Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Gautam Hans @gshans.bsky.social · 22h

Entrepreneurship Clinic / Civil Litigation Clinic / Movement Lawyering Clinic

Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 22h

Unfortunately I might go with Associate Professor / Adjunct Professor / Full Professor / Assistant Professor

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 1d

Associate Professor / Full Professor / Assistant Professor

Reposted by Gautam Hans

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 1d

glad to be born at a time when i got to see what life was like before the internet and will be dead before AI completely destroys humanity

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Jennifer Szalai @jenszalai.bsky.social · 1d

I was struck by that line too. I reviewed Walter’s book “How Civil Wars Start” when it was published way back in 2022. her analysis was incisive; I was hoping it wouldn’t be prescient:
www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/b...

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

“We’ll schedule it as soon as she wants”?

She’s been demanding it for weeks but Republicans keep blocking her.

They really really really don’t want the files to come out

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

RAJU: You swore in 2 GOP members during pro forma session. Why not swear in Grijalva? Does it have to do w/her signature on Epstein petition?

JOHNSON: It has nothing to do with that. We'll swear her in when everybody is back

R: Why not now?

J: Uh - we'll schedule it, I guess, as soon as she wants

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

onekade @onekade.bsky.social · 1d

New: Records obtained by the @aclum.bsky.social show police across the state are conducting dragnet surveillance of motorists and sharing their location information with cops in states that have banned abortion and gender affirming care, and those that work w/ICE data.aclum.org/2025/10/07/f...

Flock Gives Law Enforcement All Over the Country Access to Your Location – The Data for Justice Project | ACLU of Massachusetts

data.aclum.org

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 1d

The conservative Supreme Court justices sincerely believe that discrimiantion against Christians is the most urgent civil rights crisis of our time, and they are going out of their way to take and decide cases that allow them to correct these injustices

The Story of This Supreme Court Term Is Already On YouTube

How conservative activists are building a shared cultural understanding about who deserves the law’s protections, and who does not.

ballsandstrikes.org

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

My friend @sivav.bsky.social with a sharp essay in the New Republic explaining why universities that sign Trump's noxious "compact" are not only cowards but utter fools. newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 1d

alright literal lol at the shitty lawyer responding to a question from Sotomayor like 'this is similar to this other fuckedup case, the Court here should do what it did there' and Sotomayor saying 'remember I dissented in that case'

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 1d

Very nice piece from my colleague @stevevladeck.bsky.social in today's Times on the illegality of Trump's troop deployments to American cities. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | No, Trump Can’t Deploy Troops to Wherever He Wants

www.nytimes.com

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Megan Greenwell @greenwell.bsky.social · 1d

gotta say I don't think it's a great sign for society that the top editor of a major American news outlet thinks we're in a "fight for the West." (against WHOM, Bari?)

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 1d

bellissima

We're thrilled to announce that Anduril founder Palmer Luckey will join Bari Weiss live in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, October 8, at 7:00 p.m. for a conversation on the future of American power-and the fight for the West.
Tickets are LIVE- get them here!

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Gautam Hans @gshans.bsky.social · 2d

No need to avoid pedantry if it concerns BW, IMHO…

Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social · 2d

Not to be a pedant but Bari Weiss was a junior editor who occasionally wrote opinion pieces in the opinion section, not a columnist.

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Gautam Hans @gshans.bsky.social · 2d

This was extremely strange gossip even back in our college days. Very “it’s a matter of taste” vibes back in 2005.

Stephanie Insley Hershinow @sinsleyh.bsky.social · 2d

It’s come to my attention that some of you don’t know/forgot that Bari Weiss dated Kate McKinnon. This is a crucial element of her lore.

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Gautam Hans @gshans.bsky.social · 4d

You’re such a Supernintendo Chalmers

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d

Rowan helped push the President of U Penn out. Now he wants to use the power of the government, including tax dollars, to persuade universities to surrender their academic freedom. Because, he believes, he and other rich men know how to run a university better than the faculty.

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Genevieve Lakier @genevievelakier.bsky.social · 5d

The Trump Administration’s “Compact of Excellence” for Universities is... far from excellent! Indeed, it’s unconstitutional. In this post, let me count the ways.

blog.dividedargument.com/p/the-uncons...

The Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine and the Compact for Excellence

Members of the Trump administration love to say that federal funding is a privilege not a right and therefore something that can be granted or withheld based on changing administrative priorities.

blog.dividedargument.com

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Bobby Allyn @bobbyallyn.bsky.social · 5d

Apple bowing to Trump admin’s pressure on ICEBlock invites even more jawboning, says @gshans.bsky.social.

"Compliance will only incentivize further government demands."

www.npr.org/2025/10/03/n...

Legal experts condemn Apple bowing to White House's request to remove ICE tracking app

It's the latest example of tech giants bowing to pressure from the Trump administration. Legal experts say the developer of the app has free speech rights that may have been violated.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 5d

NEWS: Supreme Court again allows Trump to move forward with plans to remove protected status from thousands of Venezuelans:
www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

Supreme Court allows Trump to revoke protected immigration status for thousands of Venezuelans

The Trump administration is trying to revoke a Biden-era policy has extended protections to thousands of Venezuelans.

www.nbcnews.com

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 6d

Kavanaugh recently suggested immigration stops are no big deal if you're a legal resident bc ICE just promptly releases you

That is not, in fact, what ICE does

He invents a fiction bc the reality of the policies he supports is too disturbing for him to imagine

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/brett...

Brett Kavanaugh’s Racial Profiling Opinion Is Looking Sillier By the Day

Kavanaugh said that immigration agents “promptly” release people after determining that they are legal U.S. residents. They don’t.

ballsandstrikes.org

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Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 6d

“This is extortion, plain and simple.

It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education.. requires that every university reject it…The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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Gautam Hans @gshans.bsky.social · 6d

I was at Columbia and on our campus newspaper when Bari Weiss first rose to notoriety for “Columbia Unbecoming.” There is something deeply cynical and depressing about this coronation of bad faith, which is of a piece of our time — and her initial crusade on campus over twenty years ago.

Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 6d

In case it wasn’t clear, the anti-DEI crusade has never been about merit. Zero news experience. Never been a reporter. Elevated to Editor in Chief of CBS News, one of the most storied news institutions in the nation. www.mediaite.com/media/news/p...

Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report

Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, accordin...

www.mediaite.com

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Ann Monster Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 6d

so to state the obvious - leaving aside everything else, this is why the shadow docket is bad, this is why grabbing cases from the trial level is bad. fact finding matters! it's important to establish a record before you reach a decision. there's a reason that order exists, and SCt is upending it

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 6d

Kavanaugh's explanation of why racial profiling is Actually OK was obviously a crock of shit the day it was written but also, in light of the new lawsuit by a US citizen arrested by ICE twice in 2 weeks, and the horrible Chicago raids,

the shitpot is aging poorly
ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/brett...

Brett Kavanaugh’s Racial Profiling Opinion Is Looking Sillier By the Day

Kavanaugh said that immigration agents “promptly” release people after determining that they are legal U.S. residents. They don’t.

ballsandstrikes.org

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 6d

lol, no

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 6d

“Just as the left used [George] Floyd’s death to justify and hasten all manner of political ends, the right is invoking [Charlie] Kirk’s name to advance illiberal aims and silence opponents,” @chatterton.bsky.social argues:

MAGA Finds Its George Floyd

Charlie Kirk isn’t the first martyr to be used as a cudgel.

bit.ly

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 6d

A series of short posts from leading scholars about the constraints the First Amendment imposes on the government's authority to impose conditions on federal funding. Seems relevant! This is a @knightcolumbia.org series from earlier this year. knightcolumbia.org/research/fed...

Federal Funding and the First Amendment

knightcolumbia.org

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Reposted by Gautam Hans

Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 7d

Six Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee (Durbin, Schiff, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, Coons, and Welch) voted yes on two Trump district court nominees this morning, and my question remains, why do senior members of this party keep voluntarily ceding political capital to Donald Trump

Why Is This Democratic Senator Voting to Confirm a Trump Judicial Nominee?

If you really think Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, the bar for affirmatively supporting one of his nominees has to be higher than “I don’t know, he seems fine.”

ballsandstrikes.substack.com

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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 7d

My Supreme Court term preview is about the YouTube channels of right-wing activists, who are making soft-lit campaign videos to build a shared cultural understanding about who deserves the law's protections (conservative Christians), and who doesn't (anyone else)

The Story of This Supreme Court Term Is Already On YouTube

How conservative activists are building a shared cultural understanding about who deserves the law’s protections, and who does not.

ballsandstrikes.org

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