Am I committing defamation by implication through posting this? Watch to find out!

This is bizarre. I suspect it's not apples-to-apples on polls. OR it speaks to something wild about our present moment (yes, I know Trump is wild & awful in a unique way). Inflation was MUCH worse under Ford, Carter, & Reagan. Perhaps the blame on the Iran war for current gas prices is so obvious?

New at the Center for Judicial Engagement blog: My @ij.org colleague Keith Neely on how Tennessee's AG & legislature dismantled citizen access to the courts in the last legislative session. ij.org/cje-post/fri...

How do most judges wish to be remembered? A series of influential opinions? A doctrine of law? A passion for justice? Perhaps. But for others an "herbarium, consisting chiefly of about 6,000 varieties of moss and liverworts" is posterity enough.

Am at the national middle school quiz bowl tournament. It's Stephen Miller's nightmare. Hundreds of hyper-intelligent kids, of which maybe a majority aren't white & tons of those are descended from third world immigrants.

For all my butterfly followers.

You're mad about the New Yorker story on education & credentialing. You're mad because you love learning & ideas. I'm with you! But we're not normal. Most people just want a job & wouldn't go to college were it not for the sheepskin effect. So why make them? www.amazon.com/Case-against...

Today I learned the biggest 3d party in the 1820s & 1830s was the Anti-Masonic Party. Kind of weird there hasn't been more anti-Mason hysteria the last few years. It's a much more tried-and-tested conspiracy to believe in than the wild stuff in QAnon. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Ma...

💯 this from Bob Bauer. Court packing/jurisdiction stripping will enable future uses of executive power. If there's a Dem trifecta in 2029 progressives may like it as a sugar rush for a bit. But what about the next wannabe Caesar/Trump? Or the one after that? open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

"There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel." -Madeline Neroni in Trollope's Barchester Towers

I get a lot of AI slop book marketing emails, but this is the first time I have ever been . . . mistaken for Jane Austen.

Study with leading libertarian thinkers on criminal justice issues this coming Aug. 6-8 in Washington, D.C.: Cato University symposium is accepting U.S.-based applicants, some expenses paid, with over 20 hours of academic programming [@foxmike90.bsky.social]

Thinking of my auntie Brooke Sanders tonight, who was an early woman trainer in the UK. Here's a fun article on her from the '80s. "'Perhaps owners want their trainer to be one of the boys, or wifey doesn't like the idea of a lady.'"

An underappreciated moment in Napoleon Dynamite is Uncle Rico returning home to his van & his old girlfriend coming back. Even though you've seen he's a sleaze you can't help feeling bad for him & wishing him well. The Celtic music ties it all together. youtu.be/ZEUIpssfuCg?...

Cthulhuriac

The Rule of Recognition is the most important legal idea that I never heard about in law school.

What’s with all the gout? In literature, I mean. It’s everywhere! Why can’t a character walk? “Oh, he’s got the gout.” Noticing it repeatedly while reading old novels, I thought I’d run the numbers to see if I was imagining things. No, the gout is real. So here’s your gout 🧵.

Conquer England? I mean, it beats getting hit in the eye with an arrow.

In the latest #UnpublishedOpinions, @ij.org's roundtable podcast, John Wrench, Kirby Thomas West & Sam Gedge reflect on conventional wisdom, when something is "over" in public interest litigation, and the horrors of using the wrong font. ij.org/podcasts/unp...

Yesterday saw the abolition (for now) of the House of Lords' last remaining judicial function, namely that of determining peerage claims.

The number of antisemites this brought out of the woodwork is vile. To be clear, if you think anything Israel does justifies stabbing Jews in Britain, you're the same scum who think 9/11 justifies fire-bombing mosques, or Channel crossings justifies burning asylum hotels.

My Progressive Blusky friends: If we learn anything from the current era, can it be that voters do not make informed "rational" decisions & that is no coherent collective "will"? Doesn't mean democracy is bad! Just means we should expect extraordinary little of it, no matter your policy preferences.

Call for papers for a workshop on state public law here in Boulder on August 13-14! Abstracts due May 31. More info below!

This has very much shorted the circuits.

Yeah, something like this has to be the real answer. The President can't sue an agency he currently controls, it's ridiculous.

Our Latest Newsletter: Vigilantes, less-lethal munitions, and a bananas ID theft case. ij.org/sc_newslette...

“[I]t may well be said that equity is an historically inescapable necessity. Where it does not develop by adaptation, or transplantation, it must be improvised. Like the concept of God, if there was none, one would have to be invented as a matter of university necessity.”

At Penn we discuss pens (from the Third Circuit). And other sundry law things.

Love how Prof West's article frames the issue (now published). All the "shadow docket" is is time-compressed review of lower court judicial review. Like judicial review? (I do!) Then unless you want it all to stay in the lower courts for years you're gonna have a SD. The rest is details. 1/2

FBI confirms it spied on, investigated @cato.org . Piece live now: www.cato.org/blog/fbi-fin... cc: @radleybalko.bsky.social @adamkeiper.com @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com @blanksslate.bsky.social @attackerman.bsky.social @dell.bsky.social @steve.czmyt.com @heidikitrosser.bsky.social

Imagine seeing this note at the end of a case report in an appeal that you lost. (And it was the deciding vote.) "But the opinion was not delivered, as he died the night before it was to have been pronounced."

Tip from a Pro: If you want TSA to pull your bag for enhanced security screening, just fill it with podcasting equipment. Seems to work every time!

This weekend, while contemplating what the justices will say about Rooker-Feldman abstention on Monday in TM v. U of MD Sys Corp, you could do worse than listening to the DEFINITIVE PODCAST on that, as John Marshall might say, treasonous doctrine. ij.org/podcasts/bou...

Same goes for Trump. People speculate if he has dementia, but I'd suggest that he was always like this and just doesn't feel the point of holding it in any longer. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell if Trump developed dementia, because the baseline is so incoherently dumb.

Also, hoping the lady who says Obama is guilty of treason, the guy who thinks Trump is Jesus, the lady sleeping with her security detail and who drinks on the job, and the guy who harvests raccoon penises will vote the president mentally unfit for office doesn't seem like the soundest strategy.

Our Latest Podcast: No jury because defendant didn’t use the magic words. With Will Aronin & Andrew Ward! youtu.be/QnVL4HlRpZo?...

Rooker-Feldman the podcast! Did you know Mr. Rooker once sued his neighbor for not returning some pigs that had wandered onto the neighbor's land? ij.org/podcasts/bou...

Rooker-Feldman the podcast! Did you know Mr. Rooker once sued his neighbor for not returning some pigs that had wandered onto the neighbor's land? ij.org/podcasts/bou...

You may have heard of the "Rooker-Feldman doctrine." But where did it come from? Who were Mr Rooker & Mr Feldman? How was Mr. Rooker representing KKK members in 1920s Indiana? And why is the doctrine equivalent to "light treason"? All is answered on this episode of #BoundByOath!

🚨 NEW TODAY🚨 The @CatoInstitute "Handbook on Affordability," featuring more than 100 policy recommendations to lower the cost of housing, healthcare, education, childcare, energy, transportation, food, everyday essentials , & more: www.cato.org/handbook-aff...

You may have heard of the "Rooker-Feldman doctrine." But where did it come from? Who were Mr Rooker & Mr Feldman? How was Mr. Rooker representing KKK members in 1920s Indiana? And why is the doctrine equivalent to "light treason"? All is answered on this episode of #BoundByOath!

It's *especially* maddening from conservatives/ conservatarians who are old enough to remember 1989 *because this was a central dynamic in the fall of Communism*. It was how Yeltsin's rise to power at the expense of Gorbachev happened; it was the Polish election of 1989. 3/

Looking forward to visiting @umichlaw.bsky.social on Tuesday for a @shortcircuitij.bsky.social Live podcast with @chrisjwalker.bsky.social @nbagley.bsky.social & Zach Larsen! We'll discuss 3 recent opinions from (where else?) the federal courts of appeals. www.michiganlawfedsoc.com/events/live-...

Hey everyone, I've got a secret for you: THE podcast about the Rooker-Feldman doctrine is coming. Very soon.

IMPORTANT: Under federal law, it's very hard, at times near-impossible, to sue federal law enforcement officers for civil rights violations. But legal theorists have said for decades that there is a possible way to sue under state law instead. This is a VERY big test case.

Presently enjoying reading Trollope's Barchester Towers. "There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilized and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons."

Interested in a state supreme court clerkship? @statecourtreport.org has a database featuring clerkship opportunities from 25 states and more than 80 justices. We hope it's a good starting point for applicants! statecourtreport.org/state-judici...

Our Latest Podcast: Civil Forfeiture Flowcharts. With Dan Alban & Marie Miller! ij.org/podcasts/sho...

Our Latest Newsletter: Phony checks, a twinkling of an eye, and sparkling sports gambling. ij.org/sc_newslette...

This was a Britanic & all-American exuberant exploration of constitutionalism & liberty today. Thanks to all who participated. Video of the sessions should be online soon. Including the mock argument from 1795! (With Barry Anderson, Cate Stetson & Laurent Sacharoff in wigs.)