Today is publication day!⭐️
Learn how a boy of humble origins became one of the fiercest critics of the criminal justice system and a fearless advocate for racial equality. I hope you enjoy DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE as much as I enjoyed writing it.
@wwnorton
Raise your hand if you knew that in May 1937 the New York Times did a gauzy profile of Hitler, painting him as a “Bohemian” with an “artistic temperament”? 🙋🏼♂️
Most people will remember him as “Joe,” who made hotcakes over a hot grill at the Lighthouse Cafe in Port Townsend, Washington. He passed away peacefully tonight around 6:45 pm EST at the age of 88 after a weeklong bout with pneumonia. This is how I’ll remember my father.
It’s a hell of a thing if the mere assertion of executive privilege by someone who no longer holds office can stop an existing officeholder from engaging in a core executive function.
The Supreme Court itself has repeatedly said that protest by citizens on public streets and sidewalks has been part of our tradition “since time immemorial.”
Charles Fried, Reagan conservative, flays Trump: “The principal one is ‘to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ The laws made by Congress. And to do so faithfully. Not trickily. Not underhandedly...”
Judge: Mr. Tsai, what do teach?
Me: Constitutional Law, Inequality, Democratic Reform, Crim Pro
Judge: What do you write about?
Me: Legal theory, constitutional history, race and poverty in the criminal justice system, prosecutorial abuse
Judge: Thank you, you’re excused.
Once you accept that SCOTUS behaves as a constitutional policymaking body, you won’t be surprised that originalism is used situationally and strategically.
In his ruling, Judge Kacsmaryk repeatedly uses the term “abortionists” to describe health care workers who help terminate pregnancies. One way to recognize movement judges is they will use mobilized rhetoric like other movement figures.
Most people will remember him as “Joe,” who made hotcakes over a hot grill at the Lighthouse Cafe in Port Townsend, Washington. He passed away peacefully tonight around 6:45 pm EST at the age of 88 after a weeklong bout with pneumonia. This is how I’ll remember my father.
With the presiding judge next to him, Steve Bright goes after the Texas Ct. of Criminal Appeals for upholding death sentences when court-appointed lawyers slept through trial: “If a sleeping lawyer is competent counsel, then there really is no such thing as incompetent counsel.”
/4 Here’s the sexy shot of Hitler in his shorts and stockings where he says he doesn’t dream of becoming rich but prays modestly that “my people will build a house here for me.” I bet most readers took it literally when he meant it figuratively.
The deep skepticism of Congress that runs through Trump v. Mazars shouldn't surprise us when we understand that most of the justices sitting on the Roberts Court were former executive branch lawyers. The people deserve judges with broader life and practice experiences.
Whoa! In the final section where a judge is supposed to balance the equities before granting an injunction, the judge accuses the federal government of making eugenic arguments simply because they point out an interest in families being able to take care of any existing children.
"I picked the cotton, and I carried it to market, and I built the railroads, under someone else's whip, for nothing. For nothing." The great James Baldwin in his 1965 debate against William F. Buckley at Cambridge Union. Read my review essay
@BostonReview
:
Good morning, today is the first day of Constitutional Law. I believe in grabbing on to the bull by the horns and hanging on for dear life: We start with Dobbs.
@MichaelMaloneNZ
@sarahkendzior
Right. And laws excluding Jewish people from public employment and universities, denying them citizenship, barring intermarriage, and disenfranchising them had already been enacted—drawing on American laws aimed at black citizens.
He didn’t care what I read: fantasy stories, classics, trashy novels, horror tales. If a book I wanted was not available through the library he would tell me to order it from the bookstore down the street. And every week he reached into his pocket and gave me $ 5 for comic books.
Because he had known severe deprivation, he was constantly worried we would run out of money. This was a source of conflict and irritation in the family. But his greatest gift was to tell me there would always be money for books.
“But the most powerful moment” that “shredded the committee’s absurd focus on a handful of texts...came courtesy of one of the sharpest lawyers in Congress, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin.”
@RepRaskin
“During ten days in late December 1831 into January 1832, nearly 60,000 slaves (about 20% of the enslaved population of 300,000) led by the black Baptist preacher Samuel Sharpe went on strike and rebelled against plantation owners, demanding freedom and higher wages”
@Y__Barragan
Few people have heard of Patsy Morris. When the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976, she kept track of Georgia citizens condemned to death row who desperately needed a lawyer. She called lawyers around the country begging them to take a case.
The use of such language betrays the social circles and ideological priors of the judge. It’s also evidence of possible collateral consequences of Dobbs: jurists becoming emboldened or careless re: appearing disinterested in legal outcomes.
Excited to announce that a new constitutional history journal will soon launch based
@WisconsinLaw
. The journal will strive to fill the gap between traditional history journals and popular outlets. Any member of the Senior Editorial Board would be happy to answer questions.
Donald Trump’s former Sec. Def. Mark Esper: “[Trump] was suggesting that...we should bring in the troops and shoot the protesters.”
Q: “The commander-in-chief was suggesting that the U.S. military shoot protesters?”
Esper: “Yes, in the streets of our nation’s capital.”
So the cat is out of the bag! Starting next semester, I’ll be joining the faculty of
@BU_Law
. I’ll miss my
@AUWCL
colleagues and students, but remember: we are all just one sketchy Zoom call away from one another.
@BU_Tweets
He was in Beijing studying at the time when the Communist revolution occurred. He fled, not wanting to fight for either Mao’s forces or the nationalists. But he became a refugee in Taiwan and was eventually conscripted into the army.
On this fine day, I am doing research into the backgrounds of judges in Georgia who belonged to segregationist groups, helped keep numbers of black citizens in jury pools low, and looked the other ways as prosecutors rigged all-white juries in capital trials vs black defendants.
Steve Bright takes on Posner: you have no idea how awful a “bare-bones” system is or else you are simply indifferent to the unequal suffering it tolerates.
Some will fault
@staceyabrams
for not being more magnanimous, but I think she threads the needle here in a way that acknowledges the rule of law as it exists—which will determine Kemp as the winner—and preserves her deeper critique that the process was, and remains, deeply flawed
Democrat Stacey Abrams acknowledges she has lost to Republican Brian Kemp, says the election was illegitimate: “Let’s be clear, this is not a speech of concession because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper … I cannot concede that.”
This time, after lunch, the judge asked me: If I gave you a jury instruction you disagreed with, could you still apply it?
Me: If I had a problem I’d send you a note.
Lasted until peremptory strike stage, bounced again. 14 jurors picked, murder trial started immediately.
To refuse to consider a nominee or treat her differently simply because of her religion would amount to discrimination. But to probe how a nominee’s beliefs—religious or secular—might shape how she interprets the law is due diligence and the least we should expect.
For many different reasons he decided to start over, like so many immigrants. He was lucky to be admitted to the US, but could not restart his legal career. Joe took odd jobs until a hotel chef in Seattle took the time to teach him how to make American fare.
He once told me the story of how he evaded Communist soldiers while on the mainland and then hid from KMT soldiers on a train once he made it to Taiwan.
As Co-Chair of Appointments this year, I am absolutely delighted to welcome these incredible scholars and teachers to
@BU_Law
:
@AzizaAhmed
@hartzog
@NgoziOkidegbe
Steve Koh (BC). I can’t want to see you all in the fall!
He said that those who didn’t do as well on the exams were sent to the countryside to resolve disputes over stolen chickens. Those who did well could serve as judges in a city.
/5
@RonanFarrow
describes the hairstyle of Tom Countryman, senior arms control expert: “It was a diplomat’s mullet: peace in the front, war in the back.”
Fetal personhood is an anti-abortion movement goal, though it had once been seen as too outlandish to be taken seriously. Lots of historical problems and consequentialist concerns with the argument on the merits.
But he grew increasingly concerned about partisan mischief during elections. The last straw for him was a contested election that was assigned to him to resolve. But that’s a story for another day.
Delighted to share this news that I’ve been appointed to be a ‘24-‘25 Laurance Rockefeller Fellow at
@Princeton
’s University Center for Human Values. Looking forward to meeting the other fellows.
Welcome to new followers! I tweet about con law, legal history, and political theory. I’m writing a book about Steve Bright, former public defender who ended up as one of the greatest death penalty lawyers of his generation. You’ll see some tweets about that project too.
DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE has a cover and it’s stunning! We think it captures the bold and hopeful quality of Steve Bright’s advocacy. Pls consider pre-ordering this book about a lifelong advocate for the poor and fierce critic of the criminal justice system.
PS, I wrote a bit about unequal patterns of small town life and wrote these words about my father, in an essay called, “Somewhere, U.S.A.” The entire volume
#AfterLife
is extraordinary.
The judge sees zero public interest in maintaining the status quo. He writes dismissively: “Chemical abortion is only the status quo insofar as Defendants’ unlawful actions and their delay in responding to Plaintiffs’ petitions have made it so.”
In 1985, a Vietnamese man was tried for murder in a Gainesville, GA, courtroom. During the second day of trial, someone in the audience finally alerted everyone they were trying the wrong man.
It’s possible to talk about two different things:
1. A sneering and sexist manner of talking about (and relating to) accomplished women.
2. The role that meritocratic practices like titles play in inhibiting discourse and solidarity.
In June 2001, Stephen Bright told Senators: "Having any lawyer in town represent someone in a death penalty case is sort of like if someone in town needs brain surgery and you say, 'well we don't have any brain surgeons in this town but there's a chiropractor down the street.'"
Congrats to my
@BU_Law
colleague Anna di Robilant on her new book: Making modern property reinventing roman law europe and its peripheries 1789-1950
@cambUP_History
Thx for reading along. I’ve focused on the judge’s rhetorical choices, leaving others to tackle his reasoning under administrative law. If interested,
@maryrziegler
and I will soon post our new paper on this subject: “Abortion Politics & the Rise of Movement Jurists.”
Did Alito leave in his cites to the witch burner? Of course he did. Dobbs must be turned into an infamous decision through politics, just like Plessy, Korematsu, or Lochner.
Deep into the section on why he thinks the FDA acted “arbitrarily and capriciously,” more use of the term “abortionist” to describe someone who prescribes the drug as well as someone who performs a surgical procedure.
Another relevant passage highlighted by
@lsepper
, where the judge, in his own language, says he thinks the drug “starves the unborn human until death.”
I mean. This is paragraph 4 of the opinion in Alliance for Hippocratic Med v FDA that aims to withdraw approval of mifepristone. This is how the judge describes medication abortion