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David Froomkin

@dfroomkin.bsky.social

5.6K followers 620 following 720 posts

Assistant professor, University of Houston Law Center. I write about democracy and the separation of powers. ssrn.com/author=3062912

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · Jul 29

I am very honored that my dissertation has been selected by the American Political Science Association to receive the 2025 Leonard D. White Award for the best dissertation in the field of public administration. What a time to be thinking about why we should have a separation of powers!

politicalsciencenow.com

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Jon Steinman @jonsteinman.bsky.social · 1d

The authoritarian coalition continues cracking. Trump is weak and his party knows it.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...

Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Criticizes National Guard Deployment in Chicago

www.nytimes.com

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 1d

I am like 60% confident that it's serious. There is definitely a kind of person who equates Broadway with musicals.

David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 1d

I was thinking about going to see this new play on Broadway, but now I'm having second thoughts.

Lux "Nightmare" Alptraum @luxalptraum.com · 2d

TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it

One Star Review of Waiting for Godot on Broadway
I recently attended Waiting for Godot on Broadway and spent over $1,400 for two Row C seats (103 and 104). I'm a longtime admirer of Broadway productions and even hold a season pass for Shea's Performing Arts Theatre, so I came in with genuine enthusiasm and high expectations. Unfortunately, this show was unlike anything ! have ever experienced —and not in a good way.
What I encountered was not the artistry, music, or emotional storytelling I usually associate with Broadway, but instead what felt like an endless cycle of nonsensical conversation between characters who seemed trapped in their own madness. I tried-truly tried-to find meaning, symbolism, or even a thread of emotional resonance. I stayed through the first half hoping the second would offer clarity. But by intermission, it was clear: this was a waste of both time and money.
Keanu Reeves is an actor I respect greatly, but I cannot fathom why he would agree to participate in such a disjointed, inaccessible production. His talent was lost in a performance that defied reason rather than provoked insight.
To anyone considering attending: unless you are drawn to highly abstract, nearly incomprehensible theater, I strongly caution you against this show. For the average, educated, thoughtful theatergoer, it is far more frustrating than fulfilling. In my opinion, this was the single most disappointing Broadway experience I've ever had - an unfortunate waste of money and, more importantly, of time.

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Jacob Schriner-Briggs @jschrinerbriggs.bsky.social · 2d

I've been writing

The Article’s most important upshot, then, is that the First Amendment cannot be entrusted to resolve the crisis of free speech because its most influential steward has helped usher in the deeper political crisis of which that crisis is a part. Recently designated the “Conservative Warren Court,” the Roberts Court’s merits jurisprudence has proven exceedingly hostile to economic and political democracy and exceedingly enamored with unaccountable executive power. The First Amendment’s potential is limited because its legal effects are governed by a Court that, rather than resist competitive authoritarianism, has helped bring it to our door.

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Rick Hasen @rickhasen.bsky.social · 2d

My conclusion:

When Mr. Trump attacks democratic institutions, he does so in the manner of a car wreck — so flagrantly destructive as to command public attention. When the Supreme Court undermines our democracy, as it seems poised to do in Callais, it feels more like a slow poisoning: the attacks may be harder to notice, but they are just as deadly

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Meredith Rose @mrose.ink · 3d

They act that way not because they genuinely believe it, but because they are acutely aware that their fate rests on *you* believing it.

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 3d

You can joke about Pam Bondi’s ridiculous unprofessionalism all you want, but I’m deeply shocked by it: She acts as if she fears absolutely no consequences, convinced that there will be no more political power transfers. — This should shake everyone to their core.

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

That was basically Calabresi's argument in "Some Normative Arguments for the Unitary Executive."

About | HeinOnline

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heinonline.org

Reposted by David Froomkin

Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 4d

Excellent analysis of what the US Supreme Court has done and might do. Are they providing the appearance of normal law in order to disguise the authoritarianism driving the executive branch? That's the logic of the dual state.

Pema Levy @pemalevy.bsky.social · 4d

“The reality is that the court is adjusting the law to make place for arbitrary power.”

To understand the Supreme Court's role in Trump's authoritarian project, I turned to the idea of a dual state: an authoritarian regime that keeps up a facade of normalcy

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The “dual state” theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there.

Authoritarianism—but make it look like the rule of law.

www.motherjones.com

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 4d

This article reports that hundreds of scholars—"the vast majority" of those surveyed—say the US has moved into authoritarianism. It then gives equal space to a single outlier who says the source of the expert consensus is that those scholars "are coming from the political left." Incredible.

Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism

Most — but not all — political scientists are deeply troubled by the president's attempts to expand executive power, according to a national survey.

www.npr.org

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 5d

What’s amazing about this is that it’s not activists, it’s random people in the street, dudes in trucks. They know who the villain is.

I think MAGA has a bigger problem here than they realize

Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 5d

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 5d

I guess there is a deeper problem for the speech act account in that legislatures (collectively) don't have intentions. Though I think the focus on intentions is also a problem with speech act theory in making sense of a lot what is going on with speech acts.

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 5d

I can certainly imagine situations in which legislators intend to legislate even though they are unlikely to obtain compliance. If no one thought that a legislature was legitimate, it seems hard to maintain that it is the legislature (the body making fundamental policy decisions for a polity).

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 6d

I suppose I am attracted to the speech act story because I am interested in foregrounding the role of the legislature in the legal process. Thinking about laws in isolation from the legislature risks obscuring the legislative authority that I want to highlight.

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 6d

Maybe the question really is why do people obey laws. One explanation would be convention. But another explanation is respect for the legislature's authority. The speech act story is that legislating is a demand that people obey, done with the expectation that people will respect that demand.

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 6d

A legislature passes laws, and that is the only way in which it speaks. Maybe I should have said "the passing of a law." I don't mean to question that the laws also themselves have semantic content.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 6d

Jesus. You think it can’t get any worse, then you read these stories. US citizens and legal residents illegally arrested and held for days. **Native Americans** getting detained and held for days because ICE agents are too stupid/racist to know about tribal IDs.

Maya Sen @mayasen.bsky.social · 6d

Brett Kavanaugh and his clerks need to read this --->

www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/...

From the AskReddit community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the AskReddit community

www.reddit.com

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 6d

I think the steady drip is quite powerful in itself. It is becoming inescapable.

David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 6d

Laws are speech acts. Speech acts do what we expect them to do. If we do not expect laws to bind, then they will not. That is how the rule of law is eroding in our culture.

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 6d

"a tradition"???

It's literally the law.

This matters because the law is not self-executing. If we treat it as non-binding, its constraints grow even looser.

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 6d

Every day brings new videos of horrific ICE violence. And there must be thousands of such episodes for every video that we see. We live in a fascist state.

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 6d

Rick points out that "the U.S. two-party system, during unified government, makes it easier to overcome fragmentation than in Europe." The American disease is not multipartyism and unwieldy coalition government but a profusion of veto players that produces legislative gridlock and dysfunction.

David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 6d

This essay provides an excellent summary of Rick's important recent work on political fragmentation—which is undermining coherent and effective government across developed democracies. In PR systems, fragmentation occurs inter-party. In PV systems (like ours) fragmentation occurs intra-party.

Rick Pildes @rickpildes.bsky.social · 6d

"Democracies in the Age of Fragmentation," my essay in NYU's Democracy Project series, was published this week. Link here, brief excerpts to follow.

democracyproject.org/posts/democr...

Democracies in the Age of Fragmentation

A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.

democracyproject.org

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 9d

A funny thing about the sociology of knowledge is that when the dominant view is completely wrong, it is often easier to persuasively advance a slightly-less-wrong view than the correct view. This leads people to advance wrong arguments for motivated reasons (e.g. that the UET is only partly right).

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Nicholas Wallace @wallace.bsky.social · 9d

SCOTUS believes in the quantum presidency. Sometimes it is unitary and sometimes it is not. Its state of unitariness is indeterminate until observed (by SCOTUS)

David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 9d

This is particularly incredible after multiple justices admonished lower court judges for temporarily blocking other illegal firings.

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 9d

BREAKING: Supreme Court will allow Lisa Cook to remain on federal reserve board for now, ruling that the government’s application for a stay is deferred pending oral argument in January 2026

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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 9d

Yes, apparently lower court judges are now supposed to read the justices' minds rather than apply either precedents or consistent rules.

David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 9d

This is particularly incredible after multiple justices admonished lower court judges for temporarily blocking other illegal firings.

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 9d

BREAKING: Supreme Court will allow Lisa Cook to remain on federal reserve board for now, ruling that the government’s application for a stay is deferred pending oral argument in January 2026

CORDER LIST: 606 U.S.)
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2025
25A312
ORDER IN PENDING CASE
TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF U.S., ET AL. V. COOK, LISA D.
The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and
by him referred to the Court is deferred pending oral argument in
January 2026. The Clerk is directed to establish a briefing
schedule for amici curiae and any supplemental briefs responding
to amici.

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