Looking for a postdoc in American politics? Come work with us in Ann Arbor! No obligations other than research. Preference for institutions-focused work, but we’re open to a wide range of substantive interests (including local politics!). Happy to answer any questions: apply.interfolio.com/178829

I mean I got up for 5 minutes!

In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.

Not now, haunted Victorian shoes

A debacle, honestly. Blood was flowing but phlebotomist didn’t like my arm’s reaction, so we tried the other arm. Same result. Then the supervisor promptly threw the phlebotomist under the bus. 👀 1.5 hours spent, lots of awkward vibes, and zero pints of blood given. But I will try again soon!

NEWS: Congresswoman Joyce Beatty sues Trump to block the renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Read the complaint: washingtonlitigationgroup.org/news/new-law...

Also! I just found out I can donate blood! I lived in the UK during mad cow so I’ve been banned from donating. But FDA changed the rules in 2022 and somehow I missed it until now! (Ironic if you know what I do.) I’m going tomorrow! I’m excited but a bit nervous. How am I going to feel after?

Wrapping up a challenging year, my core reflection is that all we can do is tend our patch. Some of us have more or less to tend, but we can all chip in. It matters so much, all the moments of grace and kindness and resoluteness.

Not now, enormous 68-million- year-old egg nicknamed 'The Thing'.

A federal judge Wednesday blocked a policy from the Department of Homeland Security, finding that it violated an appropriations law that allows members of Congress to make unannounced oversight visits to federal facilities that detain immigrants ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/12/18/r...

TOC for anyone interested:

Just keep thinking about this exchange from oral arguments in Slaughter. “Is the water warm, General?”

Reviewing essays for a Yale JREG blog symposium that @j-p-a.bsky.social and I are putting together on the intersection of the Administrative Procedure Act and AI and sometimes I love my job so much I could burst.

Note from my notebook (2018). Still relevant.

4 degrees Feels like -7 degrees Admin law final at 9am Let’s do this!

It’s the first night of Hanukkah and the world seems like a very dark place. But we can bring light to the darkness. We can fight for each other and make goodness, love, and community shine through. Show me your menorahs and let’s light up the timeline!

Folks! I am delighted to share that my @ohiostatelaw.bsky.social colleagues voted to support my application for tenure! The process will take the rest of this academic year but for now I say thank you thank you to everyone who helped me and I take none of this for granted!!!! O-H!

A pet sleeping next to you feeling so safe and comfy is genuinely the most any human can really ask for It makes you feel like maybe you aren’t so bad. You might even be good

🚨 Applications are open for the 2026–27 Good Authority Fellowship! 🚨 Political scientists passionate about public engagement will receive a $2,500 stipend and mentorship in writing for broad audiences. Apply by Jan 9, 2026, 5pm PT. Apply at the link👇 goodauthority.org/news/announc...

(•_•) <) )╯one sleep / \ (•_•) \( (> until / \ (•_•) <) )╯my tenure vote / \

Excited to work with @pzettler.bsky.social and @reshmagar.bsky.social on this new project supported by @arnoldventures.bsky.social with the goal of developing a principles-based approach to rebuilding and re-envisioning FDA. moritzlaw.osu.edu/ohio-state-a...

My grad school advisor told me that it would be great if we were someday remembered for our research. But we're more likely to be remembered by our students and our colleagues for our humanity. Be a good teacher, a good departmental citizen, and a good steward of the discipline and profession.

Now on SSRN: "The Missing Constitutional Law of Executive Conditions" (with Nicole Huberfeld) is forthcoming in Wash U. L. Rev--about the distinctive constitutional issues presented by presidential "regulation by deal." tinyurl.com/mrytp74z Comments very welcome on the draft!

I think the world would be a better place if everyone woke up and pet a dog for 30 min.

Thanks to @bridgetdooling.bsky.social for providing info on submitting public comment on the new CBP proposal to go Soviet on visitors' social media. Here's the comment I just submitted (note that as Bridget points out, your comment could be made public, and of course it will be in govt data).

This is a proposal. You can read it here: public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-22461.pdf And you can comment by emailing [email protected] and referencing OMB Control Number 1651-0111 in the subject line.

Sunstein posted an admirably frank essay yesterday on the Unitary Executive Theory: How he participated in this elite bipartisan political consensus — and how he has been persuaded by overwhelming historical evidence that he & other high-ranking lawyers were wrong. open.substack.com/pub/casssuns...

Congratulations to my @umnlawschool.bsky.social colleague @nicholasbednar.bsky.social on this well deserved recognition for his newest article on the Civil service, forthcoming in the Minn Law Rev. Check it out!

@bridgetdooling.bsky.social & I have posted @ssrn.bsky.social the first article to come from our study of OIRA review of tax regs, coming in @uvalaw.bsky.social Va Tax Review in early 2026. Lots of stats, graphs, & tables for those who like such things. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Nights like tonight are why I have an unbreakable policy of not talking shit about sports on The Internet thank you and good nite! 🫡

New Paper 🚨: In this thread I teased a new paper with @briandfeinstein.bsky.social that brings hard empirical evidence to bear on emerging critiques of public participation's role in administrative decisionmaking. The paper is now public on @ssrn.bsky.social: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

DHS Sec. Noem files declaration saying she "made the decision to continue the transfer of custody of the Alien Enemies Act detainees who had been removed from the United States before this Court issued its temporary restraining order." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

(1) New essay and blog post up that are coauthored with the great @jedshug.bsky.social We bring together a decade of scholarship to argue that the quasi-judicial category is both consistent w/ original public meaning and synonymous with a deeper Anglo-American “history and tradition.”

Good morning from Buckeye State sugar cube, who says O-H!

Great article by @robertiafolla.bsky.social of @bloomberg.com about the historians’ briefs in the upcoming Slaughter arguments — a wonderful overview of the state of things, with quotes from @andreascoseriakatz.bsky.social, @janemanners.bsky.social, and many others less online

In some contexts, "persuasive authority" is much more powerful than "positional authority" because it relies on the buy-in of the ones being persuaded rather than using force. In law, "persuasive authority" is the term for something to consider but potentially disregard. Maybe we got it twisted.

As @bridgetdooling.bsky.social and I argue in a new paper (link below), corporate directors play a role in law enforcement. They have a special duty to ensure their companies don't break the law. It is heartening, therefore, to see a few companies stand up for the rule of law. As they ought.

Last day of admin law today! Closing out with removals and unitary executive theory. Prepping like:

Reminder: I'm hosting a fun democracy and public law works-in-progress conference at Michigan State in April and I'd love to host you! Please submit at the form below by December 31 if you're interested.

12 former commissioners of the FDA came together to write a Perspectives piece for the New England Journal of Medicine; raising our concerns about recent changes to vaccine approval policy at the FDA and its implications for patients and public health.

This horrific incident only further lays bare the absurdity of the Admin’s claims undergirding the entire boat strikes campaign — that transporting drugs itself somehow amounts to direct participation in hostilities (or even, under the prior claims to Congress, an armed attack on the U.S.)

New to @ssrn.bsky.social: Bill Eskridge and I have posted The Unitary Executive and the Due Process State (Notre Dame L. Rev. Reflection, forthcoming). This essay explores what's at stake for administrative justice as the Supreme Court reconsiders Humphrey's Executor. Link below⬇️

Last week @theverge.com published my essay exploring the limitations of large-language models. This week, that same essay is cited by a federal judge in Michigan to distinguish the process of human reasoning from what these models do. Very, very gratifying.

Monday inspiration from Marge Piercy: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57673/...

Giddy up!

Status: more relaxed now.

“The underling who reached out to me is trying to influence the election on my dime. He’s on my payroll, he’s on your payroll and he’s campaigning on company time. That’s a violation of the Hatch Act. He’s a federal employee. He works in the White House. Does anyone care about the rules anymore?”

JUST IN: Judge Boasberg gives Trump admin one week to file affidavits from all officials involved in decision to carry out Alien Enemies Act deportation to El Salvador despite Boasberg's order to turn the planes around. 'Contempt prosecution' could follow www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Sohoni on CASA Mila Sohoni (Stanford Law School) has posted In CASA You Missed It (139 Harvard Law Review (forthcoming 2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Essay’s purpose is to show how Trump v. CASA should be read—and how it emphatically should not be read. While CASA rejected one pathway…