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Shirin Sinnar

@ssinnar.bsky.social

Law professor researching civil rights, political violence, racial justice, and national security

44 Posts639 Follower 331 Folgt

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Reuters Exclusive "U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school." "The strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the Middle East."

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say

Military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday, two U.S. officials told Reu...

reuters.com

Adil Haque @adhaque.bsky.social · 6mo ago

"An immigration judge has blocked the deportation of Mohsen Mahdawi, an organizer of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia University who was arrested during a citizenship appointment last year." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/n...

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · 6mo ago

In our new blog post, Darryl Li and I call attention to a dangerous new development: red states are purporting to "designate" civil rights groups as terrorists. Like the Trump administration, the governors are targeting their critics as "terrorists." knightcolumbia.org/blog/red-sta...

Red State Governors Are Designating Civil Rights Groups as Terrorists

knightcolumbia.org

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 6mo ago

In a new blog post, @ssinnar.bsky.social and Darryl Li explain recent efforts in Texas and Florida to designate civil rights groups as terrorists that could lay the groundwork for even more state-level authoritarianism. knightcolumbia.org/blog/red-sta...

Red State Governors Are Designating Civil Rights Groups as Terrorists

knightcolumbia.org

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · 6mo ago

"It is long past time to rein in not only counterterrorism, but also the concept of terrorism that fuels it." My op-ed in today's SF Chronicle on how Trump draws on a concept of terrorism that has been racialized & selective from the beginning. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

Here’s why Trump gets away with simply labeling his enemies ‘terrorists’

OPINION: Trump’s attempts to redefine terrorism to fit his agenda are the outgrowth of a selective concept that political actors have been carrying out for decades, Shirin Sinnar writes.

sfchronicle.com

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 8mo ago

In case people tell you that public criticism of the court doesn’t matter, here’s Brett Kavanaugh trying to walk back what he said in the ICE roving patrol case - when he blessed racial profiling & called the stops prompt. He was lambasted; @akalhan.bsky.social coined the term “Kavanaugh stops”

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Trump’s domestic deployment of the National Guard marks an area where he has diverged from the consensus of the conservative legal movement, with no plausible footing in Federalist Society dogma. And it is extremely telling that SCOTUS finally drew the line here. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Trump Just Faced the Biggest Supreme Court Defeat of His Second Term So Far

But another battle looms in the distance.

slate.com

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The sanctions that Trump has imposed on the ICC and UN rapporteurs have been deterring American human rights advocates and scholars from exercising their First Amendment rights. This letter--obtained by @mesa1966.bsky.social & @knightcolumbia.org--should help. knightcolumbia.org/content/trum...

Trump Administration Concedes That U.S. Researchers May Engage With Sanctioned U.N. Official

knightcolumbia.org

The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 8mo ago

The crackdown is vast, the stakes could hardly be higher, and the response from Chicagoans has been profound and far-reaching. trib.al/USPmkQC

Inside Chicago’s Neighborhood ICE Resistance

Residents have organized a formidable network to protect immigrant communities from Trump’s brutal deportation program. Their efforts are making a genuine difference.

trib.al

Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 8mo ago

Outdated laws give presidents sweeping power to use the military at home to suppress protests and make mass arrests in times of war and domestic upheaval. Congress must repeal the Alien Enemies Act, close the loopholes in the Posse Comitatus Act, and reform the Insurrection Act. bit.ly/4oxXJLN

Outdated and Dangerous

Antiquated laws from the 1700s and 1800s give the president tremendous power to use the military at home to quash protests and order mass arrests in times of war and domestic upheaval.

brennancenter.org

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · 9mo ago

“As the Trump admin asserts national security powers to target foreign and domestic enemies at unprecedented scale, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether there truly are no limits to the racialized security state it has unleashed.” My new essay in Daedalus, www.amacad.org/daedalus/sup...

The Supreme Court & the Unaccountable Racialized Security State

For a few brief years after 9/11, the U.S. Supreme Court reined in the executive branch’s most sweeping assertions of wartime power, upholding the constitutional rights of military detainees. Then the...

amacad.org

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford @casbsstanford.bsky.social · 9mo ago

How has war shaped American democracy? 2024-25 CASBS fellow @ssinnar.bsky.social writes on "The Supreme Court & the Unaccountable Racialized Security State" in the new issue of Dædalus, the publication of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Open access: www.amacad.org/daedalus/sup...

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · 9mo ago

I was happy to moderate this conversation on how Orientalism, the masterpiece of Palestinian American intellectual Edward Said, revolutionized academic inquiry around the world. Said's message to speak to power resonates even louder today.

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford@casbsstanford.bsky.social · 9mo ago

🎙️NEW CASBS PODCAST EPISODE "In Edward Said's Shadow" Said wrote most of Orientalism at CASBS in 1975-76. CASBS fellows Shane Dillingham, Thomas Blom Hansen, @camillahawth.bsky.social & @ssinnar.bsky.social discuss the enduring influence of Said's landmark book 🎧 casbs.stanford.edu/podcast#edwa...

Sameer Ashar @sameer-ashar.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Proud that my @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social colleague @veenadubal.bsky.social is on the papers - The national @aaup.org campaign is extraordinary, as is the number of unions and faculty associations brought together in defense of the UC.

Joey Fishkin@fishkin.bsky.social · 11mo ago

I'd like to commend the lawyers who wrote this complaint on behalf of the professors and employees of the University of California against the Trump administration. It's a sober legal document with strong claims, but also, this is a fight for public opinion, and this reads like the writers know it.

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Read this brilliant essay by my colleague, immigration law expert Jennifer Chacon, on the Supreme Court's shadow docket decision effectively permitting racial profiling in immigration raids: verfassungsblog.de/noem-ice-sup...

Whose Common Sense?

verfassungsblog.de

Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Denying Palestinian officials this same access breaks with that precedent. It isn’t just unusual, it’s a dangerous deviation from norms the United States has upheld for decades!

United States Revokes Visas of Palestinian Officials

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from members of the PA and PLO.

time.com

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · 12mo ago

My law review article on the suppression of campus Palestine protests: “It is far easier to punish higher education institutions…and to disappear students from their dorm rooms…when campus protestors have been vilified over the course of more than a year.” scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcont...

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 12mo ago

If this continues, the most talented American students will want to study abroad, because they'll want to study with the most talented students and faculty from around the world, and those people won't want to come to the United States even if they can. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/u...

Trump’s Tactics Mean Many International Students Won’t Make It to Campus

nytimes.com

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Read everything Ifill writes. "As we emerge from this difficult summer, we have the power to apply pressure, not only on this Administration, but on those whose cowardice has left our democracy in shambles. We know how to march, to boycott, to demonstrate, to petition, to litigate, to argue..."

Sherrilyn Ifill@sifill.bsky.social · 12mo ago

My new essay is up! open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 12mo ago

🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...

Dear President Milliken, Regents, and Governor Newsom,
As faculty members of University of California law schools, we endorse Governor Newsom's commitment to resist the Trump Administration's unlawful actions taken against the University of California, Los Angeles. The Governor is on firm legal ground. The Trump Administration's termination and suspension of federal funds has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in numerous ways. Governor Newsom and the University of California Regents will protect the vital interests not only of Californians but of all Americans if they defend the University of California's rights.
The U.S. Department of Justice notified UCLA on July 29, 2025, that it had found that UCLA had "violated its obligations under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Chancellor Frenk subsequently announced that
"the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons" for federal grant terminations. UCLA faces losses of at least $584 million, funding that has supported vital research on matters ranging from treatments for pancreatic cancer to advances in online security.
The Trump Administration has made no pretense of following the law. Title VI permits a federal agency to terminate funding only if it has found that the particular program receiving that funding has violated the law's non-discrimination provisions. Funding cannot disappear just because the agency's policy or political preferences differ from the institution's.
Moreover, the agency can act only after following specific procedural steps. Importantly, Title VI requires a formal administrative hearing—a proceeding much like a trial-before the agency can terminate funding. At the hearing, the agency would have the burden of proving the university's alleged violations of Title VI before an impartial decision-maker. If the agency prevails at the hearing, the university or other interested persons could appea…

factually supported and consistent with civil rights laws. Without the steps Title VI requires, there is no protection against an administration alleging discrimination as a pretext to force compliance with its policy or partisan preferences. Title VI's procedures guarantee the constitutional due process requirement that no person can be deprived of liberty or property without fair notice and opportunity to be heard. They protect the university and its members' academic freedom, an endowment essential to scientific research, intellectual discovery, and open debate.
We are deeply committed to the core principle of non-discrimination codified in Title VI and in the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The principle that no person may suffer discrimination because of race, color, or national origin protects equality and ensures fairness in political as well as social life. Allegations of discrimination deserve serious and careful consideration and, where established, effective redress. But this enforcement effort must follow the law.
We urge Governor Newsom and the UC Regents to continue to stand up for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, due process, and equal protection. A defense of the University of California's rights in court will model respect for these bedrock principles of equality and fairness, and it will ensure that the government honors them. The Trump Administration's failure to abide by the law subverts these principles by denying the University of California a fair opportunity to contest the government's charges of unlawful discrimination before an impartial decisionmaker. It is precisely because we cherish the principles of the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution that we encourage Governor Newsom, the UC Regents, and the University of California to fight back.
Through its grantmaking powers, the federal government wields vast influence over social and economic life. If not held to account by the procedural protections enacted by Congres…

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · 12mo ago

My latest article, on how organizers & lawyers in three cities sought to “flood the courts” to protect homeless people and renters facing eviction. law.stanford.edu/wp-content/u...

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · last yr.

Doctors without Borders joins 100 aid organizations in saying aid workers are now wasting away from the Israeli government's starvation policy, alongside the people of Gaza. msf.org.uk/article/gaza...

Gaza: As mass starvation spreads, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away

MSF joins more than 100 organisations to sound the alarm on famine in Gaza and call for life-saving aid

msf.org.uk

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · last yr.

When Scotus demolishes one way of getting relief from courts, it often says, "don't worry, there are alternatives." Then it demolishes the "alternatives." So today, it demolishes nationwide injunctions & claims that class actions are an alternative. But it's already raised the bar on class actions.

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · last yr.

Shredding the rule of law, one step at a time.

Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · last yr.

Super-quick take while reading the ruling: This is going to be a much bigger deal for challenges to *other* Trump policies than to birthright citizenship (where it's likely that lower courts will still be able to block the policy on a nationwide basis even after this ruling). *That's* the import.

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · last yr.

#BREAKING: Over a (sharp) public dissent from the three Democratic appointees, #SCOTUS clears the way for the Trump administration to remove migrants to third countries *without* giving them an additional opportunity to contest whether they face persecution or other forms of mistreatment there:

supremecourt.gov

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · last yr.

My colleague Amrit Singh writes in the Guardian how Trump's sending U.S. migrants to Nayib Bukele's El Salvador is emboldening a brutal wave of repression there. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump’s lawlessness is emboldening El Salvador’s brutal regime | Noah Bullock and Amrit Singh

The detention of a leading human rights lawyer is part of a wave of repression sweeping the country under Nayib Bukele

theguardian.com

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · last yr.

As UN warns that 14,000 children in Gaza under the age of five face severe malnutrition, Stanford students enter their tenth day of hunger striking in solidarity. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

Hunger strike at Stanford enters its 10th day

The pro-Palestinian hunger strike at Stanford University has entered its 10th day.

sfgate.com

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · last yr.

Here's the letter Noem sent Harvard, as posted on X. Nothing alleges ANY specific violation of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. Nothing. She cites no law violated, no regulation broken, no policy ignored. I don't care what you think of Harvard; this is clear weaponization of government.

Secretary Kristi Noem
@Sec_Noem
This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.

It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.

Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused.

They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law.

Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.

Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program Decertification
I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked.
As I explained to you in my April letter, it is a privilege to enroll foreign students, and it is also a privilege to employ aliens on campus. All universities must comply with Department of Homeland Security requirements, including reporting requirements under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program regulations, to maintain this privilege. As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist "diversity, equity, and inclusion" policies, you have lost this privilege.
The revocation of your Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification means that Harvard is prohibited from having any aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status for the 2025-2026 academic school year. This decertification also means that existing aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status must transfer to another university in order to maintain their nonimmigrant status.
This action should not surprise you and is the unfortunate result of Harvard's failure to comply with simple reporting requirements.
On April 16, 2025, I requested records pertaining to nonimmigrant students enrolled at Harvard University, including information regarding misconduct and other offenses that would render foreign students inadmissible or removable. On April 30, 2025, Harvard's counsel provided information that he represented as responsive to my request. It was not.
As a courtesy that Harvard was not legally entitled to, the Acting DHS General Counsel responded on my behalf and afforded Harvard another opportunity to comply. Harvard again provided an insufficient response.
Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to…

If Harvard would like the opportunity of regaining Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification before the upcoming academic school year, you must provide all of the information requested below within 72 hours.
Please be advised that providing materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent information may subject you to criminal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 1001. Other criminal and civil sanctions may also apply.
I expect full and complete responses to the following requests:
1. Any and all records, whether official or informal, in the possession of Harvard University, including electronic records and audio or video footage, regarding illegal activity whether on or off campus, by a nonimmigrant student enrolled in Harvard University in the last five years.
2. Any and all records, whether official or informal, in the possession of Harvard University, including electronic records and audio or video footage, regarding dangerous or violent activity whether on or off campus, by a nonimmigrant student enrolled in Harvard University in the last five years.
3. Any and all records, whether official or informal, in the possession of Harvard University, including electronic records and audio or video footage, regarding threats to other students or university personnel whether on or off campus, by a nonimmigrant student enrolled in Harvard University in the last five years.
4. Any and all records, whether official or informal, in the possession of Harvard University, including electronic records and audio or video footage, regarding deprivation of rights of other classmates or university personnel whether on or off campus, by a nonimmigrant student enrolled in Harvard University in the last five years.
5. Any and all disciplinary records of all nonimmigrant students enrolled in Harvard University in the last five years.
6. Any and all audio or video footage, in the possession of Harvard University, of any protest activity involving a nonimmigrant student on a Harvard Univer…

Shirin Sinnar @ssinnar.bsky.social · last yr.

If your university is claiming it can't support noncitizen students for legal reasons, see this new legal analysis out from @aaup.bsky.social. www.aaup.org/news/institu...

Institutions Should Support Students Under Visa Threats with Legal Aid and Housing

In response to the Trump administration's recent actions subjecting more than one thousand international students to visa revocations or other involuntary changes to their immigration status, the AAUP...

aaup.org

Outlaw Podcast @outlawpod.bsky.social · last yr.

1) State violence against brown & muslim people post-9/11 2) Kidnapping migrants to El Salvador’s deathly prison 3) Stop Cop City RICO case Something they have in common? Terrorism laws & lists. Tune in to ep. 4 to understand how they work & why solidarity is critical. Ft. @ssinnar.bsky.social

Shirin Sinnar on Terrorism Law — Outlaw

Law professor Shirin Sinnar joins Outlaw to break down the terrorism laws and lists that everyone in liberation struggles needs to know about. Shirin speaks from her experience as a civil rights attor...

overcast.fm