Pity poor Hannibal Hamlin - and the course of the nation's history www.loc.gov/resource/lpr...

Hooray! 🎉 Can’t wait to get my copy!

Kevin M. Levin@civilwarmemory.bsky.social · 2d ago

*A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw* Hits Bookstores Today #CivilWarMemory #booksky 🗃️ kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/a-glorious...

Terrific review of SUPREMACY by @nikobowie.bsky.social and @daphnarenan.bsky.social alongside my book, THE POLITICAL SUPREME COURT: 

Pema Levy@pemalevy.bsky.social · 2w ago

The Supreme Court rules over us, with 5 unelected judges wiping out legislation passed by the people's representatives. Is this how democracy is supposed to work? Two new books argue the court seized power it was never intended to have. And how to take it back. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Many thanks for teaching this piece! Honored to be among such brilliant company.

Anthony Sanders@ijsanders.bsky.social · 3w ago

Here are the reading/searching assignments for a seminar I'm teaching at @umnlawschool.bsky.social this fall, Constitution Making. Includes some wonderful work from people on here! @miriamseifter.bsky.social @sammerchant.bsky.social @tannerallread.bsky.social l @rachelshelden.bsky.social

Here’s my op-ed on Chief Justice John Roberts whitewashed history of President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft. Roberts adoration of Taft’s “restraint” conveniently omits Taft’s racism, refusal to condemn lynching, and embrace of Lost Causism. That’s no accident. share.inquirer.com/IcPlmx

Will the real William Howard Taft please stand up?

Chief Justice John Roberts penned an incomplete, but revealing, tribute to former President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

share.inquirer.com

If you're in the area, hope you'll join us tonight!

Rachel Shelden@rachelshelden.bsky.social · last mo.

Boston area friends: I'll be in conversation with Peter Canellos & Kent Greenfield about the historic & current SCOTUS on SEPT 8 as part of the Cambridge Forum's first in-person event since before the pandemic! Join us at 7pm at the First Parish on Harvard Square. (Free & open to the public.)

Missed this great piece from @gauthamrao.bsky.social yesterday. More generally, one thing justices are bad at is telling histories of their predecessors. Look no further than this bananas 1954 Earl Warren address on his “enduring admiration for” Roger Taney archives.dickinson.edu/sites/defaul...

Gautham Rao (pronounced: Knicks in 5)@gauthamrao.bsky.social · 4w ago

Here’s my op-ed on Chief Justice John Roberts whitewashed history of President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft. Roberts adoration of Taft’s “restraint” conveniently omits Taft’s racism, refusal to condemn lynching, and embrace of Lost Causism. That’s no accident. share.inquirer.com/IcPlmx

i think the "flyover country deserves representation" is a low-key strong talking point. "we don't want a court dominated by harvard and yale."

Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast@irhottakes.bsky.social · 4w ago

I think the "thirteen districts, thirteen justices" thing is a good talking point to counter, particularly if Dems promise to only nominate justices from districts with no representation. blah blah blah good hardworking Americans in flyover country deserve blah blah blah, etc.

Crushing your political opponents when they entrench themselves in the judiciary is very much part of “our history and tradition.”

Eric Segall@espinsegall.bsky.social · 4w ago

So, the 1801 Congress cancelled the Supreme Court for a year. Really. If the Dems again control the two real branches of government, they should threaten closing the Court, because originalism, and then let’s talk “reform.”

Truly nobody is doing it like @uncpress.bsky.social and @sonyabonczek.bsky.social - I am so excited to read all of these.

Boston area friends: I'll be in conversation with Peter Canellos & Kent Greenfield about the historic & current SCOTUS on SEPT 8 as part of the Cambridge Forum's first in-person event since before the pandemic! Join us at 7pm at the First Parish on Harvard Square. (Free & open to the public.)

Above the Fray? Rethinking the Supreme Court's Independence

Was the Supreme Court ever what we thought it was?

eventbrite.com

As a serious problem of constitutional design or correction, this cartoon is a wonderful prompt, especially when the justices conjure up novel doctrines from who knows what source to justify unsettling established norms and expectations.

conifergirl.bsky.social@conifergirl.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Book is out in three days. THREE DAYS! Read the excerpt or pre-order your copy. Details below.

Can’t Stop Twinkling 💕💚@proftolson.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Cambridge just posted the first ten pages of my manuscript, In Congress We Trust? Enforcing Voting Rights from the Founding to the Jim Crow Era. Check it out here: assets.cambridge.org/97810097/816...

A veritable potpourri of parties!!

I think every student I've ever had is familiar with the expression I'm making in this photo 😆

UNC Press@uncpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

@rachelshelden.bsky.social and @aadeleon.bsky.social just wrapped up at the indie press reception at SIBA and NAIBA’s New Voices, New Rooms! Look at them in their element chatting with booksellers 👏📚

He was kind enough to let us snag a photo!

A first book sighting!!

UNC Press@uncpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We’re on a flight to the New Voices New Rooms conference from SIBA and NAIBA where @rachelshelden.bsky.social has an author reception tonight and what are the odds the person next to us is reading her first book WASHINGTON BROTHERHOOD 🤯

I am begging you not to believe gazillionaire baseball owners when they tell you Skubal going to the Dodgers means we need a salary cap. Competitive balance is not the reason they want a salary cap. They just want to spend less, and with more predictability, on total payroll. That is all.

1. @robdelaney.bsky.social is the best read and smartest person in Hollywood/London 2. The dizzying adrenaline of talking about Moby-Dick with him every day was amazing and I think is contagious if you subscribe to the podcast?!? 3. Our digressions are EPIC and rival Melville's 4. 🐳 4 life

Rob Delaney@robdelaney.bsky.social · 2mo ago

1. This was so fun to make I almost threw up every day. 2. This is the trailer on YouTube if that’s how you’ve chosen to live your life: youtu.be/IZYZaRWwYR4?... 3. I’d be super grateful to anyone who reposted the post above. 4. Have any Qs about it for me? I’ll endeavor to answer! 5. Get in!🚣🏾‍♀️

It remains difficult even for graduate students, who are often driven by a source base, rather than a question. But the key to a good dissertation is a research question that shapes methods & sources. Without it, you end up with a lot of “isn’t this interesting?” projects.

Chris Levesque@levesque-chris.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When I was teaching Intro to research, it was really challenging to convince students to start with a question, not an argument.

In my historical methods training, I was always taught “we start with a historical question.” I would never use “I’m testing a hypothesis” in my work. I might have a working theory or a working hypothesis, but I’m certainly never *testing* it. That’s ripe for cherry-picked, law office history.

I'm really looking forward to @rachelshelden.bsky.social's book, The Political Supreme Court, which will unpack how politicians, the public - and the justices themselves - once understood the court as a political institution, and how and why that changed in the 20th century.

Rachel Shelden@rachelshelden.bsky.social · 3mo ago

It's true! The Supreme Court was a political institution by design & in practice during the nation's first century. And you can read all about it when my book is out in October with @uncpress.bsky.social

It ought never to be forgotten that it’s deeply deeply weird for 21st century American public policy questions to revolve around interpretations of the history of 13th century England.

Amidst a highly charged 1792 debate over how to implement the constitution‘s Militia Clauses, Madison moves “to delegate this power to the President of the United States” during congressional recess.

Julian Davis Mortenson@jdmortenson.bsky.social · 3mo ago

L O L

You really have to wonder what Matt Yglesias thinks of the political antislavery movement.

Jeff Lazarus@jlazarus.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This paragraph gave me an epiphany about Matty Y. It's not that he doesn't understand how politics words. It's that fundamentally, he doesn't understand *what politics is.*

Here it is, my 284th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

#ScholarSunday Thread 284 (7/12/26) – Black and White and Read All Over

Here it is, my 284th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy,...

blackwhiteandread.com

Me: AI sucks, it’s hilarious how much it sucks! The World: Here’s an AI poster for your event...

Elizabeth C. Hamblet, LD Advisory@echamblet.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Mom and I got our tix for Montclair! (Just wish we were going to have time to read it ahead of time!) Who else is going? www.tickettailor.com/events/njtal...

@janemanners.bsky.social and I shared some thoughts on @justsecurity.org on the uses and misuses of history on the Court's recent Slaughter decision. Whatever we want to say about the history of officer removal, it's not, as CJ Roberts put it, "lost to history." t.co/SoejegGfxM

One of my favorite things to tell lawyers about is how Marbury was cited only twice (I think?) until Cooper v. Aaron. It wasn’t until the Burger Court that the “say what the law is” language was invoked for what the judiciary’s role is/should be.