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cbseaman.bsky.social
Law professor at W&L teaching IP, property, election law and remedies. Husband of @elyons822. Childhood cancer dad.🎗️Pro-public education. All opinions my own.
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FBI agents are now visiting Charlottesville’s public defenders *at their homes*. It’s naked intimidation of our justice system.

A Trump intermediary tells CNN’s parent company that they can buy peace with Trump by making a highly flattering documentary about Melania Trump or a TV show about Trump Jr, which would involve paying the Trump family large amounts of money. The move appears to meet the legal standard for extortion.

These are additional "punitive" measures directed specifically at Harvard, more evidence that the USG is engaged in viewpoint discrimination because Harvard defies control by the current administration. www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

I'm so down this friggin rabbit hole, but this line from the Senate Report accompanying the 1982 reauthorization of the VRA caught my eye

In dissenting from the Supreme Court’s disruption of half a million lives by the Trump administration, Ketanji Brown Jackson denounces the majority’s double standard of letting Donald Trump set immigration policy however he wants, and quickly, but not Joe Biden. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Welp... AI received some A+s on our law school exams papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

ERNST 2026: WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE

GOP Sen. Joni Ernst responds to voters saying that cutting Medicaid will kill them: “Well, we all are going to die.”

NEW: Megan Twohey and I went deep on Elon Musk’s intense drug use as he rose to political power alongside Trump last year. He was using so much ketamine that he told people it was affecting his bladder. At SpaceX, he is getting warnings ahead of drug tests www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...

Phenomenal piece by @michellegoldberg.bsky.social here. (Gift link)

If attempted, this would constitute flagrant violations of the Privacy Act of 1974 www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/t...

This guy misrepresented himself as a lawyer -- he hadn't passed the bar -- to represent Andrew Tate

* US JUDGE SAYS SHE PLANS TO ISSUE INJUNCTION BLOCKING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FROM IMMEDIATELY REVOKING HARVARD'S ABILITY TO ENROLL FOREIGN STUDENTS @reuters.com

Remarkable point from @katherinestewart.bsky.social here: A big part of Trump's lawless assault on Harvard is about fomenting terror and uncertainty about what the autocrat will do next. Here's our exchange on this idea, and a link to the full transcript: newrepublic.com/article/1958...

Seeing as Emil Bove personally fired me from DOJ in retaliation for prosecuting January 6 rioters, I don’t think he should be confirmed to a lifetime seat as a federal judge. But that’s just me.

Not only an attack on intellectual freedom, research innovation, and the economic contributions of higher ed, but an explicit differential treatment for religious colleges: welcome to anticonstitutional authoritarianism, folks: www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

RFK Jr's "MAHA" report is filled with references to studies that literally do not exist, or that completely misinterpret the studies' findings. “We did not publish a paper.. on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title,” says one cited researcher. www.notus.org/health-scien...

Trump wants to bring Harvard “to its knees,” as if this is unremarkable, when it should be depicted as the power-crazed ravings of a Mad King. https://trib.al/JttZbr1

BREAKING: Federal court says Trump exceeded his authority to impose tariffs under IEEPA. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

How to get yourself quoted in dozens of lawsuits.

Tantamount to a concession that the Trump administration is engaging in viewpoint discrimination (not that pending Harvard lawsuits really need more evidence of it!)

A police stop is enough to make someone less likely to vote, recent research has found. "Voting is a reflection of our belief that we’re part of the system, that our voice matters." boltsmag.org/a-polic...

Merit!….Cuccinelli’s appointment would be an affront to academic freedom. He misused his office to pursue meritless, politically-motivated lawsuits against professors he didn’t agree with. He lost. He cost taxpayers tons of money. He hampered and threatened UVA. No trophy for him.

NEW: Trump's court pick Josh Divine once called for bringing back literacy tests in elections Literacy tests were banned in the 1960s for being racially discriminatory, but such tests “are not a bad thing,” Divine argued in a 2010 college op/ed. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

I am so honored to have received Diantha McKeel’s endorsement for the Jack Jouett district. Diantha has served this community for so many years, and she has been a fount of knowledge and I have learned so much from her experience. I am incredibly grateful for her support and guidance.

I do not want to hear about how Supreme Court justices "aren't politicians" ever again ballsandstrikes.substack.com/p/the-suprem...

it's unfathomably messed up that the president of the United States is using the power of his office to go after a single high school kid.

BREAKING: NPR & public radio stations sue Trump over funding halts, argue such moves are an unconstitutional attempt to retaliate against the network because he doesn't like its content. Lead counsel: stymied GWBush DC Cir nominee Miguel Estrada. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Cutting off research funding for Harvard University might hurt the school, its president Alan Garber told NPR, but it also potentially sets back important work that benefits the public.

Around D.C., the new going rate is well-known: $5 million for a one-on-one dinner with Trump, but gov-affairs execs have “no clue where the money is eventually going,” one said. Another told me it’s “outer-borough Mafia sh*t.” My new piece is out @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

At the Commencement for students graduating from University of Maryland School of Law I spent some time talking with law graduates about the significance of the oath they will take when they are admitted to the bar, and its importance to upholding the rule of law. Especially now.

May 25, 1977 Happy 48th Star Wars!

"Fifty years from now, you will want to be able to look in the mirror and know that you did what you thought was right, in every part of your life. At the end of the day, your integrity is all you have. Guard it carefully." -Fed Chair Jerome Powell

Fed Chair Powell graduation remarks to Princeton nod toward our current predicament: "Look around you. I urge you to take none of this for granted. When you look back in 50 years, you will want to know that you have done whatever it takes to preserve and strengthen our democracy."

The fight for US science and universities is a political fight, the right not us has made it political, and we cannot shirk from political engagement if we want to save science.

These students are braver than many “leaders” in higher education who have either capitulated to the Trump administration or remained silent in the face of its attacks on academic freedom and free speech. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Local folks: check the locations listed to see if you were possibly exposed to measles and call your health care provider if you have questions. www.vdh.virginia.gov/news/2025-ne...?

Case of measles in Charlottesville reported by VDH. 😬 Teenager in question was at CHO on Tuesday, UVA Riverside on Thursday, and UVA ED on Friday morning. www.vdh.virginia.gov/news/2025-ne...

This is completely unacceptable behavior from a professor. Imagine being a female student in his class knowing this is what he’s posting publicly (let alone what he says privately).

America cannot long remain free, nor first among nations, if it becomes the kind of place where universities are dismantled because they don't align politically with the current head of the government.

As Budget Chair I got constant Republican lectures to ignore looming climate disaster because of the debt. “The debt, the debt, the DEBT!!” Now they’re in charge and they’re hiking debt limit $4 trillion for tax breaks, mostly to the richest. What a sham.

Harvard just got a TRO against the SEVP decertification.

From memorandum supporting Harvard’s request for TRO: "DHS’s explanation vaguely gestures toward unexplained 'reporting requirements' and then declares that DHS will 'root out the evils of anti-Americanism'—is the quintessence of arbitrary and capricious agency decisionmaking."

BAKER: “.. universities are actually a major source of export earnings for the United States. Last year, we got over $56 billion from tuition and other expenses paid by foreigners to U.S. colleges .. This number is likely to fall sharply ..” @deanbaker13.bsky.social substack.com/home/post/p-...