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Kat Macfarlane

@katmacfarlane.bsky.social

5.1K followers 2.5K following 530 posts

Law prof interested in civil rights, disability, and procedure. At war with my immune system. I have the best dog. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2115906

papers.ssrn.com

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · Feb 6

Higher Education’s Accommodations Mistake is forthcoming in the Georgetown LJ. It argues that the fundamental alteration defense is misapplied in higher ed and that Guckenberger & Wynne were wrongly decided, resulting in decades of unjustified accommodation denials. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Higher Education's Accommodations Mistake

<p><span>A university may deny a disabled student’s reasonable accommodation request if it decides that the accommodation would fundamentally alter its academic

papers.ssrn.com

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 14h

Can’t wait to have @dorfmandoron.bsky.social here @syracuselaw.bsky.social next Monday! My Civil Rights Lit students just read (and loved) Fear of the Disability Con.

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 19h

How Cooper feels about my recent trips out of town

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Reposted by Kat Macfarlane

Sara Luterman @slooterman.bsky.social · 20h

Reupping this — I’m still looking for folks to talk to!

Sara Luterman @slooterman.bsky.social · 1d

Are rising prices and inflation eating into your or a loved one’s Social Security payments? Want to talk about it with a reporter for a news article? DM or email sluterman at 19thnews dot org.

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Reposted by Kat Macfarlane

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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Reposted by Kat Macfarlane

Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 1d

For National Disability Employment Awareness Month at @motherjones.com, I spoke to four disabled federal workers who were laid off about how their old jobs were very accessible—and what the federal government loses out on by having fewer disabled employees. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The human costs of Trump's war on government

For many disabled workers, federal jobs were decent, human, and accommodating: everything the president hates.

www.motherjones.com

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 1d

I love it! Doesn’t get any more Roman than Trastevere ❤️

Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 1d

Got to see my father and sister Alessandra in Rome. At 6’3, my dad is the tallest resident of Trastevere, you can’t miss him :)

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 3d

Representing the Midwest here at the Catacombs

Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 4d

Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 5d

Quick trip to my home away from home

Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 6d

Tremendous lineup at a very timely UMKC Law symposium, featuring @syracuselaw.bsky.social ‘s very own Maria Cudowska, who is presenting a great paper about wellness apps and ‘Wellness Disputes’

Defining Wellness Law: The Need for Legal Attention to Wellness – ASLME

aslme.org

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Reposted by Kat Macfarlane

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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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 6d

He stared at me like this for several minutes instead of going to the bathroom.

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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 8d

Once again, it is *faculty*—not administrators—who brought this case and won. Including UC Faculty Association chapters of the AAUP.

Court Rules in AAUP v Rubio: Trump Admin Violated First Amendment

The AAUP and partners sued to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members for ideological reasons.

www.aaup.org

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 8d

Today we were bad and have zero remorse.

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 8d

Very very excited to read this.

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Reposted by Kat Macfarlane

Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 8d

Just going to leave this here. I continue to believe that this whole thing is a catastrophe for legal scholarship, and I hope it doesn’t do any more damage. publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawreview/wp...

ESSAY
BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AND THE DUNNING
SCHOOL OF UNORIGINAL MEANINGS
Evan D. Bernick, Paul Gowder & Anthony Michael Kreist
This Essay critically
surveys the
recent
debate surrounding birthright citizenship in the United States, particularly in light of arguments presented by legal scholars
Randy Barnett, Kurt Lash, and Ilan Wurman.
Under the guise of "originalism," Barnett, Lash, and Wurman propose an ahistorical, revisionist interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause. They suggest that the term "jurisdiction" should be understood as "allegiance," seemingly to give the veneer of legitimacy to the Trump Administration's view that the children of undocumented immigrants may not be American citizens. This Essay argues that their efforts to radically redefine the historical understanding of citizenship are methodologically flawed and undermine core principles of constitutional law. The critique exposes the inaccuracies and inconsistencies in their position and scrutinizes the scholarly merit of new theories of birthright citizenship that are wildly inconsistent with constitutional text, history, precedent, and unbroken
tradition.
This Essay concludes by examining the professional responsibility of legal scholars to engage in rigorous, fact-based historical analysis rather than politically motivated reinterpretations that threaten to destabilize
fundamental constitutional rights.

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Reposted by Kat Macfarlane

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 10d

The Kavanaugh Stop

Dan Mihalopoulos @dmihalopoulos.bsky.social · 10d

In which a top US Border Patrol official, incredibly, tells my tall and Anglo colleague @chipmitchell1.bsky.social that he's not the type they're looking for as they go about downtown Chicago arresting people based on "how they look"

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Feds in military gear flood downtown Chicago; top border official says arrests based on 'how they look'

The immigration agents were spotted making arrests in downtown Chicago and River North neighborhood early Sunday.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 11d

The opposite of having deep thoughts

Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 11d

Beautiful day here in #CNY. Come Fall, Cooper just blends in.

Reposted by Kat Macfarlane

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 12d

#BREAKING: Over the dissents of Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, #SCOTUS grants (yet another) stay to President Trump—this one allowing him to cease obligating $4 billion in foreign aid funding appropriated by Congress.

I’ll post the link when it’s up.

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 12d

Right now, employees with disabilities at the CDC are being told that telework is not possible despite statutory grounds clearly permitting it, whereas telework based on a religious need is deemed ok by the DOJ. The disparity should not stand.

Federal Workers Can Telework for Religious Reasons, DOJ Says (2)

Federal workers can ask to work from home as part of religious accommodations under existing guidelines and recent US Supreme Court decisions addressing faith-based exemptions to workplace policies, t...

news.bloomberglaw.com

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 12d

Just started this book and love it already.

Ian McEwan’s Latest Is the Best Novel He’s Written in Ages

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Kat Macfarlane

Ann Monster Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 13d

gonna need a stats person to tell us if dc circuit has detectably changed the construction of motions panels

which we already knew were nonrandom

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 13d

BREAKING: On a 2-1 vote, the DC Circuit denies the Trump administration a stay pending appeal in a case over Trump's effort to break federal unions. This case involves Defense Dep't teachers (DOD Education Activity).

Order/opinions: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
No. 25-5303
September Term, 2025
1:25-cv-01362-PLF
Filed On: September 25, 2025
Federal Education Association, et al.,
Appellees
V.
Donald J. Trump, in his official capacity as President of the United States, et al.,
Appellants
BEFORE: Henderson*, Pan**, and Garcia, Circuit Judges
ORDER
Upon consideration of the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal, the opposition thereto, and the reply, it is
ORDERED that the administrative stay entered on September 2, 2025, be dissolved. It is
FURTHER ORDERED that the motion for stay be denied. The government seeks the "extraordinary" relief of a stay pending appeal. Citizens for Resp. & Ethics in Washington v. FEC, 904 F.3d 1014, 1017 (D.C. Cir. 2018) (per curiam). To secure that relief, the government must show that it will face "irreparable injury" if the district court's order is not stayed while the appeal is pending. Nken v. Holder, 556 U.S. 418, 433-35
(2009). That injury must be "both certain and great," and "of such imminence that there is a clear and present need for equitable relief to prevent irreparable harm." Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches v. England, 454 F.3d 290, 297 (D.C. Cir. 2006) (cleaned up).
The government has not met that burden on the facts of this case. Indeed, it has not made a meaningful attempt to do so.

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