Wow, the site of the 2026 American Society for Legal History Conference share.google/xKwvzDOCRbIK... is the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity! share.google/l1NqChfrtKPV...

Legal history people: the ASLH conference will be in the Canadian Rockies in Nov.2026! Panel proposals are due March 24, 2026. The Call links to google sheets where you can find co-panelists & chair-commentators 👇 You can @ me if you're looking for fellow panelists, too.

I'm honored to serve as one of the cochairs of the Program Committee for the 2026 American Society for Legal History Conference in Banff, Canada! The CFP is now available. Please consider submitting a proposal! aslh.net/2026-annual-... #ASLH #legalhistory

My office has been flooded with reports of the cruel, unsafe, unlawful conditions inside of the Whipple detention facility in Minneapolis. This weekend, I was finally granted access to perform oversight of the facility. youtu.be/0SxPn8n2Bfg

“Every authoritarian, or wannabe authoritarian, tries to intimidate the press. A free press that informs people of abuses of power is a threat to the control the authoritarian wants to exercise.” — Dean Erwin Chemerinsky open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

This is absolutely insane: DHS claims the right to subpoena your emails and to send investigators to your house. In this case, because a retiree sent the mildest possible criticism to a prosecutor. No judges involved. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

America's Sleeping Giant roared when police attacked civil rights marchers. And when Nixon tried to cover up Watergate. Today it roars in Minneapolis and around the country — at the jack-booted thugs occupying our cities.

Research $$ in peace history, Quaker history and more! Call for applications for research funding @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social Special Collections. www.swarthmore.edu/libraries/re...

Billie Eilish during her #GRAMMYs speech for Song of the Year: “As grateful as I feel, I don’t need to say anything except that, no one is illegal on stolen land. It’s really hard to know what to say and what to do right now, I feel hopeful in this room and we need to keep protesting… fuck ICE.”

In Minnesota and elsewhere across the land, grassroots “neighborism” and outrage at Trump’s tyranny are creating an extraordinarily powerful movement. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-green-shoots

If you are in the DC area (and have had enough of freezing cold and ice and being cooped up at home!) or if you want to learn about asylum from a great line up, come to Temple Sinai this afternoon for a discussion of a great documentary in the making! templesinaidc.shulcloud.com/form/credibl...

Extraordinary piece by @ajc.com President and Publisher at the top of p. 1 this morning. The future of free and fair elections is at stake in Georgia. editions.ajc.com/shortcode/AJ...

Hundreds of people spelled out the distress signal "SOS" on Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis on Friday, Jan. 30. 📷️ Provided by Jeff Schad

This will make you cry. Fellow students of Liam, the little boy in the bunny hat, have messages for ICE. 💔 www.nytimes.com/video/opinio...

It is snowing in Atlanta.

So insane.

A retired Minneapolis couple who had guns pointed at them by ICE in a church parking lot. "They were obviously not trained at all. I've known many police officers in my life. These people were right off the streets." "They had the professional demeanor of criminals." ht: @paulgraham.bsky.social

New Yorkers: Spread the word about how evidence from eyes on the street can help protect our neighbors against ICE.

Poem by @amandagorman.bsky.social (via Twitter): For Alex Jeffrey Pretti. x.com/i/status/201...

GOP Governor of Oklahoma "What we're seeing on TV, it's causing deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability…We believe in federalism and state rights, and nobody likes feds coming into their state...Is it to deport every single non- U.S. citizen? I don't think that's what Americans want.”

Update: In the evidence preservation lawsuit, the current Civil Chief at the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office (who appears to be Ana Voss, based on the letter), refused to accept email service of the lawsuit last night and then refused to accept in-person service until Monday. Ridiculous behavior.

As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today.

ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.

When reading the physician's sworn statement under penalty of perjury on shocking denial of medical care to Alex Pretti ⬇️ Remember Kristi Noem's statement earlier today: "Medics were on the scene immediately and attempted to deliver medical aid to the subject."

💔 I am writing my Senators and Congressman to demand that Congress shut down ICE and stop the killing.

Recommended: this beautiful, creative and extremely helpful book on sustainable gardening. Brandy Hall, The Complete Guide to Home Permaculture a book by Brandy Hall The Complete Guide to Home Permaculture. Posting from the book launch! share.google/bqymXjlv2OY8...

How you know it's serious: an out of state power crew is removing branches near power lines in my backyard. 😳 Get ready and stay safe.

Shoutout to our friends up in @NWSChicago for this graphic on measuring Ice Accretion. Once icing begins, YOU become our eyes and ears on the ground. If you notice ice accumulation on Sunday, send in your observation (with your general location)... https://x.com/NWSAtlanta/status/2014859109447651328

Signs point to a significant ice storm this weekend across much of north Georgia, with the potential for accumulations of a quarter to three-quarters of an inch (or more) of ice. Ice becomes impactful -- even destructive -- at comparatively low ... https://x.com/NWSAtlanta/status/2014808313452486995

Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026

I'm not one for false optimism. But what I witnessed today in Minneapolis was tremendous, both in scale and exuberance. It was a stunning answer to the federal assault on Minnesota, a show of solidarity that gives us something to hold on to during times that are unforgiving.

Rest in peace Barbara Black. I was so lucky to be able to take a legal history course co-taught by Black and Robert Cover at Yale Law long ago. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/u...

It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing

🧵ICE's tactics for arresting and holding observers and protestors is ever-shifting, and I'm hearing lots of different stories. Right now, my perspective is that these are your best practices:

"No Kings" in bright lights above the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

“The speed, the scope and the severity of the attacks on science are beyond anything we’ve ever seen,” says @gretchentg.bsky.social. My @nature.com story on the human toll of the 2nd Trump presidency. Thx to @dochfroehlich.bsky.social, @briannosek.bsky.social, @katharinehayhoe.com & others.

We welcome pitches from #skystorians looking to mark historically significant anniversaries or to draw attention to forgotten events. The past is present. clioandthecontemporary.com/call-for-con...

The @cfr.org surveyed members of @shafrhistorians.bsky.social 🗃️, asking us to rank the ten best and ten worst U.S. foreign policy decisions. Here are the results of that survey:

Saint Paul schools will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare for optional online learning. I’ve seen schools close for snow, for pandemic, for natural disaster. I’ve never seen schools close because of threat from our own government.

40 years ago today, Barbara Donachy’s art installation “Amber Waves of Grain”—which used some 35,000 ceramic miniatures to depict every bomber, missile, submarine, warhead, and bomb in the US nuclear arsenal—opened in Boston after prior showings in New York, Washington, DC, Colorado, and Berlin.

Public hearings are happening now in the International Court of Justice on the merits of the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar). Watch here: webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1q...

Brought to you by the party of family values and national security.

Here’s some more comparative math making this point:

This is why I hate seeing “ICE is now the largest police force in the US.” Not just wrong on the facts—it has less than 1/2 the officers of the NYPD alone. But it DEF lacks the staff needed to police the US as a whole. It has ~3,500 commando cosplayers. In a national of 325,000,000. Cannot win.

ICE apparently lacks capacity to oppress more than one city at a time. This is performative authoritarianism. performative authoritarianism that has killed people, yes. It’s not a joke. But it is also incapable of any sort of meaningful authoritarian consolidation. They lack the numbers to win.

I’ve been asked for parting words in a few interviews this week, so here they are: Defeatism is self fulfilling. You have agency. This is your Republic to keep. Let your elected representatives know how you feel.