.

Interested in how litigants + amicus have (and will) respond to Trump SCOTUS justices? See our new book! Open access! 🎉🎉🎉

This Trump-linked private prison stock has soared since the election, adding over $2 billion to its market cap. So it goes, so it goes.

Fabulous research on SCOTUS by @annagunderson.bsky.social and @kirstenwidner.bsky.social The Haves and Have-Nots in Supreme Court Representation and Participation, 2016 to 2021. They joined me on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast! newbooksnetwork.com/kirsten-widn... #PoliSky #LawSky 💙📚

I just donated to Pizza to the Polls to help keep Democracy Delicious this year - you should too! #democracyisdelicious polls.pizza/donate

Pre-election podcast on @kirstenwidner.bsky.social and @annagunderson.bsky.social's 🔥 new book The Haves and Have-Nots in SCOTUS Representation & Participation, 2016 to 2021. The new justices have affected WHO brings cases. #History #PoliSky #gendersky #LawSky 💙📚 newbooksnetwork.com/kirsten-widn...

The presidential election is days away. What are the consequences of the election for who chooses to appear before SCOTUS? @kirstenwidner.bsky.social and I's new book digs into this question. We are on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social chatting about it! megaphone.link/NBNK6866203115

We are hiring at The LBJ School at UT Austin in Democratic Development, Backsliding & Capacity Building at Assistant or Associate level! Deadline 10/1. Come for tacos + a top-notch policy school. I'm on the committee, so reach out with questions. Interfolio: apply.interfolio.com/151706

Really excited our paper on judicial campaign appeals and gender is out at @thejop.bsky.social! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Racial capitalism: a ‘former’ plantation turned into maximum security prison in which prisoners are compelled to perform barely-waged labor that produces value for some of the world’s biggest companies. Unfortunately, there’s nothing “unlikely” about it. apnews.com/article/pris...

In personal + professional news, I will be starting as an associate professor of public affairs at the LBJ School at UT Austin in the fall! I’m sad to leave colleagues at LSU but excited for the new opportunity (and the tacos 🌮🌮🌮!)

Our @thejop.bsky.social paper won an award for the best paper published in that journal this year! 🎉🎉

Polisky! Reposting this as the deadline is fast approaching for the judicial politics job at LSU…

LSU has a judicial politics position, deadline 11/20! Please apply and spread the word: lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0240... polisky

LSU is hiring in Judicial Politics! Deadline is November 20. lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/jo... polisky

🎉 Today is finally the release date for our new book Supreme Bias: Gender and Race in U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings (@stanfordpress; w/ Paul Collins & @Lring86)! While I love the book’s cover, I’m also very excited for you to see what is inside. Here’s a preview 🧵: 1/

*taps microphone* hello bluesky! excited to share a new draft of a paper w @mgmacdonald.bsky.social on police use of Facebook during the 2020 policing protests tldr; racial demographics do not predict posting, but partisanship does. little evidence that protests spur conversations about reform

New data collection opportunity! The Civic Health and Institutions Project, a 50 State Survey, has opportunities available to collect free state-level or large national sample public opinion data. More information is available here: chip50.org