New from @maschwar.bsky.social Melissa Schwartzberg, in response to Danielle Allen's repeated serious misreading of the moment and of the Trump administration's bad faith with respect to higher education. www.chronicle.com/article/dani...

Danielle Allen Is Wrong About Trump

Dealmaking under duress is always undemocratic.

chronicle.com

The last two sentences are … direct. Link: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

These are still some of the most amazing graphs ever published in a political science book. From: Edward Tufte. 1978. Political Control of the Economy. Princeton University Press.

This reviewer comment makes me wonder what people think the purpose of a "short paper" is.

Critique of state-level measures of democracy www.nationalaffairs.com/publications... I agree with many criticisms of existing measures, but mixes in various shots at the left & downplays the most serious concerns about state-level backsliding like power-stripping (NC/WI), extreme gerrymanders (WI)

The Myth of Democratic Backsliding in the States

Progressive critics charge that democracy is declining in Republican-led states. But a careful analysis of state-level democratic health shows that red and blue states actually score comparably, and t...

nationalaffairs.com

I see a lot of effort to relentlessly mobilize uncertainty, measurement difficulty, ambiguity, etc in a one-sided way as if it all points in the direction of left-wing position taking being costless when all these considerations could equally point in the opposite direction.

It takes a special kind of Guy to look at all the circumstances of Brett Kavanaugh's career arc and reach the passive-voice conclusion that Kavanaugh "was forced" to join the Supreme Court's conservative wing. But Noah Feldman? He is that special kind of Guy. noahfeldman.substack.com/p/brett-kava...

The US President's new proposal to tax international students has been approved by the White House for release this week. It's an unprecedented $100,000 tax on int'l grads who stay to work after graduation on Optional Practical Training (most grads do), a crucial bridge to remaining by any channel.

incidentally the "were Americans united after 9/11" debate is a good illustration of the limits of oral history

Reviewing fast or slow: A theory of summary reversal in the judicial hierarchy by Alexander V. Hirsch, Jonathan P. Kastellec, and Robin A. Taboni is now available in Early View. @jkastellec.bsky.social @robintaboni.bsky.social ajps.org/2026/01/09/r...

Here's my report at Law Dork, which includes the latest news: The Missouri Supreme Court issued an order tonight to MO SOS Hoskins to show cause why he shouldn't be held in contempt. His brief is due Wednesday. Arguments are Thursday. He ordered is to attend in person. Read it all at Law Dork:

Dueling rulings cause chaos over Missouri maps

By Tuesday night, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins faced an order from the Missouri Supreme Court to show cause why he should not be held in contempt.

lawdork.com

#OpenAccess from @apsrjournal.bsky.social - Are Voters Myopic or Looking for Improvement? - https://cup.org/4gvG85v - MARKUS PRIOR & @talbotmandrews.bsky.social #FirstView

Princeton Niehaus Center (@niehauscenter.bsky.social) now accepting applications for 2027–28 postdoctoral fellowships: niehaus.princeton.edu/fellowships Deadline: Thursday, October 15, 2026

Apply for our Fellowships

Apply NowThe Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance (NCGG) at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs invites applications for postdoctoral research associates from ...

niehaus.princeton.edu

I've never understood why we don't have a Presidential Records Act equivalent for the Supreme Court. The justices aren't so special. And their insistence on secrecy encourages people like Trump to resist transparency laws like the PRA.

Tom “T.M.” Wolf@tomtmwolf.bsky.social · 4w ago

Shocking story in here of Byron White and his clerks shredding his papers… www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...

www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...

How the Supreme Court Locks Away Its Own History

After Justice Scalia died, the justices held private negotiations about locking away their papers. We may not see the ultimate record of the Roberts court for decades.

nytimes.com

I am shocked, shocked to learn that this 2002 paper by Dan Ariely is based on dubious data and doesn’t replicate. statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/08/31/s...

More evidence out today that Dan Ariely likely fabricated data.

Just as a descriptive matter, here's a projection of what the number of seats on the Supreme Court would look over time if each party added 2 seats every time there's a change from divided to unified government.

Getting it out of the way before APSA (iykyk)

WCVB NewsCenter 5, Boston@wcvb5.bsky.social · last mo.

Guests evacuated after fire in Boston hotel | Click on the image to read the full story

I mean, successful people often do select on the DV and keep on having success because they don't understand how dependent upon structure they are.

Jacob T. Levy@jacobtlevy.bsky.social · last mo.

OK, class, can anyone tell me the problem with this research design? Short answer quiz, five words. Congratulations, you know more than the United States' newspaper of record.

Going straight into the presentation ....

Hey all! We’re hiring at Mount Holyoke. If you are on the market this year and have a specialty in American Public Law, we’d love to hear from you. If not, please forward to someone you think is interested. Available for questions via this app, email, or in person at APSA. Thanks!

Political science jobs, sortable by subfield. poli-sci-jobs.org

Here's my AI policy for Parties and Elections this semester, plus a link to my substack where I explain how I came to it in the next reply. Every assignment in my course is AI-encouraged with required disclosure or AI-prohibited (the in-person exams). Disclosure of use is never penalized.

This is fucking nuts - decades from now people will be asking, "what broke in 2028"

Kim Weeden@weedenkim.bsky.social · last mo.

Yes. The GSS, ANES, and PSID were all funded by SBE. GSS 2026 is in the field now, but GSS 2028 is currently unfunded, and my understanding is that NSF will not be funding it. We’re looking at alternatives, perhaps for a scaled down version so we can keep the 56+ year series going.

So I get that there's (yet again) a big debate going on about AI on Bluesky. I am turning off replies to this post because I don't want to have notifications flooded one way or the other on this one. I just want to share what I've heard multiple times in just the past two weeks.

It's like how Harriet Miers was the best-case scenario for a W Supreme Court nominee. Given her background it was highly unlikely that she would have been another Souter, but if the alternative is Alito it's literally all upside

Soy Boy@soyboy.bsky.social · last mo.

The thing is—the republicans who are informed are even worse. 😕

What motivates Americans' partisanship? In POQ, Fowler et al. find that values, ideology, and policy preferences are, by far, the most common reasons people give for their party identification and their affect toward the other party. Read now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

It really is amazing how researchers and journal editors will avoid showing even the most basic courtesy or gratitude to sleuths who point out errors in their work. I get that it's embarrassing, but guess what: that sleuth has read your work more closely than anyone else ever will! For free!

Note that Barkan's plagiarism is similar in nature to Gay's (though more extensive it would seem) but there's no journalist afaik who's saying "c'mon that's not plagiarism"