Milling up some white oak for a furniture project. First time I've worked with the material. The whole time I'm thinking, man, this waste material I'm cutting smells so familiar. Then it hits me: bourbon. White oak barrels are what bourbon is aged in. Nice workshop scent.

I haven't heard too much from the Reed Machine this election cycle in Alabama. With Doug Jones on the ticket, I would assume they're big mad he's sweeping the field. Worth mentioning, however, that Jones' margins are bigger in the more affluent areas and not so much in poorer, more rural spots.

I'm a big fan of Phil's. He's an effective voice in the legislature, though, and so I hate we're gonna lose him.

All the lolz. Givan took a major swing at Woodfin, circled round on the whiff, and socked herself right out of office.

Because I tend to be drawn to the sound of Laurel Canyon music, I had Claude make a network analysis of collaborators. A lot favorites in here! Mostly unsurprising, but I was a little surprised to see Linda Ronstadt as such a major node. Guess I'll have to buy more of her stuff.

Having always lived in the South, I was kind of taken aback when the poll worker in her 70s yesterday mispronounced my name. Hughes is a pretty common surname, especially in the South. I had Claude plot how common it is, and maybe Acadiana gets a break, but come on. It's common.

Interviewed in this Newsweek piece on Cassidy's chances today in Louisiana's Republican primary race. www.newsweek.com/bill-cassidy...

I (sort of) figured out how to use SketchUp. First effort: an arts and crafts (mission) occasional/side table. Not big, but I'm going to build a pair of these to sit next to some leather chairs in the living room (21" tall and 16" in diameter).

As someone who does the odd bit of polling, I love getting poll requests. Probably not the respondent the pollster wants, but, meh. Today it was a US Senate Republican primary poll for Louisiana a la Dynata. Decent questions.

I managed to damage an electrical outlet--broke a plastic piece on it. Figured, let's just let a pro handle it. They come out and try to up-sell me a $450 fee. I say you're nuts. They say $75. I say fine. The come back and say, actually $230. I say go away. I fixed it for $0.92.

Interestingly, we're seeing a similar dynamic play out in the UK right now, where the two-party system really is breaking down at scale, and voters are turning to third parties. Nothing like that is happening in the US, where voters seem to vote anti-incumbent every two years.

I've long argued the US party system is way overdue for realignment. A two-party system is inherently unstable (e.g., divide-the-dollar game), and party systems in the US typically only last about 30 years. We're rocking a partisan system that's now around a half-century old.

It really is incredible. The one thing the American electorate voted in Republicans for in '24 was to get a handle on affordability. And it's as if this administration has designed its agenda on accomplishing the exact opposite of that. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/b...

One way to sweeten the pot for hesitant congressmen who don't want to risk their positions, which comes with the added bonus of even better representation, would be to expand the size of the US House at the same time as adopting proportional representation. Few incumbents would be likely to lose.

Grades submitted, and that's a wrap on the spring '26 semester! Now time for everyone's favorite game: Does my summer class make or not?

I was able to squeeze in a quick mow between thunderstorms (though only half what needed to be done), but alas, it's raining again. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZUE...

This thing's taken a life of its own by now. But this moment will pass, and I hope leadership in Congress, once Trumpism has left the political scene, is prepared to discuss congressional reforms that can be pursued so that both parties can deescalate. www.axios.com/2026/05/06/t...

Installed my new mortising machine today. This puppy is going to be transformative. Grizzly has made a superb, cost-effective product here that produces dead-on mortises with minimal effort.

They won't be winning any beauty prizes, but my shop cabinets are coming along. Next up: Adding drawers, shelves, and doors.

One nice thing about Justice Jackson's tenure on the Court has been to bring the fights the justices engage in back out into the open. It's been a while since we had justices on the Court who clearly loathe one another. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Got to see Robert Cray this past weekend in New Orleans. Always a great show. First time I saw Cray play was in 2006 when he opened for Clapton. Cray totally stole the show. Seen him 4 or so times since. Always puts in a great set. Beautiful voice and axe-man extraordinaire.

It's a brew day. On tap: Porter.

A key reason you see that big spike in the 90s was that DOJ used section 5 preclearance to impose the Gingles framework to increase majority-minority districts. In 2013, SCOTUS neutered section 5. And 2 days ago it did the same to Gingles.

There's a pretty large state courts literature that weighs this conundrum of accountability vs. independence. Let's just say that there are a *TON* of institutional options between current Article III courts and modicums of accountability that still leave a heckuva lot of independence in place.

Because I've not seen media outlets discuss the finer details, in this series of posts, I'm going to outline the revised Gingles requirements for plaintiffs to win a Section 2 Voting Rights Act lawsuit alleging illegal vote dilution against racial minorities. (1/9)

In the past, I've argued that the conservative justices have to know how much hate they're generating on the left and that at the first opportunity, democrats will curb the shit out of them. Now, I'm not so sure. They seem to be adjudicating with reckless abandon.

By institutional design, we should expect the Supreme Court to be conservative in the sense its members represent political regimes of yesteryear. Thomas, for example, represents the appointment politics stemming from the 1988 presidential election. That's nuts.

Okay, I've read the thing. It's almost comical how difficult it will now be for plaintiffs to win Section 2 suits. SCOTUS might have just gone ahead and formally overruled Gingles, said the 1982 rewrite was illegitimate and Mobile v. Bolden never went away.

After untold references to it throughout the semester, my students requested an airing of My Cousin Vinny for the end of the semester. The yutes have spoken!

Increasingly resembling a usable workspace.

I am going to belittle people who need to act like adults and think about the lunacy of what they're saying.

R&R day!

I recently discovered the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. If you're into antique southern furniture (and why wouldn't you be?), they have a really great collection here from across the eastern half of the South: mesda.org/lp/collectio....

Well, there was a once-in-a-century pandemic. Followed by the biggest land war in Europe since the 1940s. Oh, and we keep electing a money-grubbing con-artist whose view of economics is rooted in the Gilded Age. Is it one of those? www.axios.com/2026/04/12/i...

Well, they're beginning to look like cabinets--even if i will have to shim my way toward the finish line. To the right I'll have another set and a miter bench in the middle. If you look close enough, you can probably see my blood on some of those panels.

Guess we'll be doing appointment politics soon. I don't know if other courts scholars feel the same as I do, but I just find SCOTUS deeply uninteresting as an institution these days and have no interest in writing about them at this point in my career. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/u...

It's been a heck of a run, and she proved to be more politically astute than a lot of folks expected her to be. Her first political campaign was for Lurleen Wallace 60 years ago. Many thought she was through after the collapse of PACT. And a lot of folks didn't think she'd make it 10 years as gov.

Had some spare cherry lying around the shop, so made this little chest. I messed the hinge up pretty good, but a decent learning experience. And a place to put collar stays, cufflinks, etc.

It's a brew day.

This is so cool. www.cnn.com/2026/04/03/s...

Check out my new piece in SPPQ with fabulous coauthors, Brent Boyea, Marcy Shieh, and Kayla Canelo. In it, we review the state courts literature.

Decided to purchase a Claude subscription. Let me tell you how much I love this thing. You know that DOJ rule on accessibility all of us are trying to deal with? I have it currently remaking all my lecture videos, slides, syllabi, and assignments automatically--HUGE time-saver.

Watched One Battle after Another. It really is a great flick. HBO has it to stream. Hoping to screen Project Hail Mary this weekend. The book was fantastic and the trailers make the movie seem pretty faithful to the source content.

R&R! Let's go!

Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought a mortising machine. I've tried mortising with the router, drill press, etc. Just can't get dead-on accuracy. So now we break out the big guns!

Working on a plant stand in the English country cottage tradition this weekend. Plans called for pine, but I opted to up it a bit and went for ash. First time milling it. I think it'll look good. Just gotta figure out the finishing. Woodworking really is therapeutic. Relaxing.

I used this research as a job market paper for a few universities. I guess I'll have to get a new one now. I think I can speak for Teena insofar as we think this was one of the best things we've ever written.

It's an exciting day, y'all. Teena Wilhelm and I started this project many years ago, and today it's in print. Main takeaway: Judicial elections can empower courts in the separation of powers game by giving them a direct line to their popular legitimacy. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Okay, but who made this x-axis?