Well Leeds certainly knew how to name its streets and yards containing working class housing. "Prosperity Street" might have been a little over the for families living in poverty. I am not sure I would have liked to live in a throughfare titled "Institution Street" either.

Church interior with, at left, church official explaining altarpiece to visitors. How great is that? Hendrick van Steenwyck, 1608.

A very Buffalo image

Alma Mahler-Werfel (born #OTD in 1879) crossed the Pyrenees to Spain carrying a number of manuscript scores including Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and the first three movements of Bruckner’s Third Symphony. She arrived in New York on Oct 13 1940. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Angel

The rebirth of the phoenix BL Harley 4751; Bestiary; 13th century; England, S.; f.45r

Astonishing. “The U.S. Air Force said on Friday it was offering military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, a supporter of President Donald Trump who was shot and killed by a police officer during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.” www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

BREAKING: Historian Jane Manners filed a brief in Boyle v. Trump, challenging President Trump’s dismissal of three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 1/ bit.ly/4mKYlN8

This from the good news section of a Black newspaper (1914) really puts things in perspective

State elimination of faculty senates: www.chronicle.com/article/a-mu...

Charcoal portrait of a woman in Flemish dress, possibly 1521. Albrecht Dürer (British Museum)

Character countdown for The Radical Fund, no. 47: George Creel, the Wilson administration propagandist and foil for the Garland Fund’s efforts to think about democracy in an age of mass communications. #TheRadicalFund

Lisa Cook will likely sue to retain her seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors very shortly. While we wait (and even after she files), here's my analysis of her case in five not-so-easy pieces. 👇

Comp Barn, Alfriston, August 2017

Wow 300 of the DOJ civil rights division’s roughly 400 lawyers have left since the start of the Trump administration, per its head Harmeet Dhillon

PLEASE REPOST 🥺🙏 The Canadian Letters & Images Project is an online digital archive of Canadians’ experience during wartime at home & in battle. It contains thousands of personal letters & photos that reveal people’s experience through their own words & eyes. www.canadianletters.ca/content/abou...

Philosophy gazes calmly into the distance, unmoved by present troubles. Good night all! 😴 BL Royal MS 6 E IX; Convenevole da Prato, Carmina regia; c 1335 CE; Italy (Tuscany); f.27r

Knows what she wants: unusually assertive young woman, her portrait painted by Thomas de Keyser of Amsterdam. Today is his day.

I’ll be sharing this and Orin’s “How to Read a Legal Opinion” with my prelaw students.

New from me on SSRN: a review of Eric Kasper and Troy Kozma's excellent book "The Supreme Court and the Philosopher." I think Kasper and Kozma make a compelling case, but have some thoughts on how their thesis could be applied with greater specificity. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Luttig is communicating vastly more clearly and honestly about Roberts and Scotus than most Democratic officials are. It’s absolutely flabbergasting.

1. Earlier, I said SCOTUS was ducking confrontations with Trump by "channeling" them to less effective places. Maybe better words are "fragmenting" them. Curbing nationwide injunctions. Scattering Alien Enemy Act cases to all 94 districts. Dividing funding challenges... bsky.app/profile/stev...

Another read is not that SCOTUS is shy about confronting Trump but that they're basically on board with his project but would be embarrassed about the legal arguments they'd have to make if they upheld his actions on the merits, so they find procedural means to let him get his way.

Charles Burchfield, "Untitled", 1916, Watercolor and graphite on paper, 13 5/8" x 19 3/8"

"Non action" is an interesting idea. I've been thinking recently about the value of saying nothing even when you have something to say, even when the situation seems to demand it. Cultivating a feel for that value might be worth doing... Especially given our obsession w self expression and speech

Empty words. #medievalsky @bodleian.ox.ac.uk MS. Canon. Misc. 110, f. 149v

Hey, did you know that the NLRB has operated in violation of the Constitution for 90 years? It's right there in this original Constitution we found in 2025.

A gorgeous part of England.

The many heads of Agostino Carracci, master of caricature as of so much else. Today is his birthday.

Here's a question I've never seen discussed: Could Congress provide for a district judge to sit by designation on the Supreme Court?

It’s sooooooo good, y’all! If I were a law review editor I’d really want to snap this up for publication.

Joseph Alanen, Finnish (1885-1920), The Defence of the Sampo, 1910-1912, tempera on canvas, 100 x 131 cm, Ateneum, Helsinki, Finland

Ugh, this is a terrible argument (university classroom speech = govt speech) but states regularly argue it, mostly w/o success in prior cases. For background (and my own views on why the argument is wrong), check out my essay, The Govt Speech Doctrine Goes to School: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

It is an interesting question whether it is right to think of this Court as an ideological Court. Political scientists distinguish ideology and partisanship. They often align, but they are not the same. It increasingly seems like it is a partisan, rather than an ideological, Court.

If you are interested in applying for the position and want to discuss, please DM me or email! legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2025/08/law-...

Spending vs preserving cash reserves--the 'endowment' of the public research university: www.chronicle.com/article/amid...

Pierre Bonnard Woman in a Green Dress in a Garden, 1892

A perspective on the federal judgeship: 1) there is no property right in a judgeship or any other federal office; 2) for example, you cannot sell your office, or rent it out for an income stream-both of which are common historically; 3) a supreme court judgeship is the same as any federal judgeship;

Big news! After 8 years of exemplary service, @gauthamrao.bsky.social is stepping down as editor of @lawandhistrev.bsky.social. The ASLH seeks applications for the next editor. Great opportunity, though Gautham's shoes will be hard to fill. Details here: legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2025/08/law-...

This worries me more than AI www.ft.com/content/5cd7...

😳😳😳

Goodnight. Full Moon, Cornwall, Morna Rhys.

Portrait of a Man in Royal Livery Hans Holbein the Younger German 1532–35 The HR for Henry VIII is nicely prominent. (Met Museum)

Died (alas!) on this day in 1533, Lucas van Leyden. In 1521 he went to Antwerp to meet the great Albrecht Durer, who was visiting that city, and Durer made this silverpoint drawing of him. Record of a great encounter.

NEW: “In the end, Abbott’s brief is not a serious legal document. It’s an entirely political one.“ Wherein I answer your burning questions about several niche areas of Texas state law—and tell you how I really feel about Greg Abbott’s no good, very bad brief. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-le...

This is actually a great idea, I’m going to suggest it to my seminar students.

Ok I don’t normally post this kinda thing but really this is too perfect. Article 1? Never heard of her.