Friday after dark and there are lots of leaf blowers running in the neighborhood.

Looking for some good weekend reading? Check out the October 2025 edition of the Comparative Administrative Law Scholarship Corner! www.yalejreg.com/nc/comparati...

📢 @tamu.bsky.social's Center on the Structural Constitution is honored to host @emilysbremer.bsky.social of @notredamelaw.bsky.social for the inaugural Reveille Lecture Wed Oct 29. Topic = Administrative Power After Humphrey's Executor. Open to the A&M Law community; 🌮 Torchy's Tacos lunch provided!

Please help me get the word out about the new websites for Legal Theory Blog and the Legal Theory Lexicon. Reposting here and on other social media sites is great. It would be especially helpful if law school faculty members could send an email to their colleagues with the new addresses.

A new paper from Philip Murray and me: 'In Defence of Classical Administrative Law'. We argue that the voidness of unlawful administrative acts is central to the rule of law and that recent challenges to that view can and should be resisted. publiclawforeveryone.com/2025/09/16/i...

Teaching hearing rights in administrative law like:

Check out the list of works included in the August 2025 edition of the Comparative Administrative Law Scholarship Corner: www.yalejreg.com/nc/comparati...

Last fall, the editors of the Harvard Law Review invited me to write the Foreword for this year's Supreme Court issue. My working draft is below, and comments are most welcome. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

If you're interested in comparative administrative law, sign up for the Comparative Administrative Law Listserv! You can do that here: t.co/ThhpLgCwGs 🧵

Since @orinkerr.bsky.social asked, a thread, from limited information reported online, about how I see the US attorney mess in DNJ. 1. Trump picked Habba as interim US Attorney under 28 USC 546. Technically, the AG is supposed to pick, but whatever. She gets 120 days to serve.

New at @lawfaremedia.org: I walk through the cases involving reductions in force (RIF) at the district courts and the Supreme Court. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/redu...

Out-of-context Louis Jaffe: “We might say that the federal common-law system is something like a one-clawed lobster or an antique and partially dismembered torso.”

K.C. Davis on Administrative Law (1951): “Injunction is the most common remedy in the federal courts and is generally satisfactory; its usefulness is increasing because it has been quietly sloughing off some of the traditions resulting from its equitable origin.”

In which I review GW Law Professor Emily Hammond's terrific new article, Agency Amici, which analyzes the practice of agency amicus briefs at this critical inflection point between the old and new regimes of judicial deference:

I’ve decided to decorate my home office with art related to major administrative law cases. First piece arrived today:

A characteristically thoughtful response to the Supreme Court argument over nationwide injunctions in the Birthright Citizenship case by Mila Sohoni. blog.dividedargument.com/p/guest-post...

Adlaw nerds: contemporaneous coverage of Humphrey’s Executor, as found in a homemade scrapbook of labor unrest from 1935 tucked away in the NLRB library. @jedshug.bsky.social @emilysbremer.bsky.social @tphillips.bsky.social @kexelchabot.bsky.social @charlottegarden.bsky.social

Second, there can be no lawful, meaningful deregulation that does not involve Congress. Congress writes the statutes that create our country’s regulations. The executive branch can shape regulations, but only on the margins. If you want major reform, you need Congress to change the laws.

Very excited about this new article by @jonpetkun.bsky.social & Joe Schottenfeld in the GW Law Review, "The Judicial Administrative Power"! Describes three functions of "nonadjudicatory activities" performed by federal courts: rulemaking, managing & communicating: www.gwlr.org/wp-content/u... 1/2

I struggle these days whenever someone asks me for my political affiliation. But if you really force me, I’d describe myself as a “Dropbox Independent." I'm full up and can't accept any new information, and I inform you of that every couple days, at inconvenient times.

What constitutional authority to direct the rescission of regulations? The executive branch doesn't even have rulemaking authority absent an act of Congress. Procedure is generally not a violation of Article II. There's no inference with the president's inherent authority here.

Looking forward to speaking today @stanfordlaw.bsky.social on the topic: “Is Administrative Law Just a Species of Constitutional Law?” law.stanford.edu/event/consti...

Curious about admin law in these uncertain times? Check out NDLS Prof. @emilysbremer.bsky.social’s article for the Yale Journal on Regulation, “Power Corrupts,” tracing the history of administrative law. Read it here:

So… @williambaude.bsky.social and I are extending the @dividedargument.bsky.social brand to a new medium: a blog/substack with a bigger stable of contributors. My first post, with reactions to the Smith & Wesson oral argument, is up! blog.dividedargument.com/p/reactions-...

This "immediate cancellation" violates the law. If the Admin thinks Columbia has violated Title VI by being deliberately indifferent to antisemitic harassment, it has to give Columbia a chance for a hearing first, make findings on the record, & wait 30 days. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

Here's the abstract. It's a strange moment in which to describe any administrative-law content as fun, but . . . I think this one is kind of fun? In a disturbing way?

Beginning to think that the real ground zero of our current political moment was The Real World: New York.

How is Trump 2.0 Reshaping the Administrative State? Join us live on Zoom (penncareylaw.zoom.us/webinar/regi...) on March 26, or catch the recording on YouTube later, as I discuss with @cary-coglianese.bsky.social, Susan Dudley, Gillian Metzger, Ricky Revesz, and @chrisjwalker.bsky.social

In declining to enter a temporary restraining order (TRO) barring DOGE from accessing data systems at the Dept of Labor, CFPB, & HHS, Judge Bates actually delivered a blow to DOGE—though it may only be felt in other cases. A thread. ... storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... 1/9

Reminds me of the 5 guys (the G-5) creating DHS. From WaPo: "Falkenrath thought it would be nice to give [DHS] a research lab... He called up a friend & asked which of the 3 DOE labs... 'He goes, "Livermore." He did not realize...he had just decided to give [DHS] a thermonuclear weapon simulator."

Big case to watch—the Appointments Clause issue is the fundamental problem with Musk's actions (though of course there are plenty more).

The mail has been kind to me this week. So happy to see this in print. Thanks to the fantastic editors of the Virginia Law Review!

Hot off the press!

Late to the party here, but the updated Zotero 7 is *amazing.* Vastly improves my workflow on iPad.

Love that goal-post gong! 🥰😂#flyeaglesfly

Incredible video here from Violet Wu. Apparently this is Macaulay Library’s top-rated video of 2024. Featuring the GOAT duck- Torrent Duck.

A huge barred owl flew down a Virginia family’s chimney, knocked over the star on top of their Christmas tree, and perched himself on top www.wusa9.com/article/life...

So cool to hear my colleague @kateshaw.bsky.social host the Ezra Klein Show this week! - feat. superstar guest @gillianmetzger.bsky.social. & thanks to Prof. Metzger for recommending my HLR Foreword in response to Klein's classic "3 reading recommendations" question! www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/o...

My first effort on Executive Functions Newsletter: What To Expect in Trump 2.0, including recess appts, vacancies, DOGE, FACA, Loper, MQD, impoundment, civ service, IGs, DOJ independence, lawfare, conflicts of interest, troops at home, pardons, much more. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

New book on Dicey @hartpublishing.bsky.social! Like him or loathe him, it’s worth reflecting on his legacy.

Last run on this side of the pond, with a couple of pauses to say farewell. Thanks for a great semester, London!

This review by the great Diane Wood of our book - Written & Unwritten: The Rules, Internal Procedures, and Customs of the United States Courts of Appeals - is a dream come true . . . judicature.duke.edu/articles/thi...

Academic Christmas

Husband started buying the #eagles Christmas albums last year, purportedly for the amusement value and because the profits go to charity. But, dear reader, these albums unironically have joined our family holiday music rotation. They’re good!

Some lovely digital post today. Thrilled with the cover design for my book, coming out early next year with OUP's Oxford Legal Philosophy series. The book is an anti-positivist theory of statutory interpretation in UK public law - perfect for your undergrad reading lists or children's birthdays.

We're hiring an Advanced Assistant/Associate Professor in American Political Institutions! Please apply! apply.interfolio.com/159833

❗New research on prosecutors! The Prosecutors and Politics Project has just released a new report: A National Study of Prosecutor Elections and Campaign Contributions: 2018-2019 Key findings include changes in contested vs uncontested prosecutors, as well as a big increase in $$$ raised.