Today, US Court of International Trade ruled against Trump's massive Section 122 tariffs, in cases brought by Liberty Justice Center and 24 state governments. See linked post for reasons why, including some covered in my amicus brief on behalf of @cato.org and myself: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

I’m truly vexed by the special pleading by the chief justice. Are we not supposed to notice that partisans avidly seek majorities SO THAT they can appoint co-partisans to the court? That co-partisan judges vote together, which is WHY our discourse is obsessed with the partisan composition of courts?

That constitutional interpretation can be generally apolitical is a floridly political opinion espoused primarily by partisan actors seeking to obfuscate and camouflage their activism.

Great stuff.

Our daily grind. via @nycjayjay.bsky.social

there really is like a society wide, party neutral affliction of people not caring whether something is true or not and I can't say I care for it!!!!!!!!!

Camp Mystic finally accepts reality, will not open this summer.

We need to re-legalize the very cheap, bare bones housing that keeps people off the street. More broadly, we need policymakers to be ok with letting people build types of housing that they would not particularly want to live in.

I stan our new #YIMBY Jeopardy hero. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/s...

No internet

What about their Second Amendment rights? www.latimes.com/california/s...

I’ve reached an age at which, with each unfortunate, unwanted encounter with Clavicular, my first thought is, “Who are this boy’s parents and what is wrong with them?”

The Pope: WEAK on crime. Careless about theology. Can’t wait for what’s next!

He’s right, dammit.

Love to see this. Published my first grown-up newspaper op-ed in the Post-Gazette.

Nope. Nope. Nope. This post is just two false statements.

This is a really important piece. Detroit has been coddled for decades through bipartisan protectionism. The US should let China sell affordable EVs, get them to invest by building EV manufacturing here, and let Detroit complete. And if Detroit can't complete, they don't deserve to be in business.

The pope is weak on crime is one of the funniest things anyone has ever said

Out of 23,000 undergrads, only 19 students signed up for the lavishly funded conservative academic center forced onto University of Iowa by Republican politicians. Turning Points has an $85 million budget and there is no equivalent on the center-left/left. And yet, students still aren't buying it.

Astronauts good!

I love how the comments in NYT Cooking recipes are all like “this is good but I did this instead” and describe an entirely different dish

Great article on railways and wider urban planning challenges worksinprogress.co/issue/why-ja...

Sharing again with link: I've been saying #IA02 is in play, along with #IA01 and #IA03. These numbers suggest Trump's approval rating is -12 in #IA01 (which he carried by 8.5 points), -12 in #IA02 (voted for Trump by 10 points), and -16 in #IA03 (which he carried by 4 points).

My one-hour special “Rick Steves Iran: Yesterday and Today,” which helps humanize 90 million Iranian people, is streaming free and ad-free at www.ricksteves.com/watch-iran.

Tired of the old "elf on a shelf" nonsense? Canada GOTCHU.

Also: This is the fun part! Where’s the AI to do laundry and wash the dishes so that I can spend more time writing and researching?

WATCH: Whether you love cars or hate cars, you should watch this new video and better understand the truth about the real costs & consequences of too many cars in our cities, and the car dependency many of us live in. You might find it hard to watch, but watch it to the end anyway. Via #NotJustBikes

“Driving is so hard-wired into American culture, life and institutions, that it’s hard to account for all the ways it is subsidized, preferenced or otherwise favored. But a law professor at the University of Iowa, attempted it anyway.” #UtbanTruth Via @usa.streetsblog.org @nyc.streetsblog.org

Michael McCown, who lost his daughter in the Camp Mystic floods, recalls walking through the aftermath. Among the fallen trees was a smattering of stuffed animals and brightly colored clothes. Inside Bubble Inn, he found his daughter Linnie’s shark watch and her capybara stuffie.

AI Might Be Our Best Shot At Taking Back The Open Web I remember, pretty clearly, my excitement over the early World Wide Web. I had been on the internet for a year or two at that point, mostly using IRC, Usenet, and Gopher (along with email, naturally). Some friends I had met on Usenet were…

"The parents of dead children are a problem. They stand opposed to our most basic and necessary illusions." An absolutely haunting story by @kerryhowley.bsky.social that resist all such illusions. A story of Camp Mystic, and the 27 girls who died there unnecessarily, that I never knew.

Horrific & sensitively reported story by the peerless @kerryhowley.bsky.social. Seeing the delusion on display here I can't help but think about climate change, whose effects (eg torrential rain & floods) will also be treated as acts of God, when they are the work of people nymag.com/intelligence...

This is an excellent, brutal, cuttingly angry feature.

For our Cover Story, Kerry Howley reports on the tragedy of Camp Mystic — and the battle over the camp’s future: intelligencer.visitlink.me/BvQLS8

Always read Kerry Howley

It had not occurred to the parents who lost their 27 daughters at Camp Mystic that a session in 2026 would be open to debate. But the camp is open this year, with almost 900 girls signed up. Kerry Howley reports on the July 4th tragedy — and the battle over the camp’s future: tinyurl.com/n5pyfzah

This @kerryhowley.bsky.social story is a riveting nightmare, especially for parents of young kids.

I wrote about a camp, 27 girls who drowned due to astonishing failures to plan, and hundreds of families going back anyway. nymag.com/intelligence...

oh look at that www.pew.org/en/research-...

I was only given a paragraph in Northwestern's press packet about the impending birthright citizenship arguments.

Oh no! RIP, Brian.

Huge loss. news.miami.edu/as/stories/2...

Correct, Andy. Paperwork LEGALLY makes you American.

My simple heuristic for "is it conscious?" questions is: 1) Take the set of beings that you're confident are conscious. 2) Identify what all those beings have in common. 3) Ask whether the thing you're asking about share those commonalities. 4) If not, then answer "not conscious."

Highly recommend this pod on AI where @chrislhayes.bsky.social interviews Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of a big recent New Yorker piece on the subject. Tons of interestng discussion, especially for us ex-philosophy geeks. Forthwith, a short 🧵

Ok, since I’ve gotten a few “you don’t know for sure it’s not true!” let’s briefly say why. In a hyper-strict Cartesian sense of “know,” you can’t really “know” whether anything or anyone is conscious except yourself. But in the everyday sense, outside the dorm room…

We’re dying because of overpriced dinosaur juice while China wins the future.