I’m with Chris in thinking an Alito retirement announcement next week is more likely than not.

Why does the modern #SCOTUS seem so prone to counter-majoritarian decisionmaking? In a new @poppublicsphere.bsky.social piece, @kumar.fyi and I argue that the Court's relationship to democratic politics has changed as parties have become more cohesive and competitive. doi.org/10.1017/S153...

Today's Court decisions expose the real inconsistency in their philosophy. On one hand, judges can't second-guessing politicians (Trump can end TPS). On the other hand, judges can override politicians (Hawaii can't prioritize property rights over gun rights). What explains the difference, you ask?

This is a great point. Dissents are probably most useful when they point out how the majority is framing the facts and present a counterframe.

We’re really gonna regret wasting the name “Watergate,” huh

P.S.: That said, James Dolan sucks and always will.

going to laugh forever about the Knicks only losing the Trump Game immaculate scriptwriting, no notes

I made this for my parties and elections class next fall. I thought I'd share. It's a remake of the classic Voteview video with some added bells and whistles. Even has some music. :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=B84q... there's also an clickable/interactive website: kylesaunders.com/voteview/

Academic writing should be addressed neither to the public nor to other academics. It should be addressed to a single interlocutor with whom you have a petty rivalry and whose work you are trying to discredit

I'm pleased to announce that Eitan Sapiro-Gheiler and I have created the Comprehensive Courts of Appeals Database, which extends the Songer Database to the universe of published Courts of Appeals cases between 1892 and 2025. coadata.org/data/

Let’s not be hasty. The Queen of England was almost assassinated this way.

honestly this is nuts, they're establishing an 8-hour security perimeter around the most used transportation hub in North America, so one guy can attend a basketball game

I'm pleased to announce that Eitan Sapiro-Gheiler and I have created the Comprehensive Courts of Appeals Database, which extends the Songer Database to the universe of published Courts of Appeals cases between 1892 and 2025. coadata.org/data/

A 51-49 Dem Senate is one in which, for example, many Trump nominees never even make it out of committee, making it irrelevant which way Fetterman or Platner or whomever would vote on the floor.

And if you're interested in learning more about the collection effort, take a look at the paper by @jkastellec.bsky.social and I---now out at the Journal of Law and Courts. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Shadow docket data update! Version 3.0 of the database is out. The data is update through the end of March 2026. We've also expanded our data collection effort. For 2003 to present, the database now includes all applications, not just ones that the full Court rules on.

We more or less figured this out within 45 minutes of the original story... and HOW we figured it out should give lawyers and judges everywhere pause.

Re Paxton's 2020 denialism, note that Cornyn's one real deviation from Trump was voting to accept the 2020 election results, something he did while probably thinking that Trump was through.

“‘What we saw here is unfortunately just what we see all over the country,’ Kim told @nj.com on Monday.” “It’s sad, it’s a sad day.” Senator @kim.senate.gov was among the crowd of protesters when federal immigration agents fired pepper balls. www.nj.com/news/2026/05...

Sean Trende’s piece on his son’s last day of school is full of joy and sadness and love and is well worth your time. www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/202...

From our February Issue: Mass Versus Donor Attitudes on the Importance of Supreme Court Nominations by BRANDICE CANES-WRONE, @jkastellec.bsky.social and NICOLAS STUDEN. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

There’s a whole academic literature about why a rational president would never do this - maybe a dozen books and articles published across many years - and at the moment I think we can light the whole body of research on fire because Trump would absolutely do this.

Angels Appearing before the Shepherds, by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1910

Speedrun xkcd.com/3246/

As someone pointed out to me offline, this is a really funny typo in Alito’s mifepristone dissent: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Here's something (the font change and placeholder for a disposition that would not apply to a dissent) that suggests this was rushed out the door (it comes at the end of J. Alito's dissent):

interesting rationale from a prospective juror in the Elon Musk Twitter stock manipulation case

Some thoughts on the impending battle in Virginia. open.substack.com/pub/tomsclar...

Sorry, you can't come up with a catchy name for something and then walk it back. Those are the rules.

Since it's a already a shadow docket filled day, a visual representation of how different the Trump administration is in its strategy of seeking emergency relief. From the Shadow Docket Database with @jkastellec.bsky.social

As Justice Sotomayor's dissent notes, the district court's finding of unconstitutional discrimination is unaffected by Callais. But if the dist. ct. now reinstates that finding on remand, the state will run to SCOTUS and say Purcell forbids the court to do so. You can guess what happens next.

Trump put an 8% tax on university endowments, but Princeton University came up with an amazing way to avoid paying it: They stopped charging tuition for loads of their students. Now they have less than 3,000 tuition-paying students, which makes them exempt! www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2026...

Virginia is one of only 2 states (the other is South Carolina) that uses legislative appointments for its state supreme court judges. news.ballotpedia.org/2025/03/18/a...

Idk if y’all are following the Canvas hack story, but apparently whoever hacked it is holding each uni’s access to canvas for ransom. Grades are due for graduation and no one can log on. 😬

Important corrective to influential article

It is pretty striking to see the speed with which the Court wants to implement this rule — as opposed to the delay it exhibited in other pressing cases in the recent past, like Texas’s abortion ban or the Trump immunity decision.

Quite a remarkable exchange between Justice Alito (concurring) and Justice Jackson (dissenting) respecting the Supreme Court’s decision to issue the judgment in the Louisiana redistricting case immediately: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Gilens' data shows responsiveness to low-income public opinion for both issues where affluent favor change more & less. Seeming lack of responsiveness is due to a higher rate of policy change when the rich favor more Article: sociologicalscience.com/articles-v13... Post: medium.com/3streams/one...

Hains Point is a national treasure & a beloved civic space for hundreds of thousands of Americans who live in DC. The community golf course & surrounding parklands need maintenance, but not at cost of permanent loss of public access for all public uses. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/...

I am back. And I have seen the self-parodic antics of these NIMBYs. Imagine being a titled professor at Princeton University and accusing an inclusionary housing development of being "a monument to conspicuous privilege"!?! They will say literally anything. They have no shame!!

The RBG cult is very weird and it's important to smash its icons. Souter retired at age 70, healthy for that age, because he wanted Obama to replace him. In 2013 (the obvious time to retire, Dems ran Senate) Ginsberg had beaten cancer several times, was 80 years old, and... just rolled the dice!

Totally unprecedented for a Supreme Court justice to cite a tendentious statistic that purportedly supports their predetermined preferred outcome. bsky.app/profile/devi...

The decision in Louisiana v. Callais claims, "By 2004, the racial gap in voter registration and turnout had largely disappeared.... Black voters now participate in elections at similar rates as the rest of the electorate" (26–27). This is misleading: White turnout remains much higher than non-White.

Strange choice for the Washington Post to publish some generic NIMBY-ism about a small town in Central New Jersey. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Lots of alternative approaches to districting. But none will work without Supreme Court reform, because the Supreme Court is highly likely to strike down proportional representation, a federal ban on partisan gerrymandering, or anything. The text of the Constitution does not matter to them, sadly.

Just a reminder that in Shelby County, Roberts told us not to worry about the loss of VRA preclearance, because we’d still have VRA sec. 2 suits. That was, of course, disingenuous nonsense even at the time. Now, with Brnovich and Calllais, it’s all the more so.

1/ As far as I can tell, the only thing Randy has posted about Renee Good or Alex Pretti is to complain that Jonathan Last referred to their murders as state terrorism. He openly mocks Obama's reaction to the murder of Trayvon Martin, in the process accusing Obama himself of violent leanings.