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“A man’s ethics are modeled on the conditions of his grandfather’s time.” Llewellyn attributes this to Veblen, and it must be a paraphrase because I can find no other reference to it. But I’m intrigued…

submitted 15 hours ago • 0 comments

Reposting because see my pinned post about being annoying as hell.

submitted 16 hours ago • 0 comments

A colleague once shared with me that the author of one of the letters supporting my promotion to full prof invoked Karl Llewellyn in describing my work. I’m a dollar-store version at best, for sure, but one page into this piece (which I’d somehow missed) the shoe still seems to fit:

submitted 22 hours ago • 0 comments

Finally, some unqualifiedly good news: “those who consumed the most caffeine (equivalent to nearly seven eight-ounce cups of coffee per day) had odds of healthy aging that were 13 percent higher than those who consumed the least caffeine (equivalent to less than one cup per day)”

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

As a hiring chair, I will be very happy if this works. There may be some schools that start earlier, but this seems early enough in the semester for that not to matter much. And with luck it will force candidates who aren’t serious about living in a highly underrated city to decline our invitation.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Update: I am apparently the sort of person who gets a little choked up at the end of a biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Amen to this.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Area professor stumbles on new metaphor for teaching law.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I aspire to this level of relaxation.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

All I’m saying is: (1) Yesterday at a conference two esteemed academics referred unprompted to the concept of “Chad Oldfather judges.” (2) The preferred nomenclature is actually “Oldfatherian jurists.” (3) You can still get your copy of my book for 20 percent off by using JJJ2024 here:

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

One question that has never been answered to my satisfaction is how the defendant agents in Bivens could be both unknown and named.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Reminds me of when my broomball team—a bunch of 20-something lawyers who wore college sweatshirts as our jerseys—played a team from an auto parts store. “You guys must be smarter than us,” one of them said. “That would be ‘smarter than we,’” a teammate replied. (They then kicked our asses.)

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

It’s an outstanding book.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

I still think the best idea for progressive donors is to just revive every alt-weekly in the country and staff them with 10 reporters each.

submitted 8 days ago • 226 comments

🧵 When authoritarian leaders attack judges as "enemies," history shows us exactly where this leads. Trump's assault on "USA HATING JUDGES" isn't just inflammatory rhetoric—it's following a script written by strongmen worldwide. But other countries show us how to fight back.

submitted 9 days ago • 21 comments

I spent about 34 hours behind the wheel this week* and it’s given me a renewed appreciation for those who drive for a living. It ain’t easy. * Charlottesville to Milwaukee, Milwaukee to Blue Earth, MN, BE to New York Mills, MN, and NYM back to Milwaukee, plus various interspersed side trips.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Some unvarnished self-promotion, courtesy of emails I received from two judges today: “Thank you for thinking so hard and thoroughly about the issues I face every day.” “I can’t wait to read and cite this book! … Though it will probably cause much self reflection.” You might like it, too!

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

It’s always a tricky thing to be a strident advocate of intellectual humility, and even more so these days. Also a tricky thing to get people to pay attention to one’s new book, timely though it may be. But here’s an interview. With me! About my new book! Find out what all the fuss is about!

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

It’s always a tricky thing to be a strident advocate of intellectual humility, and even more so these days. Also a tricky thing to get people to pay attention to one’s new book, timely though it may be. But here’s an interview. With me! About my new book! Find out what all the fuss is about!

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Just gonna periodically repost this, because see my pinned post.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Just gonna periodically repost this, because see my pinned post.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

I don’t imagine any of you are out there wishing I’d start talking about my book again. But, just in case, here’s a Q&A I did on it, complete with an (almost) perfectly timed reference to the movie Conclave. And I’ll gladly accept the label “countercultural” given the world we live in.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Occasionally I’m good for quotes about something other than the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Self-reposting because this is too good to remain obscure.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Justice Souter's Harvard speech gets more press, but for my money his remarks at Gerald Gunther's memorial get more to the heart of his approach. (From David H. Souter, Gerald Gunther, 55 Stan. L. Rev. 635 (2002)

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

RIP to the Inconspicuous DHS.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Fines and handcuffs. An injunction is enough only when there are norms of compliance. Once an administration rejects those norms, the only way an injunction works is by empowering the fines and handcuffs.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

This is absolutely right. Judges should be praised for acting as judges, and criticized for acting as hacks, no matter their perceived ideological leanings (and no matter the ideological valence of their decisions, hard as that may be). The rule of law means sometimes my team loses.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Regs Taps mic Hello! I’m a former long-time civil servant turned academic. I wanna tell you some stuff. First, my service was mostly at a place called OIRA, which is an office that oversees federal regulation. I’d therefore rate myself as an above-average tea-leaf-reader for federal regs.

submitted 28 days ago • 8 comments

Definitely an element of "youth is wasted on the young" going on here. It's hard for me to imagine ever again giving any sort of assessment for which students have internet access.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Not in the same league as the “renowned author Dan Brown” review. And as for—“Exactly what every introvert wants, a single armchair in the middle of an art gallery.”—I can imagine worse fates. But still, this sort of thing does occasionally need saying.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Train Song Time (Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night Jockey Full of Bourbon Downtown Train

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie: The Second-to-Last Picture Show

submitted 30 days ago • 2 comments

Nonsense. Read the due process clauses. There are constitutional provisions that distinguish between citizens and non-citizens, defendants and not-defendants. The due process clauses apply to all “person(s).” Miller is not a lawyer, but you don’t need to be one to see that he is lying.

submitted 30 days ago • 38 comments

This needs more play: "Epistemic trespassers are thinkers who have competence or expertise to make good judgments in one field, but move to another field where they lack competence—and pass judgment nevertheless. We should doubt that trespassers are reliable judges in [such] fields ... ."

submitted 30 days ago • 2 comments

I find this combination of high-tech and no-tech to be incredibly appealing:

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

I'd have to think a bit before I commit to "best," but James McMurtry's "The Horses and the Hounds" might be it: "McMurtry has become what’s known as a songwriter’s songwriter: someone whose facility with words and influence on other artists far outstrip his mainstream notoriety and album sales"

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Among life’s more satisfying small victories is when you encounter a stranger and their dog on the sidewalk and the dog immediately picks you out as someone they’d like to know.

submitted 34 days ago • 3 comments

I was fortunate to have two TAs my first semester in college who offered guidance in that spirit. One, especially, hit the right mix of "here's how you're more constrained than you thought, and here's where you're less constrained than you thought." Then encouraged my still-feeble later efforts. 1/2

submitted 36 days ago • 1 comment

Dog psychology and intelligence is fascinating. Quickly pick up patterns in our routes on walks? Check. Anticipate crossing the street when there's a dog in the next block coming our way? Got it. Learn to ignore the mail carrier who approaches the house without harm every single day? No can do.

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment

Teared up a bit reading this, and I see hope in it. We so clearly yearn for integrity. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/u...

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment