I do not think there is sufficient appreciation for how catastrophic yesterday’s decision in Slaughter is for this country. As Justice Sotomayor said in her dissent and she intoned from the bench yesterday, “today the majority reshapes our Govt.”

Important point of discussion. Although the “space“ left by the Court after Slaughter is only helpful in so far as the Court actually understands the “functions” of Congress—and, apparently, those functions don’t involve building the government (as Congress has done for over 200 years now).

I will once again remind folks that a very sizable chunk of what looks like Congress not doing anything to push back against the president is in fact a consequence of the Court disabling/destroying all the ways Congress has tried to push back.

First America is climbing the podcast series chart! Thanks everyone for listening. ❤️ If you haven’t yet, pls subscribe, download and rate the show. It helps more people find it!

BREAKING: Alligator Alcatraz has officially closed. A lot of outlets won’t report on this, but the Miccosukee Tribe played a key role in the fight.

This is a really good post by @stevevladeck.bsky.social on the significance of the Landor case, the further decline of private enforcement, and long-term trends in the Court's Spending Clause jurisprudence: open.substack.com/pub/stevevla...

I need a lot more time to absorb this article, but can’t overstate how strongly I recommend it: bsky.app/profile/magg...

Very important 🧵 from the great Maggie Blackhawk. Even now, SCOTUS upholds a view that dates back to the Doctrine of Discovery: The conviction that polities, societies, & cultures arising outside of the European world order are fundamentally illegitimate—even the once-recognized Kingdom of Hawai'i.

A few years of digging into the archives uncovered a scientific field little known today: the fathers of American political science, history, and constitutional history saw expansion, Native peoples, and the science of governing others (non-subject populations) as central to their disciplines./1

I gather that mine is an unpopular opinion: but the Supreme Court deciding the Birthright Citizenship case by reaching the Constitution, rather than holding the executive order unlawful as violating the statute (INA), follows naturally from a week of opinions that strengthen #SCOTUS power overall.

It is difficult to read the Supreme Court's opinions over the last week and not see the general trend toward accretion of Court power. Interpretive philosophies like originalism give way to "plain text" readings (by judges) and historical "standards," without any specific guidelines. /1

Ahead of the Supreme Court’s release of Trump v. Slaughter, I blogged about the key precedent the Court will probably rely on (and misread). Thanks to @donmoyn.bsky.social for the opportunity to guest blog. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

FIRST AMERICA would not have been possible without the incredible team that helped put it together. It has been a tremendous effort, and we wouldn't be here without the talent and dedication of everyone involved. I am so grateful.

I sat down with Slate's What Next to talk about why reckoning with our full history is the only way forward—and what happens when we finally center Native truth in the story of America. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts! slate.com/podcasts/wha...

The great Rebecca Nagle of "This Land" is back! First America charts the history of the U.S. and Native peoples as a guide for how we ended up *here.* Supported by many Native voices, including Nick Estes @nicke.bsky.social, Phil Deloria, Ned Blackhawk, and me. First episode of six today!

“Native people are written out of the American story. Without us, you don’t know what happened.” To get the full story, listen to First America–the true story of how the United States came to be. And how our current political moment is 250 years in the making.

Particularly staff.

If you're anywhere near Cambridge on May 29th, come see Jamelle Bouie, Martha Jones, Heather Thompson & other starry speakers reflect on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Tickets are *free* but nearly gone so hit the link below asap www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/story/the-un...

Thank you, Mary, for all that you do!

You guys. The Legal History Blog @legalhistoryblog.bsky.social has hit 15,000(!) posts! 👏 It's been an honor to help run the blog & to work beside true LHB stalwart Dan Ernst @dbqur.bsky.social. All hail LHB founder & visionary @marydudziak.bsky.social 🙌 #LegalHistory

Excited to head to Cambridge for a star-studded discussion on the US at 250. There is also a brilliant conference on federalism at Oxford the day before, organized by the amazing Emily Zackin (author of "Looking for Rights in all the

🥳🎉 Unironically thrilled to announce 🎉🥳 This means a journal has to publish it now…right?

Of all the horrors inflicted by Russia’s war, the abduction of Ukrainian children is one of its worst. Stealing children is a calculated Russian attack on Ukraine’s future. Bringing them home is a priority. We support this with funding, aid and sanctions.

Oh that’s a cool job.

I agree generally with the conclusions here but this is a very thin historical analysis — historians have examined the legal background for these claims to “parental absolutism,” with great care, including me in my own first book.

Come work with us! Are you a *great* litigator with a love for teaching? We are launching a formal federal Indian law clinic--and are looking to hire a two-year clinical fellow to work with us and the great Professor Deborah Archer (also President of the ACLU). apply.interfolio.com/186544

I remain convinced that our problems rest, in large part, on the fact that we now have only two branches instead of three; and worry we might, in our righteous anger, end on a single branch by tearing the institutional structure of the courts through leaks and delegitimization.

This, 100%. Congress as it currently exists is not a solution to our judicial crisis. (There is some magical thinking among this branch of left scholarship not unlike the Bernie believers who insisted on his transformative capacity in the absence of a theory of institutional change.)

Aiming sights even higher: we haven’t yet fully theorized what legislatures are and what their role is in our constitutional system. Congress and state legislatures have changed dramatically across history—as has their relationship to “administration“ and the public. (lobbying and campaign finance)

this is also one of my hobbyhorses. you want a better caliber of lawmaker? you want to reduce the odds of corruption? pay them more. a lot more.

I dream of a day when the legal academy spends as much attention to congressional and other legislative reform, than they spend debating whom among us is properly critical of the Supreme Court. Reforming Congress is equally (or more) important than rethinking Supreme Court practice and authority.

Y’all, the preorder links for The Political Supreme Court are here! Direct from UNC Press: uncpress.org/978146969713... Bookshop: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... Amazon: a.co/d/08lXOMa7 Barnes & Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-politi...

U.S. citizenship isn’t always a good thing, actually. Historically, Indigenous nations and other colonized people fought to not be U.S. citizens. This might seem confusing at first, but they had their reasons.

New Duke Law Journal symposium on history & constitutional law co-edited with Joseph Blocher & Tim Lovelace, hosted with @bolchjudicial.bsky.social: dlj.law.duke.edu/current-issue/, pieces by Karen Tani, Christine Hammock Jones & Darrell Miller, Jake McAullife, Daniel Rice, Saul Cornell

plot twist: the Easter Bunny is Filipino and has been saving this up for a century and change

you may not like it but this is what peak performance looks like

It doesn't matter here what the Founders intended when it comes to citizenship by birth in Guam, nor is this a matter for the Supreme Court: Congress intended birthright citizenship in Guam in 1950, when it passed the statute granting U.S. citizenship to all babies born there.

This OLC opinion declaring the Presidential Records Act invalid makes a number of astonishing claims, including that retention of presidential records serves no valid legislative purpose. . . . www.justice.gov/olc/media/14...

This essay, published amidst the birthright citizenship flurry yesterday, by Hajyahia & Zhao is so important-a deep dive into the colonial tariffs of the Jones Act (governing Hawai'i, Puerto Rico, and Alaska) and recent constitutional challenges to the statute. lpeproject.org/blog/a-centu...

Not sure whether this is apt or terrible timing but here’s the official cover of my book due out with @uncpress.bsky.social W. Hodding Carter III imprint this fall. 🎉

This is true. But it's important to add that people born here are also citizens because of federal law! The same Congress that wrote the Fourteenth Amendment also wrote birthright citizenship into law. Congress has extended birthright citizenship since then. Trump's EO violates these laws too.

Thank you Maggie Blackhawk! Cherokee Nation sent delegates to DC throughout the post-Civil War period to object to efforts to include them through territorial and statehood efforts BECAUSE they were citizens of the Cherokee Nation.

Read this. I'm getting stressed by the number of people interpreting Gorsuch's question as "ah-ha, so you'd can't instantly explain how Native folks are citizens!" as opposed to what it actually is, "ah-ha, so you're doing the opposite of originalism by inflicting citizenship on Native folks!"

American Samoa has opposed U.S. birthright citizenship since 1900, and remains the only U.S. territory without citizenship by statute. Its non-voting delegate, Rep. Radewagen, supports “U.S. national” status. Citizenship could fortify equal protection challenges to A. Samoa’s traditional government.

Friends, Native people are, indeed, Native to this land. But they were not Native to the United States. We all need to, somehow, collectively unpack the presumption that the U.S. is (and has ever been) the only instantiation of "this land." There were, and are, many other governments here.

And I reiterate: teach tribal sovereignty

The issue is complex to start and even more complex at the level of each Indigenous nation with overlays of treaties, statutes, and court orders conveying citizenship depending on each Indian and each Tribal Nation.

Friends, again with respect because this is a complex issue: children born to citizens of tribal governments do not have constitutional birthright citizenship under many, if not most forms of constitutional argument and authority (incl. Supreme Court precedent relied upon in this case)./1

After years of research, Daphna Renan & I are thrilled to announce preorders of SUPREMACY. Why is US democracy so broken? One reason is we've wrongly accepted that 9 justices have the final say over the Constitution. This book traces how that happened—& how we can reclaim power to govern ourselves.

A timely and vital Q&A on Historian's briefs before the Supreme Court in Modern American History. Explores the difference between "law office history" and the requirement of "relevance" in amicus briefs, and how relevance often limits the ability of briefs to lay bare societal myths and falsehoods.