Sometimes I wonder if I am writing books or law review articles.

@georgetownccf.bsky.social is hiring! We are looking for a Research Fellow (JD or MA required) to work on a new project tracking the implementation of Medicaid work reporting requirements. This will be a two year position. Details available here: ccf.georgetown.edu/about-us/jobs/

Side note: Can we require law students to take a seminar on epistemology?

Very honored that @lsolum.bsky.social has highlighted my article on Presidential Control of the Civil Service as the download of the week. legaltheoryblog.com/2025/12/06/d...

Grateful for the Star Tribune coverage. Our message is simple: every neighborhood deserves to feel safe, and we’re ready to do the work. #ShenForSafety www.startribune.com/university-o...

Congratulations to @niaolainf.bsky.social, elected a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford, for Trinity Term in 2027. Her research there will build on the policy work she has undertaken this past year with @unwomen.bsky.social and @prioresearch.bsky.social. z.umn.edu/axkf

(1) We have had agencies that are run by people the President cannot fire since the beginning, as @kexelchabot.bsky.social has documented in exacting detail. There is nothing anomalous about independent agencies. (2) Presidents have sometimes *supported* agency independence. (1/4)

Caveat: I think removal protections are constitutional. Severing removal protections is one thing. I can't think of a way to severe functions (assuming they are even categorizable) without rewriting the statute. The Court would intrude deeply on Art. I. See: ndlawreview.org/wp-content/u...

New Paper 🚨: In this thread I teased a new paper with @briandfeinstein.bsky.social that brings hard empirical evidence to bear on emerging critiques of public participation's role in administrative decisionmaking. The paper is now public on @ssrn.bsky.social: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Holy shit. Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

To emphasize Steve's point: Fourth Circuit suggested that employees may be able to file in district court because the MSPB no longer functions as Congress intended due to (1) a lack of quorum (fixed as of October) and (2) the likelihood that removal protections would be found unconstitutional.

This is a big deal not just because of the ongoing efforts to kneecap immigration judges, but also the more general fight in many contexts over which challenges by federal employees to what the administration is doing can go to district courts vs. which must go to the Merit Systems Protection Board.

I have prepared my LegReg students for this moment.

Yes. Slap one of these signs everywhere. Teach the public about what government does.

In shameless self-promotion, see my recent article on this first point. Who implements law, how they are appointed, and how they are removed shapes the skills, expertise, and normative values brought to execution. Congress decides what is necessary and proper. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

(1) New essay and blog post up that are coauthored with the great @jedshug.bsky.social We bring together a decade of scholarship to argue that the quasi-judicial category is both consistent w/ original public meaning and synonymous with a deeper Anglo-American “history and tradition.”

JUST IN: A 2-1 panel of the D.C. Circuit rules that Trump may remove members of the NLRB or MSPB regardless of laws meant to shield them from removal without cause. Majority: Rao (Trump), Katsas (Trump) Dissent: Pan (Biden) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I listened to Hole's "Awful" a lot this year, and I am sure it has nothing to do with the state of the world.

SCOOP—In August, nearly 200 current/former FEMA staffers published the Katrina Declaration, a whistleblower letter detailing all the dangers posed by current leadership. All current employees were put on indefinite leave, and now I've learned one has been fired in violation of federal protections:

NEW (and CURIOUS) at SCOTUS: Court defers Trump administration's emergency plea to fire the Register of Copyrights pending upcoming decisions in two related cases that haven't been argued yet

If the executive can unilaterally shift all functioning out of an congressionally established agency, then what is left of Congress’ lawmaking? Why should Congress authorize executive agencies to do anything at all, ever? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...

I was reminded recently of Judge Posner's 2003 book review of "Wild Bill," the biography of Justice William O. Douglas. The book review is no longer posted at the New Republic or @uchicagolaw.bsky.social's website, but you can get it via the Wayback Machine: web.archive.org/web/20030302...

This is so concerning because (as I understand it) the offers are conditional on grades. So the students are distracted from their studies during the most stressful and difficult time in law school and it's not clear to me they benefit from a genuine job offer at the end.

New Paper: Presidential Control of the Civil Service. Conventional wisdom holds that the civil service sits safely beyond the president's reach. Does it? (1) Not nearly as much as legal scholars think. (2) That's a problem for the execution of the law. 1/12 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

We have a new tenure-track job in @lsegovernment.bsky.social at AP level (empirical political science, open subfield): jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/... Please apply and share with colleagues who might be interested!

We truly are a great biking city.

Minneapolis has been named one of the world’s most bike-friendly cities! A new report covering 100 cities in 44 countries ranked Minneapolis as the #2 biking city in the U.S., #5 in North America and #44 globally. Learn more: https://www.minneapolismn.gov/news/2025/november/2025-bike-friendly-city/

In light of the claim that civil service protections are unconstitutional or even just problematic to the presidency (see the next post for a link to the new OPM claim) -- here's Gerald Ford in 1974 in the wake of Watergate.

The nonprofit Democracy Forward has tapped more than a dozen former government workers as fellows to generate proposals to improve their former agencies’ effectiveness in the wake of federal workforce cuts. buff.ly/6PpRTNl

Important case regarding Trump's efforts to reduce federal government. Judge McConnell enjoins dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business Development Agency, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services, etc. 1/2 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

There is a post circulating on Bluesky encouraging the moving of a frozen turkey straight into a pot of hot oil. We are combating this misinformation the best way we know how - through the power of dance music.

It's up! www.yalejreg.com/nc/trump-reg...

Really solid work from @bridgetdooling.bsky.social

Today at 4:00PM EST/3:00 PM CST, I'll be at the ABA Administrative Law Conference speaking with @ajosephoconnell.bsky.social, @nicholashandler.bsky.social, and Philip Howard about the future of the civil service. Have been looking forward to this conversation all semester!

Personnel is policy. There's a reason most civil servants sit for some sort of exam. Yes, examination and credentialing cause delays in hiring. But civil servants serve in a position of public trust and you want to make sure they are qualified. Otherwise you end up in *waves wildly at DHS*.

Brand New Updated Presumption of Regularity Study, which was featured on 60 Minutes By Ryan Goodman, Siven Watt, Audrey Balliette, Margaret Lin, Michael Pusic and Jeremy Venook www.justsecurity.org/120547/presu...

Richard Neustadt famously stated that we don't actually have separation of powers; we have "separate institutions sharing powers". Very different practical implications.

At 4pm ET today, join @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org, @annabower.bsky.social, @rparloff.bsky.social, and @mollyroberts.bsky.social for a discussion of what happened at this morning's hearing on the grand jury proceedings in the prosecution of James Comey on Substack or YouTube.

The facts are complicated, but here’s a summary of what appears to have happened based on the filings and today’s hearing:

You know what... I'm just going to pre-write it.

Unfortunately, I think this would be the most arrogant self-cite I could plausibly include in my own work. Therefore, I call upon all of you to realize @annabower.bsky.social's dream. Please cite me and analogize me to Batman.

I look forward to writing the inevitable: "No. The Civil Service Is Not Unconstitutional." Who knew that I could build a tenure file on the back of just regurgitating black-letter law.

The deal to end the government shutdown included two provisions to alleviate some of the harm suffered by federal employees. @nicholasbednar.bsky.social explains why Congress must leverage the power of the purse to protect the federal workforce from further assaults by the Trump administration.

News that surprised me this morning federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2025/...

If you're not following @martylederman.bsky.social for the latest on the National Guard cases, you really should be.

On this day in 1882, Felix Frankfurter was born. As a Sup Ct Justice, he upheld a Mich law banning women from bartending. Anne Davidow, who represented the plaintiffs, later reported that Frankfurter “heckled” her from the bench while informing her that “the days of chivalry aren’t over.” #WeTheMen

Beautiful. "The core problem with the pennies turned out to be a mostly psychological horror. In my article, I described this situation as 'the dumbest thing I ever heard' and 'the Perpetual Penny Paradox'—both terms I stand by a year later."

The Trump administration's Schedule F rule is on the verge of being finalized. I'm not optimistic legal challenges will prevail. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

An Empirical Thread on Briefs in Trump v. Slaughter: In these big administrative law cases, I often like to see which academics are being cited the most. I don't think it tells us much. (Maybe it says something about the prominence of the scholar in a given area.) I just think it's fun. 1/8