I’m excited to dig into this further, but the key takeaways—combined with Emily Zacklin’s book “Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places—recognize that state courts, not federal, are the next frontier for the Welfare Rights Movement.

Lawrence Solum@lsolum.bsky.social · 9h ago

Hammond on Welfare Litigation, State Courts, and Social Citizenship Andrew Hammond (Indiana University Maurer School of Law) has posted Welfare Litigation, State Courts, and Social Citizenship…...

My article Legal Deserts Over Time was recently published in vol. 78 of the Maine L. Rev. In short, once a county becomes a legal desert, it is likely to remain a legal desert. It was a pleasure to work with the team & keynote their Rural Law Conf. digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol78/is...

#Legal Deserts Over Time This Article offers a national, longitudinal, and definition-sensitive analysis of legal deserts using county-level data. Author: Cory Dodds Read More: spkl.io/63326AhM9g @corydodds.bsky.social

Mayor Linda Gorton said she hopes it will be the biggest food drive in Lexington’s history.

City leaders announce food drive to support families affected by SNAP cuts

Mayor Linda Gorton said she hopes it will be the biggest food drive in Lexington’s history.

bit.ly

Homeowners in rural McLean County in Kentucky are still recovering from April flooding. The government wants to buy them out. From WKU:

Homeowners in a rural Kentucky county are still recovering from April flooding. The government wants to buy them out.

McLean County is one of six Kentucky counties participating in a buyout program from the state and federal governments following April’s historic flooding.

wkyufm.org

Student journalists in Appalachia! 🚨 PAID writing opportunity before end of the semester: 100 Days in Appalachia is assembling a series of dispatches on the biggest issues facing campuses. Pieces are short, not as heavy a lift reporting-wise. Email rainesford.alexandra@gmail.com & I'll share info.

Drop everything and read it lpeproject.org/blog/movemen...

Movement Law Under Fascism

As fascist tendencies intensify across the United States, social movements continue to organize against the forces of state repression. Legal scholars must stand with these movements…

lpeproject.org

I am grateful to be quoted in this article detailing SNAP disqualifications in Kentucky (among the highest in the U.S.). Case law (see Shahid v. DHHS) and federal regulations are clear that states must have more than transactional evidence to disqualify an individual for SNAP fraud.

Sylvia Goodman@sylviaruthg.lpm.org · 10mo ago

After searching through court and state records, a pattern is clear. Kentucky swiftly stepped up SNAP disqualifications in 2016 and a review of several cases from 2020 onward shows a heavily reliance on suspicious shopping patterns to accuse people of selling benefits apnews.com/article/food...

Periodic reminder: student journalists in Appalachia, young writers in Appalachia, young folks in Appalachia who see something happening in their community they want to write about! Please pitch. (If you need pitch advice, message me! There's guidance in the link below but glad to brainstorm.)

Rainesford Stauffer@rainesford.bsky.social · last yr.

Student & early career journalists in Appalachia, send pitches! We're looking for different kinds of stories—politics, labor, education, cultural trends, life + identity, and more! Rates start at $100 for opinion, $200-$400 for reporting & can increase based on scope. Pitch guide and form below:

We're hiring an Eastern Kentucky reporter at @kentucky.com! This position will be based in EKy, and will have the freedom to cover any number of issues: the environment, the coal industry, economic challenges, the cultural landscape and so much more: mcclatchy.rec.pro.ukg.net/MCC1008MCLTC...

mcclatchy.rec.pro.ukg.net

Spotted on Ned Pillersdorf's website. According to prior reporting, he recently announced his campaign for Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District.

Inject the second paragraph of this footnote directly into my veins. (And then send it to the nine firms that have bent the knee.)

Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · last yr.

Howell drips with disdain for the firms who capitulated to the White House and says of those who resisted "will be the models lauded when this period of American history is written." ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

The attacks on law firms and lawyers must stop. Full stop. On behalf of race and law centers, @seiu.org, @aftunion.bsky.social, @aaup.bsky.social, and several advocacy organizations, we offer our thoughts on why it must stop. www.law.uci.edu/centers/kore...

Many students at Southern Illinois University come from families that are poor, or barely middle class, and depend on scholarships. Vice Chancellor Paul Frazier says the way DEI has been politicized ignores what it actually does: “Poor doesn’t have a color.” With @capitolnewsil.bsky.social

A University, a Rural Town and Their Fight to Survive Trump’s War on Higher Education

The administration’s research funding and DEI cuts present an existential threat to regional public universities like Southern Illinois University, the economic backbone of the conservative rural…

propub.li

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

Disabled kids from poor families already face disparities when it comes to enforcement of 504s/IEPs, as many can't afford lawyers to sue if schools fail to follow plans.

Troy Tassier@troytassier.bsky.social · last yr.

Hearing more and more today about “privatizing” aspects of the Dept of Education. Who does that hurt? Children from low income families. Who does it help? Selfish rich people who don’t want to pay in order to give kids with fewer opportunities a chance.

Important piece “attending to rural disadvantage& strengths reframes rural disparities as amenable to action instead of inevitable consequences of geography, poverty or demography. Achieving thriving rural communities requires attention to the complex forces shaping health at the geographic margins”

Anne Sosin@annesosin.bsky.social · 2y ago

Reimagining Rural Health Equity: Understanding Disparities And Orienting Policy, Practice, And Research In Rural America New Commentary with Elizabeth Carpenter-Song in the June 2024 Reimagining Public Health Issue of Health Affairs. www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10....

The largest purchaser of wine is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. The shelves of Kentucky whiskey, American beer and California wine are now empty. The LCOBO was doing a brisk business - good news for Canadian, French, Spanish, Australian, Chilean. Sucks for Kentucky and California.

People may not think of Musk's attacks on federal workers as a disability issue. But consider SSI or SSDI clients, who can already wait years on an application, or spend hours on hold trying to get questions answered. As DOGE shuts offices and lays off workers, we can expect that to get worse.

Cutting Medicaid and federal programs are among 4 key Trump administration policy changes that could make life harder for disabled people

Tracking disability policies has long been challenging − this will become a harder task under the Trump administration.

theconversation.com

Just a few weeks ago, the ABA said they stood with the rule of law. What changed?

Reuters Legal@legal.reuters.com · last yr.

The American Bar Association will temporarily suspend enforcement of its diversity and inclusion standard for law schools reut.rs/3CZRBJA

If you: -are a Kentuckian living in KY -who has taken/is taking an SSRI & it's played a big role in your life (pos or neg) -& would be willing to share that publicly I'd love to hear from you. My email is sladd@kentuckylantern.com Please share. Examples of SSRIS: www.fda.gov/drugs/inform...

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) Information

fda.gov

I really hope @andybeshearky.bsky.social reconsiders this position. I’m just a guy on the internet, but I think it’s a grave political miscalculation. If @govandybeshear.bsky.social isn’t running, then we need a known & quality candidate to win. Unfortunately, the KY Dem bench is short—too short.

Ryan Van Velzer@ryanvanvelzer.bsky.social · last yr.

One Democrat who says he won’t be running for the open Senate seat is Gov. Andy Beshear, who won a second term in office in 2023 despite Kentucky being a conservative state where Republicans typically dominate in federal and statewide elections. www.lpm.org/news/2025-02...

University leaders: you have access to historically large levels of expertise about law, government, and poltical affairs. It’s okay—even important—to say “This is unconstitutional.”

"Necessity forces the public and those with private wealth to recognize that so long as public spending does not adequately address their basic needs, the poor have valid claims to public, as well as private, land." 🔥🔥🔥

LPE Blog@lpeblog.bsky.social · last yr.

Today, @ezrarosser.bsky.social argues that the conservative justices in Grants Pass opened the door to a new, more robust, necessity doctrine. Taken seriously, this doctrine would destabilize the exclusionary rights of owners, and potentially generate the political will for ending homelessness.

It was wonderful attending the AVOL Kentucky Heartstrings breakfast in Lexington this AM and hearing from direct service providers who agree that housing is healthcare. My favorite quote: “Stop discriminating against poor people… Poor choices do not cause poverty, but poverty causes poor choices.”

Rural communities are at greater risk since families there rely on Medicaid for their health insurance at higher levels and rural hospitals are running on tighter margins. My full statement will shortly be available on our website ccf.georgetown.edu

🚨COME WORK WITH ME!🚨 CivicLex is partnering with @nextcity.org to host a one-year journalism fellow to report on rural-urban dynamics & issues in Central KY. $53.5k salary + benefits, and hybrid work with only two days a month required in the CivicLex office. jobs.nextcity.org/job/equitabl...

Equitable Cities Reporting Fellowship for Rural-Urban Issues

Next City and CivicLex seek a talented journalist for a one-year reporting fellowship examining urban and rural issues in Central and Appalachian Kentucky. In this role, you will pitch and report news...

jobs.nextcity.org