I was invited to offer a reply to Wurman’s work on the unitary executive. (I applaud Ilan’s decision to go narrow.) In this post, I try to simplify things and show that, once we’re all on the same page, the Unitarian evidence doesn’t come close to showing a power of presidential removal.

I was invited to offer a reply to Wurman’s work on the unitary executive. (I applaud Ilan’s decision to go narrow.) In this post, I try to simplify things and show that, once we’re all on the same page, the Unitarian evidence doesn’t come close to showing a power of presidential removal.

Day #1 at ASLH in Detroit in head-to-toe vintage is my first time wearing the warmest thing I own, a 1980s camel blazer. I think camel insulates you without feeling bulky, like many of my heavy wool blazers. Camel also looks good on almost, as long as you pair it well. Tie = RL Shirt = 1980s BBros

Off to ASLH with a gingerbread latte and an antitrust defendant sighting in the airport! Perfect time to discuss the history of officer independence and outstanding work by @andreascoseriakatz.bsky.social @narosenblum.bsky.social @beaubaumann.bsky.social Jane Manners Lev Menand

Vibes in Detroit so far are 💯. Where my legal historians at????

A new paper from Gary Lawson & me: "Presidential Removal as Article I, Not Article II" Limits on congressional power to create independent agencies like the Fed & FTC don't come from Art II "Executive Power" absolutism. See the Necessary and Proper Clause instead: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Have the place to myself, so it’s time to do a ton of dumb stuff that makes me happy. Gonna shine every shoe I own 🤗

I have been a longtime critic of legal podcasts. I think many have only worsened our relationship with the law. But this @fivefourpod.bsky.social is the best it’s ever been done. Props to @aywarhiannon.bsky.social for producing an incredibly important pod well worth your time.

Vintage has gone in a hard “Y2K” direction because of the youth’s nostalgia for the period before everything went to hell. The problem, in menswear circles, is that there is no really well-defined Y2K tradition. So sellers are just slapping “Y2K” on random stuff for high $$$.

Give it a few years

🤦🏻‍♂️ reading about this cave is making me physically ill.

Freshmen be like

Eternally cursed to hit a groove where I could totally nail a paper before a deadline with like 48 more hours right about when I have 24 to go.

Saw Sabeel Rahman give a talk today our of New Haven. I understand the talk to be related to a forthcoming book project. If the talk is any indication of the final product, I would highly recommend y'all preorder the book before it comes available. It will be very, very important.

At some point, I’m going to introduce my kid to Star Wars. And when that happens, I just wish I have access to the much-discussed Tobey Maguire recut of the prequels that boils them down to one movie and starts with Duel of the Fates.

If more gentiles knew about Shabbat dinner, what it entails, and could score invites, there would be lines around the corner. This to me screams, “I have zero Jewish people in my life whatsoever.”

You have to give it to Trump, he really understands the *necessary* future of Democratic politics.

Alito taking some real glee in people going full juristocracy, we never learn anything.

Big day for the “MQD, how much of a joke are we talking about” caucus.

Time to ramp up our asks people 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Well, Mamdani’s win and the rise of the New York Communist cabal means that we must finally kill the senate filibuster. I am personally devastated.

We love to see it! ❤️

Please God, let him kill conservative legislative politics in the great self own of American history.

Really love and appreciate the working people at Yale Law School. They *always* ask about my kid, how the job hunt is going. They are so kind and always make my day.

“I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life”

If you’re buying anywhere from the 50s to the 70s, I think you ought to avoid those front pockets that you can put your hands in. All my favorite jackets from that era lack the front pockets, which imho mess up the fit.

Been waiting forever to bust this out. This is a 1960s Mr. 2 Ply jacket. It’s a major grail item in mid-century American workwear. The quilted interior is perfect for life up north. The cropped cut makes for a really satisfying silhouette. Can go for $250 these days.

The things I would do for this suit in my size.

I think I’ve decided that I want them to do the foreign affairs exception to the MQD. At some point, things in the law become so odious that any rollback is an almost totalizing objective.

Next frontier is huge 70s collars. I think “All the Presidents Men” made me associate this season with this fit.

The final version of "Civic Duties and Cultural Change" is now live on @califlrev.bsky.social's website! californialawreview.org/s/4-Rice.pdf

Okay over-claimed here. DS9 rocks on far too many levels to count

Civil right attorney basically pitching Dworkin to Star Fleet: “law is not a mirror to society,” it “is an ideal” that has to be worked towards justly by Herculean judges. There are apparently no Scalias in the Federation (duh).

Star Trek is at its best when it critiques the Federation’s own illiberal tendencies. And the Star Fleet’s … flexible approach to the rule of law has to be front and center.

S2 ep 2 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds sees a legal battle for basically con law judicial review of the reg on genetic modifications post-genetic wars. Pretty good illustration of the contest between seemingly sensible regs and pluralism when star fleet encounters a culture based on gen mod.

Anybody else’s health insurance premiums going through the roof? We’re on one of the plans for Fed employees. Just one subtle way of understanding declines in state capacity! We’re gonna have a major problem rebuilding if no one can afford to work in the admin state!

My wife’s back with her go to costume

My family is definitely not in the best spot with the shutdown. My wife is not getting paid. But we're better off than many. For that reason, I am going to increase our donations to our faith community's food-donation program. I hope you will consider doing something similar!

Always love reading @samuelmoyn.bsky.social! This, from his new oped, seems to me exactly right. Sam calls for reinvigorating Congress, which I agree with. But we need to reform Congress too; — it has its own significant pathologies. Link to article below.

So the new Lily Allen album slaps, amiright?

one of the things i think is that policies answer the question of “what will you do” but they don’t answer the question of “why should i vote for you” and i think there is a tendency in this broad conversation to equate the two

Today @dennislytton.bsky.social writes about the need to put presidentialism down for good

Sigh www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...

The imperial presidency wasn’t built in a term - my latest Comment, denounce, retweet! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...

Excellent post by @samuelmoyn.bsky.social reminiscent of where @jamellebouie.net is going. The stirrings are there; the calls for a restoration, for an “imperial Congress” grow stronger on the left! 🙏🙏🙏

As usual, the menswear guy is a silver lining on the black cloud that is social media in the 21st century.

Everyone, who wants to understand how labor unions work, and work best when organized as a multi-racial collective, needs to read @dieworkwear.bsky.social’s thread. JD Vance’s closest analogue is Tom Watson, who led the Populists in the 1890s, but by his death, was a full on nativist.

It's touched on in here, but I've been avoiding food lines thinking, "Those should be reserved for people who really need it," while in the back of my mind trying to calculate when that will be us.

I think developing thickly articulated norms governing the filing of amicus briefs is the next frontier for the American legal academy.