Matt Steilen
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mattsteilen.bsky.social
Matt Steilen
@mattsteilen.bsky.social
Law professor. Legal history, constitutional law. PhD in philosophy. Forthcoming book on the origins of the English parliament, Routledge.
Reposted by Matt Steilen
Well Leeds certainly knew how to name its streets and yards containing working class housing. "Prosperity Street" might have been a little over the for families living in poverty. I am not sure I would have liked to live in a throughfare titled "Institution Street" either.
September 1, 2025 at 5:22 PM
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Church interior with, at left, church official explaining altarpiece to visitors. How great is that? Hendrick van Steenwyck, 1608.
September 1, 2025 at 5:22 PM
A very Buffalo image
Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hochofen ( Blast furnace), Völklingen, Saar, Germany, 1986
September 1, 2025 at 2:10 PM
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Alma Mahler-Werfel (born #OTD in 1879) crossed the Pyrenees to Spain carrying a number of manuscript scores including Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and the first three movements of Bruckner’s Third Symphony. She arrived in New York on Oct 13 1940.
holocaustmusic.ort.o...
August 31, 2025 at 8:43 AM
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Angel
August 29, 2025 at 5:54 AM
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The rebirth of the phoenix

BL Harley 4751; Bestiary; 13th century; England, S.; f.45r
August 30, 2025 at 8:30 PM
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Astonishing. “The U.S. Air Force said on Friday it was offering military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, a supporter of President Donald Trump who was shot and killed by a police officer during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.” www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
US Air Force to offer military funeral honors to slain Capitol rioter
The U.S. Air Force said on Friday it was offering military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, a supporter of President Donald Trump who was shot and killed by a police officer during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
www.reuters.com
August 30, 2025 at 9:43 AM
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BREAKING: Historian Jane Manners filed a brief in Boyle v. Trump, challenging President Trump’s dismissal of three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 1/ bit.ly/4mKYlN8
August 29, 2025 at 10:43 PM
State elimination of faculty senates:

www.chronicle.com/article/a-mu...
August 29, 2025 at 10:39 AM
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Charcoal portrait of a woman in Flemish dress, possibly 1521.

Albrecht Dürer

(British Museum)
August 28, 2025 at 9:36 PM
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Character countdown for The Radical Fund, no. 47: George Creel, the Wilson administration propagandist and foil for the Garland Fund’s efforts to think about democracy in an age of mass communications. #TheRadicalFund
August 28, 2025 at 10:45 AM
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Lisa Cook will likely sue to retain her seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors very shortly. While we wait (and even after she files), here's my analysis of her case in five not-so-easy pieces. 👇
Can Lisa Cook Keep Her Fed Seat? That's Actually (at Least) Five Questions
A federal statute allows the president to appoint someone to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for a term of up to 14 years. President...
www.dorfonlaw.org
August 27, 2025 at 10:23 PM
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Comp Barn, Alfriston, August 2017
August 26, 2025 at 9:10 AM
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Wow 300 of the DOJ civil rights division’s roughly 400 lawyers have left since the start of the Trump administration, per its head Harmeet Dhillon
August 25, 2025 at 6:17 PM
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PLEASE REPOST 🥺🙏

The Canadian Letters & Images Project is an online digital archive of Canadians’ experience during wartime at home & in battle. It contains thousands of personal letters & photos that reveal people’s experience through their own words & eyes.
www.canadianletters.ca/content/abou...
August 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM
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Philosophy gazes calmly into the distance, unmoved by present troubles. Good night all! 😴

BL Royal MS 6 E IX; Convenevole da Prato, Carmina regia; c 1335 CE; Italy (Tuscany); f.27r
August 23, 2025 at 9:55 PM
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Knows what she wants: unusually assertive young woman, her portrait painted by Thomas de Keyser of Amsterdam. Today is his day.
August 23, 2025 at 7:22 PM
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I’ll be sharing this and Orin’s “How to Read a Legal Opinion” with my prelaw students.
August 23, 2025 at 8:41 PM
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New from me on SSRN: a review of Eric Kasper and Troy Kozma's excellent book "The Supreme Court and the Philosopher."

I think Kasper and Kozma make a compelling case, but have some thoughts on how their thesis could be applied with greater specificity.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
August 11, 2025 at 4:48 PM
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Luttig is communicating vastly more clearly and honestly about Roberts and Scotus than most Democratic officials are. It’s absolutely flabbergasting.
August 21, 2025 at 8:58 PM
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1. Earlier, I said SCOTUS was ducking confrontations with Trump by "channeling" them to less effective places. Maybe better words are "fragmenting" them. Curbing nationwide injunctions. Scattering Alien Enemy Act cases to all 94 districts. Dividing funding challenges... bsky.app/profile/stev...
August 21, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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Another read is not that SCOTUS is shy about confronting Trump but that they're basically on board with his project but would be embarrassed about the legal arguments they'd have to make if they upheld his actions on the merits, so they find procedural means to let him get his way.
1. Earlier, I said SCOTUS was ducking confrontations with Trump by "channeling" them to less effective places. Maybe better words are "fragmenting" them. Curbing nationwide injunctions. Scattering Alien Enemy Act cases to all 94 districts. Dividing funding challenges... bsky.app/profile/stev...
August 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Matt Steilen
Charles Burchfield, "Untitled", 1916, Watercolor and graphite on paper, 13 5/8" x 19 3/8"
August 20, 2025 at 11:51 PM