Jacob T. Levy
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jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy
@jacobtlevy.bsky.social
60K followers 1K following 13K posts

Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, Associate member of Philosophy, Coordinator of Research Group on Constitutional Studies, McGill.
Posts here speak only for myself.
Americo-Canadian; liberaltarian; aging geek.
http://jacobtlevy.com .. more

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Jacob T. Levy is an American political theorist and Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University. Levy is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at McGill, as well as the coordinator of McGill's Research Group on Constitutional Studies and the founding director of McGill's Yan P. Lin Centre for the Study of Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds. Levy is also a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and the Institute for Humane Studies. He is known for his expertise on multiculturalism, liberalism, and pluralism. .. more

Political science 68%
Law 8%
Posts Replies Media Videos

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 3h
Ok, Christmas people, you are now free to move about the cultural cabin.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 3h
Brb posting this to my college radio alum FB group

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 6h
Why not? Everyone else does…

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h
lol

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h
Just so.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12h
That's terrible on *policy* grounds, but I don't think *partisanship* is the problem there in the same way.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12h
The new rules will ban *all prayers in public.* That's a violation of religious liberty.

The restrictions on face coverings *also* seem to me seriously unjust— and even the paternalist justifications seems self-defeating if it leads to women simply being less able to leave the house.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12h
It's fair to say "the US is now treating the global north in much the same way as it has long treated the global south." I think that is a change that does matter a great deal but ymmv.

Reposted by Samantha Brennan

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12h
Appalling.

montrealgazette.com/news/provinc...
Quebec plans to ban street prayers as it moves to beef up secularism law
The law will oblige students and staff to keep their faces uncovered while they are within the education system, from daycare to university.
montrealgazette.com

Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 13h
Every Trump appointee is committed to ignoring the difference between holding a responsible office of the United States and being a partisan advocate hack. It's bad across the board, but it's catastrophically bad in the Attorney General, the Secretary of Defense, and the Directors of the FBI & CIA.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 14h
ab-so-lutely.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 15h
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jacobtlevy.bsky.social Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · Nov 23
Wrote this up on a comment thread at FB and decided to bring it over here too. Happy US Thanksgiving— or, as some of my Canadian friends call it, Yanksgiving, which is even more appropriate than they intend because it really is a Yankee holiday.

Weirdest day to be an American emigrant or expat.

Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

rgcs-mcgill.bsky.social
Research Group on Constitutional Studies, McGill University @rgcs-mcgill.bsky.social · 15h
Video now available:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjIv...

Daniel Lee
Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

Excessive Beneficence: Regulating Generosity in the Modern Natural Law School of Hugo Grotius

RGCS Lecture, November 20 2025
Lee, Excessive Beneficence: Regulating Generosity in the Modern Natural Law School of Hugo Grotius
YouTube video by Yan P. Lin Centre, McGill University
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Kori Schake, Marc Lynch , and 13 more

mikeeckel.bsky.social
Mike Eckel @mikeeckel.bsky.social · 16h
CIA statement about the Afghan man identified as the gunman who shot two National Guardsmen in Washington

Reposted by Jacob T. Levy, Samantha Brennan

theguardian.com
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 16h
Denmark sets up ‘night watch’ to monitor Trump since Greenland row
Denmark sets up ‘night watch’ to monitor Trump since Greenland row
US president’s threat to seize territory prompts intelligence briefings reminiscent of Game of Thrones patrol The Danish government has set up a “night watch” in the foreign ministry, not to keep out the wildlings and White Walkers like the Night’s Watch of Game of Thrones, but rather to monitor Donald Trump’s pronouncements and movements while Copenhagen sleeps. The night watch starts at 5pm each day and at 7am a report is produced and distributed around the Danish government and relevant departments about what was said and took place, the Politiken newspaper reported. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Robert C. Richards

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 17h
Shelley Clark @shelleydclark.bsky.social delivered the 20th anniversary De Jong Lecture in Social Demography at Penn State:

"How pro-natalist policies harm rural Americans"

Video here:

psu.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/t/1_np...
Penn State University Presents: The 20th Annual DeJong Lecture - Penn State MediaSpace
psu.mediaspace.kaltura.com

Reposted by Samantha Brennan

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 17h
www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
Author Salman Rushdie praises Canada’s response to Trump’s threats
The celebrated writer, who became a U.S. citizen in 2016, spoke with The Sunday Magazine's Piya Chattopadhyay about what he calls the 'absurdity coming out of Washington.'
www.cbc.ca

Reposted by Talbot Imlay

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 17h
universityaffairs.ca/features/que...
Quebec universities weather an unprecedented storm - University Affairs
The province’s institutes of higher learning are navigating immigration restrictions, language policies, budget cuts and challenges to academic freedom.
universityaffairs.ca

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 18h
I'm over 90% on board with @nescio13.bsky.social here, and (as often happens between us) I'm not sure whether the remaining 10% is substantive or a matter of phrasing. Anyway, recommended as usual.

digressionsimpressions.substack.com/p/shklar-alt...
Shklar, Althusser, and Montesquieu's purported Liberalism
I learned from Edward Hall’s Power and Powerlessness: The Liberalism of Fear in the Twenty-First Century (OUP 2025) that Judith Shklar uses the phrase ‘liberalism of fear’ already in her (1987) book, ...
digressionsimpressions.substack.com

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 19h
And to the extent that clicks are pennies— the NYT has been very bad in all kinds of ways and yet they're still a real news organization with a large staff of real reporters finding and publishing real news, in an era when all of that is vanishing. I want them to keep paying reporters.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 19h
There's plenty I'm unhappy with the NYT about. But this is a case in which their reporting uncovered important information about the administration's bad actions! To the extent that clicks are votes, I'm happy for them to see people voting for more stories like this.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Will Jennings, Steve Peers , and 11 more

jdportes.bsky.social
Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 19h
Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action...

(from my presentation at the IMF last week)

Reposted by Jacob T. Levy, Samantha Brennan

keribla.bsky.social
Keri Blakinger @keribla.bsky.social · 20h
absolutely harrowing description of adx supermax in colorado boltsmag.org/death-row-cl...

Reposted by Rebecca Solnit, Rebecca Tushnet, Jacob T. Levy

joshtpm.bsky.social
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 1d
With DC shooter now identified as an Afghan national not the antifa secret agent White House hoped for a good time to remember the Trump admin has gutted domestic anti-terrorism capacity and reassigned many to finding grandmothers to arrest at immigration hearings.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d
Yes— and it was bad enough what Orban was able to do. What the US can do, with many more resources, will be much worse.

Reposted by Robert C. Richards

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d
The open support for the AfD and Le Pen— and Farage, though there's been less noise about him so far in Trump 47— ought to be shocking, and ought to be seen as the tip of an ideological iceberg. There's more, and will continue to be more, active US support for the extreme right globally.

Reposted by Mark D. White, Daniel W. Drezner, Robert C. Richards , and 6 more

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d
It's not just that the United States has stopped trying to promote liberal democratic ideas internationally. It's that the United States is actively trying to promote the contrary. It's trying to turn more countries into Hungary.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
U.S. to Press Europe and Other Allies on ‘Mass Migration,’ Document Says
www.nytimes.com

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d
Who knew that it was so exhausting to... *not* do your job?

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
‘In Triage Every Day’: A Beleaguered Speaker Says He’s Overwhelmed
www.nytimes.com

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d
Yes, yes, yes. Amidst everything else bad happening in higher ed (or maybe because of it?) I've noticed another surge recently in people using "disciplinary" as a bad word and "interdisciplinary" as the solution to all ills. That comes and goes; right now, it's coming. It's a mistake.

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d
hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/you-say-si...

"Silos preserve quality and integrity. Without silos, grain rots... Its purpose is preservation, not isolation. ... The function of the academic discipline is not unlike an agricultural silo: it is a structure of preservation and quality control."
You say 'silo' as if it were a bad thing...
Information storage in the AI era
hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com