Daniel Sharfstein
@danielsharfstein.bsky.social
Vanderbilt law prof, American legal history, property, federal Indian law, author of THUNDER IN THE MOUNTAINS and THE INVISIBLE LINE
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
UPDATE — A new Tennessee Supreme Court redistricting ruling “slams the courthouse door in the face of Tennessee voters and gives the General Assembly free rein to largely ignore the constitution”👇🏽
December 10, 2025 at 10:53 PM
UPDATE — A new Tennessee Supreme Court redistricting ruling “slams the courthouse door in the face of Tennessee voters and gives the General Assembly free rein to largely ignore the constitution”👇🏽
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
Lovely obit. RIP Nick Salvatore. 🗃
Thinking about one of my all-time favorite historians, CUNY grad Nick Salvatore, & what he did for cultural/political biography, radical history, Af-Am history. I am always telling folks about We All Got History: The Memory Books of Amos Webber.
www.ithacavoice.org/2025/12/obituary-nick-salvatore/
www.ithacavoice.org/2025/12/obituary-nick-salvatore/
Obituary: Nick Salvatore - The Ithaca Voice
Nick Salvatore, 82, of Ithaca, New York, died on Saturday, November 29th after a period of declining health. He passed away peacefully, listening to music he loved and comforted by […]
www.ithacavoice.org
December 10, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Lovely obit. RIP Nick Salvatore. 🗃
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
Republicans' proposal was.... the ACA. That's why it took the form it did, but since Obama could do no right, they had to define themselves in opposition to it.
Roger Marshall on Republicans replacing the ACA: "It's gonna take us a while to figure out the right way to do it"
December 9, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Republicans' proposal was.... the ACA. That's why it took the form it did, but since Obama could do no right, they had to define themselves in opposition to it.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
"The New Substantive Due Process" - repository.law.umich.edu/articles/3065/
The New Substantive Due Process
After the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, commentators made much about the possible demise of substantive due process—the idea that the Constitution safeguards certain substantive liberties that ...
repository.law.umich.edu
December 8, 2025 at 5:07 PM
"The New Substantive Due Process" - repository.law.umich.edu/articles/3065/
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
We all want democracy and capacity, efficaciousness and accountability. This is not easy. If you make government into an extension of the personality of the chief executive, that just is the fascist theory of administration. Past presidentialists have known that. The Court should know it too. (4/4)
December 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
We all want democracy and capacity, efficaciousness and accountability. This is not easy. If you make government into an extension of the personality of the chief executive, that just is the fascist theory of administration. Past presidentialists have known that. The Court should know it too. (4/4)
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
(1) We have had agencies that are run by people the President cannot fire since the beginning, as @kexelchabot.bsky.social has documented in exacting detail. There is nothing anomalous about independent agencies.
(2) Presidents have sometimes *supported* agency independence. (1/4)
(2) Presidents have sometimes *supported* agency independence. (1/4)
December 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
(1) We have had agencies that are run by people the President cannot fire since the beginning, as @kexelchabot.bsky.social has documented in exacting detail. There is nothing anomalous about independent agencies.
(2) Presidents have sometimes *supported* agency independence. (1/4)
(2) Presidents have sometimes *supported* agency independence. (1/4)
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
Landmark case up for argument at SCOTUS at 10am on the power of presidents to fire independent agency heads.
Here’s my quick preview in Espresso, @economist.com’s daily app.
I’ll be posting live analysis during the oral argument in this thread
Here’s my quick preview in Espresso, @economist.com’s daily app.
I’ll be posting live analysis during the oral argument in this thread
December 8, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Landmark case up for argument at SCOTUS at 10am on the power of presidents to fire independent agency heads.
Here’s my quick preview in Espresso, @economist.com’s daily app.
I’ll be posting live analysis during the oral argument in this thread
Here’s my quick preview in Espresso, @economist.com’s daily app.
I’ll be posting live analysis during the oral argument in this thread
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
I’ll attempt to live-skeet the Trump v. Slaughter oral arguments at 10 am.
I might be considered biased b/c I filed amicus briefs in Slaughter & Cook, with particular historical interpretations.
Or I might be considered well-informed.
You can judge for yourself.
See the summary below & a thread…
I might be considered biased b/c I filed amicus briefs in Slaughter & Cook, with particular historical interpretations.
Or I might be considered well-informed.
You can judge for yourself.
See the summary below & a thread…
Helpful and concise Brennan Center preview for today’s big case on the unitary executive oral arguments (against the historical claim of an unchecked presidential removal power)
Annotated Guide to Historical Amicus Briefs in the Slaughter and Cook Removal Cases
www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
Annotated Guide to Historical Amicus Briefs in the Slaughter and Cook Removal Cases
www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
Annotated Guide to Historical Amicus Briefs in the Slaughter and Cook Removal Cases
As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in two cases challenging the removal of independent agency heads, several historians and legal scholars have filed friend-of-the-court briefs focused on...
www.brennancenter.org
December 8, 2025 at 2:33 PM
I’ll attempt to live-skeet the Trump v. Slaughter oral arguments at 10 am.
I might be considered biased b/c I filed amicus briefs in Slaughter & Cook, with particular historical interpretations.
Or I might be considered well-informed.
You can judge for yourself.
See the summary below & a thread…
I might be considered biased b/c I filed amicus briefs in Slaughter & Cook, with particular historical interpretations.
Or I might be considered well-informed.
You can judge for yourself.
See the summary below & a thread…
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
No print mags have the reach they once did. But it's notable to me that I keep seeing articles like this in People, very broad-spectrum, apolitical, at least in my experience. Gives a sense of how much this stuff is breaking through.
They are now targeting people who did everything by the book and were literally at the ceremony where they were going to become citizens...
"Immigrants lined up to become U.S. citizens in Boston on Dec. 4 were pulled from line by USCIS officials moments before the oath ceremony"
"Immigrants lined up to become U.S. citizens in Boston on Dec. 4 were pulled from line by USCIS officials moments before the oath ceremony"
Immigrants Approved for Citizenship ‘Plucked Out’ of Line Moments Before Pledging Allegiance: Report
Immigrants lined up to become U.S. citizens in Boston on Dec. 4 were pulled from line by USCIS officials moments before the ceremony. The incident comes after USCIS told employees to halt all immigrat...
people.com
December 8, 2025 at 2:17 PM
No print mags have the reach they once did. But it's notable to me that I keep seeing articles like this in People, very broad-spectrum, apolitical, at least in my experience. Gives a sense of how much this stuff is breaking through.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
The Supreme Court just set aside a 2nd Circuit decision upholding New York's requirement that all school students, public and private, obtain certain vaccinations, without any religious exemptions. It orders the 2nd Circuit to reconsider the ruling in light of SCOTUS' LGBTQ school books decision.
December 8, 2025 at 2:38 PM
The Supreme Court just set aside a 2nd Circuit decision upholding New York's requirement that all school students, public and private, obtain certain vaccinations, without any religious exemptions. It orders the 2nd Circuit to reconsider the ruling in light of SCOTUS' LGBTQ school books decision.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
I can't say I'm confident that there aren't at least 4 votes to "take this nativist revisionism seriously," but I wouldn't discount the possibility that SCOTUS will use the case to try to launder everything else it is giving the administration with a self-congratulatory anti-Trump opinion.
The bad news doesn't end there. SCOTUS could have summarily affirmed a ruling invalidating Trump's birthright citizenship order. That it chose to grant cert suggests at least 4 votes to take this nativist revisionism seriously. I'll have more to day about that in future essays. End 🧵
December 8, 2025 at 3:04 PM
I can't say I'm confident that there aren't at least 4 votes to "take this nativist revisionism seriously," but I wouldn't discount the possibility that SCOTUS will use the case to try to launder everything else it is giving the administration with a self-congratulatory anti-Trump opinion.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
For more on this historical context, see this amicus brief from @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social
www.brennancenter.org/media/14006/...
www.brennancenter.org/media/14006/...
bad actors like wurman are why i think it is important to place the birthright clause in the full context of section 1 and section 1 in the context of both dred scott and the two decades of antislavery and abolitionist agitation and political thinking that proceeded it
The evidence is the text. All you have to do is read the Constitution.
December 7, 2025 at 7:41 PM
For more on this historical context, see this amicus brief from @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social
www.brennancenter.org/media/14006/...
www.brennancenter.org/media/14006/...
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
Check out our multi-expert review of "The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860–1920," by @profmsinha.bsky.social Manisha Sinha
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
“Reconstruction: Democracy for All”
Published in American Nineteenth Century History (Vol. 26, No. 2, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com
December 7, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Check out our multi-expert review of "The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860–1920," by @profmsinha.bsky.social Manisha Sinha
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
i think to understand the meaning of the birthright citizenship clause to the framers of the 14th amendment, you have to understand significance of dred scott to the civil war republican party. dred scott wasn't just a bad ruling, it was understood as a rejection of the declaration itself.
December 6, 2025 at 6:03 PM
i think to understand the meaning of the birthright citizenship clause to the framers of the 14th amendment, you have to understand significance of dred scott to the civil war republican party. dred scott wasn't just a bad ruling, it was understood as a rejection of the declaration itself.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
This is what newspapers used to call “racially tinged” news
“Americans will get free admission to national parks on President Donald Trump's birthday but no longer on Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, according to the National Park Service website”
National parks cut free entry for MLK Day, add Trump's birthday
NPS changed its free admission days in 2026, removing MLK Day and Juneteenth while adding Trump's birthday.
www.usatoday.com
December 6, 2025 at 4:34 AM
This is what newspapers used to call “racially tinged” news
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
What university is going to learn from FIFA and create a random award to get Trump to leave them alone? Watch it happen.
December 5, 2025 at 4:42 PM
What university is going to learn from FIFA and create a random award to get Trump to leave them alone? Watch it happen.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
and I fear that even more re-redistricting will be on the way, perhaps even later in the year if the Supreme Court waters down or kills Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in the Callais case.
December 4, 2025 at 11:40 PM
and I fear that even more re-redistricting will be on the way, perhaps even later in the year if the Supreme Court waters down or kills Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in the Callais case.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
All the Republican-appointed Justices are letting Texas engage in re-redistricting, at least for the 2026 elections, and all the Democratic appointed Justices reached a contrary conclusion.
December 4, 2025 at 11:38 PM
All the Republican-appointed Justices are letting Texas engage in re-redistricting, at least for the 2026 elections, and all the Democratic appointed Justices reached a contrary conclusion.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
To average Americans these rulings come out of the blue, because there's no oral argument and less focus on the shadow docket. And when the Court fails to explain its emergency rulings, they undermine their own legitimacy because they appear to be acting in an unprincipled way.
December 4, 2025 at 6:51 PM
To average Americans these rulings come out of the blue, because there's no oral argument and less focus on the shadow docket. And when the Court fails to explain its emergency rulings, they undermine their own legitimacy because they appear to be acting in an unprincipled way.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
I spoke to the New York Times in this great explainer piece by Charlie Savage
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
December 4, 2025 at 1:50 PM
I spoke to the New York Times in this great explainer piece by Charlie Savage
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
Important developments. The Montana Supreme Court has played a really important role in heading off far-right conservatism in the state, so of course the Republican Party is weaponizing the ethics process to attack them.
Pretty alarming that Republican lawmakers in Montana are no longer even pretending to respect the state supreme court as part of a co-equal branch of government
Montana Republicans Are Trying to Hijack the Montana Supreme Court
The state’s highest court ruled against GOP lawmakers in a few high-profile cases. GOP lawmakers are responding in kind.
ballsandstrikes.org
November 26, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Important developments. The Montana Supreme Court has played a really important role in heading off far-right conservatism in the state, so of course the Republican Party is weaponizing the ethics process to attack them.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
Insulting to have to point this out, but if you have spent even 30 minutes reading US history, you realize that every decade has been dominated by racist hysteria that the "new" people won't ever fit in.
This exact prejudice would have been applied to Miller's forebears, when they fled pogroms.
This exact prejudice would have been applied to Miller's forebears, when they fled pogroms.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Insulting to have to point this out, but if you have spent even 30 minutes reading US history, you realize that every decade has been dominated by racist hysteria that the "new" people won't ever fit in.
This exact prejudice would have been applied to Miller's forebears, when they fled pogroms.
This exact prejudice would have been applied to Miller's forebears, when they fled pogroms.
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, keeps shooting out of the ground in Oklahoma.
Experts say it means even more wastewater is spreading underground, poisoning the state’s water supply.
With @readfrontier.bsky.social
Experts say it means even more wastewater is spreading underground, poisoning the state’s water supply.
With @readfrontier.bsky.social
Toxic Wastewater From Oil Fields Keeps Pouring Out of the Ground. Oklahoma Regulators Failed to Stop It.
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells. Experts warn of a pollution crisis spreading underground and threatening Oklahoma’s drin...
www.propublica.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, keeps shooting out of the ground in Oklahoma.
Experts say it means even more wastewater is spreading underground, poisoning the state’s water supply.
With @readfrontier.bsky.social
Experts say it means even more wastewater is spreading underground, poisoning the state’s water supply.
With @readfrontier.bsky.social
Reposted by Daniel Sharfstein
"The DTH asked Atkins in a September 2024 interview whether or not he replaced the advisory board. He went silent for a minute and a half, and never answered the question."
The student-run Daily Tar Heel is doing stellar reporting on deep struggles over #UNC's School of Civic Life and Leadership, created by the legislature, here's the latest from reporter Aidan Lockhart: www.dailytarheel.com/article/inve...
'Dictatorial powers': SCiLL dean ignored vote of the School's advisory board
New evidence obtained by The Daily Tar Heel gives weight to claims made by professors who resigned from the School of Civic Life and Leadership.
www.dailytarheel.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:17 PM
"The DTH asked Atkins in a September 2024 interview whether or not he replaced the advisory board. He went silent for a minute and a half, and never answered the question."