Ah, well, nevertheless.

imagine #actuallying critics of the Supreme Court right now

Kagan’s short dissent is unanswerable.

this Terrence Tao video about the collaborative hunger for knowledge is wonderful youtu.be/skWt_PZosik?...

Proof they were comfortable with goblins, and who are we to read the goblins out of the vesting clause

right! the antifederalist critics of the constitution were EXTREMELY PARANOID of what the document might wrought. somehow, they missed that the vesting clause gave the presidential monarchial powers!

Gonna sew a Hollie Hobby costume for one or more of these Halloween parties.

journo friends big thumbs up on the continued use of “PURPORTED firing,”please continue in this regard, you are reporting state of play accurately Thx hugs & kisses, J

Our recent panel on the imperial presidency (featuring @jdmortenson.bsky.social @janemanners.bsky.social Cristina Rodriguez and @wuc3.bsky.social) makes the same point. Trump's view of Article II is historically novel. www.youtube.com/live/_QvxTc7...

1) David French's recent NYT column argues that the right is using the Constitution's ambiguity about exec power to justify a presidential coup. Yes, but @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social al‬ should highlight historians who demonstrate that this sentence is not as ambiguous as Trump's defenders pretend.

I would suggest people read JD Mortenson’s (@jdmortenson.bsky.social) article on the Article II vesting clause repository.law.umich.edu/articles/2062/

Nothing about the current state of the imperial presidency was inevitable. Was great to talk with @jdmortenson.bsky.social @janemanners.bsky.social Cristina Rodriguez and @wuc3.bsky.social for a @brennancenter.org panel on how we got here and where we can go next. www.youtube.com/live/_QvxTc7...

Or orthopendics

this begs the question whats the difference between pedantry and podiantry when you stop to think about it

CAFC tariff argument focusing on what interpreting "regulate" to include tax power would do to other statutes. It would also expand the tax power in IEEPA beyond tariffs! Regulate modifies use, transfer, holding, acquisition-gov't argument means IEEPA authorizes sales taxes, property taxes, etc!

are birds eligible for a Darwin Award?

Most of these Democratic politicians just *are religious*. Like Cooper, Beshear, Buttigieg, Shapiro, Biden, Warnock, even Mamdani are just straight up religious. It's not so much "citing religion" as the source of their morals as much as it is just the way it actually is.

that tragic moment when you’re on your way to Morgan & York and you realize it’s Monday

FDR's first inaugural address had so many Biblical references in it the National Bible Reporter printed up an annotated version to track them all.

I mean, “Animal Husbandry” is right there.

NOT TODAY, NEW YORK TIMES

1 like = 1 geodesic phenomenological rebalancing barbecue sauce

a long long long long time ago

🚨Tuesday, Aug. 5 — Everything you need to know about the "Unitary Executive Theory" that's underwriting our new era of presidential lawlessness. RSVP today 👇🏻 to get the link: brennan.swoogo.com/unitaryexecu... @brennancenter.org @janemanners.bsky.social @jdmortenson.bsky.social @wuc3.bsky.social

So thrilled to see Alison recognized by @shearites.bsky.social for her exceptional book, The Interbellum Constitution! 🗃️

There are gurus and then there’s @ajosephoconnell.bsky.social on anything federal vacancies-related:

Please join us Aug. 5 for a virtual panel on how the Trump admin. and SCOTUS have expanded presidential power to the limit (and beyond). Looking forward to joining @janemanners.bsky.social, Cristina Rodriguez, @jdmortenson.bsky.social, and @wuc3.bsky.social: brennan.swoogo.com/unitaryexecu...

This was a really fun panel!! And it was an honor to sit alongside and be in conversation with some of the best constitutional historians: Mary Sarah Bilder, @rachelshelden.bsky.social, @janemanners.bsky.social, & @jdmortenson.bsky.social. And thanks to @jgienapp.bsky.social for organizing this!

SCOTUS did not reach the question of whether a facially neutral policy can be used to foster diversity so it seems AFL is misrepresenting the ruling here? The court has twice turned down cases raising that issue since the SFFA ruling was decided.

I think one of the worst effects of the O’Connor consensus has been to take from institutions of all sorts the ability to talk about inequality and race like adults. That’s been stolen from us. And it’s entirely warped the meta-conversation to the point of caricature.

The explicit plan is to ethnically cleanse Gaza with US help while the whole world watches.

the strange thing about this is that multiple members of the 6-3 majority have signed opinions expresssly endorsing race neutral approaches to promoting racial equality (Which to be clear has always sat weirdly with pretext analysis in other contexts, but that’s another story)

It’s a claim that is suggested in the DOE letter from February as well. It’s an aggressive effort to expand Arlington Heights analysis when applied to reverse discrim claims. It is one reason schools need to be careful not to produce a trail of “we can achieve the same result with class” statements.

A similar “racial discrimination by proxy” suit was filed yesterday by Pacific Legal Foundation, albeit in the k12/exam school admissions context: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/17/m...

“anything that might possibly benefit a black person is anti-white discrimination” rests on the unspoken belief in black inferiority

I thought the press descriptions had to be at least slightly off. But they are completely accurate. America First is literally arguing that the disparate impact of free tuition for all families making <$300K per year “masks racial preferences behind income thresholds.”

“Johns Hopkins has not merely preserved its discriminatory DEI framework — it has entrenched, expanded and openly celebrated it as a cornerstone of its institutional identity,” www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/hi...

Say what you will about history as a lens for assessing the world, say it’s a font of dark equanimity [@bainbridge]

Human virtues have been so completely untethered from political virtues on one side of the aisle that it’s not clear what exit there could possibly be

Mamdani is not Barack Obama but he is like him in that a friendly guy will be promising to moderately improve daily life and people like Bari Weiss will go “I see we have decided to elect Pol Pot”

✈️ Very excited to head to Rhode Island for the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, at which I’m both an interloper & facilitator of what promises to be a terrific discussion with @gauthamrao.bsky.social, @jedshug.bsky.social, Jennifer Tucker & Saul Cornell!

Among others panels, I’m also super looking forward to Saturday’s session on new directions in const’l history w/ @jdmortenson.bsky.social, @tannerallread.bsky.social, @rachelshelden.bsky.social, @janemanners.bsky.social & Mary Bilder

The prior acting US attorney left for private practice 7 days ago: www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...

A lot of people are sharing and replying to this without understanding that this isn't just rogue ICE agents or something, a federal prosecutor went out and actually got them indicted for conspiracy to impede federal law enforcement. this is not just arresting them!

Lots of things to say about this but one of them is, be careful out there. There’s some extremely open-ended criminal laws. And the feds have enormous enforcement discretion.

And again, before the inevitable dozens of replies: No, the Democrats are not a center-right party simply because their policies are not progressive enough for you specifically.

I didn't see us on here but I can tell you @ballsandstrikes.org takes pitches and pays $500 for essays of ~1,000 words ballsandstrikes.org/contact-us/

Perhaps THE biggest misunderstanding about higher ed. And not only among conservatives, or even the political attuned!

going to college, living in an international dorm and meeting brown kids from africa, dark-skinned kids with african features from india, spanish-speaking chinese kids from argentina, and many others changed the way i understood the world in some pretty fundamental ways