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Ben Heath

@jbentonheath.bsky.social

7.1K followers 840 following 990 posts

Associate Professor, Temple University School of Law. I post about things that interest me, some of which are about law.

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · Jul 30

New paper! This essay takes a step toward developing what I call a "jurisprudence of weaponized interdependence.: Building on @himself.bsky.social & @abenewman.bsky.social's groundbreaking work, I develop an account of the legal processes that facilitate the weaponization of networks. 1/x

The phenomenon of weaponized interdependence, as defined by political scientists Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, is a powerful tool for understanding today's global economic conflicts. But to date its uptake in the legal literature (including by this author) has been largely superficial, limited to the observation that economic interdependence coming under increased strain from the growing use of sanctions, export controls, investment screening, and similar measures. The real epistemic power of weaponized interdependence is to make political science nimble—able to identify and analyze similar dynamics across seemingly unconnected issue areas—remains largely untapped.

This essay sketches an approach for developing a jurisprudence of weaponized interdependence, focusing on what Farrell and Newman term the "panopticon effect." It identifies four legal processes—herding, enclosure, legibility, and jurisdictional politics—which create the conditions for weaponizing a network. The essay develops an account of these four processes by reopening the case study of the SWIFT financial messaging system, which also figures prominently in Farrell and Newman's own work. The history of the SWIFT network, this essay argues, shows how law—defined broadly and understood across many sites of lawmaking—intervenes at critical points to create the conditions for weaponization.

In developing this account, this essay also serves as a proof of concept for a broader jurisprudence of weaponized interdependence, which could make lawyers similarly nimble in confronting the manifold challenges of a politicized global economy in times of rapid technological change and rising authoritarianism.

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 3h

Michigan Avenue right now.

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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 7h

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 1d

This piece by @beaubaumann.bsky.social is really good and focusing on all the right questions. lpeproject.org/blog/rebuild...

Rebuilding State Authority In A Post-Trump America

In the ruins of the administrative state after Trump, many on the left see an opportunity to design a New Deal-type reconstruction agenda. But building state capacity requires a government that is…

lpeproject.org

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 13h

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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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 10h

We know more about the massive military-style raid on a Chicago housing complex thanks to the reporting of @southsideweekly.bsky.social, @blockclubchi.bsky.social, and neighborhood resident Eboni Watson who chronicled the event. Among the emerging questions: what's real estate's role in this?

section of text from South Side Weekly's coverage, which says: "The building was purchased by Wisconsin-based investor Trinity Flood in January 2020, according to Cook County records. On October 1, the day after the raid, a judge reviewed an emergency motion from Wells Fargo seeking to appoint Matthew Tarshis of Frontline Real Estate Partners as the property’s receiver.

Flood purchased three multifamily properties in South Shore in 2020. The neighborhood, which had the highest number of eviction filings in Chicago from 2015-2019 according to the Law Center for Better Housing, has seen a rise in outside real estate investors since the 2017 announcement of the Obama Presidential Center’s construction in the neighboring Jackson Park.

Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the building in mid-2024, bringing a $27 million lawsuit against Flood for missed loan payments. In late 2024, the City began closing its largest migrant shelters and, through state funding assistance distributed via Catholic Charities and moving support from New Life Church, relocated many families to buildings such as this one."

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 13h

Chat, is it good that all the world's most powerful people are obsessed with the nazi jurist, Carl Schmitt?

Screenshot of a WIRED article titled “The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession” by Laura Bullard, published on September 30, 2025, at 12:05 PM. The subheading reads: “Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since.”

Alt text:
Screenshot of a text excerpt discussing legal scholars’ research on Carl Schmitt. The highlighted section reads: “But over time, Vermeule’s fascination grew. ‘I noticed that Adrian had moved away from just being interested in Schmitt to actually embracing all dimensions of Schmitt’s theory: both the political dimension and the legal dimension,’ Dyzenhaus says.”

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 12h

I’m giving a talk at @brooklynlawschool.bsky.social on Friday about the Compact as an example of domestic economic warfare. So naturally @himself.bsky.social scoops
me in the NY Times! My talk will argue that more experts in economic warfare need to start thinking about how the war comes home.

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 16h

"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

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Beau Baumann 🍏 @beaubaumann.bsky.social · 1d

ICYMI, I did a blog post today at @lpeproject.bsky.social that’s really about the death of a 20 c mode of liberal/progressive politics. It’s about the need, as a first-order objective, to relegitimize the state around a representational legitimacy.

Rebuilding State Authority In A Post-Trump America

In the ruins of the administrative state after Trump, many on the left see an opportunity to design a New Deal-type reconstruction agenda. But building state capacity requires a government that is…

lpeproject.org

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 1d

Watching the mortals "discovering" my chronicles, as it were, guarded
by the old demons, even unknown to me

Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 1d

This is gold-standard reporting. Chilling stuff. southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 1d

I am the target audience for this

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 2d

How dare you insinuate I am a left-liberal, sir. I am a left-progressive-post-liberal with socialist characteristics!

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 2d

I think @bcfinucane.bsky.social said on here a couple weeks ago that there would have to be a secret OLC opinion, making it easier for the rank and file to go along with this murderous little campaign the US is waging in the Caribbean.

Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 2d

'The opinion is significant, legal experts said, because it appears to justify an open-ended war against a secret list of groups giving the president power to designate drug traffickers as enemy combatants and have them summarily killed without legal review.' www.cnn.com/2025/10/06/p...

Exclusive: Classified Justice Department opinion authorizes strikes on secret list of cartels, sources say | CNN Politics

The Trump administration has produced a classified legal opinion that justifies lethal strikes against a secret and expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers, according to multiple peop...

www.cnn.com

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 2d

Think of it as a collective exercise in Creative Scolding.

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 2d

When you say this stuff over coffee or drinks to people in Washington, who work in and do Washington things, what's the reaction? Because my limited anecdotal evidence is that the people who are closest to power seem to be the least able to understand how bad it's gotten.

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Dan Nexon @dhnexon.bsky.social · 4d

It has been suggested that i pin this piece, but I never actually posted it myself. So 👇

Lawyers, Guns and Money @lawgunsmoney.bsky.social · 5d

The State of the Republic is Grim

The State of the Republic is Grim - Lawyers, Guns & Money

If you’re on Bluesky and follow me, you’ve probably seen that I am writing threads that really should be the nucleuses of posts here. You’ve also likely gotten a bead on where I am these days: I say “seems” because it is possible that, behind the scenes, they are taking necessary steps. These include creating […]

www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com

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Peggy McGuinness @peggymcguinness.bsky.social · 2d

Proud to endorse this @nycbarassociation.bsky.social statement condemning the unlawful summary executions carried out by the U.S. Government. The attacks on Venezuelan vessels violate U.S. and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas....

Unlawful Attacks on Venezuelan Vessels | New York City Bar Association

New York City Bar Association Statement Introduction This September, President Donald J. Trump ordered U. S. military strikes against three […]

www.nycbar.org

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Milan Markovic @profmarkovic.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly right. @mbkplus.bsky.social and I discuss this affront to due process in tomorrow's episode of livefromwatthall.transistor.fm

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Ben Heath @jbentonheath.bsky.social · 2d

This post is excellent, and the best coverage of the "compact" that I've seen so far. @fishkin.bsky.social is the only person I've read so far who understands that the most important part of the compact is this (final) paragraph, which is mostly ignored in the reporting & in the takes.

Adherence to this agreement shall be subject to review by the Department of Justice. Universities
found to have willfully or negligently violated this agreement shall lose access to the benefits of this
agreement for a period of no less than 1 year. Subsequent violations of this agreement shall result in a loss
of access to the benefits of this agreement for no less than 2 years. Further, upon determination of any
violations, all monies advanced by the U.S. government during the year of any violation shall be returned
to the U.S. government. Finally, any private contributions to the university during the year(s) in which such
violation occurred shall be returned to the grantor upon the request of the grantor.

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Rob Hunter @selfactingmule.bsky.social · 2d

What are the best histories of banking?

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 2d

The collective action that thee nine universities need to take is to unequivocally reject the compact.

Danielle Allen, who is a wonderful and thoughtful person, seems to be imagining possibilities for good faith negotiations here that plainly do not exist. The government does not share her goal.

Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 3d

Danielle Allen has proposed many good things for Harvard, so I’m puzzled by her reading of the word “compact” here, as if this would be an agreement freely entered into. She rightly says that, as written, this shouldn’t be agreed to. Maybe leave it there? therenovator.substack.com/p/why-im-exc...

Why I’m Excited About the White House’s Proposal for a Higher Ed Compact

Now we have a chance for collective action

therenovator.substack.com

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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 5d

Published this on September 10th after the first time the Pentagon killed a boatload of civilians on the President's whim and it's now happened four more times. This is just murder, masquerading as drug control internationalpolicy.org/publications...

Trump’s Wag The Dog Moment - CIP

If you want to break up a drug cartel, blowing up a boat does little to accomplish that, unless you believe cartels only own one boat.

internationalpolicy.org

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Monica Maalouf, MD @maaloufmd.bsky.social · 5d

My husband was detained by ICE today

Juan Muñoz, an American citizen, father of 2, and local government official, was peacefully protesting w. other elected officials. He was assaulted and taken away

I have had zero contact or updates since

#SOS
@duckworth.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov

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Matthew Tokson @mtokson.bsky.social · 5d

ICE has resumed purchasing location data on hundreds of millions of Americans: www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...
This violates the Fourth Amendment, as I explain in a recent article: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

www.404media.co

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 6d

Surreal moment for America. Needless to say, if the normal police ever pulled something like this — pulling every single person out of an apartment building and handcuffing them to run warrant checks — they would be sued into oblivion.

Yet ICE is going to get away with it entirely.

"It was scary, because I had never had a gun in my face," Fisher said. "They asked my name and my date of birth and asked me, did I have any warrants? And I told them, 'No, 'Ididn't."
Fisher said she was handcuffed before being released around 3 a.m., and she was told that if anyone had any kind of warrant out for them, even if it was unrelated to immigration, they would not be released.

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