I think it says a lot... almost too much. It's all baseball as far as the Court is concerned: The Constitution = the Official Baseball Rules; judges = umpires; corporations = teams; a few individuals = players; the rest of us = masses to be placated with panem et circenses

Call for Papers for the 2027 Election Law Conference at USC Gould School of Law! Feel free to reach out with any questions. electionlawblog.org?p=157307

New paper from me: Reconstructing the Civil Rights State After Democratic Backsliding. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Am I right that Slaughter effectively eliminates Congress’s requirement of bipartisan commissioners? The president can just fire the Dems and fail to replace them. For some agencies, that might mean no quorum, but not for the FTC. www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/...

A few things among many the Supreme Court has invented: 1) Color-Blindness 2) Presidential Immunity 3) State Sovereign Immunity from federal law suits by a state’s own citizens. 4) Qualified Immunity 5) The Dormant Commerce Clause 6) Free Exercise Equal Protection Clause 7) Most of standing law.

They keep screaming at us that they intend to steal the election. I know lots of folks on the Dem side are working against that goal, and I think the countermeasures will be effective, but we all need to be in this fight. Literally nothing is more urgent for our democracy.

Congratulations and welcome!

I’m honored to share that I’ve been elected to membership in The American Law Institute. The ALI has long played an important role in improving and clarifying American law, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to contribute to that work.

You can't trust these folks as far as you can throw them. (Not to mention that even without the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" they could just be using the Judgment Fund directly to pay off the J6 thugs right now and not telling anyone about it.)

Relying on the Supreme Court's decision in Callais and its gutting of Section 2 of the VRA, the OLC released a memo declaring unconstitutional the EEOC's interpretive rules and guidance documents governing Title VII's disparate-impact provisions. Here's my take: electionlawblog.org?p=156693

My essay on the many ways that state courts interpret state constitutions in lockstep with federal doctrine is now live on the @statecourtreport.org! statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

The level of ambition is correct. I would start with DC statehood. But see this new paper for why fair maps are a better goal than proportional representation—and how Congress can actually legislate fair maps, if there is a D trifecta in 2029, using partisan constitutional hardball:

Labor law x patent prosecution: "An arbitrator ruled Monday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office "committed a clear and patent breach" of agreements with the union representing some of its employees when the office eliminated telework arrangements last year at the urging of...Donald Trump."

I'm very happy to share that the AALS Section on State Constitutional Law has been approved and is now live! Thank you very much to everyone who supported this effort. We look forward to building a long-term infrastructure for state constitutional scholarship, study, and advocacy.

In the Kansas Law Review: Anti-McCarthyism and the Right to “Fair and Just Treatment” in State Constitutions People treated unfairly during executive or legislative investigations often lack a remedy. But two state constitutions guarantee "fair and just treatment." papers.ssrn.com/abstract=687...

we just covered this angle: www.patreon.com/posts/159412...

This is a really nice piece, as is the underlying law review article. I highly recommend it. I agree that state constitutions can play an important role in protecting the public interest from private capture. There remain hard questions about the role of the courts here, even at the state level.

A short piece I wrote for @statecourtreport.org on the problems "state capture" poses for state and local government, and how state constitutions might be used to prevent them. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana... Based on an article first published with @cardozolaw.bsky.social (link below).

Am reading every newspaper article I can find from April 7-16 on reaction to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Not my main concern, or theirs, but every piece that says something says the act makes everyone born on American soil a citizen of the United States.

new episode out today! professor Luke Ferguson joins us to talk about the history of constitutional law, how the Supreme Court gutted the project of reconstruction, and why the left should treat the law as a site of struggle 👇 www.patreon.com/posts/159412...

Will really hits the correct analysis here, the republicans are the only ones in America that treat the Constitution as a living document, the Dems give it too much deference as a dead document. Legal realism wins again.

Constitutions evolve & remain a site of struggle for today’s Left, as explored on @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social’s chat with @lucienferguson.bsky.social on Reconstruction’s legacy. Loved considering notions of freedom as historically and economically contingent. #marxwasright #socialism #philosophy

Good piece, happy to see my article Ending Forced Labor in ICE Detention Centers cited. Very bleak that six years later the government has still done nothing to stop private prison contractors from profiting from forced labor. scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-arti...

Redemption was a STRUGGLE between multiracial democracy and white supremacy. It's easy to see Jim Crow at the end of that struggle and despair in this 2nd Redemption. But the outcome of struggle is not foreordained. The work of building a pro-democracy mass politics remains urgent and essential.

Watching history repeat itself is indeed disheartening. The Callais decision is going to frustrate American democracy for decades to come. I gave some initial thought about the decision’s meaning in this coverage for NPR. www.npr.org/2026/04/29/n...

With Gerry Crow now apparently federal law, it’s all the more important that litigants take a hard look at whether partisan advantage is actually a legitimate governmental interest under the laws of their state. My argument that it’s *not*: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

Andrew Johnson, Sen. Garret Davis of Kentucky, and every other person who insisted that the politics of Reconstruction privileged persons of color would be very proud of this Supreme Court.

Thanks to @lpeproject.bsky.social for including my work and @charlottegarden.bsky.social 's joint work on this list of must read articles and upcoming scholarship. There is a lot of good stuff on this list, and a lot of it is very timely.

Food justice! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Working on newspaper reaction to the override of the Johnson veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Amazing how often this sentence occurs when journalists describe the bill. "That all persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States."

Great writeup in @jotwell.bsky.social on Jade Craig's important piece, "Struggle Against the Water"! property.jotwell.com/fairer-housi...

Let’s crack this open. @unlawfulentries.bsky.social

Justice Robert Jackson, Opening Statement at the International Military Tribunal, November 21, 1945 voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wp-content/u...

Thursday April 9 SDP Webinar with Ringhand, Seifter, and Vladeck: “Can and Will Courts Ensure Free and Fair Elections in 2026?” electionlawblog.org?p=155301

The article I wrote last summer is now out with the Cardozo Law review. Thanks to the terrific editors and to those who gave feedback on the draft! www.linkedin.com/posts/cardoz...

Excited to present "Mapping Malfeasance" (forthcoming with Indiana L.J.) today at MSU as part of @yeargain.bsky.social's Democracy and Public Law WIP Conference with some fantastic state and local gov scholars! Draft is here: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn... Comments and critique very welcome ✨

The good folks at @theunpopulist.net gave me an opportunity to refresh my birthright citizenship piece from last year in honor of tomorrow's arguments. New bucket list item: getting the word "retconning" published. www.theunpopulist.net/p/every-argu...

Response to that weird Moyn thing criticizing me, @evanbernick.bsky.social @anthonymkreis.bsky.social @jedshug.bsky.social et al for being able to think that the attack on birthright citizenship is a political hack job AND that its legal arguments can be refuted balkin.blogspot.com/2026/03/poli...

The final version of Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? II is now at Oxford University Press. The most comprehensive study of democratic decline and resilience. Thanks to Mark Tushnet, Sandy Levinson, and Antonia Baraggia. All publicity is good. TOC here. balkin.blogspot.com/2026/03/cons...

My latest, for @statecourtreport.org, about two important cases making their way through Kansas state courts, the connection between bodily autonomy and trans rights, and how state constitutions are being asked to meet the moment. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

Half the books in our field are or should be dedicated to Sandy.

Thrilled to share that my latest, "Law Enforcement Gang Designations" will be published in volume 112 of the Virginia Law Review. Draft is up on SSRN, comments welcome! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Very happy to announce that "Mapping Malfeasance" is now forthcoming with the Indiana Law Journal! I argue that partisan intent is sufficient to invalidate an election map under under any state's constitution. @ssrn.bsky.social link: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

‘A really really big decision’: The court cases looming over the midterms politi.co/4rvfsEN via @politico.com

“The doorkeeper recognizes that the man has reached his end, and, to let his failing senses catch the words, roars in his ear: “No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it.”

Repealing anti-gerrymandering laws is shameful. But my research shows it also can't prevent state constitutional challenges to map manipulation. I discuss this and other findings in my new paper, "Mapping Malfeasance"—now available for download on SSRN and looking for a home. t.co/NHOr0Y5hWH

Now up on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Just in time to think about Section 2 VRA compliance minority-majority districting and the 14th/15th amendments. 👀