The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

Remarkable SCOTUS reporting in the NYTimes, which pretty much confirms what observers have always assumed, but still astonishes. (Gift link)

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

Episode I returns to haunt us again

We examine how identity shapes nominees' experiences in the Senate confirmation process and the representativeness of executive bureaucracies. We find that, despite a historic commitment to diversity, the Senate continues to delay and deny minority nominees, and stereotypes influence placements.

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

I’m extremely excited to share Ian Ostrander's and my new article, “President Biden and Diversity in Executive Appointments,” published in American Politics Research!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Record-setting personnel issues are marring Trump’s second term

Support Ukraine!

Thank you so much!

Thank you very much, Steve!

GitHub - IPPSR/SenateData: SenateData: A Functional Tool for the SenateData Dataset SenateData: A Functional Tool for the SenateData Dataset - IPPSR/SenateData

@liampert.bsky.social, @mattgrossmann.bsky.social, and I are thrilled to launch SenateData, a new repository pertaining to the US Senate. We have variables on facets like bills, and members, including original data on senator characteristics and an associated R package. github.com/IPPSR/Senate...

Note 45. The Senate’s Nuclear Option, 2025 When running for his leadership post, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) promised to protect the right of a minority to conduct a “legislative filibuster.” This was a line with the long-held vie...

The Senate nuclear option in 2025: a backgrounder. open.substack.com/pub/stevesno...

Look at academia giving me a little hope

Thread on Senate nuking of supermajority cloture for their nomination reform resolution:

Amidst a cacophony of political violence related news, Senate is being reshaped outside of public eye.

settings > content & media > autoplay video & gifs = off

New article thinking about the interplay between identity and solidarity among people of color. How stable is each orientation in a national sample? How much does each feed into each other over time, if at all? Do things look similar or different across PoC?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Effects of Voting by Mail on Correct Voting - Political Behavior The share of Americans voting by mail surged in 2020. For those casting a mail-in ballot, their voting experience was different from those who voted in-person. When voting by mail, people can make the...

Just out at @polbehavior.bsky.social w/Carey Stapleton:

Voting by mail has the upside of boosting correct voting.

When people vote by mail rather than in-person, they are more likely to choose the presidential candidate best aligned with their preferences.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🚨Pre-print alert🚨

Research shows citizens in many Western democracies are increasingly affectively polarized––they feel warm toward their own party but quite cold toward opposing parties.

But how does it feel to “feel warmly”?
@katharinalawall.bsky.social, @mtsakiris.bsky.social & I asked.
🧵1/8

Poll shows decline in belief that Blacks and Asians face racial discrimination Meanwhile, about three in 10 people said DEI increased discrimination against white people.

the idea that “DEI” is to blame for racist assumptions about the ability of nonwhite people and not actual racism is such a perfect example of racecraft www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...

I've been documenting the manipulative fundraising texts flooding our phones. After receiving dozens personally, I've identified several categories of Democratic fundraising spam—but I know I'm only seeing a fraction. Help me crowdsource a public record: reply with your worst examples! 🧵

3 Supreme Court justices just said they’re fine with race discrimination in elections Turns out only half of the Republican justices want to kill off the Voting Rights Act.

3 Supreme Court justices just said they’re fine with race discrimination in elections www.vox.com/scotus/42109...

On Data and Democracy (Mid-Year Roundup): Charting the Assault on American Democracy and A Path Forward A narrative of a democracy in the balance, told through 29 data visualizations.

Been a busy year in the data mines.📊 Just published my mid-year roundup: 29 data visualizations on the state of US democracy, tracking everything from judicial resistance to billionaire influence to why Dems have a mobilization crisis, not a moderation problem.

All charts free to use:

from gremllm import Gremllm # Be sure to tell your gremllm what sort of thing it is counter = Gremllm('counter') counter.value = 5 counter.increment() print(counter.value) # 6? print(counter.to_roman_numerals()) # VI?

The is diabolical... a Python object that hallucinates method implementations on demand any time you call them, using my LLM Python library github.com/awwaiid/grem...

Poll: Amid multi-state measles outbreak, 79% of Americans support routine childhood vaccine requirements | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health A new poll from Harvard Chan School and the de Beaumont Foundation shows that childhood vaccine requirements are widely supported across political groups.

79%

Despite all the noise & BS.

Poll: Amid multi-state measles outbreak, 79% of Americans support routine childhood vaccine requirements hsph.harvard.edu/news/poll-am... via @hsph.harvard.edu #vaccineswork

Hey there #MPSA25! @cambridgeuppolisci.bsky.social reporting for duty. Stop by the booth before 5pm Saturday to snag a free book or element. You can also shop our online booth at a 30% discount.

@mpsa.bsky.social

Teaching my students about gganimate in their final R lab tomorrow - pretty pleased with this demo of GB vote shares from 1832 to 2024, and never fail to be impressed by this package - from line chart to this in one line of code!

Pandemic Politics How the politicization of the pandemic endangers our lives—and our democracy

if anyone is interested in reading a book about how the laptop class created a partisan and political mess out of COVID-19, I would heartily recommend Pandemic Politics by @sgadarian.bsky.social @saragoodman.bsky.social and me

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

X post by Amy Nixon (@texasrunnerDFW ), featuring a verification badge. The post reads, "The USA is weird now. If you're a person under 30, you probably think it's normal but that's because you don't know. Trust me. It's weird."

America hasn’t felt this upside down since I was a child in an internment camp.

Merz just said on German TV that the primary priority of his government will be to ensure that Europe can achieve full strategic independence from the United States in the defence against Russia.

Merz was once a die hard Atlanicist. Now, after Trump he is a Gaullist.

Extraordinary.