This is an amazing book—a “biography” of a tract of land. Stylistically dazzling and compelling as a narrative
Mark Tushnet
@marktushnet.bsky.social
Emeritus professor of constitutional law, including free expression and comparative constitutional law. Still trying to stay intellectually active.
As promised, Slaughtering the Administrative State, with takes you really won’t find in other podcasts: supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/sla... open.spotify.com/episode/3Hy5... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Slaughtering the Administrative State | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
Using the Court’s decision allowing the President to remove members of independent agencies from their offices we range rather widely—into a discussion of departmentalism, the strategic problems facin...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com
For some reason this isn’t generating an image, but Constitutional Democracy in Crisis II? is now available for purchase: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
An important debate on spectrum spanning the center-left to the DSA left is whether the post-electoral-victory program is restoration or reconstruction. The next episode of Supreme Betrayal sketches the difference and comes out against restorationism. Coming soon-ish.
Received an unsolicited draft from an unknown correspondent. Started to read it, suspected it was AI generated, used an AI detector, which said it was (“100% chance”). Stopped reading—but the thesis was sort of interesting & if not preempted arguably publishable if a human revised it. Lesson unclear
New episode of Supreme Betrayal on who gets to decide who gets to decide: supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/rel... open.spotify.com/episode/0POC... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...
Religion, Federalism, and the Boundary Problem | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
We use a recent decision by the Fifth Circuit upholding a Texas statute requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms as a jumping off point to discuss not only the religio...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com
My most recent, a review of Donald Horowitz on federalism, with some broader reflections on geography and constitutionalism: constitutionalstudies-ojs-utexas.tdl.org/cs/article/v...
View of Review of Donald L. Horowitz, The Promise and Perils of Devolution: Federalism, Regional Autonomy, and Ethnic Conflict; Reseña de Donald L. Horowitz, The Promise and Perils of Devolution: F...
constitutionalstudies-ojs-utexas.tdl.org
Ds should embrace Slaughter b/c it will let them (if they win in 2028) fire their MAGA-a**es then rebuild (not restore). More TK on Supreme Betrayal in a few weeks
Supreme Betrayal episode on the slush fund kerfuffle interviewing Sam Bagenstos (quoting Carl Sandburg at the end): supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/the... open.spotify.com/episode/1wFQ...
The Slush Fund Kerfuffle | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
We discuss the slush fund kerfuffle with Professor Smauel Bagenstos, who served as general counsel to the Department of Health and Human Services and has written a forthcoming article on slush funds. ...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com
Just published: Judicial Time—A Research Note, which provides some I hope helpful ways of thinking about the current moment in the Supreme Court. In theory open access but I haven't been able to get the links to work correctly. Better luck to the rest of you!: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Judicial Time: A Research Note | Journal of Law and Courts | Cambridge Core
Judicial Time: A Research Note
cambridge.org
An interview with the authors of the 4th edition of our Comparative Con Law casebook examining some of our choices (and yours, should you choose to take the assignment!): blog-iacl-aidc.org/just-publish...
Comparative Constitutional Law: Fourth Edition — IACL-IADC Blog
Vicki C JACKSON, Mark TUSHNET, Rosalind DIXON & Madhav KHOSLA The authors of the fourth edition of the casebook Comparative Constitutional Law (OUP 2026) introduce the new edition, key changes ...
blog-iacl-aidc.org
I've got a chapter on free speech and democratic backsliding in this forthcoming edited volume. From what I've seen, there will be many great chapters, including one from the late Ran Hirschl (may his memory be a blessing). I'm honored to be included.
Supreme Betrayal on Callais pt 2: criticisms & reflections on court-defined democracy: supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/the... open.spotify.com/episode/26uW... supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/the...
The Callais Decision Part II | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
In our second episode on the Callais decision we turn to criticism, though only after doing our best to identify some things in the decision that might be correct. Among our concerns are whether the C...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com
Just dropped the latest episode of Supreme Betrayal, the first of two on the Callais decision: supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/the... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t... open.spotify.com/episode/26uW...
The Callais Decision Part I | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
In the first of two episodes about the Callais decision we speculate about its immediate impact on the 2026 elections, with Mark trying to minimize that impact and Mike arguing that it’s likely to be ...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com
Ran Hirschl’s continuing scholarship: In an as yet unpublished (I think) essay Ran suggests de-coupling constitutionalism from geography without re-attaching it to the international legal regime—I suspect this will be foundational for a great deal of productive scholarship.
A short reflection on my and Robert Post’s volumes in the Holmes Devise, and Post’s response: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.59015/JACH.FGYD2485 HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.59015/JACH.TSFX3077
Yet another interview about constitutionalism with an Indian interlocutor: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYXJ... open.spotify.com/episode/3OvQ...
Rethinking Constitutionalism | Mark Tushnet & Arnav Mathur | LAOT Podcast
YouTube video by Law and Other Things (LAOT)
youtube.com
New Supreme BetrayalbEpisode: Do political scientists’ descriptions of SCOTUS behavior have normative implications? Mark--maybe, Mike--no: supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/con... open.spotify.com/episode/77vG... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
Constitutional Theory and Constitutional Time | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
Today we take up a challenge to our views about the tension between democratic self-governance and the contemporary form of judicial that Mark draws from the scholarship of political scientists includ...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com
Another hardball play if Ds win House: Invoke s. 2 of 14th Amend and reduce seats for Callais-redistricted states (“in any way abridged” not = “abridged on account of race”). Specialist in census & statistics needed here.
Picking up on someone else’s invocation of the “republican form of government” clause (with no capital-R): Real const’l hardball--If Ds win even a narrow majority in Nov, in Jan refuse to seat representatives from states that “Callais-redistricted.” (Specialist in cong’l procedure needed here.)
FWIW, an interview I did for an audience in India: thewire.in/law/intervie...
Interview | Can Constitutions Keep Majoritarians in Check?
Mark Tushnet says that many people have become disillusioned with constitutional frameworks because the governments created by and operating within them have failed to deliver substantive policies.
thewire.in
Constituent power & constitutional hardball: conduct Va elections using voter approved map & let House of Reps decide on seating. (Lots of details to work out but maybe worth it.)
What I’ve been reading--Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say (2026): beautifully written, seemingly slight (read it at one sitting) with resonances to A Man Called Ove and in the end quite moving and deep psychologically.
New Supreme Betrayal episode: do all constitutional theories dismally fail? Will we see pragmatic compromise if we deconstitutionalize con law? supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/rea... open.spotify.com/show/2aoi66k... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...
Reasons for Reasons, Constitutional Theory, and Pragmatic Compromises | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
In this episode we get to the heart of Mike’s book, his argument that judicial review as practiced today can’t be justified because justification requires a foundation in good constitutional theories—...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com
In 1968 Elizabeth appeared in a Calvin Trillin essay in the New Yorker as a graduate student interviewing with a recruiter for Dow Chemical. Today I, or at least my “Essay on Rights,” appeared in a review of Kim Crenshaw’s memoir. Elizabeth’s appearance was more interesting.
1/ Been away from the computer for a few hours so others may have made this point: Rucho’s holding that there’s no federal judicial remedy for partisan gerrymandering doesn’t have to imply, though everyone on the Court seems to think it does, ...
1/ I confess to thinking (at least at this point) that, considered in purely legal terms, it’s hard to see how Comey could get the indictment dismissed before trial (unless there’s some problem with the process of indictment). The relevant cases seem to require a court to assess “the record” ...
I don’t think I posted this yet—describing and linking to a video of a book launch event about Constitutionalism and Its Discontents, pub date 7/28 available for preorder now: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/news/20...
Book Launch: Constitutionalism and Its Discontents
GCDC celebrates the launch of ‘Constitutionalism and Its Discontents’ (The University of Chicago Press, 2026), co-authored by Professors Mark Tushnet and Bojan Bugarič.
ucl.ac.uk