"Even as they debated the Obama plan’s possible burden on the power industry, in the entire chain of correspondence obtained by The Times, not a single justice … mentioned the dangers of a warming planet as one of the possible harms the court should consider.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...
Read that again. This Louisiana bill forces homeless people to choose between jail and "treatment"—and if they can't pay for the latter, they will be forced to perform unpaid labor.
The historical precedents are clear: convict leasing, Black Codes, debtor's prison.
@davidhgans.bsky.social's latest article in @slate.com discussing the Black Conventions after the Civil War was featured on the Election Law Blog. Read more: electionlawblog.org?p=155448
In advance of more SCT opinions tomorrow, remember this: "the Supreme Court cannot do justice to the Reconstruction Amendments without reckoning with the ways Black Americans shaped these transformational amendments and the principles of freedom, equality, and multiracial democracy they guarantee."
NEW: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson unloads on #SCOTUS handling of emergency/'shadow' docket, saying it often seems 'utterly irrational' & can lead to 'zombie' proceedings. KBJ rejects Kavanaugh's 'interim docket' label, calls for focus on real-world harms
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
David Gans on the History of the Reconstruction Amendments, and the Connection to Current Supreme Court Cases, including Callais electionlawblog.org?p=155448
When #SCOTUS discusses the text and history of the Reconstruction Amendments, it generally omits the critical role Black Americans played in their liberation struggle and how their activism informed the Constitution. Read more from @davidhgans.bsky.social:
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Interested in learning more about Black Conventions during Reconstruction? Check out my forthcoming @stanlrev.bsky.social article that argues that engaging with the Black Conventions is critical to a proper understanding of the Reconstruction Amendments: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
My latest @slate.com tells the story of the Black Convention movement during Reconstruction & how it shaped the Reconstruction Amendments. With three huge 14A cases awaiting decision, it's time to heed Justice Jackson's call for a more inclusive history. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Register now for CAC's annual Home Stretch event, featuring remarks from @elizabethwydra.bsky.social and an all-star panel of legal experts, moderated by @chrisgeidner.bsky.social. Join the conversation as we unpack the biggest issues at #SCOTUS this term: www.theusconstitution.org/events/13th-...
Looking forward to reading!
Congrats Rick!
Until 2023, this is how it was commemorated. This is why monuments matter. www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...
If you don’t know about this, you need to read up. It’s the single bloodiest massacre in the history of Reconstruction, and it was perpetrated to overthrow the results of an election. It was emblematic of the sabotage of Reconstruction. And SCOTUS nullified the prosecution of those responsible.
Wish I could be in DC today. #CivilWarMemory open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...
Congrats Evan! Can’t wait to read it.
Congrats Tanner!
Very much looking forward to moderating this @myconstitution.bsky.social panel with these superstars at the end of this month. Sign up now! www.theusconstitution.org/events/13th-...
Register now for CAC's annual Home Stretch event, featuring remarks from @elizabethwydra.bsky.social and an all-star panel of legal experts, moderated by @chrisgeidner.bsky.social. Join the conversation as we unpack the biggest issues at #SCOTUS this term: www.theusconstitution.org/events/13th-...
Before oral argument in the First Circuit tomorrow, read our brief explaining why Trump's elections executive order is unconstitutional: www.theusconstitution.org/litigation/c...
"Academic freedom protects scholars’ right to challenge the orthodoxy; it doesn’t insulate them from charges of bad faith in doing so. But the problem here is one of both supply *and* demand. And ... #SCOTUS bears at least some responsibility for the latter."
Me in today's issue of "One First":
really like this quote from john bingham the goat on citizenship from 1867
So why was this case brought before the Court at all? For the same reason that Cowan’s racist invocation of “yellow peril” has survived to the present day, repeated in modern form by both the president and his solicitor general. Before the Civil War, America was a white man’s government. The Reconstruction Amendments were supposed to change that, to prevent not just the existence of masters and slaves but master classes and slave classes. Trump and those around him would like to change it all back. It is hardly surprising, then, that they would revive the same arguments against birthright citizenship that the framers heard in the 1860s.
John Calhoun said the U.S. was a "white man's government." John Bingham, one of the authors of the 14th Amendment, said that this was a "horrid blasphemy." The birthright citizenship case is ultimately about which America we are going to be. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Sherrilyn Ifill & ACLU lawyer Cecillia Wang hug outside the Supreme Court after Wang argued the case against Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship
3 kids hold red signs saying “Protect Birthright citizenship” and the 14th Amendment speaks for itself.” A crowd stands behind them in front of the Supreme Court.
We couldn’t have hoped for a better advocate than @aclu.org National Director Cecillia Wang today in the SCOTUS, arguing against Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship. If there’s any fairness left, this wil be a big win for democracy, citizenship, & the integrity of the 14th Amendment.
The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment put birthright citizenship out of reach of "political whims." Read more from @elizabethwydra.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/u...
We know this isn’t true. The task ahead for the president’s opponents is to recover the egalitarian substance of the 14th Amendment and wield it against his narrow and exclusive vision of American society. This is the work of history, it is the work of law and it is the work, as always, of politics.
Stirring conclusion to @jamellebouie.net's column. A throughline in my study of backlash politics from Reconstruction through the civil rights movement is that backlashers sought to decenter the Declaration of Independence and the 14th Amendment as marginal, illegitimate, or misunderstood.
“The task ahead for the president’s opponents is to recover the egalitarian substance of the 14th Amendment and wield it against his narrow and exclusive vision of American society. This is the work of history, it is the work of law and it is the work of politics.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/o...
The constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship is clear. Learn more from @amandafrost.bsky.social's conversation with @ninatotenberg.bsky.social:
Registration is now open for CAC's annual Home Stretch event, featuring remarks from @elizabethwydra.bsky.social and an all-star panel of legal experts, moderated by @chrisgeidner.bsky.social. Join the conversation as we unpack the biggest issues at #SCOTUS this term:
Post-Chiles, Dobbs, and Skrmetti, states can deprive people of reproductive autonomy and youth of gender-affirming care, while simultaneously allowing medical and non-medical actors use falsehoods to deprive people of abortion or discourage them from living as themselves.