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Reposted by Andrew Kent

Lawrence Solum @lsolum.bsky.social · 11d

Legal Theory Bookworm: "Contemporary Non-Positivism" by Atiq, buff.ly/tW60iUQ - The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends Contemporary Non-Positivism by Emad H. Atiq.

Legal Theory Bookworm: "Contemporary Non-Positivism" by Atiq

The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends Contemporary Non-Positivism by Emad H. Atiq. Here is a description: This Element defends and clarifies the thesis that the legality of a system of rules depends…

buff.ly

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Sep 3

Craig Green is very worth reading on Erie papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Sep 3

There's some excellent scholarship on these questions. Eg Caleb Nelson scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcont...

scholarship.law.wm.edu

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Sep 3

In light of the 5th Circuit's important Alien Enemies Act decision, here again is a link to my deep-dive draft paper on what the statute meant in 1798. Updated version coming to SSRN soon. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798

For the first time since World War II-and the first time ever outside a formally declared war-an American president has invoked the Alien Enemies Act to detain

papers.ssrn.com

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · Aug 24

What I'm saying is that Niskanen should bring on some fellows to do esoteric readings of Plato

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Jim Speta @jspeta.bsky.social · Aug 20

The criticisms here of the effects on law students are right, but miss the most important piece: hiring on first semester grades hurts first-gen students, students who don't have lawyers in the family, students who take a little longer to adjust to law school, etc. 1/
www.law.com/2025/08/18/h...

How Law Students Are Navigating Early Recruitment | Law.com

“In some ways, that’s very powerful, to kind of have your career plan that's buttoned up,” but “the flip side of that, of course, is your career plans are buttoned up for a couple years,” said Carey B...

www.law.com

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Aug 14

Thank you!

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Frank Bowman @frank-bowman.bsky.social · Aug 14

Excellent scholarly analysis by @andrewkent.bsky.social of Trump's invocation of Alien Enemies Act.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798

For the first time since World War II-and the first time ever outside a formally declared war-an American president has invoked the Alien Enemies Act to detain

papers.ssrn.com

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Aug 13

www.tabletmag.com/sections/new...

Zohran Mamdani’s Fantasy Island

The mayoral candidate’s support comes from a young, mostly white, often childless, likely temporary population insulated from the consequences of the urban decline they’re about to cause

www.tabletmag.com

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Reposted by Andrew Kent

Harlan G. Cohen @harlangcohen.bsky.social · Aug 11

As we watch the increasing weaponization of economic tools, this new collection of (often prescient) articles on "Economic Sanctions and the Law" in the Fordham International Law Journal has become only more relevant: www.fordhamilj.org/volume-48-is...

Volume 48, Issue 5 — Fordham International Law Journal

www.fordhamilj.org

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Aug 10

Even if justices are geniuses, a democratic culture, committed to the people's self-govt largely through elective institutions, should work hard treat them like ordinary people with a job (though an important one). The fan cults around eg Scalia and RBG were embarrassing and unfortunate

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · Aug 10

This isn’t aimed only at Sotomayor. But to expand on Robert’s point, with the exception of Holmes and Posner, none of these people are geniuses. They’re generally good lawyers who had the benefit of circumstance. Treating them like wizards—as we do at these public talks—is a recipe for disaster.

Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · Aug 9

Justice Sotomayor suggests—implausibly—that justices somehow have a vested property interest in their office. Yet another reason why relying on judges to be reformers is an absolute disaster.

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Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · Aug 10

This isn’t aimed only at Sotomayor. But to expand on Robert’s point, with the exception of Holmes and Posner, none of these people are geniuses. They’re generally good lawyers who had the benefit of circumstance. Treating them like wizards—as we do at these public talks—is a recipe for disaster.

Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · Aug 9

Justice Sotomayor suggests—implausibly—that justices somehow have a vested property interest in their office. Yet another reason why relying on judges to be reformers is an absolute disaster.

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Mary Dudziak @marydudziak.bsky.social · Aug 7

Big news! After 8 years of exemplary service, @gauthamrao.bsky.social is stepping down as editor of @lawandhistrev.bsky.social. The ASLH seeks applications for the next editor. Great opportunity, though Gautham's shoes will be hard to fill.
Details here:
legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2025/08/law-...

The ASLH Publications Committee invites applications for the position. Applicants should be members of the American Society for Legal History who are accomplished legal historians, have the intellectual range to work with manuscripts from different historical periods and geographic regions, are conversant with both law and history, and welcome the opportunity to identify and promote the best scholarship in the field. They should be prepared to request release time and other departmental or institutional support.

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Noah Rosenblum @narosenblum.bsky.social · Aug 9

Delighted to share my latest, History and Fetishism in the New Separation of Powers Formalism, now live in the Penn Law Review!

The piece traces the emergence of the Supreme Court’s new approach to separation of powers law and argues that it is grounded in a set of basic mistakes. (1/3)

In the last few years, the Supreme Court has embraced a formalist approach to separation of powers law, allegedly justified by the Constitution's "original meaning." It is revolutionary, rapidly remaking the constitutional law of administration. But the Court's engagement with history is selective and idiosyncratic. In particular, it has largely ignored what we know of governmental practice in the early republic.
This Essay attacks the Court's use of history. It uses Jack Balkin's analysis of legal discourse in Memory and Authority to unpack the Court's reliance on historical arguments and to suggest avenues for critique. It draws on recent scholarship on Founding Era practice to show that eighteenth-century understandings of separation of powers were not formalist. And it argues for the restoration of Montesquieu to our constitutional memory. A key figure in the development of the Constitution, Montesquieu's understanding of separation of powers closely tracked early republic practice. He thus points the way towards an alternative interpretation of our constitutional tradition and a more pragmatic and historically accurate structural constitutionalism in place of the Court's growing formalist fetish.

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Aug 8

My draft article goes into depth on the key statutory term "alien enemies." It had a widely understood legal meaning in 1798. Tren de Aragua members do not fit that meaning, even though the group is a designated "Foreign Terrorist Organization."

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Aug 8

On "invasion" and "predatory incursion": in 1798, those terms in the Alien Enemies Act clearly had a war-military meaning--an attack on US territory. The Trump administration's interpretation is incorrect. I may have used a sledgehammer to kill a gnat, but it seemed important . . . .

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Aug 8

I've just posted "The Alien Enemies Act of 1798," a draft article doing a deep dive into all aspects of the statute and background law -- what it all meant in 1798. It defines "invasion" and "predatory incursion," among other provisions. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798

For the first time since World War II-and the first time ever outside a formally declared war-an American president has invoked the Alien Enemies Act to detain

papers.ssrn.com

2 16 48

Reposted by Andrew Kent

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · Aug 6

there's a nice (derogatory) confluence between the second trump administration's embrace of Redemption politics and its effort to engage in a Redemption-style rewriting of Jan 6 and associated recent history

Kevin M. Levin @civilwarmemory.bsky.social · Aug 6

Here is Pete Hegseth's tweet announcing the return of the Confederate monument to Arlington National Cemetery. The plan is to restore it and reinstall in 2027.

It's important to point out that this monument was never referred to as a "Reconciliation Monument."

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Aug 6

On Feb 27, 1813 a statute of Congress came into effect authorizing the President to "appoint an agent to preserve vaccine matter, and to furnish the same to any citizen of the US" who wants it via US mails. Over 200 years ago we had a pro-vax Congress. In 2025, US Senate confirmed RFK Jr

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Aug 6

This is so awful. Life saving technology attacked by an addled loon, utterly unfit for his job

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/h...

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts

www.nytimes.com

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Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · Jul 10

Finally a car that can make any hard right turn.

Reuters @reuters.com · Jul 10

Grok AI to be available in Tesla vehicles next week, Musk says reut.rs/4ksb1WX

Grok AI to be available in Tesla vehicles next week, Musk says

Grok AI will be available in Tesla vehicles next week "at the latest", the EV maker's CEO, Elon Musk, said in a post on X on Thursday.

reut.rs

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Jul 6

At my kids' K-12 school, wokeness definitely coming from teachers and admin staff, not all of them, for sure. But those groups seem stronger generators of it than students, I think

Julian Davis Mortenson @jdmortenson.bsky.social · Jul 6

Perhaps THE biggest misunderstanding about higher ed. And not only among conservatives, or even the political attuned!

Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · Jul 6

The fundamental error in nearly every right-wing analysis of education—from Alito in Mahmoud on downwards—is that “wokeness” comes from teachers instead of peers.

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · Jul 6

In my experience, it definitely comes from some, maybe even many, teachers (law professors, in my corner of the world), but certainly also from students and admin staff

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Julian Davis Mortenson @jdmortenson.bsky.social · Jun 28

strongly strongly strongly recommend

Richard Primus @richardprimus.bsky.social · Jun 26

If you’d like to shake your head and just be satisfied that I must be mistaken, go ahead. But if you’d like to engage my reasoning more fully and then decide, I can recommend the book below, out this month from Harvard University Press:

bit.ly/44dJNPp

(7/7)(end)

The Oldest Constitutional Question — Harvard University Press

A groundbreaking challenge to a core principle of constitutional law, arguing that congressional action is not limited by the legislative branch’s textually enumerated powers.Every law student learns ...

bit.ly

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Andrew Kent @andrewkent.bsky.social · May 3

Very well done Lawfare piece co-authored by one of my Fed Courts students at a Fordham law. Oral Argument Summary: CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd. v. Antrix Corp. Ltd. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/oral...

Oral Argument Summary: CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd. v. Antrix Corp. Ltd.

The question at issue: whether a foreign sovereign must have minimum contacts with the U.S. before a court can assert personal jurisdiction over it.

www.lawfaremedia.org

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