sammerchant.bsky.social
Law Prof, Con Law, Crim Pro, Sentencing, Habeas
OU Law VAP (2023-2025)
Minnesota Law (2025+)
241 posts
627 followers
322 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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Fun to study but all of this was very well known to any EV driver and every EV company, so the City absolutely should have planned for 50% range drop and no regen braking. (I assume/hope they did and this was all confirmatory.)
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I do wonder who, once we have a functioning system, is going to jail.
Unusual trades are rather easy to identify.
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@espinsegall.bsky.social immediately came to mind when reading this goofy opinion.
Via shadow docket, let’s assume H.E. is overturned, even though we tell courts not to do that until we actually overturn a case. Oh and the Fed is different, because we say so.
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Yep.
bsky.app/profile/samm...
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My struggle (which I’m sure you share) is that I’m on BlueSky almost exclusively to talk to other law profs. But there are lots of nonlawyers on here who need help understanding the basics. Maybe BS just isn’t the place for that?
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Not that a treatise is appropriate for every post, but I do think that law profs in general are failing at explaining the law to the public, and this contributes to the tolerance for lawlessness. 99% of law profs’ posts are “this is crazy/unconstitutional!” and never explaining why.
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Lincoln also suspended habeas (1) when Congress *couldn’t* meet, and (2) when DC was about to fall. Modern folks invoking Lincoln also need to satisfy those conditions.
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This piece came to mind within the first couple of pages as I was reading the decision.
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Staggering number of own goals.
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E.g., what good is free speech or gun rights if, without habeas/due process, you can just be imprisoned indefinitely (or killed) for speech, gun possession, etc.?
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I could go back even further to at least the Assize of Clarendon (1165) and no doubt even earlier.
But you’re exactly right. Without functioning habeas (or some proxy), no other protections matter (as the British found out repeatedly).
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Great point, I’ll think more on it. I currently view it as, what’s the govt power at issue? To take away freedom/liberty. That is arguably split between branches. But the judiciary here is probably more cleanly a check.
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Rooted in pushback against abusive/political detentions by the kings in England (like most of our constitutional protections).
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Good answers in here but I’ll add a critical theme in HC: separation of powers. Thus:
You think you’re being wrongfully detained by the executive branch. You get to force the executive to explain the validity of the detention to a different branch: the judiciary. If the reasons are bad, you go free.
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I got Justice Kagan a double sided coin (a joke about how she once framed a litigant’s arguments as such) and she wanted to verify it had no real value for the same reason. (Maybe worth $.75)
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Everyone in this space knows the unspoken rule that gangs (and the mafia) don’t go after law enforcement. They are smart enough to know that if they do, all hell would come down on them and the whole org is finished. This is how you know it’s a BS excuse.
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People have been focused on Elon, but Miller is the shadow president. His fingerprints are all over most of the Admin’s policies.
He’s getting done many of the things his law firm tried to do through the courts.
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They can easily do forensics on the image and see if/when/where it was altered. (Or as a Photoshop user, I can tell in 5 seconds.) I'm genuinely flabbergasted.
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The computer generated text below the tattoos hammers the point home.
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I thought for sure that the Admin was going to admit that it was obviously photoshopped, that was just explaining the tattoos. I didn’t dream that they actually… believe he had those numbers and letters tattooed on him???
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😂 very true, my mistake.
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This poor lawyer for OK responding to SA’s questions with citations, as if that matters.
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Many of these rural areas are very evangelical and don’t even think Catholics are Christians. So they don’t want a Catholic-only options. And there are no guarantees that their preferred Christian denomination will have an option. So better option for them is to keep secular public schools.
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If I had to bet (a very small amount), plurality with Roberts somehow saying a narrow version of what the schools want is OK. Then schools go wild with that for years and the court denies cert. One school goes way too far in several years and the court strikes that down.
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EK with a very strong line of questioning, NG and BK now playing cleanup for petitioner. Wow.
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EK sharpening way up here. Clearly a former SG at work!
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SS just made this exact point in oral arg. “Not all history is relevant.”
The opinions will still cherry pick history, though.
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I will add that the state just voted out an old Democrat justice on SC OK and replaced her with a very conservative and religious lawyer. So if the state hears this kind of case again, the schools will in at the state level.
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Taking the long view, even if it’s 4-4, they can and very well may grant cert on a case ACB doesn’t recuse. And she’s in with the other conservatives. So they need to flip not just JR but one other. Not likely.
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He’s clearly using the advocate not to respond to curious questions, but to help him draft his opinion. “What goes into those state approvals? Say more about that.” 😂
(Not unusual in oral arg, just very obvious today.)
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BK deductively setting up his supporting view now. Going to take a herculean effort for Clement to move the conservatives. Best he can hope for might be 4-4.
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I read CT and SA as clearly helping the school advocate with the easiest softballs imaginable. Anytime they say “here’s a weak argument on the other side, what do you think?” - they’ve already decided and are just beefing up their opinions.
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Their questioning is not very sharp. Sort of meandering.
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Alito and Thomas giving the school advocate softballs, to be used to beef up their forthcoming opinion(s). EK and SS not very sharp with their questioning.
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Coming from OK, also watching this one closely. I see at least 3 to 4 votes allowing state funded religious schools. State AG (also running for gov) takes the unpopular opposite view (and wisely hired Clement).
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I was curious when I saw the line about “it’s in the archives and not in any published source.” I was just perusing the Johnson letters online a couple of days before. I figured he meant that for some reason this page wasn’t online and you have to see it in person. But they’re online.
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It is more descriptive and policy based, and doesn’t dive too deeply into the 1A issues, but the courts have been quite pro-1A in this area.
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FWIW, several justices have told me they wildly respect her and no one else can get away with what she can. (This one still might be too far, haven’t listened to the whole thing. Just noting, she is unique.)
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He’s going to blame Jerome Powell/ the Fed. And it’ll work among most of his supporters. History tells us he just needs some reason, any reason.
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Locking them in before they get any other ideas about what to do with their careers.