Dan Walters
@profdanwalters.bsky.social
Law professor at Texas A&M University School of Law, specializing in administrative law. Views are mine alone. Dog pictured is Oliver Wendell Holmes Walters Jr. (RIP 2025)
https://law.tamu.edu/faculty-staff/find-people/faculty-profiles/daniel-e.-walters
https://law.tamu.edu/faculty-staff/find-people/faculty-profiles/daniel-e.-walters
It's really telling that ICE/the administration would rather hold the line on an obvious lie than throw the individual agents under the bus. It's not about protecting those agents, but about publicly establishing that they will not answer to anything. We ought to be terrified at the implications.
WSJ says ICE is lying.
Read that again…. The Wall Street Journal is calling out the lies
Read that again…. The Wall Street Journal is calling out the lies
January 25, 2026 at 4:55 PM
It's really telling that ICE/the administration would rather hold the line on an obvious lie than throw the individual agents under the bus. It's not about protecting those agents, but about publicly establishing that they will not answer to anything. We ought to be terrified at the implications.
If the theory of the administration is that Pretti was a threat simply for having a weapon, then they should also say that Renee Good was a threat simply for being in a car. They didn't say this because it sounds stupid.
January 25, 2026 at 1:00 AM
If the theory of the administration is that Pretti was a threat simply for having a weapon, then they should also say that Renee Good was a threat simply for being in a car. They didn't say this because it sounds stupid.
Reposted by Dan Walters
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
Do you honestly think people in the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements faced no violence themselves? They practiced nonviolence because it works, because the oppressor wants a shooting war, which is the war it will win
How's your non-violent working Mr Gandhi stancil? They will kill each and everyone of you right if they had the chance and you will still be writing Kumbaya.
January 24, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
Credit to whoever came up with this: the eight-person law enforcement scrum around someone is a pretty ingenious way of concealing who is doing what even if filmed, which of course always allows law enforcement to do whatever they want.
January 24, 2026 at 7:16 PM
Credit to whoever came up with this: the eight-person law enforcement scrum around someone is a pretty ingenious way of concealing who is doing what even if filmed, which of course always allows law enforcement to do whatever they want.
Let's be clear: it's "Everyone [except those who don't look like us or agree with us] should be allowed to carry a gun for their safety." If not, you're living on the wrong side of the "dual state."
“Everyone should be allowed to carry a gun for their safety but the government can murder you in the street if you have a gun” is an incredible endpoint for the conservative moment
January 24, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Let's be clear: it's "Everyone [except those who don't look like us or agree with us] should be allowed to carry a gun for their safety." If not, you're living on the wrong side of the "dual state."
As Jake notes, there are very serious, technical questions about Bruen's method in this case. But from my perch it's just a cold reminder of how wrong Bruen is to even go down this path. It's simply absurd to think that a democratically elected legislature couldn't switch a policy default.
At 10am ET, the Supreme Court hears argument in Wolford v. Lopez, a Second Amendment challenge to a new Hawaii law that switches the default rule & disallows guns on private property absent consent.
I won't live-post the whole arg, but I'm going to spotlight what seems important in this thread. 🧵
I won't live-post the whole arg, but I'm going to spotlight what seems important in this thread. 🧵
January 20, 2026 at 4:11 PM
As Jake notes, there are very serious, technical questions about Bruen's method in this case. But from my perch it's just a cold reminder of how wrong Bruen is to even go down this path. It's simply absurd to think that a democratically elected legislature couldn't switch a policy default.
My new article "Valuing Public Participation" with @briandfeinstein.bsky.social is featured, along with other great new scholarship on the "abundance" movement, on this new substack meant to track scholarship in the area. Definitely a great resource.
open.substack.com/pub/markthom...
open.substack.com/pub/markthom...
January 19, 2026
New Legal Research on Building Abundance
open.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 3:33 PM
My new article "Valuing Public Participation" with @briandfeinstein.bsky.social is featured, along with other great new scholarship on the "abundance" movement, on this new substack meant to track scholarship in the area. Definitely a great resource.
open.substack.com/pub/markthom...
open.substack.com/pub/markthom...
Today would be a great day for large-scale spontaneous protests across the United States in solidarity with the protesters in Minnesota. If you're going to call an insurrection in Minnesota, you're going to have to call it everywhere.
January 15, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Today would be a great day for large-scale spontaneous protests across the United States in solidarity with the protesters in Minnesota. If you're going to call an insurrection in Minnesota, you're going to have to call it everywhere.
Reposted by Dan Walters
At least from afar, agents' obsession with apps and their phones seems to be a major driver of the mayhem in Minneapolis. Not sure I've seen anything like it before. ICE/DHS personnel acting like swarms of violent Amazon drivers.
New: meet ELITE, the Palantir app ICE is using to find neighborhoods to raid. Map interface; officers search for immigrants; click person to bring up individual dossier. This is clearest link between what Palantir is building and ICE's activities on the ground yet www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
www.404media.co
January 15, 2026 at 3:11 PM
At least from afar, agents' obsession with apps and their phones seems to be a major driver of the mayhem in Minneapolis. Not sure I've seen anything like it before. ICE/DHS personnel acting like swarms of violent Amazon drivers.
This is where Trump is actually quite vulnerable. His entire game is this fragile sleight of hand where he rewards elites without losing cred with populist non-elites. There's no reason this should work except if nobody notices. Disrupt that informational slippage and you disrupt Trump's politics.
A constant stream of populist-sounding ideas can be a fog machine. Behind it, the hard levers—tax cuts, tariffs, enforcement—shift income from workers to the well-off.
What he says sounds populist, but he never follows through. What he does is takes from the poor and gives to the rich.
What he says sounds populist, but he never follows through. What he does is takes from the poor and gives to the rich.
January 15, 2026 at 2:14 PM
This is where Trump is actually quite vulnerable. His entire game is this fragile sleight of hand where he rewards elites without losing cred with populist non-elites. There's no reason this should work except if nobody notices. Disrupt that informational slippage and you disrupt Trump's politics.
Venezuela, Greenland, Minneapolis, Iran--all in the course of a few weeks. Pretty clear the administration is flailing, trying to assert that it has power. Usually when that happens it's born of fear, and that this fear exists gives me a little bit of hope amidst the darkness.
January 14, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Venezuela, Greenland, Minneapolis, Iran--all in the course of a few weeks. Pretty clear the administration is flailing, trying to assert that it has power. Usually when that happens it's born of fear, and that this fear exists gives me a little bit of hope amidst the darkness.
More of this, please.
"Superior technology ultimately wins out. By the time the automobile industry is dominated by E.V.s, G.M. and Ford may have fallen well behind China, thanks to the Trump administration.
This isn’t industrial policy; it’s industrial suicide."
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/o...
"Superior technology ultimately wins out. By the time the automobile industry is dominated by E.V.s, G.M. and Ford may have fallen well behind China, thanks to the Trump administration.
This isn’t industrial policy; it’s industrial suicide."
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/o...
Opinion | $25 Billion. That’s What Trump Cost Detroit.
www.nytimes.com
January 14, 2026 at 3:06 PM
More of this, please.
"Superior technology ultimately wins out. By the time the automobile industry is dominated by E.V.s, G.M. and Ford may have fallen well behind China, thanks to the Trump administration.
This isn’t industrial policy; it’s industrial suicide."
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/o...
"Superior technology ultimately wins out. By the time the automobile industry is dominated by E.V.s, G.M. and Ford may have fallen well behind China, thanks to the Trump administration.
This isn’t industrial policy; it’s industrial suicide."
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/o...
Reposted by Dan Walters
For the legal perspective on this phenomenon, I highly recommend this paper by @profdanwalters.bsky.social
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
January 14, 2026 at 1:02 PM
For the legal perspective on this phenomenon, I highly recommend this paper by @profdanwalters.bsky.social
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Where there's smoke, there's fire. Little doubt that internal discussions are showing a side of the Trump DOJ that they'd rather not show publicly, which is something given what they are saying publicly.
Breaking: NYT now says *six* federal prosecutors in Minnesota have just resigned over the Justice Department's push to investigate the widow of Renee Good and the department's reluctance to investigate the ICE agent who shot Good, according to people with knowledge of their decision.
Six Prosecutors Quit Over Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow
www.nytimes.com
January 13, 2026 at 6:54 PM
Where there's smoke, there's fire. Little doubt that internal discussions are showing a side of the Trump DOJ that they'd rather not show publicly, which is something given what they are saying publicly.
There really is a book to be written about how we went from withering public outrage at Ford's decision to accept Pinto deaths as the cost of doing business to a general shrug when EPA does this. It's the same damn thing, just at scale.
Breaking News: The EPA will stop considering lives saved when setting pollution limits and instead calculate only the cost to businesses.
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved by Limiting Air Pollution
In a reversal, the agency plans to calculate only the cost to industry when setting pollution limits, and not the monetary value of saving human lives, documents show.
nyti.ms
January 12, 2026 at 8:37 PM
There really is a book to be written about how we went from withering public outrage at Ford's decision to accept Pinto deaths as the cost of doing business to a general shrug when EPA does this. It's the same damn thing, just at scale.
Great piece by @nicholasbednar.bsky.social. One implication worth highlighting is that the idea of the "unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat" is largely a myth. There's almost always some accountability. The question we face is what kind of accountability we want.
open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
How Much Power Does the President Actually Have Over the Civil Service?
More than you think, which is why other branches need to step up
open.substack.com
January 12, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Great piece by @nicholasbednar.bsky.social. One implication worth highlighting is that the idea of the "unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat" is largely a myth. There's almost always some accountability. The question we face is what kind of accountability we want.
open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
The lesson is shut up or get shot?
A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you."
The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"
"Learned what?" she asks
Then he knocks her phone out of her hand
The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"
"Learned what?" she asks
Then he knocks her phone out of her hand
January 10, 2026 at 3:15 PM
The lesson is shut up or get shot?
Maybe it's just the news cycle--I can't help but read this story and think about how Kristi Noem shot a being that was capable of cognition at the level of a toddler, and she bragged about it.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/s...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/s...
Dogs Build Their Vocabularies Like Toddlers
www.nytimes.com
January 9, 2026 at 12:57 AM
Maybe it's just the news cycle--I can't help but read this story and think about how Kristi Noem shot a being that was capable of cognition at the level of a toddler, and she bragged about it.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/s...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/s...
Okay then, guess we're just not supporting IPCC now. It's only the most serious effort in the world to study climate change. We are such a dipshit nation.
This is insane. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United
www.whitehouse.gov
January 8, 2026 at 5:00 AM
Okay then, guess we're just not supporting IPCC now. It's only the most serious effort in the world to study climate change. We are such a dipshit nation.
Many thanks to @dtdeacon.bsky.social for featuring this article in his Ad Law Reading Room!
Over at the Notice and Comment blog, today's Ad Law Reading Room entry is "Valuing Administrative Democracy," by @briandfeinstein.bsky.social and @profdanwalters.bsky.social. Check it out! www.yalejreg.com/nc/ad-law-re...
Ad Law Reading Room: "Valuing Administrative Democracy," by Brian Feinstein and Daniel Walters - Yale Journal on Regulation
Today’s Ad Law Reading Room entry is “Valuing Administrative Democracy,” by Brian D. Feinstein and Daniel E. Walters. Here is the abstract: Public engagement has long sat at the heart of administrativ...
www.yalejreg.com
January 6, 2026 at 4:03 AM
Many thanks to @dtdeacon.bsky.social for featuring this article in his Ad Law Reading Room!
It just keeps getting worse: we're now going to rebuild their infrastructure. It's infrastructure week (years?) in Venezuela.
January 3, 2026 at 5:24 PM
It just keeps getting worse: we're now going to rebuild their infrastructure. It's infrastructure week (years?) in Venezuela.
Reposted by Dan Walters
There is no plan, gang
January 3, 2026 at 4:48 PM
There is no plan, gang
It's not that other presidents "lacked the courage." It's that they didn't thumb their nose at the law.
January 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM
It's not that other presidents "lacked the courage." It's that they didn't thumb their nose at the law.
Just 25 percent of people support this action. It seems to me like a profound misreading of recent history to think, as I assume the Trump administration is, that you can expect some kind of rally-around-the-flag effect in the wake of military action. Puzzling move.
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Americans skeptical of Trump’s executive authority, military action in Venezuela, poll finds
Sixty-three percent of respondents told Quinnipiac they are against military action against Caracas, with just 25 percent expressing support.
www.politico.com
January 3, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Just 25 percent of people support this action. It seems to me like a profound misreading of recent history to think, as I assume the Trump administration is, that you can expect some kind of rally-around-the-flag effect in the wake of military action. Puzzling move.
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...