Update: 1st Circuit has ruled in favor of Maine in St. Dominic and Crosspoint cases. Schools receiving public funding can be required to comply with nondiscrimination rules. Decisions here (h/t Religion Clause blog): www.ca1.uscourts.gov/sites/ca1/fi... www.ca1.uscourts.gov/sites/ca1/fi...

Let us all, again, in 2026, pledge to dedicate our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor to protecting and defending the rule of law and resisting arbitrary power.

You can’t do rushed, sloppy, and inaccurate historical work to change legal rules we all live under and not be treated as a player in the president’s political game. If a historian did that, they’d be called a hack, and not taken seriously thereafter. Why should the bar for law profs be lower?

Mike Ramsey: Although majority in Trump v. Barbara was "entirely right" about original meaning of Citizenship Clause, case is an "originalist disappointment" bc it "could have been the basis of a powerfully unified originalist statement" from all "originalist-oriented justices." Ramsey on dissents:

The Supreme Court has been dodging cert petitions in vaccine exemption cases for several years now. It granted, vacated, and reversed (GVR’ed) a Second Circuit decision — see below. And now CA2 has responded, saying to the Justices, in effect: if you really want this, you have to come and get it.

Justice Jackson, yesterday:

Narrator: Justice Barrett is the most "serious originalist" on the Court, and she joined the Chief's majority opinion concluding that "there is scant evidence" for Swearer and Wurman's "dramatically revisionist view."* * This is not to say Barrett is a consistent originalist. None of them are.

Justice Jackson’s concurrence is dead on: “The distortion of historical facts—retellings that reimagine and repurpose past events to lend credence to misbegotten aims— may be an even greater threat."

I’m mad about today. I’m mad that justices can’t do the bare minimum to uphold the Constitution. I’m mad that the law and our history, which I have dedicated so much of my life to, is an inconvenience than an inheritance to many. I’m mad that the academy, which I love, rewards and enables it.

2 more thoughts on birthright: 1. The movement to overturn Roe and Humphrey's Executor was built over decades. It took an enormous amount of effort to manufacture that sense of scholarly viability (see: Teles, Hollis-Brusky). The right got 5-4 on birthright with a sloppy last-minute scramble

KBJ is the best.

Hang it in The Louvre.

Oh my goodness, the votes in birthright citizenship. 5-4 on whether the constitution protects birthright citizenship. No way to portray this opinion as coming from a moderating court

1/ One important doctrinal takeaway from B.P.J. decision is narrowing of gap b/n equal-protection intermediate scrutiny and free-speech int. scrutiny. Former had been viewed as rigorous (captured by "exceedingly persuasive" phrase), while latter long viewed (in Ct's words) as "relatively lenient."

The Religious Liberty Comm’n section on vaccines (pp. 143-50) contains no citations to cases reviewing vaccine exemption claims — and there are hundreds of them. It would be generous to call this report misleading. It is better described as anti-vax propaganda. www.justice.gov/religious-li...

Curious as to whether Robert George will find time to share his thoughts about this, and what it reflects about the American right in the Trump era, especially given the attention George has paid to those on the left that he warns "devour their own."

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.

I so appreciate her for this. Call a thing a thing.

John Roberts' Constitution forbids any attempt to proactively ameliorate racial discrimination and racial inequality, but permits open racial discrimination as long as there is a facially neutral explanation available, even if it isn't remotely plausible. This, my friends, is "Colorblindness."

The Supreme Court of the United States has concluded, as a matter of law, that Donald Trump and his administration's racism and vitriol toward Haitians—in its termination of TPS—is not "overtly racial." Justice Kagan, in dissent, calls them out: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Update: Columbus Dispatch reports that GOP state senator has responded to university panel's recommendation that professor who tackled the videographer be fired. The response: a bill that would strip the university of the power to fire employees in this program. www.dispatch.com/story/news/p...

A genuine assault-on-free-speech story. Latest development appears to have been greeted with silence on social media from those often warning about threats to free speech on campus. Might they be speaking up if violent professor wasn't working in conservative program established by R legislature?

Posted an updated, near-final version of this piece on SSRN: Mahmoud, Skrmetti, and 303 Creative: Ignoring Original Meaning, Rewriting Precedent, and Discounting Harm to LGBTQ People papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Necessary and Proper part of Landor is difficult to defend. The Constitution allows Congress to impose (even criminal) sanctions on state officials who steal funds or on even private parties who bribe or defarud such officials, in order to protect the proper use of federal $$, ... [1]

Today was an absolute blood bath at SCOTUS for the less powerful to enforce civil rights in the federal courts. TL;dr - SCOTUS rules 6-3 that only corporations have rights that are enforceable in federal court??

This is excellent; thanks, Greg

I sent this piece to SSRN a few weeks ago. A bitter irony that it finally got posted on Juneteenth. It's part of a festschrift for Ruth Colker. It highlights just how much worse the Trump Administration is on racial justice than even the Reagan Administration. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Laura Portuondo, University of Houston Law Center, is publishing Free Exercise and the Redistribution of Liberty in volume 136 of the Yale Law Journal / papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Pleased to post my draft article, “Discovering the Historical Anglo-American Constitution.” I study the history of birthright citizenship from the 1100s to the 1700s. The English common-law rule of natural-born subjects was always tied to territory and jurisdiction. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Not doing much social media these days, but will note that I have a new paper with @btkeener.bsky.social posted on SSRN on birthright citizenship. Can be found at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... 1/

Just as someone who is 5’9” is shorter than someone who is 6’2”, Trump’s Iran deal is objectively worse than Obama’s. Any coverage that doesn’t clearly explain that Trump launched a war that forced him to then agree to a worse deal is disserving its readers. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

So Trump has spent tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, sent gas prices soaring, depleted the U.S. arsenal and further alienated our allies, all to get Iran to restore the status quo that existed before Trump started the war and that’s it? Explain to me what I have wrong?

"I want to focus on a great candidate notching a win, in an election that speaks to the depth of respected and diligent public servants we have in our community. How lucky I am to live in such a place." Well said, @schraubd.bsky.social. Well said.

This suggests a lack of internal alignment among political appointees as to legality. Needless to say, it takes a lot of illegality for this administration to get to that point.

Bruce has added SCOTUS to his big speech before My City of Ruins:

This is really important from four of my law school colleagues who helped draft U of M’s institutional neutrality policy. www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...

Our unlawful campaign of murdering civilians is closing in on 200 individuals. And no one in Congress appears to care at all. Nor do most (perhaps all) of our allies. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/u...

Not a lot of fun stuff in politics but watching Orban’s defeat is fun.

Marcus's post is a worthwhile read.

BREAKING NEWS: A federal court just struck down the president's illegal tariffs – again – and Oregon has won a massive victory for working families for the second time this year. When the president tries to illegally tax Oregonians, we'll go to court to stop him. #orpol

This dropped around the same time as this interview - Neil Gorsuch on Megyn Kelly’s show. He was talking about how “young conservatives must have courage to stand by their beliefs.” Sounds apolitical to me!

@daviddoniger.bsky.social identifies the most troubling aspect of what the NYTimes leaks reveal about the 2016 Clean Power Plant case. www.yalejreg.com/nc/new-york-...

By this reasoning, could Texas require public schools to post crucifixes in every classroom? What about a picture of Jesus next to words “I am the way, the truth, and the life”? /2

Which religious liberty clinic is going to represent religiously affiliated public accommodations that refuse to comply with this anti-trans bathroom law? Maybe Harvard, Stanford, or Yale’s? religionnews.com/2026/05/05/j...

It's now been 2 years and 3 months since the Oregon Court of Appeals heard argument in Klein v. Oregon BOLI ("Sweetcakes by Melissa" case) after the second remand from the U.S. Supreme Court (first GVR came after Masterpiece, second after 303 Creative), and still no decision.

White House trying to pull wool over Congress' eyes? White House Letter to claim War Powers clock stopped: "There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran" since ceasefire began Gen Caine: "Since the ceasefire was announced, Iran...attacked US forces more than 10 times"

Two different technical, procedural moves from #SCOTUS yesterday have one thing in common: The Court is behaving differently in otherwise similar cases based upon the ideological/partisan valence of the dispute. Via "One First," me on why, results aside, that's a serious indictment of the Court:

Men were coming up to him, big strong men, with tears in their eyes like nothing you've ever seen, saying "thank you, sir, for such a masterful gambit." www.cnbc.com/2026/04/29/o...