Dan Farbman
@danfarbman.bsky.social
Law Professor at BC Law, Historian of social movements and local government. Writing a book about Abolitionist Lawyering.
At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1890
Took our 13 year old to her first proper fancy restaurant tonight. (Mooncusser in Boston—it’s so good). It was magical. Kids are the best. (And they also frequently suck.)
The most naive thing about US soccer culture is the assertion that sport is not political. It’s politics all the way down.
The abolitionists were super patriotic. And super mad about the stuff their country did.
Jonathon Booth@jboothhistory.bsky.social · last mo.William Lloyd Garrison on the Declaration (shortly before burning the Constitution)
Happy Loving Critique of Our Flawed Nation State Day. nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stor...
A Nation's Story: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech titled “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” a call for the promise of liberty be applied equally to all Americans. Douglass’s speech empha...
nmaahc.si.edu
The offsides rule makes sense. The “one hair touching magic AI ball” makes less sense.
It’s never great when Justices pull a Bradwell and start talking about “the nature of things.” Tends to age poorly.
Jay Willis@jaywillis.net · last mo.Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion in the trans sports ban case in West Virginia contains some of the ugliest transphobic stuff I have ever seen in a legal opinion. Straight-up gleeful. Vile man. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
![2 WEST VIRGINIA v. B. P. J.
THOMAS, J., concurring
judgment). Because “gender dysphoria” is a mutable men-
tal state that is the object of psychiatric treatment, it does
not resemble the immutable characteristics on the basis of
which our precedents have applied heightened scrutiny—
race, sex, or national origin. Instead, gender dysphoria re-
sembles other characteristics on the basis of which legisla-
tures may classify with a merely rational basis. See, e.g.,
Heller v. Doe, 509 U. S. 312, 321 (1993) (mental illness);
Plyler v. Doe, 457 U. S. 202, 220 (1982) (immigration sta-
tus). Legislatures have many obvious rational bases to
keep men who believe that they are women out of teams
and private spaces reserved for women.
Second, as the Court recognizes, this case concerns “bio-
logical men” and “boys who identify as girls.” Ante, at 10,
27. Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or
girls, even if they believe that they are. Sex is an immuta-
ble “biological” characteristic, see ante, at 10; it is binary;
and “man” and “woman,” “boy” and “girl,” are the terms that
correspond to adults and children of each sex. See A. Byrne,
Are Women Adult Human Females? 177 Philosophical
Studies 3783, 3786–3787 (2020). To use language to ob-
scure reality—to show “indifference regarding the truth”—
is to lie to the public and cease to treat our fellow citizens
“as equal[s].” J. Pieper, Abuse of Language—Abuse of
Power 17, 21 (1992).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bpna2qi2e44fafbhhtqjak3x/bafkreibwsxtosqddkiskx5oxonnai4ha7ygixfcqmnbsxb27z3q43jh4iu)
If you think for a second, it's pretty wild that we all agree to be governed by a Court where everything turns on what Lyman Trumbull said or how Calvin's Case was decided. Originialism insists that we quibble over the dead hands rather than govern with our own. open.substack.com/pub/postcard...
An Originalist Relation to the Universe
An Emersonian Polemic
open.substack.com
Jackson's concurrence is really excellent both in substance and style. She's become a heroic voice amdist our modern Six Horsemen SCOTUS.
Very excited to be part of putting this together. Let us know if you want to come to Banff to talk about the history/theory of radical legal advocacy. (Space is limited, but we’ll do our best to include as many as are interested.)
Legal History Blog@legalhistoryblog.bsky.social · last mo.I mean, Bolling is clearly wrong as a matter of originalism. But that says more about originalism…
Gabriel Malor@gabrielmalor.bsky.social · last mo.Justice Thomas, writing only for himself, says that the Fifth Amendment's due process clause does not guarantee equal protection.
![Respondents’ equal protection claim also has no basis in the Constitution. The Constitution has only one Equal Protection Clause, and it applies only to the “State[s],” not the Federal Government. Amdt. 14, §1. Respondents, of course, sued the Federal Government. When asked at argument how the Equal Protection Clause could have anything to do with a suit against the Federal Government, respondents’ counsel, drawing on precedents of this Court, stated that the claim “arises under . . . the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee” because “the Fifth Amendment constrains the federal government in the same way that the Fourteenth Amendment constrains states.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 118. Because the Fifth Amendment has no Equal Protection Clause, this Court was wrong to read equal protection into it in Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U. S. 497 (1954). And, even if the Due Process Clause does prohibit some discrimination, it would not do so in a case about immigration status.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:24vva42nxim6zbcmnozegoef/bafkreidjqxkxpuj6qwtmub4kyzawtfxbs4ckudtriirts5vnh6ctidsrte)
Just to be very clear, SFFA did not overrule the line of cases that allow for policies like this or the 10% plan in Texas. The DOJ is free to argue whatever it wants, and god knows that SCOTUS could well accept DOJ's arguments. But this interpretation of SFFA is entrepenurial (and also very bad).
Bill@bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 2mo agoReverse disparate impact is such a fucking evil policy. The justice department’s position is that you can’t do class-based affirmative action because Black people tend to be poorer, so this would unfairly benefit Black people. Just resegregation. thecollegeinvestor.com/82214/doj-fi...
Watching the OG tip in highlights is bringing this very painful moment into my brain a lot. youtube.com/shorts/Wewro...
Most Painful Memory in Knicks History (1993.06.02) #shorts
YouTube video by MJ23 His Airness Forever
youtube.com
Having loved the Knicks as a kid, and having fallen hard out of love with them since the departure of Anthony Mason, I was seduced and started watching in game 3. At halftime yesterday I became convinced that me watching was the problem so I went to bed. Seems I was right.
It's become common for (Parents Involved, SFFA) the conservative justices wax sanctimonious about how colorblindness is the true meaning of Brown...and how their opponents are making segregationist arguments. And yet, the actual neo-segregationists keep winning. Whoops?
"Political parties are colorblind" is a wild thing to say (and a wilder thing to believe) in the context of...all of American history.
Joey Fishkin@fishkin.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt gets a little more wild each time they say it. So if every single Black person votes one way, and every single white person votes the opposite way, every election, that's not even RELEVANT to whether voting is "racially polarized"—as long as this durable disagreement is organized into 'parties.'
Towns and Counties Great stuff from @danfarbman.bsky.social bit.ly/43u6ld9
Towns and Counties
Shameless Self Promotion
open.substack.com
If you want to read about the difference between town and county visions of localism check out my latest: Towns or Counties, hot of the pdf press at the Indiana Law Review. Come for the cool old maps, stay for the local government law history. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Towns or Counties
The United States is a nation of counties with a latent romance for towns. The development of American local government law from the arrival of the first Europe
papers.ssrn.com
Everything is so crazy, but when I read the NYT article about Ahmadinejad, my first thought was this video. Which made me smile. youtu.be/zoS8DrrlnTQ?...
Iran So Far - SNL Digital Short
YouTube video by Saturday Night Live
youtu.be
Robert Cover told us that judges and legal elites were "priests not prophets." This remains depressingly true. open.substack.com/pub/postcard...
Priests, Not Prophets
Judicial Resistance, Conservatism, and the Question of Solidarity
open.substack.com
Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 3mo agoBreaking: the 1st circuit denied the emergency injunction request by the Rhode Island child advocate. As a result, Rhode Island children's will have to turn over medical records of trans youth to judge Reed O' Connor in Texas within the next 45 minutes. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Very strong Redemption vibes from the former Confederacy...day by day. www.newspapers.com/article/the-...
Article clipped from The Raleigh News
Clipping found in The Raleigh News published in Raleigh, North Carolina on 10/9/1875.
newspapers.com
Ashton Pittman@ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 3mo agoNEW: U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson's "reign of terror" in Mississippi "is over," Gov. Tate Reeves says, urging the ousting of the state's only Black member of Congress through redistricting before the end of 2027. He made that pronouncement even as he canceled a special session on redistricting.
Redemption Localism. Example #29875 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Redemption Localism
In the decades after the end of the Civil War, avowed white supremacists across the South sought to “redeem” their state and county governments from the clutche
papers.ssrn.com
Taniel@taniel.bsky.social · 3mo agoGeorgia's governor signs a comically transparent law. It makes local elections in 5 big blue counties nonpartisan, to give GOP candidates a chance to win without a party label in places like Atlanta. And it doesn't change anything in the rest of the state, for red counties to know who's GOP.
Friendly reminder that white supremacy was itself a partisan political strategy wielded opportunistically by the former planter “Bourbon” elite during Redemption to consolidate political power against the multiracial coalition created by Reconstruction.
Taniel@taniel.bsky.social · 3mo agoSCOTUS just sided with Alabama, lifting a court order for Alabama to use its current congressional map. This basically allows Alabama to redraw its congressional map for 2026, eliminating a majority-Black district.
"The difference between yes and no votes is less than .000000001% of the number of plankton in the Indian Ocean...so, MATH!"
post malone ergo propter malone@proptermalone.bsky.social · 3mo agoi have my own strong opinions about this but curious what you guys think this paragraph is doing in the Virginia Supreme Court's decision to nullify the will of the people
