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Torey Dolan

@toreydolan.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School. Writing about Federal Indian Law/Voting Rights & stuff. Views are my own. Citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma living on Ho Chunk Land📍

199 Posts644 Follower156 Folgt
Torey Dolan@toreydolan.bsky.social · 3w ago

If you missed the Rubio and Miller speeches at the “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism” the argument was that leftists are jealous, ugly, and “deformed.”

Quinn Yeargain@yeargain.bsky.social · last mo.

I was mad about this so I blogged about it for @ballsandstrikes.org

Samuel Alito’s Jab at Hawaiian Culture Is Red Meat For Online Conservatives

The justice’s reference to the “spirit of Aloha” betrays his contempt for the very idea of taking Hawaii’s history and legal traditions seriously.

ballsandstrikes.org

Quinn Yeargain@yeargain.bsky.social · last mo.

a totally gratuitous, racist smear on the jurisprudence of the Hawai’i Constitution as it relates to the right to bear arms from Justice Alito here.

This argument is little different from the central argument offered by the city of Chicago in McDonald, and Hawaii’s version fares no better. As the plurality explained in McDonald, the Second Amendment has the same meaning in all parts of the United States. 561 U. S., at 784–785. It cannot give way to “the spirit of Aloha” in Hawaii, contra, State v. Wilson, 154 Haw. 8, 27, 543 P. 3d 440, 459 (2024), any more than it can yield to the spirit of the Big Apple (Bruen) or the Windy City (McDonald). It applies in the same way to our 50th State (where about 8% of adults possess guns) and our 49th State (where the figure is roughly 59%).12 Merely local attitudes can neither shrink nor inflate the meaning of fundamental Bill of Rights guarantees that apply to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment.13
Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · last mo.

John Roberts will want you to forget everything that happened this week at SCOTUS after he confirms that the first sentence of the 14th Amendment means what it says, please do not fall for it

Matt Seybold@mattseybold.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The AAUP chapters at Vanderbilt & Wash U have issued a joint statement denouncing the “State of Scholarship” report commissioned by their chancellors. Please, let’s make this as widely read as the gaslighting to which it responds.

Joint Statement on the "State of Scholarship" Report The Vanderbilt University and Washington University chapters of the American Association of University Professors express our profound disagreement with the "State of Scholarship" report commissioned by our universities' chancellors. The report distorts the state of humanistic and social scientific scholarship at our universities and in the academy overall. Worse, it proposes a shocking intrusion of university administration into faculty governance and portends greater threats to academic freedom that should concern all faculty. The report currently appears on Vanderbilt's website under the insignia of both Vanderbilt and Washington Universities. It is already receiving public condemnation. As the American Council of Learned Societies makes clear, the report is founded on false premises and anecdotal evidence and thus does nothing to "ensure deeper and more meaningful relations among scholars and members of the public." No doubt more rebuttals from scholars, departments, and professional societies will follow. It suffices for us to say that the report falls far short of the standards of political neutrality and disinterested inquiry it claims to champion. Historians, literary scholars, and anthropologists are singled out for caricature while the authors fail to acknowledge their own public biases against scholarship performed in the name of social justice. Nor does the report divulge its source of funding or conflicts of interest that may entail - standard practice for any work of humanistic or social scientific scholarship. In sum, the report is itself a clear example of "politicized" research that its authors attempt to decry. What is most alarming is the guidance the report offers to its intended audience of university chancellors and presidents. By falsely arguing that humanities and social science departments are in the throes of an epistemological crisis, the authors lay the groundwork for university adminis…Weakening faculty governance does nothing to solve the real challenges facing our universities, and undermines our ability to effectively address society's most profound problems and challenges, from the inequalities of wealth and white supremacy to the political consequences of climate change. Indeed, the direst threats to public trust in higher education are not philosophical debates about the nature of truth. Currently, the federal government is dramatically cutting funding for the humanities and social sciences as well as for the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, public health, and the arts. In response, university administrations have instituted austerity measures, even as administrative salaries and administrative positions have taken up an increasing share of decreasing budgets. The best way for scholars to cultivate diverse opinions and advance knowledge is by strengthening academic freedom. Political threats to higher education have degraded, and will continue to degrade, the quality of all fields of our universities' research, to the detriment of America's global standing. We note that the organizations now working most actively and successfully to defend academic free inquiry from politicized federal interference are not university leaders but the American Council of Learned Societies, the Modern Language Association, and the American Historical Association - professional societies of the very disciplines chastised by the report. We call on our chancellors to rescind the report and affirm their commitment to the intellectual autonomy of faculty, academic departments, and governing faculty bodies. Administrative interference into academic departments, as licensed by this report, is a violation of the standards of academic freedom that have made American universities the envy of the world. Rather than undermining these bedrock principles, administrators should vigorously and publicly defend them. Vanderbilt University AAUP vanderbiltaaup@gmail.com Wa…
Torey Dolan@toreydolan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It is refreshing to see a State Supreme Court acknowledge Tribal Nations and the history of their state courts in harming Indigenous peoples.

Letter from Washington Supreme Court re Rectifying the Dehumanization of Indigenous People in State Legal Systems

Letter from WA Supreme Court re Rectifying the Dehumanization of Indigenous People in State Legal Systems 6-5-26.pdfDownload The resolution of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians: ATNI Resol…

turtletalk.blog

Adam Klasfeld@klasfeldreports.com · 2mo ago

"Do you have unlimited tries?" grand juror to Trump DOJ prosecutor in the now-dismissed "Broadview Six" case. Prosecutors failed to disclose that the grand jury "no true billed" the first indictment. Remarkable exchange

Bild
Justin Levitt@justinlevitt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I never want to hear about a Purcell “principle” again. A rule that applies only to lower federal courts and concerns itself only with the state’s equities is not a “principle.” Call it the “Purcell power grab” if you like the alliteration.

Joey Fishkin@fishkin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It gets a little more wild each time they say it. So if every single Black person votes one way, and every single white person votes the opposite way, every election, that's not even RELEVANT to whether voting is "racially polarized"—as long as this durable disagreement is organized into 'parties.'

they must show that voters engage in racial bloc voting that cannot be explained by partisan affiliationsimply pointing to inter-party racial polarization proves nothingThe mere fact that voters of different races vote for different parties is not relevant to proving racially polarized voting patterns.
Corey Rayburn Yung@coreyryung.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I've written a lot about cases involving the prosecution of rape victims for false reporting. Ultimately, it's an enforcement mechanism for rape culture. But prosecuting a rape victim for perjury during a civil defamation trial (that they won) is a new one to me.

Acyn@acyn.bsky.social · 2mo ago

CNN: The DOJ has launched a new criminal investigation into one of Trump's enemies, E. Jean Carroll. The source is telling CNN that the investigation now is focused on whether she committed perjury during her two civil lawsuits against the president.

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

BREAKING: Three-judge district court reaffirms earlier rulings, even in light of Callais, that Alabama’s 2023 congressional map cannot be used because it is “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination” and that the court-ordered map is, again, to be used in the 2026 elections.

We now face a critical decision on a very tight timeline. We can either allow the Secretary of State to administer Alabama's 2026 elections with a legislatively enacted districting plan that we found (after a full trial) intentionally discriminated against Black voters based on race in violation of the Constitution, or we can issue a preliminary injunction two and a half months ahead of Alabama's scheduled special primaries (and some five months before the general election), requiring the Secretary to administer the 2026 elections with the race-blind plan that he used on orders from us and the Supreme Court for Alabama's 2024 elections and May 19, 2026, primary elections. We emphasize that because of the exceptional public importance of this matter, we carefully reviewed the extensive evidentiary record in these cases with fresh eyes in light of Callais.After that exacting review, we conclude that a preliminary injunction must issue. Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination. And under the unusual circumstances of this case, we conclude that a limited order requiring the Secretary to continue using this Court's race-blind map will not disrupt Alabama's elections (all candidates ran under the race-blind map until fifteen days ago, and all voters remain districted under the race-blind map in electoral computer systems). We do not lightly intrude in state affairs, but our previous review of the undisputed evidence left us in no doubt that Alabama's legislatively enacted plan (the "2023 Plan") intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution. Our re-examination in light of Callais yields the same conclusion.We conclude that it is not. On the unique record before us, we determine that enjoining the 2023 Plan will not disrupt Alabama's elections. Requiring the use of the Special Master Plan will forestall an expensive, aggressive, and perhaps logistically impossible voter reassignment effort. We take extremely seriously the Supreme Court's command that federal district courts ordinarily should not 5 Case 2:21-CV-01530-AMM Document 537 Filed 05/26/26 Page 6 of 102 intervene on the eve of an election, for risk of causing administrative challenges and confusion. But the record here is clear: enjoining the unconstitutional 2023 Plan will improve the administrative situation in Alabama, not worsen it. As we see it, the irreducible minimum is that federal law requires that all Alabamians have an opportunity to vote under districting plans untainted by intentional race-based discrimination. Accordingly, we are duty-bound to preliminarily enjoin the Secretary from conducting any 2026 congressional elections according to the 2023 Plan, and we further order the Secretary to administer all remaining events comprising Alabama's 2026 elections according to the Special Master's race-blind plan. We also issue a scheduling order for timely proceedings before qualifying opens for the 2028 primaries in November 2027, and we will amend it as necessary upon any further districting by the Legislature.The motions are GRANTED only as follows, and pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(d), this Court ORDERS the following: 1. The Court PRELIMINARILY ENJOINS the Alabama Secretary of State from conducting the 2026 congressional elections according to the 2023 Plan. 2. The Court further ORDERS the Alabama Secretary of State to administer all remaining events comprising Alabama's 2026 congressional elections according to the Special Master Plan (appended to this Order as Appendix E). The part of the Court's preliminary injunction set forth in this paragraph EXPIRES upon Alabama's legislative enactment of a new congressional districting plan. We expressly leave to the State's discretion (as we must) how it addresses candidate qualification and other matters for the remaining events in Alabama's 2026 congressional elections.
Jon Seidel@jonseidel.bsky.social · 3mo ago

NEW: The transcript of today's sealed hearing in the "Broadview Six" case IS IN. Read it here: cst.brightspotcdn.com/95/75/a403b7...

cst.brightspotcdn.com

Jon Seidel@jonseidel.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Chicago’s top federal prosecutor Thursday dropped the case against the remaining “Broadview Six” defendants in a stunning hearing that revealed apparent misconduct before a grand jury — of which he said he recently learned. Quick take via @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Torey Dolan@toreydolan.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Relying on Callais, the WY SOS has cast doubt on Native-majority districts w/ the Wind River reservation. My piece with Northeastern Law Review, “American Indian Geopolitical Rights” argues that Tribal-majority districts cannot be viewed solely as majority-minority districts.

Gray calls for HD 33, Fremont Co. redistricting

Just after 1 p.m. today, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray sent an email to Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon and members of the state legislature suggesting that House District 33,

rivertonranger.com