[Enter Valentine.]

*So* excited “Local Rulemaking” — coauthored with the truly wonderful @zclopton.bsky.social — is now out in the Duke Law Journal . . . (Ever wonder how local rules get made? So did we . . . )

Big news coming out of higher ed!

Republicans are still trying to pass the SAVE Act—a bill that would make it harder to vote and disenfranchise millions of Americans. Join @redistrictingaction.org and tell your member of Congress to vote no: act.redistrictingaction.org/a/natl-saveact-cte

Tonight I learned that Robert Frost’s gravestone reads: “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.” ❤️‍🔥

Short 🧵: Trump is suing the IRS for $10 billion for poor supervision of its employees, leading to the unlawful release of his tax data--when Trump was president and had the power to fire the IRS Commissioner. On @justiaverdict.bsky.social I discuss the many ways in which the lawsuit is obscene. 1/

Liam Conejo Ramos is not alone. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/o...

We finally know what happened to DOJ's (frivolous) misconduct complaint against Chief Judge Boasberg: It was transferred by Chief Justice Roberts from the D.C. Circuit to Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Jeff Sutton, and Sutton dismissed it in a ... direct ... memorandum and order just two weeks later:

And just before it . . . "With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike, It is so ORDERED"

The constitutional prohibition on using federal law to abridge the freedom of the press is unusually explicit and really does mean what it says.

Such a ray of sunshine today . . . The great @zclopton.bsky.social has been named permanent Dean of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law! 💜🤍

New: In a memo to federal judges nationwide, Judge Robert Conrad, the head of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, said the courts only have enough cash on hand from to fully sustain paid operations through February 4 if a partial government shutdown occurs.

This morning, I recorded a video on TikTok about why DHS’s arguments for the power to enter homes without judicial warrants in immigration cases are bunk. Nine hours later, TikTok still says my video is “under review,” and can’t be shared. Well, here’s a link: georgetown.box.com/v/Vladeck-IC...

BILL CLINTON: "Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them. If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back."

"[U]ltimately it's up to each of us as citizens to speak out against injustice, protect our basic freedoms, and hold our government accountable."

The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Patel is wrong. Only 16 states prohibit guns at protests & Minnesota is not one of them. Gun-rights extremists—like many in the trump admin—have fought against restrictions like these, calling them infringements on the Second Amendment right. giffords.org/lawcenter/gu...

You did not bear the shame. You resisted. You bestowed the eternally vigilant symbol of change by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honour. — The German Resistance Memorial in Berlin

Evergreen post.

Paul Clement: “If there’s no judicial review, then this is all kind of a joke.”

Important question from the Chief and now Justice Kagan in the Cook argument — what is the point of the for cause requirement for removal if reinstatement is off the table as a remedy?

❄️

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated his life fighting for equity and justice. He taught us that even in the face of intimidation and discrimination, we must never stop working towards a better future – a lesson that feels especially relevant today.

By day and night he wrongs me, every hour He flashes into one gross crime or other That sets us all at odds. I’ll not endure it. His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us On every trifle.

Sam (age 9): What’s your quiet signal in class? Me: We don’t have one in law school. Sam: What do you do when your students get loud? (❤️)

I have never cheered harder for a tiny red dot.

Breaking: NYT now says *six* federal prosecutors in Minnesota have just resigned over the Justice Department's push to investigate the widow of Renee Good and the department's reluctance to investigate the ICE agent who shot Good, according to people with knowledge of their decision.

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG... www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Big article by @schwartzesque.bsky.social out in the Times this morning . . .

Where can I cancel my two weeks free trial of 2026 before the deadline?

No more, no more.

Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).

Today at 2:30 ET: I'll be the minority witness at a (twice-postponed) hearing before Senator Cruz's subcommittee, titled "Impeachment: Holding Rogue Judges Accountable." Here's a link to the witness statements, and where you should also be able to find live video this afternoon:

With all that is going on in the world, it might be easy to overlook that the D.C. Circuit appears to have changed its Special Panel (aka Motions Panel) so that it's no longer in place for a month. I think this change is both really important and really good. (A quick courts 🧵 . . . )

Always read @oonahathaway.bsky.social (and @ichotiner.bsky.social) . . .

Happy Year End Report on the Federal Judiciary for all who celebrate! 🎉🎉🎉 www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/y...

All the way down to the scone factory . . .

Oh this broke my heart today — “I feel so cheated and so sad that I don’t get to keep living the wonderful life I had with this kind, funny, handsome genius I managed to find.” “A Battle with My Blood” by Tatiana Schlossberg

At least 11 congressmen from 1865-1871 were arguably not citizens under Trump's interpretation of 14th A, our research finds. Yet no one challenged their eligibility to serve. Why not? Obviously, b/c no one who drafted or ratified the 14th A shared Trump's view. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

‘Asterisk’ comes from a Geek word meaning “little star.” *Greek

fascinating new birthright citizenship research from Amanda Frost and Emily Eason — in a reconstruction period rife with eligibility challenges, nobody challenged 12 members of Congress who would fail Trump’s citizenship clause test Paper here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Oh what a special one this is . . . Fifty years ago today — Dec. 19, 1975 — the great John Paul Stevens joined the Supreme Court of the United States. ❤️

The Kennedy Center name is established by federal statute, and therefore may be repealed only by federal statute. www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/...

Putting just a little more light out into the night . . .

On this day — December 16th — in 1775, this clever creature was born. Happy 250th birthday, Jane Austen!

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

“Knowledge is good. It does not have to look good or sound good or even do good. It is good just by being knowledge. And the only thing that makes it knowledge is that it is true. You can’t have too much of it and there is no little too little to be worth having.”

“Knowledge is good. It does not have to look good or sound good or even do good. It is good just by being knowledge. And the only thing that makes it knowledge is that it is true. You can’t have too much of it and there is no little too little to be worth having.”

Oh this broke my heart today — “I feel so cheated and so sad that I don’t get to keep living the wonderful life I had with this kind, funny, handsome genius I managed to find.” “A Battle with My Blood” by Tatiana Schlossberg