I've been giving it more thought. If we must travel the path of major constitutional reform, then I think a 4th branch is a viable option. Short of a sweeping constitutional reset, I think a set of mechanisms that move administration and the civil service back closer to Congress is the right move.

Incredibly valuable.

Breaking character: I am open to the idea the media's coverage of Biden's age and mental acuity was fair or perhaps not even tough enough. But the fact that it was so much tougher than the coverage of Trump's (more severe) mental decline is damning and I can't see how anyone could argue otherwise.

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*.

In honor of Larry Summers, I asked the female members of my college class (1987) to say if they had any experiences with sexual harassment by teachers/professors, back when this was tolerated as, I dunno, the cost of attending college, and OH MY GOD.

Songs don't change anything by themselves. But the broader pushback against fascism is a multifaceted one. In addition to all of the concrete legal and political stuff, we gotta make sure the country sees the bad guys as pathetic, anti-American loser fuck-os, and cultural stuff aids that project.

I feel like the left more broadly wants economists to say that the economy is in shambles right now and the current "eh, I mean it is deteriorating but pretty slowly so far" is not satisfying

We are pleased to have Renée Sieber, Ph.D. ’97, Associate Professor, McGill University, present the 2025 Stuart Meck Memorial Lecture, “Civic Engagement in an Era of Artificial Intelligence” virtually on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025 beginning at 4:00 p.m. Please RSVP by visiting go.rutgers.edu/meck2025

Let’s talk about sedition and treason, because the most powerful yet inadequate man in the world is having a tantrum about it, and his soulless, spineless sycophants are boosting his message. /1

"A personalist regime allowed a mediocrity like Patel to rise by being willing to sell out the honorable and competent...FBI is being weakened in its capacities to do anything except to serve as a loyalist organization." Important @donmoyn.bsky.social piece: donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-fb...

🏦🏠 The Federal Reserve Bank of #NY Consumer Credit Panel, based on Equifax data, provides insights into consumer credit trends, both nationally and by state. #Rutgers researchers utilized this data to examine individual- and household-level debt and credit balances in #NJ vs the national average:

1) There were interviews. Fox didn't air them. 2) Due process isn't just for people we think are innocent. It's for everyone, even when we think they are guilty. 3) The US benefits from countries observing the traditional laws of the sea, and has every reason to set that example.

"It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here, have, thus far, so nobly advanced."

First Calvin and Hobbes comic strip was published 40 years ago yesterday. 🐯 👦🏼

Dr. Patricia O'Brien-Richardson recently received the Cultural Impact and Empowerment Award from the Trauma Recovery and Prevention Alliance (T.R.A.P.A.). She was selected for promoting health equity, justice for victims, and mental health support for students. www.dailytargum.com/article/u-pr...

There are four types of guys online. No exceptions.

This is...sort of brilliant.

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.

Show has gone on far longer than writers expected. Hard to keep characters straight and consistent. Not surprising it has jumped the shark.

When you pay attention to Trump talking for long stretches, his mental decline is frightfully obvious. www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-n...

⚖️ Attorney Gen. Matt Platkin announced a $100M settlement with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield over allegations that included fraudulent claims and overcharging; 📚 the #NJ Senate Education Committee advanced a bill which would overhaul charter schools; Read these stories and more today:

This week on #EJBTalks, assistant professor Carmelo Ignaccolo shares with Stuart Shapiro how his educational and professional journey through architecture, engineering, and planning guided him toward an #interdisciplinary approach to #urbandesign. Listen now at https://bit.ly/49ZZSuZ.

The third New Jersey Science and Technical Advisory Panel on Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Storms (STAP) was charged with summarizing the most current science on sea-level change and changing coastal storms. Read the 2025 report: scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/esploro/outp...

🎓📚 In 2023, #NJ launched a statewide "Some College, No Degree" initiative to help the 790K New Jerseyans who have earned some college credit but left school before completing their degree. Researchers interviewed former students to better understand the barriers that prevented them from reenrolling:

Augustine tries to solve the problem of evil (theodicy)—how could there be evil in the world if God is both omnipotent & purely good?—by positing a distinction between will & the power of fulfillment or capacity. This distinction helps make sense of where we are in the Trump coup against America...

What is really going on in this society that elected Donald Trump president a second time?   I wrote about three stubborn myths about Trump’s support – and why America has experienced a de-alignment rather than a rightward realignment.   My new piece for @zeit.de – and some thoughts in English:

Legality has absolutely nothing to do with it www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...

For some of us admin nerds, President Chester Arthur should never be forgotten: civil service reform now! I am sure he would agree with me that The Necessary and Proper Clause allows Congress to appropriately design different types of appointment…and removal….

Just a reminder, the Ken Burns series on the American Revolution starts broadcasting tonight. www.pbs.org/show/the-ame...

Politics 101: Any issue that unites your base and divides theirs is a good issue that you should keep pounding.

People getting mad here about anyone saying it's good that MTG and Trump are fighting. I teach democratization every semester. The first slide says 'elite fracture.' That's always where it starts. It's good when people with bad politics are fighting one another.

Vote. Protest. Vote. Donate. Vote. Organize. Vote. Talk to your neighbors. Vote. Stay informed. Vote. Keep a sense of humor. Vote. Also, vote

Amazing how racist goon squads can wake people up to danger, but it's unfortunate that everyone had to touch the hot stove to find out it was hot

OK, this is a good answer to the dinner party question. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

There is absolutely nothing old or consolidated about *multiracial, pluralistic democracy* in America. It only started 60 years ago. And the conflict over whether or not it should be allowed to endure and prosper has been the central fault line in U.S. politics ever since.

I will say it again; the Democrats need openly create a list of civil servants called the Dirty Dozen that will be subject to impeachment in 2026, The Constitution provides that “… all civil Officers of the United States” are subject to removal from office upon impeachment.”

I suspect this is happening across government and will lead to one of the hardest problems to fix if/when we are digging out of this.

Your civil service fun fact of the day: 5 U.S.C. Ch. 45 authorizes the president and heads of agencies to make various cash awards for superior performance. Under normal circumstances, the award cannot exceed $10,000.

Critics say distributional weighting in benefit-cost analysis is impractical But Dan Acland @goldmanschool.bsky.social proves otherwise—showing how weighting can overcome bias against low income & bridge divide b/w equity & efficiency equitablegrowth.org/research-pap... @equitablegrowth.bsky.social

My wife and I pay for life insurance even though we have never died. I pay for fire insurance even though my house has never burned down. That's not because we want to throw money at insurance companies. It's because THAT'S HOW INSURANCE WORKS.

Dr. Kelcie Ralph published an article in Safety Findings titled "Seeing Speed Clearly: Relative Risk and Public Support for Automated Enforcement." She found many Americans see #speeding as much less dangerous than other risky driving behaviors. findingspress.org/article/1434...

One of the (many) things I would like to see every high schooler learn are Type 1 and Type 2 errors and the tradeoffs correcting them entail.

Nothing says “I am a normal human being person just like you” like “my favorite song is ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’”

It also signals that Senate Democrats will not abolish the filibuster if they ever regain power, they will never have the votes to do it, until every member of the current caucus is replaced with someone who's credibly committed to do so (which is nearly impossible in the status quo).

This is a yikes too. He gets dogwalked by Susan Collins even though Generic Dem has a 9 pt margin. What I find funny is that the median Maine voter sees his tattoo and comments about sexual assault as a non-starter but we had how many people defending that shit here on Bluesky?

Not that I had any doubt, but it’s pretty clear this weenie has never had to care for a feverish kid at night. Ibuprofen can get you six hours of sleep if you’re lucky. Acetaminophen can’t.