ATTENTION WOMEN OF #polisky! Monica Komer & I are organizing our annual women's March Madness bracket! Open to any woman-identifying or non-binary political scientist. Entry fee $10, up to 2 per person. Loser gets money back. Pot split 80-20 btw 1st and 2nd. DM if interested & spread the word!

NEW: They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth. Two Florida women had to attend virtual court hearings while in labor to argue for their right to choose their own medical care. By @amyyurkanin.bsky.social

They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth.

Two Florida women had to attend virtual court hearings while in labor to argue for their right to choose their own medical care. As their state pushes to expand some types of medical freedom, it has a...

propublica.org

Interested in access to justice, children's rights, or IR? Check out @andreavilan.bsky.social & @rjschoner.bsky.social's fantastic new work in the Journal of Human Rights "Children’s participation in international organizations: Individual petitions in the United Nations."🔥🔥 doi.org/10.1080/1475...

Relevantly, @elizabethlane.bsky.social and I have a JOP coming out on this very topic, where we examine 34 years of citation data to address attorney targeting of justices. TLDR: yes, they do it and yes, it works. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Cite and Sway? Attorneys, Briefs, and Persuasion at the U.S. Supreme Court | The Journal of Politics: Vol 0, No ja

journals.uchicago.edu

Dr. Adam Feldman@dradamfeldman.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Which justices were attorneys trying to sway in the tariff case? Strategic targeting is a thing. I wrote about it for Legalytics: legalytics.substack.com/p/were-brief...

Trump on his multiple suits against the federal government: "I'm supposed to work out a settlement with myself ... We could make it a substantial amount, nobody would care, because it's gonna go to numerous, very good charities."

We see you with that SCOTUS pack on the interim/shadow docket, @tdunc17.bsky.social!

SCOTUSblog@scotusblog.com · 6mo ago

Introducing the Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack

Spring Law and Courts Women's Writing Groups are a go! Link to sign up is below, due date for signing up is 1/30. Come join us! Good work across the law and courts subfield gets done here! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Law and Courts Women's Writing Group

Writing groups for the Spring 2026 semester

link.sbstck.com

One basic pattern here is that DHS officials are engaging in violence simply because they are irritated at citizens protesting them. There is no plausible threat of violence here. He just wants to inflict pain, and believes there will be no penalty for doing so.

amanda moore 🐢@noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Big clash this afternoon between DHS agents and protesters in a residential street in Minneapolis, following a DHS agent hitting another vehicle. Tear gas was deployed in people’s yards and agents pepper prayed people.

Something fun and lighthearted to talk about around the Thanksgiving table tomorrow: are SCOTUS justices racist? Here's @lizmaltby.bsky.social and my perspective:

LSE US Politics and Policy blog - USAPP@lseusablog.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Supreme Court justices use racial stereotypes when deciding cases find Elizabeth Maltby of @unlv.edu and @abbymatthews.bsky.social of @sunyofficial.bsky.social blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

Supreme Court justices use racial stereotypes when deciding cases find Elizabeth Maltby of @unlv.edu and @abbymatthews.bsky.social of @sunyofficial.bsky.social blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

How Supreme Court justices use racial stereotypes when deciding cases | USAPP

Conservative justices are consistently less likely than liberals to side with criminal defendants, and that gap grows wider for defendants of color.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

IMPORTANT EXTENSION! The SPSA Neal Tate Best Paper Committee is extending the deadline to Nov 3, 5:00 pm EST. The 2026 Neal Award is given to the author(s) of the Best Paper on Judicial Politics presented at the 2025 SPSA Annual Meeting. Email papers to spsa.finance@spsa.net.

The New York Times publishes a handy guide to which federal forces are terrorizing us at any moment. This is America, 2025.

wrote about last week's super interesting tribal sovereignty decision in Washington Supreme Court one justice wrote a standalone concurrence basically saying 'the court applied the law correctly, but also the law is terrible and it's our responsibility to say so' ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...

A Washington State Supreme Court Justice Condemns Federal Indian Law as Racist and Awful

"Each time a court cites a case that has as its foundation such racist fallacies, it is incumbent on us to call out that racism, even if just in a footnote."

ballsandstrikes.org

NEW: Judge William Young's ruling against Rubio and Noem is a lesson for all in the Trump era. Young lays bare the unconstitutionality of the Trump administration's student deportation efforts — and issues a challenge to America. Today, at Law Dork:

Judge William Young's ruling against Rubio and Noem is a lesson for all in the Trump era

Young lays bare the unconstitutionality of the Trump administration's student deportation efforts — and issues a challenge to America. Also: More court pushback.

lawdork.com

Publish or perish…but what exactly does it take to earn tenure in Law & Courts? 📈👩🏽‍⚖️ Our new article tracks 40+ years of tenure portfolios—spoiler: expectations are rising, collaborations are up, but inequities remain. 👇 @alyxmark.bsky.social @melineberger.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/jlc....

We're back, y'all! Hitting that #TenureTrackHustle hard, but finding time to support our fellow #JudicialWomen nonetheless! LET'S GO!!!!!!!!! (PS - follow @lawcourtsapsa.bsky.social for all your official APSA Law and Courts content) (PPS - We are not judges, please don't tag us to yell at them!)

I know it may be shocking, but what if some of the Supreme Court justices were racist? Our findings show that litigant race, crime type, and justice ideology jointly shape judicial votes. Out now at JREP with Liz Maltby. cup.org/46JFvjZ #polisky #LawSky

@abbymatthews.bsky.social & Rachael Hinkle's analysis of judicial citations demonstrates that diversity in race, gender, *and* partisanship plays a critical role in the evolution of legal doctrine, with judges sharing all 3 salient traits experiencing a 25% increase in citation probability.

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

This will have to count as my Supreme Court term review. I make that point that there's no point in reviewing what the Supreme Court has done because the rule of law is dead in this country anyway. My latest in @thenation.com

The Rule of Law Is Dead in the US

The rule of law presupposes that there are rules that provide a consistent, repeatable, and knowable set of outcomes. That’s no longer the case.

thenation.com

Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated last night, was the Speaker of the Minnesota House in the 2023-2024 session, when Democrats ran the state government. That means she had a leading role in shepherding the many landmark reforms that Dems adopted in that period—an important legacy. Brief 🧵.

Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.

Does a litigant’s race or gender influence public support for Supreme Court decisions? Read more: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #JOP #SupremeCourt #PublicOpinion #PoliticalPerceptions Authors: @jamilscott.bsky.social @elizabethlane.bsky.social @jessicaann87.bsky.social

It's student evaluations time. As we ponder them, let's ponder how to fix them. abovethelaw.com/2018/10/weap...

Weaponizing Student Evaluations (Part III) - Above the Law

LawProfBlawg offers some ways to fix student evaluations.

abovethelaw.com

Michigan has a new Supreme Court Justice, as of today. Governor Whitmer appointed Noah Hood, a lower court judge, to the seat of a retiring Republican justice. This means Democratic or Democratic-nominated justices now have a majority of 6-1 on this court. Brief thread:

I am always proud of my former graduate students. Today, @rachaelhouston.bsky.social just published this excellent commentary on the @lseusablog.bsky.social. Nice job my friend! @umnpolisci.bsky.social @judicialwomen.bsky.social @apsa.bsky.social

Friendly reminder that it’s award season! Nominations for Law and Courts section awards are due 3/1! 🏆 Nominate yourself! Nominate good work! Nominate good people! In the famous words of Michael Scott via Wayne Gretzky - "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Take the shot!

🚨New paper alert from Francesca Parente: "The Price of Justice: Compliance and Damages Awarded by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights," in Journal of Law & Courts doi.org/10.1017/jlc.... We saw this in writing group and it's 🔥. #ReadItCiteItSyllabusIt #polisky

📚📚New book by @cbambrick.bsky.social "Constitutionalizing the Private Sphere: A Comparative Inquiry" with @cambridgeup.bsky.social. The book examines when courts understand private actors, such as private individuals, businesses, schools, and hospitals, to be responsible for constitutional rights.

Constitutionalizing the Private Sphere

Cambridge Core - Constitutional and Administrative Law - Constitutionalizing the Private Sphere

cambridge.org