Ronit Stahl
@ronitstahl.bsky.social
1.9K followers 600 following 250 posts
Historian @ UCBerkeley | Author: Enlisting Faith http://tinyurl.com/yyh2p4tq | current project: religious hospitals & conscience rights | sometimes quilts, sometimes climbs | posts my own | she/her
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Reposted by Ronit Stahl
mjsdc.bsky.social
It is pretty galling that the Supreme Court spent four years telling Biden "you can't do that without Congress" then allowed Trump to seize a once-unthinkable amount of power from Congress within nine months and concentrate law-making authority almost entirely in the executive branch.
ronitstahl.bsky.social
And for those who might (for...reasons) be interested in how Hegseth's approach to religion in the military differs from how the US military has historically navigated religion, I have just the book for you!
ronitstahl.bsky.social
Right, there is an accommodations process under the DOD directive on "Religious Liberty in the Armed Forces," and "grooming" is listed as a specific area of possible accommodation. Whether or not Hegseth knows about this directive... 🤷‍♀️
www.esd.whs.mil
ronitstahl.bsky.social
Somehow, according to the SCOTUS majority, perceived, possible, might-happen, could-be harms to the Trump Admin are always worse than actual harms experienced by people who lack resources or recourse.
donmoyn.bsky.social
Yet again, the GOP supermajority steps in to allow Trump to break the law.
The case will be decided on the merits later, it says, when the damage cannot be undone.
But in the meantime it is giving the Trump administration a green light to engage in impoundment.
kelseyreichmann.bsky.social
BREAKING: Supreme Court lets Trump unilaterally freeze billions in congressionally appropriated foreign aid money

apparent 6-3 vote with liberals in dissent @courthousenews.bsky.social
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
I don't give a shit about Comey, but I give several shits about the president actually and personally using the carceral state as a vehicle for his petty grievances against individuals he doesn't like. You shouldn't risk jailtime if the president finds you irksome
ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...
Trump’s DOJ Plans to Indict Jim Comey For the Crime of Making Trump Upset
In the president’s mind, the primary purpose of government is punishing his enemies.
ballsandstrikes.org
ronitstahl.bsky.social
I suspect it’s a very inelegant way of indicating that *if* the hire is associate (and thus with tenure), they will run a tenure case for which UCB requires a minimum of 7 external letters. Not involved in the search & not sure why the ad was written this way, but it might be about formal notice 🤷🏻‍♀️
ronitstahl.bsky.social
There’s also lots of legal scholarship, of course, but law review articles can be tricky to teach. That said, there’s also edited collections like The Rise of Corporate Religious Liberty that might be good as shorter intros to legal scholarship (and give various approaches/perspectives).
ronitstahl.bsky.social
Any particular time period/spaces? There’s more work on early US than 20th C, but some starting points:

*Sally Gordon, 1) The Mormon Question 2) The Spirit of the Law

*Tisa Wenger, We Have a Religion

*Kathleen Holscher, Religious Lessons

*David Sehat, The Myth of American Religious Freedom
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
fishkin.bsky.social
I'd like to commend the lawyers who wrote this complaint on behalf of the professors and employees of the University of California against the Trump administration.

It's a sober legal document with strong claims, but also, this is a fight for public opinion, and this reads like the writers know it.
AAUP-UC-Trump Lawsuit -- Uploaded by Jaweed Kaleem of the Los Angeles Times
www.documentcloud.org
ronitstahl.bsky.social
Coates is excellent here. And the headline writer understood the assignment.
samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social
Coates is just merciless here: "There is, after all, a pervasive worry, among the political class, that college students, ensconced in their own bubbles, could use a bit of shock therapy from a man unconcerned with preferred pronouns, trigger warnings, and the humanity of Palestinians."
Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause
By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.
www.vanityfair.com
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
The Dept of Education is now accepting comments on a proposed rule that would overhaul Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and make it too expensive for students to go into work that threatens the Trump administration

Folks have til *Sept. 17* to oppose the changes

ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...
The Trump White House Is Trying to Price Law Students Out of Public Service
A proposed Department of Education rule would make borrowers ineligible for loan forgiveness if the administration doesn’t approve of their work.
ballsandstrikes.org
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
karenattiah.bsky.social
For the record.

My posts were not even about Kirk directly, but about America's apathy towards political violence, and the coddling of white male shooters and hate peddlers.

I was fired because I mentioned race: white men and violence-- that was my "gross misconduct."
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
michae.lv
Oxford University Press is introducing an AI summarisation & quizzing asst. into their law textbook ‘trove’: it took considerable effort from our Fac+Library to have them engineer in a license-level off switch (they initially refused!). They did not clock how important the skill of summarisation is.
davidveevers.bsky.social
I enjoyed it when the student said it doesn't damage her critical thinking skills, and then 2 paragraphs later says she uses it to summarise difficult topics.

Students don't know how much this is going to ruin the key skills they're paying a premium at University to develop.
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
Vacuous, generic and scattershot advice for incoming 1st years on the use of AI at university. Especially liking 'Chin recommends giving it class notes and asking it to generate practice exam questions.' Surely we can't be the only programme that supplies students with past & practice exams?
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
donmoyn.bsky.social
This has been the Supreme Court in a nutshell: where clear and immediate harm has been done by Trump to others, they delay and prevaricate, siding with Trump. Even if later deemed to be illegal, the damage is already done and Trump gets his way.
sbagen.bsky.social
Indeed it was illegal. But we can thank SCOTUS for making full relief impossible.
The ruling did not call on the government to return the fired probationary employees to their jobs, as would be the “ordinary course,” Judge William H. Alsup of the Northern District of California wrote in a 38-page opinion. Because the Supreme Court allowed the administration to continue its purge for months while the case proceeded, he said, “too much water has now passed under the bridge.”
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
athul.acharya.cc
"Harvard can't use race as a factor in admissions, but ICE can use race as a factor in detentions" is a retrenchment essentially to a pre-Civil War understanding of the Constitution. It's vanishingly few steps removed from "Latinos have no rights which the white man is bound to respect."
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Sotomayor on the impact: "The Government, and now the concurrence, has all but declared that all Latinos, U. S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction."
The Government, and now the concurrence, has all but
declared that all Latinos, U. S. citizens or not, who work
low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken
away from work, and held until they provide proof of their
legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
lilacb.bsky.social
"Fueling Jewish studies on the fumes of the Trump administration’s attack on higher education is not a win. It’s a trap, and one we fear will bring ill consequences to our field, our universities, and American Jews." Me, @ronitstahl.bsky.social, and Kate Rosenblatt. www.chronicle.com/article/jewi...
Jewish-Studies Scholars, Beware: Trump’s Deal Will Corrupt You
We must all resist being turned into court Jews.
www.chronicle.com
ronitstahl.bsky.social
2) Ken Stern via @knightcolumbia.org: "To my great chagrin, most Jewish organizations & leaders, w/some notable exceptions, have cheered on the Trump admin’s assault on universities, not acknowledging the larger agenda of the administration or its impact on democratic norms & thus Jewish security."
A Bad Deal: By Adopting the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, Universities are Sacrificing Academic Freedom
knightcolumbia.org
ronitstahl.bsky.social
Two related pieces this week
1) From @joelhs.bsky.social: "Antisemitism, in other words, gets to be the special exception to the Trump administration’s broad-based anti-DEI campaign. Jews get to be the sole specially protected minority group receiving special privileges from the federal government."
The White House is declaring war on campus DEI — except for Jews
Singling out Jews on campus as the only specially protected minority group that receive DEI programs will not go well for us.
forward.com
ronitstahl.bsky.social
For those stymied by the CHE paywall, let me know and I can send a pdf.
ronitstahl.bsky.social
"But fueling Jewish studies on the fumes of the Trump administration’s attack on higher education is not a win. It’s a trap, and one we fear will bring ill consequences to our field, our universities, and American Jews." From @lilacb.bsky.social, Kate Rosenblatt, and me.
Jewish-Studies Scholars, Beware: Trump’s Deal Will Corrupt You
We must all resist being turned into court Jews.
www.chronicle.com
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
mjsdc.bsky.social
Amazing, unusually direct rebuke to Gorsuch and Kavanaugh from Judge Burroughs. She is, of course, entirely correct.
mikesacks.bsky.social
This is polite judge-speak for "yo Neil get over yourself"
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
profmarylewis.bsky.social
The conclusion reached by Judge Burroughs:
ronitstahl.bsky.social
Yep, Jessica Martucci has written about the development of Catholic theology on treating ectopic pregnancies: the doctrine of double effect led to permitting salpingectomies (tube removal) but not methotrexate (considered “direct abortion”).

muse.jhu.edu/article/893319
Reposted by Ronit Stahl
carlosfnorena.bsky.social
NEW: Tenure-track position in History at UC Berkeley in the GLOBAL HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY.

We are casting a wide net here: *all* periods, places, and fields are under consideration.

I'm on the search committee, so do let me know if you have questions.
Assistant Professor – Global History of Technology - Department of History
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu