I just discovered that "The Talk" has its own Wikipedia page. That Black parents have to have a talk with their kids about the risks of interacting with the police is so deeply entrenched in US culture that it rises to the level of Wikipedia-level fact. And it's not a squib.

I was reminded today about how tricky it can be to think about the impact of crim legal reforms on racial disparities. Often we see claims that post-reforms, racial disparities become worse. But that ... might not be so nearly a bad thing as it first seems? Here's a simple example:

Oy, is today another NY Times Focus Group Discourse Day? It's a highly non-random sample size of ELEVEN. The error bars are ad coelum et ad inferos (the only Latin I recall from property law: from the depths to the sky). And no context, like how their views fit broader polling data.

Sunstein apparently regrets the Chotiner interview, and the failure of the printed word to capture light banter abt Kissinger. I am curious what his baseline is for hate mail. If Harvard hasn’t had to come up w a security plan for him (like we did for a Black woman colleague), I can imagine worse.

Short of emergency updates when a shooter is at large, we should just refuse to put law enforcement officials on air for the first 48+ hours after an event like this. In the BEST of times, it’s lots of noise that later gets walked back. And this admin is … not the best for trustworthiness.

The 24 most terrifying words in the English language: I’m from the government, and I’m here to … take a majority interest in your company so the Leviathan can guide you with its very visible and very corrupt hand.

Buffalo people: At some point in the near future, I’m taking my one sports-loving kid to a Bills home game. We are staying near the airport. What is the best way to get to Highmark? I’ll have a rental car, but also hear post-game traffic suuuuucks, so happy for an NFTA-type option too….

Ah, yes, noted free speech advocate Bret Stephens, the same Bret Stephens who cc’d a professor’s provost on an email complaining to that prof about a mild bedbug joke he had made at Bret’s expense.

Worst for NEW JERSEY. The only actual New York team, the Buffalo Bills, are 3-0. (And yes, I realize they are making a different, darker joke here.)

If I can use a song instead of a band: Alito bit of Monica in my life Alito bit of Erica by my side Alito bit of Rita's all I need Alito bit of Tina's what I see Alito bit of Sandra in the sun Alito bit of Mary all night long Alito bit of Jessica, here I am Alito bit of you makes me your man

Oh, down this way lies madness. This could interact with my competitive nature in really bad ways.

I don’t even know why I bother to teach my 1Ls about “attempted” crimes. Apparently if you shoot at someone and miss, it’s proof you never shot at them at all.

Chotiner must stamp phoenixes on the side of his laptop for each former U of C law prof he takes out. First it was Richard Epstein playing at epidemiologist and predicting Covid’s death toll would be around 500. Now it’s getting Cass Sunstein to wax poetic abt Kissinger.

I feel like this transcends Cass to cover the elite-most law schools in general. They are too closely tied to SCOTUS (getting cited there, placing students there, still hoping to GET there) to attack it w the vigor it demands. But that take is still ABSOLUTELY WILD.

OMG. The “Kissinger was nice to me” and “maybe downplay my love of Kissinger” law prof was CASS SUNSTEIN?

Jesus Christ. This is long, but Jesus. A horrific account of how the lack of accountability can lead to, or at least contribute to, a soul-deadening nihilism among police.

Grim twist on “the bearings will continue until morale improves.” “Morale is improving bc so are the bearings.” (Also, wild how disrespectful IAB is to the CCRB. Maybe not surprising, but wild nonetheless).

ShotSpotter false positives and stats juking (for “shootings are up!” headlines at a time when police budgets are under attack). Book goes on to note that in Chicago, one audit said only 9% of ShotSpotter “hits” turned to a gun; police could choose how to report remaining 91%.

Man, I miss late September being vest weather.

Remember when Obama disgraced the Office of the President by wearing a tan suit. Here is Trump literally telling every nation “you’re going to hell,” and saying it as if he’s absolutely bored out of his mind. It’s humiliating and infuriating to a degree hard to comprehend.

Also, if they were in fact up 5000%, that would mean there were ~0 to start with. I swear to God, percentages and the baserate problem are one of the single greatest threats to sound policy, and I’m not really being hyperbolic.

For the record, the local police had to arrive to free the girl from … the federal police. This is horrific. It’s undeniable that we will need trials for ICE officials and officers after all this. “Leominster police arrived at the scene, recovered the child and returned her to the family.”

ABOLISH THE POLITICS DESKS. This is always the pattern: the subject-matter expert journalists call out BS bc (1) they have the expertise to do it, (2) don’t need to play The Access Game nearly as much, and (3) are self-selected to care abt substance, not Politics As A Game.

Or, perhaps, as someone who has studied this a lot, I have actual reasons for skepticism here. This habit ppl have of just showing up and insulting ppl is toxic, and wonder if “put bad actors on blast” >> “block and move on.”

We’re gonna need a bigger reconstruction.

So you’re saying he saw this in the paper years ago and thought it was an excerpt from a medical journal? I mean … plausible.

Ha ha suckers! Crim law has been lawless for DECADES now. Maybe always. It’s always been just discretion and politics. I didn’t have to change my PowerPoints in 2021, and they’re still find in 2025. (Wait. That might not be a good thing?)

Ok, all this, hugely helpful. Follow up question: does the Great Khanate of Illinois recognize birthright citizenship? Because I might live in Brooklyn, but I was born at the now-torn-down Michael Reese hospital on the near South Side of Chicago.

4-for-4, no notes, no snark. Also, like Trump 1.0 w the USDA scientists, move SCOTUS to rural Kansas. Strip them of all elite DC social engagement, and make it easy to see when Harlan Crow’s private jet lands nearby.

Oh, this. Even for the terminally online. For me, it’s why are ppl calling Pritzker “Khan”? Can someone explain??

This is a wild parallel, honestly. And now I’m looking forward to the Restoring Our Bench to Ensure a Return To Sanity Act. Immortalize Roberts by naming what I hope will be his greatest accomplishment—forcing Congress to add more (dozens more?!) to SCOTUS—after him.

This was my thought back in 2010 or 2011, when I saw a Mayan Calendar Doomer who had been proselytizing near my office getting lunch at Whole Foods the day before the alleged end. Why are you counting calories on Day N-1? Eat a whole pizza!

Ring’s alert app and Citizen are absolutely toxic to society.

Jesus: it even applies to LOCAL crime questions, where the general "crime as a metaphor for broader fears" shouldn't play so big a role. This one is really striking, and deeply concerning.

I mean, we are living in two different realities now, and this really hasn't always been the case.

New Gallup report apparently just dropped, and check this out. Even as violent crime hits historic lows, the percent of Americans saying it is our biggest problem is at 2020 levels, back when there was a real spike in violence. Abysmal coverage of this topic misleads the public SO badly.

The news literally CANNOT report good crime news without throwing in a "but." Homicides in Boston are lowest SINCE THE 1950s!! ... but, you know, a few extra deodorants got stolen. So ... a wash, I guess? (You'd NEVER see the opposite: "SHOPLIFTING DOWN! Tho some increase in homicides.")

I get that "don't complain bc things sucked more in the past" is not really a strong argument, politically or morally. But still. This graph is stunning, comparing the 2020 homicide spike in NYC to historic trends. Still SO safe, for all the "city on fire!" rhetoric.

The (wholly predictable) irony of the anti-government libertarian needing a ... governmental lifeline to keep the economy going. One would hope this would lead to some introspection, but that seems unlikely. Hopefully Argentina's voters might rethink things a bit though.

As someone who grew up the mainstreamiest of mainstream churches (Episcopalian, or God’s Frozen Chosen as my Sunday School teacher put it), this thread is sort of wild to me. But my main question now: did the influencers give a time for tomorrow? Do I need to prep for tomorrow’s 2pm seminar?

This is insane, @mta.info. A white woman gets on a Metro-North, tells a Black man to sit differently, then complains to the conductor when he says no. That’s bad. But then the conductor CALLS THE COPS. On the MAN. For not changing how he was SITTING. That’s inexcusable, @mta.info.

Not the point of this powerful pic, but I can’t get past the armored-up ICE guy in … Vans. Like, if you need all that combat armor, wouldn’t you need to protect your feet? It seems like SUCH a tell about the cos-play of the armor, and how it is meant purely as intimidation.

So this is nuts. But also worth noting that (1) the bill’s two sponsors are relative back-benchers (one senator first elected in 2020, the other 2022) and (2) ~70% of all state bills nationwide die, and quickly. Lots of times bills like this are efforts at getting attention, not serious attempts.

When I was in law school, there was a rumor that getting a job in the Cook County DA’s office made it hard to later jump to the US Atty for ND Illinois, bc of fears of corruption and generally bad rep. This is totally going to flip, isn’t it? “Former AUSA” becoming a black mark is … wild.

Gotta love the idea of overriding the 5th Circuit with one numbered after the Amendments the 5th likely hates the most.

Come on, Dems. There are ALL sorts of ideas about how to circumvent SCOTUS and the circuits that MAGA has broken. You just have to tune out the deep-in-denial centrists who will be quick to say “this just isn’t how it is done!” without finding a way to fix things.

But here’s the thing (not dunking, think this is a common concern, worth addressing): This already happens! In 4 yrs, and esp 8, POTUS + Senate can reshape Fed courts A LOT. But it’s done subtly, with enough “good” random panels to sort of ease the pain for the other side, lowering the opposition.

GOP just blew up the filibuster to install the worst ppl possible. If and when the Dems retake things, they DAMN well better not “go high” and reinstall it. They should use it to force thru court abolition, and hoist the GOP on its own aggressive petard.

Serious Art III question: Congress can legally abolish any lower court, right? If it does, what happens to those judges? Could a Dem Congress w a Dem POTUS abolish the 3rd Circuit in 2029, and then re-create it 6 months later, with all new judges? Mass reappoint the good ones, banish Bove et al?