Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 1d

A fine thread from @richardprimus.bsky.social on Judge Immergut’s opinion barring use of the National Guard in Portland. As SCOTUS observed in Dep’t of Commerce v NY, “Our review is deferential, but we are ‘not required to exhibit a naiveté from which ordinary citizens are free.’”

Richard Primus @richardprimus.bsky.social · 1d

Which is true. And everyone willing to know it knows it. But courts—and especially the Supreme Court—have labored mightily to avoid saying it. All the way back to the travel ban cases in Trump 1.

This judge just told it straight.

(11/18)

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 2d

Just to give you you an idea of what sorts of cards states have to play, consider this chart — and realize that a giant % of federal spending is tied up in defense, interest on debt, and non-discretionary entitlements. taxpolicycenter.org/sites/defaul...

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 2d

Maybe the first time ever I’ve agreed 100% with Mother Jones. It’s time to unhook the Federalism fire escape. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

It’s time for soft secession

How blue states can use their economic clout to stand up to Trump’s agenda—starting with California.

www.motherjones.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 5d

I strongly recommend this fine essay by Caleb Nelson evaluating the originalist basis of the theory that all executive officers must serve at the President’s pleasure. Nelson, committed to originalism, sees nothing in Art II requiring such a presidential power. democracyproject.org/posts/must-a...

Special Feature: Must Administrative Officers Serve at the President’s Pleasure?

A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.

democracyproject.org

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 9d

Good morning, Brooklyn!

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 18d

Isn’t the most logical explanation for the ICAO decision to include a sex field in Doc 9303 that they needed the form to be standard across nations to be machine-readable? Some nations had a sex field for passports, some didn’t, so the ICAO included the field for ease of adoption across both?

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 23d

Sure, but I don’t get a lot of land-use and local gov’t news, data, or analysis here. Elmendorf posts his 🧵s on X so far as I can tell. The zoning news items from smaller jurisdictions or latest NBER papers mostly don’t show up here as they did in the twitter days. Maybe I need to curate better…

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 23d

Another essay explaining what’s wrong with Blue Sky. (TL;DR: Too many keyboard warriors competing for Fiercest Invective against The Bad Guys Award). Posting it in hopes that my tiny little corner of this place might get better. open.substack.com/pub/conspicu...

Against Bluesky (and Blueskyism)

Politics, echo chambers, and the difference between persuasion, propaganda, and performance on social media

open.substack.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 23d

True, Greer’s writing from the Right. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t hear a lot of vitriol from Tanner against “the Left” in this piece—certainly not the sort of invective that writers from the Right typically use to blame Kirk’s murder on progressives or liberals.

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 23d

Tanner Greer’s analysis of Kirk’s significance to young people on the Right. The viewpoint here is alien to BlueSky. If you react with as little vitriol as this essay contains, then — congrats! — you’ll have shown a level of empathy atypical of social media. scholarstage.substack.com/p/bullets-an...

Bullets and Ballots: The Legacy of Charlie Kirk

What did Charlie Kirk mean to the Young Right?

scholarstage.substack.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 24d

A clip of my mom in 1976 touting (1) federal subsidies for housing and (2) this new fangled thing called “solar energy.” She’s a Republican, folks. youtube.com/watch?v=Tptf...

HUD Secretary Carla Hills Tours A Solar Home North Of Dallas - October 1976

YouTube video by SMU Jones Film

youtube.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 25d

“‘They’re dragging your ass on Bluesky’ is a statement that strikes fear into the heart of practically no one.” open.substack.com/pub/noahpini...

The Bluesky-ization of the American left

Progressives discovered a seemingly invincible weapon. One day it stopped working.

open.substack.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Sep 7

A question for immigration law profs like @adambcox.bsky.social : Has there been litigation on the meaning of DHS rule (287.8(c)(2)(iii)) requiring officers to identify themselves as soon as it is practical and safe to do so? Masking seems to be in tension w/ the rule. www.ecfr.gov/current/titl...

8 CFR 287.8 -- Standards for enforcement activities.

www.ecfr.gov

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Sep 6

“Humorless, scoldy neuroticism, often rationalized by the view that one must be on ‘war footing‘ because the world is self-evidently in crisis.” open.substack.com/pub/natesilv...

What is Blueskyism?

And why is it so toxic for political persuasion?

open.substack.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Aug 9

Sam Kriss on ChatGPT 5.0: “still essentially just a weighted average of all the fanfiction ever posted online.” substack.com/@samkriss/no...

Sam Kriss (@samkriss)

gpt-5 was released the other day. it was probably the most expensive ai ever built and has five trillion parameters, and by all accounts it’s a very minor improvement on the last model. obviously you ...

substack.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Aug 5

Palmer’s Pigweed didn’t just defeat me: It has evolved a genetic resistance to glyphosate (aka Round-Up), costing millions in lost cotton and soybean crops that it swamps. So, yes, it is noxious (albeit edible!) But still it deserves some respect for sheer toughness. cen.acs.org/business/spe...

Palmer amaranth, the king of weeds, cripples new herbicides

Scientists in the US sound the alarm about a crop-smothering weed that is growing resistant to multiple herbicides

cen.acs.org

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Aug 5

Having spent dozens of hours digging up a rogues’ gallery of weeds (Russian Thistle, tumble weeds the size of beach balls, globemallow, punture weed loaded with goats’ heads, etc), I am sparing this 6’ Palmer’s Pigweed growing out of a cement block out of sheer respect for its tenacity.

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Aug 1

As @zhangtaisu.bsky.social @bridgetfahey.bsky.social and Lin note, there are many areas in which states can provide a check on federal manipulation of data. Jobs and inflation, however, are two areas where this safeguard fails, because states lack the state capacity to generate reliable numbers.

Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Aug 1

It seems like, well, an opportune time to push this paper again. We find qualitative similarities in how the Chinese and American governments produce economic statistics, but even we couldn’t anticipate how quickly those similarities would strengthen…

The Law of Information States: Evidence from China and the United States — Virginia Journal of International Law

www.vjil.org

Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Aug 1

Because the BLS provides information that political appointees can review and reject, Noah and I argue that Congress can always insulate BLS staff from serving at the Prez’s pleasure. But, as Abbe Gluck notes, loose language in Braidwood puts that position at risk. www.scotusblog.com/2025/07/expe...

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Aug 1

bsky.app/profile/rick...

Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Aug 1

McEntarfer is the epitome of the apolitical civil servant. She started at the Census Bureau 20 years ago as a labor economist and has worked at calculating jobs numbers ever since. She was confirmed by the Senate 86-8 in 2024, at the height of partisan polarization. www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...

Trump fires labor statistics boss hours after weak jobs report

The president implied that the BLS commissioner, longtime federal employee Erika McEntarfer, manipulated the data "for political purposes."

www.nbcnews.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Aug 1

McEntarfer is the epitome of the apolitical civil servant. She started at the Census Bureau 20 years ago as a labor economist and has worked at calculating jobs numbers ever since. She was confirmed by the Senate 86-8 in 2024, at the height of partisan polarization. www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...

Trump fires labor statistics boss hours after weak jobs report

The president implied that the BLS commissioner, longtime federal employee Erika McEntarfer, manipulated the data "for political purposes."

www.nbcnews.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Jul 28

“…you shouldn’t treat the fact that you don’t believe the same dogma as everyone else as meaning you’re immune from dogma.” benthams.substack.com/p/the-freeth...

The "Freethinkers" Who Aren't

How the “heterodox” became what they hated

benthams.substack.com

Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Jul 26

Insightful essay on why the culture of impatience captured by “TL;DR” is destroying your capacity to think, grow, and feel. It really isn’t TL: Give it an R. open.substack.com/pub/maalvika...?

compression culture is making you stupid and uninteresting

why the death of nuance should scare you -your fav gen z philosopher xx

open.substack.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Jul 25

Evaluation of Minneapolis’ reducing zoning constraints in suggests that deregulation reduced housing costs by 15-23%—even without adding a lot of new units, because density alone may reduce construction costs. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Effects of Minneapolis Upzoning on House Prices: Evidence from the Minneapolis 2040 Plan

The Minneapolis 2040 Plan, which came into effect in January 2020, introduced sweeping re- forms to housing regulations. One of the most significant aspect of t

papers.ssrn.com

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · Jul 11

I am old enough to remember when a parade of litigators marched into Andrew Hanen’s courtroom for non-party remedies.