Ava Ayers
@avaayers.bsky.social
Law prof. State and local immigration law, trans rights, legal discourse. Proud to be trans. Personal page, views my own. https://linktr.ee/avaayers Move slowly and put things together.
Here's something I wrote: on how Spitzer tried to sell driver's licenses for undocumented people -- and the weird fact that the law never prohibited them to begin with. nycpolicyforum.substack.com/p/when-not-t...
When Not to Be a Steamroller
Lessons from Eliot Spitzer’s failed push to get driver’s licenses for undocumented New Yorkers
nycpolicyforum.substack.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Here's something I wrote: on how Spitzer tried to sell driver's licenses for undocumented people -- and the weird fact that the law never prohibited them to begin with. nycpolicyforum.substack.com/p/when-not-t...
Reposted by Ava Ayers
Texas A&M actually tells a philosophy professor he may not teach Plato.
Texas A&M Bans Plato - Daily Nous
Drop the race and gender material from your course and the Plato readings, or teach a different course. You have a day to decide. That's a paraphrase of what Martin Peterson, professor of philosophy a...
dailynous.com
January 7, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Texas A&M actually tells a philosophy professor he may not teach Plato.
Oh yes, everyone remembers all those times the Evening News did in-depth segments about the social-science research on the topic they were covering.
CBS leaning into, e.g., the reinforcement of what people *feel* about crime over the responsible dissemination and interpretation of actual crime rates and statistics (a/k/a journalism).
January 3, 2026 at 1:05 AM
Oh yes, everyone remembers all those times the Evening News did in-depth segments about the social-science research on the topic they were covering.
The trailer for Steven Spielberg's new alien-arrival movie looks interesting, but also looks like it, ahem, shares a lot of themes with the beautiful Moroccan movie "Animalia," which I can't recommend highly enough. Every frame is stunning.
tubitv.com/movies/10003...
tubitv.com/movies/10003...
Animalia (2023)
In the final days of her pregnancy, Itto becomes separated from her husband and wealthy in-laws when a supernatural event thrusts Morocco into chaos.
tubitv.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The trailer for Steven Spielberg's new alien-arrival movie looks interesting, but also looks like it, ahem, shares a lot of themes with the beautiful Moroccan movie "Animalia," which I can't recommend highly enough. Every frame is stunning.
tubitv.com/movies/10003...
tubitv.com/movies/10003...
Another great book: "Expelling the Poor" by Hidetaka Hirota. Extremely useful history of state and local exclusions and deportations in early America, and how they led to the federalization of exclusion and deportation in the late 19th century.
December 5, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Another great book: "Expelling the Poor" by Hidetaka Hirota. Extremely useful history of state and local exclusions and deportations in early America, and how they led to the federalization of exclusion and deportation in the late 19th century.
Reposted by Ava Ayers
Reason-giving is a tax on fascism, because fascism 1) requires speed and 2) is an assault on reason
December 5, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reason-giving is a tax on fascism, because fascism 1) requires speed and 2) is an assault on reason
Reposted by Ava Ayers
Abraham Lincoln, 1855.
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
![I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor or degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:egd33s7iuqsmwlwab6mbtrqi/bafkreiaaicjid4jg3oongeah73ukqvwsqv4vwbp75q4f755nldtcfermhi@jpeg)
November 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Abraham Lincoln, 1855.
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
Reposted by Ava Ayers
New from me:
Kash Patel is engaged in purges, removal of real accountability, and impunity for loyalists at the FBI.
Researchers told me that these are the exact patterns that create abusive national security organizations under authoritarianism. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-fb...
Kash Patel is engaged in purges, removal of real accountability, and impunity for loyalists at the FBI.
Researchers told me that these are the exact patterns that create abusive national security organizations under authoritarianism. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-fb...
How the FBI Became the Face of Deprofessionalization
What research tells us about national security under authoritarianism
donmoynihan.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:39 PM
New from me:
Kash Patel is engaged in purges, removal of real accountability, and impunity for loyalists at the FBI.
Researchers told me that these are the exact patterns that create abusive national security organizations under authoritarianism. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-fb...
Kash Patel is engaged in purges, removal of real accountability, and impunity for loyalists at the FBI.
Researchers told me that these are the exact patterns that create abusive national security organizations under authoritarianism. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-fb...
Reposted by Ava Ayers
NEW: I wrote for @statecourtreport.org about the important role *state* law plays in immigration enforcement, and some ongoing litigation in WI, NY, and CA that will shape the relationship between ICE and the states and localities in which it operates. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...
State Challenges to Immigration Enforcement Practices
Recent lawsuits in Wisconsin, New York, and California explore questions about the role of state law in federal immigration enforcement.
statecourtreport.org
November 20, 2025 at 8:55 PM
NEW: I wrote for @statecourtreport.org about the important role *state* law plays in immigration enforcement, and some ongoing litigation in WI, NY, and CA that will shape the relationship between ICE and the states and localities in which it operates. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...
Reposted by Ava Ayers
On this Trans Day of Remembrance, we remember the bright and courageous trans people whose lives were stolen by hatred. Their absence is felt across our city.
We will honor them by building a New York where every trans person can live safely, fully and freely.
We will honor them by building a New York where every trans person can live safely, fully and freely.
November 20, 2025 at 4:57 PM
On this Trans Day of Remembrance, we remember the bright and courageous trans people whose lives were stolen by hatred. Their absence is felt across our city.
We will honor them by building a New York where every trans person can live safely, fully and freely.
We will honor them by building a New York where every trans person can live safely, fully and freely.
Appellate judges at oral argument:
November 17, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Appellate judges at oral argument:
Reposted by Ava Ayers
Is it bad if a sitting federal judge was (allegedly) part of a conspiracy to commit murder? It seems bad ....
OMFG-ex DOJ official (& now federal judge) Emil Bove was involved in the administration's plots to murder individuals via lethal strikes
"At a DOJ conference ... Bove told drug prosecutors the ... administration wasn't interested in interdicting ... Instead... the U.S. should "just sink the boats."
"At a DOJ conference ... Bove told drug prosecutors the ... administration wasn't interested in interdicting ... Instead... the U.S. should "just sink the boats."
November 17, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Is it bad if a sitting federal judge was (allegedly) part of a conspiracy to commit murder? It seems bad ....
hyphenating phrasal adjectives
What's your most niche and unimportant crusade?
Mine is that I use the symbol "var" (as scientific standards bodies indicate) for reactive power instead of "VAR" (most common) or something weird like "Var" or worse, "VAr".
I'll admit it does feel a bit odd to put "Mvar" next to "MW" and "MVA". 🔌💡
Mine is that I use the symbol "var" (as scientific standards bodies indicate) for reactive power instead of "VAR" (most common) or something weird like "Var" or worse, "VAr".
I'll admit it does feel a bit odd to put "Mvar" next to "MW" and "MVA". 🔌💡
November 14, 2025 at 7:36 PM
hyphenating phrasal adjectives
Reposted by Ava Ayers
Lisa Moore: "like the medieval monks and nuns who buried precious manuscripts to hide them from the kings who burned their abbeys, we will preserve this knowledge and progress for another time in the future."
October 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Lisa Moore: "like the medieval monks and nuns who buried precious manuscripts to hide them from the kings who burned their abbeys, we will preserve this knowledge and progress for another time in the future."
I suppose I'll make these a chain. Another great book: "The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams," by Jonathan Ned Katz." Bio of a queer activist in the 1920s, with heartbreaking excerpts from her deportation proceedings, and the sweetly beautiful text of her short book "Lesbian Love."
September 19, 2025 at 7:11 PM
I suppose I'll make these a chain. Another great book: "The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams," by Jonathan Ned Katz." Bio of a queer activist in the 1920s, with heartbreaking excerpts from her deportation proceedings, and the sweetly beautiful text of her short book "Lesbian Love."
Reposted by Ava Ayers
What's a book by a transfemme author that you've NEVER seen anyone discuss?
And I do mean never. Nobody. I want the books that you're convinced you are the only person who's ever read it.
And I do mean never. Nobody. I want the books that you're convinced you are the only person who's ever read it.
September 13, 2025 at 1:26 AM
What's a book by a transfemme author that you've NEVER seen anyone discuss?
And I do mean never. Nobody. I want the books that you're convinced you are the only person who's ever read it.
And I do mean never. Nobody. I want the books that you're convinced you are the only person who's ever read it.
I'm delighted to report that the scifi writer James Blish (whose game I was not familiar with) pluralized "footnote" as "feetnote."
September 13, 2025 at 7:41 PM
I'm delighted to report that the scifi writer James Blish (whose game I was not familiar with) pluralized "footnote" as "feetnote."
Brilliant book: Camille Walsh, "Schools, Segregation, and Taxpayer Citizenship, 1869-1973." Fantastic exploration of the history of rhetoric about "citizens who pay taxes" and its role in protecting white supremacy. Will change the way you hear arguments about what government owes "the taxpayers."
September 8, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Brilliant book: Camille Walsh, "Schools, Segregation, and Taxpayer Citizenship, 1869-1973." Fantastic exploration of the history of rhetoric about "citizens who pay taxes" and its role in protecting white supremacy. Will change the way you hear arguments about what government owes "the taxpayers."
Brilliant book: "Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics" by Kim Phillips-Fein. How the mid-70s crisis let financial elites use their status as debt-holders to force NYC to end social services. Explains a lot about inequality in today's NYC and austerity everywhere.
September 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Brilliant book: "Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics" by Kim Phillips-Fein. How the mid-70s crisis let financial elites use their status as debt-holders to force NYC to end social services. Explains a lot about inequality in today's NYC and austerity everywhere.
I just saw a message in my spam filter whose subject line ended with "I want employed clothed attorneys!" and I feel like someone should try aiming a little higher
September 4, 2025 at 10:23 PM
I just saw a message in my spam filter whose subject line ended with "I want employed clothed attorneys!" and I feel like someone should try aiming a little higher
Reposted by Ava Ayers
Highly recommended: Linda Bosniak's "The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership." Probably if you're interested in citizenship you've already read this, but if not: no matter how you think about citizenship, the first two chapters will likely make you think differently.
September 4, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Highly recommended: Linda Bosniak's "The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership." Probably if you're interested in citizenship you've already read this, but if not: no matter how you think about citizenship, the first two chapters will likely make you think differently.
It's 2025 and Microsoft Windows still can't change the name of a file while it's open
September 3, 2025 at 5:29 PM
It's 2025 and Microsoft Windows still can't change the name of a file while it's open
Highly recommended: "On Community" by @caseyplett.com. Works both as an essay, carrying you through thoughts and experiences, and as a work of political philosophy that should be important to people studying things like membership, citizenship, and, obviously, community.
September 3, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Highly recommended: "On Community" by @caseyplett.com. Works both as an essay, carrying you through thoughts and experiences, and as a work of political philosophy that should be important to people studying things like membership, citizenship, and, obviously, community.
Reposted by Ava Ayers
Here's my new post on how CIS, the federal agency, has ousted the League of Women Voters and other nonprofit civic groups from their longstanding role in offering voter registration to new Americans at naturalization ceremonies.
CIS kicks voter registration groups out of naturalization ceremonies
For decades, the League of Women Voters and similar civic groups have welcomed new citizens with a voter registration table. No longer.
walterolson.substack.com
September 2, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Here's my new post on how CIS, the federal agency, has ousted the League of Women Voters and other nonprofit civic groups from their longstanding role in offering voter registration to new Americans at naturalization ceremonies.