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Kim Lane Scheppele

@kimlanelaw.bsky.social

36K followers 1.5K following 590 posts

Tracking autocratic legalism around the world from Princeton University.

Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Scheppele works on topics related to comparative constitutional ethnography within the sociology of law. .. more

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Law 31%

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 9h

With $75 billion and thousands of masked agents, ICE is just getting started.

We take a look at ICE's skyrocketing expansion, the agency's failing standards, and where detention centers are planned for next. bit.ly/4nIoFrB

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Kevin Carey

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 1d

ICE is not only chasing down every random brown person in Chicago, they have a cameraman following them to film this for social media. Cruelty and inhumanity as content.

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Rosemary A. Joyce

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 1d

JUST IN: A federal judge has granted the New York Times’ demand for a list of Elon Musk’s security clearances. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 1d

At one point during the hearing, the judge asked the prosecution why the case can’t be tried before mid-December.

Lemons replied: We are “just getting our hands around” discovery in the case.

There’s lots of it, he added, and it includes a “significant” amount of classified information.

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Steve Peers, David Koepsell , and 1 more Kim L. Scheppele, Steve Peers, David Koepsell, David Darmofal

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 1d

The judge also set an initial schedule for pre-trial motions.

The first set is expected by Oct. 12. Per Comey’s defense counsel, that batch will include motions to dismiss for selective and vindictive prosecution, as well as a motion challenging the legality of Halligan’s appointment as US attorney

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Lisa W. Fazio, Elizabeth Saunders , and 11 more Kim L. Scheppele, Lisa W. Fazio, Elizabeth Saunders, James Q. Wilson, Will Jennings, Gavin A. Schmidt, Simon Chapman, Juan Cole, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, David R. Miller, Scott A. Imberman, Brian Keegan, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Clark Gray

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Erich Fromm

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 1d

We must all stand up and speak out.

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 1d

🧵
Today's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is for the discovery and stabilization of metal-organic frameworks, stable networks of metal ions and carbon (organic) molecules

Applications of these porous compounds include catalysis and pollution remediation

Example of metal-organic framework formed by reacting chromium ion clusters with organic compound and hydrofluoric acid

Electron microscope image of a periodic array of super tetrahedra of the previous image

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

#WarRavagedPortland

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Joshua S. Weitz, Rosemary A. Joyce , and 2 more Kim L. Scheppele, Joshua S. Weitz, Rosemary A. Joyce, David Rosnick, Manisha Sinha

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 2d

If appropriations bills are not seen as enforceable contracts, why should any Member of Congress vote to fund any part of the federal government under Donald Trump? You're voting to provide money for lawlessness. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: ICE purchased custom-made vans from a company called TechOps Specialty Vehicles (TOSV) that are equipped with fake cellphone towers designed to spy on phones.

TOSV president said the company integrates the cell-site simulators into their vans, but does not manufacture the surveillance tool.

ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones | TechCrunch

The federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with “cell-site simulators” which allow the real-world location tracking of nearby phones and their owners.

techcrunch.com

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 2d

here's how to explain the shutdown to those who are puzzled -- great video!

Nick Knudsen @nickknudsenus.bsky.social · 2d

This is the BEST description of the shutdown.

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche

Mark Zaid, Esq @markzaidesq.bsky.social · 2d

On direct pathway to a constitutional crisis. Intentionally and deliberately.

www.axios.com/2025/10/06/n...

MAGA calls for Trump to overrule judges on National Guard deployments

Trump's base has embraced the idea that court rulings should not constrain his powers as commander-in-chief.

www.axios.com

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Rosemary A. Joyce

Nick Knudsen @nickknudsenus.bsky.social · 2d

This is the BEST description of the shutdown.

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 2d

i will miss the Santa look . . .

Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 2d

Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right

Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in bright red wooly gowns, with a beige trim. It looks sort of like a Santa robe

The Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in black gowns with a bright white kravat, and two thin red vertical lines on the side of the robe

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Christian Odendahl, Tim Bale , and 4 more Kim L. Scheppele, Christian Odendahl, Tim Bale, Chris Hanretty, Orin S. Kerr, Scott A. Imberman, Alessandro Nai

Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 2d

Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Scott A. Imberman

Isaac Dovere @isaacdovere.bsky.social · 3d

Newsom says he’s on the verge of quitting the National Govs Association: “should not be difficult … regardless of partisan affiliation, to agree that politicizing our states’ Natl Guard and deploying… over the objections of the home-state Governor,harms the interests of states”

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 3d

this statement by the American Council of Learned Societies, one of the key orgs in higher ed, is exactly right.

reject the 'compact'. no ifs, no studies.

read and share and, for your opeds, steal.

I cannot post the entire alt text but it begins: On October 1, the White House proposed to nine leading American universities that they agree to a list of demands in exchange for receiving preferential access to research funding. The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” undermines the long-standing independence of American academia. It works against the best interests of colleges and universities and of every one of us who has benefited from the knowledge they produce. We call for its immediate rejection by all institutions of higher education.

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

Norm Eisen @normeisen.bsky.social · 3d

Flashing red light: a top federal prosecutor REJECTED pressure to indict NY AG Letitia James

Career DOJ lawyers aren’t giving to Trump’s revenge campaign

Now what will Bondi & Halligan do?

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Top prosecutor is rejecting Trump pressure to charge New York AG

A key federal prosecutor in Virginia, where James Comey was indicted, is resisting bringing charges against Letitia James.

www.msnbc.com

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Kim L. Scheppele, Rebecca Solnit , and 12 more Joanna Bryson, Kim L. Scheppele, Rebecca Solnit, Richard S.J. Tol, Brendan Nyhan, Ken Caldeira, Steve Peers, Daniel W. Drezner, Michael Kevane, Alan Richardson, Aaron Sojourner, Bessma Momani, Mark Rice, Greg Linden, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 3d

It's a pretty big deal that the NYC Bar Association--one of the most prominent and respected bar associations in the country--is accusing the President of ordering the "unlawful summary execution," i.e. murder--of civilians in violation of US and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

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Reposted by Laurent Pech

Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 3d

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 · 3d

“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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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Scott L. Greer, Jonathan Wolff , and 1 more Kim L. Scheppele, Scott L. Greer, Jonathan Wolff, David Waldstreicher

Ian Gordon @idgordon.bsky.social · 3d

The NYT's Michael Grynbaum reported that this is the note that Bari Weiss sent to CBS News staffers this morning (1/2)

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Robin Celikates, Prakash Kashwan

Pema Levy @pemalevy.bsky.social · 3d

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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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Brendan Nyhan

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 3d

I understand the impulse to highlight the acceptable things that can be found in the "compact" and imagine how those could be built on.

But those elements are a disguise. The gov't doesn't care about them. The *purpose* of the compact is unconstitutional federal control over higher education.

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

Douglas Keith @douglaskeith.bsky.social · 3d

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's jurisprudence is... complicated! But with nearly half the court up for retention election next month, the money is still pouring in. More @statecourtreport.org: statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

Everything You Need to Know About Next Month’s High-Stakes Supreme Court Elections in Pennsylvania

Three justices will face an up or down vote in November, the outcome of which is likely to impact the midterms.

statecourtreport.org

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 3d

Once again, Anna Bower live-tweets hearings like no one else can!

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 3d

Ok, here we go.

The case is called and Judge Immergut explains the background. She says there were technical difficulties, which caused the delay.

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 3d

and that was just after this:
Connections
Puzzle #847
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