It is publication day for my book, White Power: Policing American Slavery. Here’s the unboxing, with a trip down memory lane. Thanks so much to those who helped make this a reality, esp. my amazing agent Dani Segelbaum, @dgershenowitz.bsky.social @uncpress.bsky.social @sonyabonczek.bsky.social

I think (?) I’m younger than you (though not by much), and I was taught that Congress has “limited and enumerated powers”. But my conlaw prof is a legal historian, so he pointed out the non-enumerationist literature as well. Primus, Schwartz, @jgienapp.bsky.social, others.

I like it when scholars post piles of books because it's voyeuristic. I have come across books I need to read that way. Pat goes next level with a video of him explaining his library. Very honored that Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship is in such distinguished shelf company. 😊

Wembanyama is unstoppable.

By request of @remgrandt.bsky.social, a 3-part video tour of my home library. You’ll hear this, but my plan is to pare down/reorganize this summer. The other two videos are in the comments. Enjoy!

Woke Woj!

My early republic-ish shelves.

It’s 80° in Milwaukee today. I’d rather it be 40°.

Hey guys

“The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Errol Flynn THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) Released 88yrs ago today.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Supreme Court is not a partisan institution.

New biography of Washington by HW Brands out tomorrow.

🚨BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has allowed Alabama to select a different map for this year’s congressional elections in a stunning, last-minute move to interfere with another state primary election that has already begun. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Woohoo! Congrats, @gauthamrao.bsky.social !

The Canvas hackers probably gave up when they were flooded by “I have an 89.3% is there any way I can get to a 90%?” messages.

Nice piece by HW Brands on George Washington. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/o...

Grading will kill me.

This week on Unsung History I spoke with @gauthamrao.bsky.social about his terrific (and timely) new book, White Power: Policing American Slavery. Check out our conversation and pre-order the book now!

Great roundtable on Alison LaCroix's spectacular new book. cdn.wildapricot.com/175801/resou...

I wrote about this! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Ilya Shapiro said some racist stuff about Jackson, had his job offer at Georgetown rescinded, GU re-extended the offer after some “you hate conservatives bs”, then Ilya declined the offer so he could play the victim card in the NYT and online. He’s a pathetic loser.

Uh what?

Or or or… The court could NOT go out of its way to destroy the VRA with their neo-confederate fever dreams.

Dude wants to be a judge soooooooo badly.

What’s the best casual watch I can get for less than $100?

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Mediocre Gatsby

Look what's here! Just in time to order for your fall classes! It's the affordable paperback version of *Plantation Goods* from @uchicagopress.bsky.social

Picked these two up by @agordonreed.bsky.social and @johngmarks.com

By gutting the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court is killing the Second Reconstruction. The first Reconstruction shows how Congress should respond. Me and Daphna Renan in the NYT on the tools we have to save democracy from a hostile Court.

Justice Thurgood Marshall, dissenting in Mobile v. Alabama, which gave us the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the Supreme Court just nullified in Louisiana v. Callais. Every word applies to the current majority: tile.loc.gov/storage-serv...

The Court's Callais decision has generated significant criticism (rightfully so). But I wanted to flag a passage in Justice Alito's opinion that is receiving slightly less attention, but which reveals just how partisan the opinion is. /1

This one is particularly interesting because it shows the effect of outright voter suppression. Not coincidentally, the VRA was meant to put a permanent end to such practices.

New, from me: This should be a clarifying moment about the relationship the Supreme Court's opposition to representative democracy in America. Lets look at some graphs that make this point. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/power-demo...

This is a stunning chart in the NYT.

I am unspeakably angry about this turnout gap figure, and it gives insight into the whole ballgame for gutting the VRA. Alito points out that Black turnout exceeded White turnout twice in 5 elections. The argument is garbage 1/x

It was not foreordained that the court would, generally, be on the side of democracy in the 1960s. A generation of liberal elites assumed that it was—and would be in the future. As it turned out, that faith was severely misplaced and progressives must learn from that error now.

It was not foreordained that the court would, generally, be on the side of democracy in the 1960s. A generation of liberal elites assumed that it was—and would be in the future. As it turned out, that faith was severely misplaced and progressives must learn from that error now.

This court would strike down the Civil Rights Act. There’s no doubt.

The court has to be destroyed.

I don't think it's a coincidence that lots of folks are publishing books this year that explain/contextualize this #SCOTUS & the current moment. Some to look for (& if you've got one I've missed, pls add!). Mine, the Political Supreme Court, will be out in October 1/ uncpress.org/978146969713...

If you want to understand a bit about how we got here, order my book. History echoes.

Parts of Callais read like a Taney court opinion. *taps sign*

If you want to learn more about how the Taney court got delegitimized and what happened after, I’ve got you scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-arti...

In the compromise between radicals and moderates that led to the 14th Amendment, the radicals sacrificed land reform and redistribution for the thin reed of suffrage. Since then, white supremacists have tried to exclude non-whites from voting. Multiracial democracy is a struggle, not a promise.

The (white) DEI Court.

Second (and last) #SCOTUS ruling is the big one, Louisiana v. Callais. For a 6-3 majority (Rs v. Ds), Justice Alito purports to narrow the ability of states to draw majority-minority districts as a remedy for race-based vote dilution, but, per Kagan's dissent, comes pretty close to gutting the VRA: