I see 4 major developments manifest in yesterday's elections: 1) El-Sayed's victory, along with multiple downballot victories shows a significant expansion of DSA/Sanders/AOC-aligned power in the heartland, where we've been told it just couldn't reach. 1/5

“Constitutional law changes substantially in this country when the justices’ politics and values change, and often for no other reason. The Supreme Court has never been an institution that puts law in any form above the justices' aggregate policy preferences.” www.dorfonlaw.org/2026/08/prec...

If you thought John Mitchell or Bill Barr were bad… just you wait.

“Precedent and Personnel: When the Justices Change so Does the Constitution.” www.dorfonlaw.org/2026/08/prec...

If you think SCOTUS overruling its constitutional precedents in response to nothing more than changed personnel, think again. @espinsegall.bsky.social tells the 19th Century story of the Legal Tender cases. 👇

“A court that systematically dismantles democratic safeguards, steamrolls constitutional liberties, and tramples human dignity does not chart the course for the Hawaii Constitution”

State Court Report@statecourtreport.org · yesterday

The Hawaii Supreme Court opened the door for criminal defendants to challenge convictions based on discredited evidence, diverging from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Blanche’s written update to the slush fund and IRS immunity for Trump is nothing more than a shell game. My thoughts in @opinion.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Trump Still Has That IRS Immunity. Don’t Be Fooled

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s assurance to senators about the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and President Trump’s immunity with the Internal Revenue Service is nothing more than a ho...

bloomberg.com

I also think it's important to develop & articulate the principles that should guide us in this endeavor. We shouldn't be trying to cripple the judiciary, but we SHOULD be aiming to end SCOTUS acting as a super-legislature rather than a true court per @espinsegall.bsky.social's longstanding argument

The "and that's why Trump won" style of statement is worse than monocausal oversimplification. It's just wrong. On the blog, Prof Neil Buchanan explains how even Trump critics neglect or forget fact that Trump as president was an unlikely accident of history (as was the Reagan presidency, BTW). 👇

Trump v Slaughter was wrong on its own terms. In an essay on Balkinization, Prof Jeff Gordon argues it also failed to account for changes in accountability worked by the 22nd Am. On my blog, I evaluate his argument and place it in context of other shifts beyond an amendment's particular focus. 👇

Admit it your life is just a little nicer when the Supreme Court is not a part of the daily headlines.

RFK Jr and wife had a soiree at their Hollywood mansion during COVID and required proof of COVID vaccination with RSVP. Watch what they do, not what they say. –Rachel Maddow

I worked for New York’s largest medical center at the start of the pandemic. There were morgue trucks on the streets. They set up emergency medical tents in Central Park. Healthcare worker colleagues died. It is horrific that RFK Jr is on national TV lying that ICUs were empty.

So many sneering elitist journalists with snarky posts over the past months that the Reflecting Pool story was trivial. It was so trivial that the DC US Attny presented false evidence to a grand jury to indict an innocent man to please the President while they both lied about it.

Over 1,000,000 people here died of Covid and they wanted fewer precautions? I really, truly, honestly, sincerely, do not understand.

What?

Los Angeles Times@latimes.com · 5d ago

LAPD officer who recorded colleagues' racist comments to be charged with felony eavesdropping

Leaving Atlanta where it’s fairly hot heading to Denver for daughter’s ultimate frisbee tournament where this weekend it’s going to be…100 degrees. #totallynotfair

After Dr. Fauci took the Fifth, the Florida AG tweeted a threat to investigate. That can't have been a basis for Fauci's fear of prosecution before the tweet but it sheds light on prior red-state AGs' threats. Thus, I reassess whether fear of state prosecution justified Fauci in taking the Fifth. 👇

The right wing threat to higher ed is real and it's causing very real damage to our institutions. www.law.com/thelegalinte...

Penn State Dickinson Law Dean's Sudden Departure Follows Congressional DEI Hearing | Law.com

The school announced Friday that Danielle Conway had stepped down as dean effective immediately, two days after a former Penn State Dickinson Law student testified during congressional hearings accusi...

law.com

Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 5d ago

There are a lot of important things going on. Maybe this isn’t a top twenty concern. But, this is actually workplace harassment, the kind that can get people killed.

The irony of the GOP spending us into economic oblivion is almost as cruel as the Roberts Courts in reality being the least originalist Court in American history.

DOJ asked the 5th Circuit to save it from being "crushed" by a "flood" of habeas cases now, im just a simple legal writer, but I suspect DOJ wouldnt have to deal with so many unconstitutional detention lawsuits if it didnt unconstitutionally detain so many people ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

District Court Judges Are Unimpressed By the Fifth Circuit’s “Precedential Stay” Stunt

At the White House’s request, America’s Trumpiest appeals court attempts to issue an order that does not exist.

ballsandstrikes.org

Dr. Anthony Fauci was right that Rand Paul and other Republicans are out to get him, but in light of his pardon and case law rejecting "anticipatory perjury" as a basis for fearing prosecution, his invocation of his 5th Am right against self-incrimination was legally dubious. Details on the blog. 👇

When Justice is blind, bad guys take the fifth. When justice is corrupt, good guys take the fifth. Feel free to share.

leiterreports.com/2026/07/30/t...

Trump may kill us all even without nuclear war

Ships stuck because of the Strait of Hormuz blockage are breeding grounds for biological disaster.

leiterreports.com

Maybe the American people are beginning to realize that the Supreme Court is not a court, as @espinsegall.bsky.social has long maintained, but is instead a fundamentally political institution. And, under John Roberts' leadership as chief justice, it has become an overtly partisan agent of the GOP.

Eric Segall@espinsegall.bsky.social · 7d ago

“Never in a Gallup poll has the Supreme Court’s approval rating hit such a low point.” #notacourt www.newsweek.com/supreme-cour...

This, just this.

What happens if the AG signs papers that says he’ll do this and that, and then once confirmed just doesn’t do this and that

Allison Gill@muellershewrote.com · last wk.

👀

Here is a full list of every state that DOJ had sued and lost for access to their voter file: Arizona California Connecticut Kentucky Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin

“Never in a Gallup poll has the Supreme Court’s approval rating hit such a low point.” #notacourt www.newsweek.com/supreme-cour...

Supreme Court approval rating sees major change with Republicans—Poll

The Supreme Court's approval rating broke a record in the latest Gallup poll.

newsweek.com

On the blog, Prof Neil Buchanan celebrates an 11th Circuit ruling invalidating Florida's Stop WOKE Act's application to state universities but cautions that Republicans in Florida and elsewhere are hardly done attacking academic freedom and higher education more broadly. 👇