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will-smiley.bsky.social
History (Ottoman and Russian Empires) and international law. Author, "From Slaves to Prisoners of War" (Oxford, 2018) and co-author, "To Save the Country" (Yale, 2019). All views strictly my own.
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“The Court has aggrandized its own power as well as that of the president. And the end result is that it is Article II, rather than the Bill of Rights, that has become a suicide pact.” www.liberalcurrents.com/article-ii-a...

submitted 10 hours ago • 0 comments

Key section of 1973 War Powers Res: president can take military action in three cases: a declaration of war, “specific statutory authorization” or “a national emergency created by attack upon” the US or its assets. *Congress has often looked the other way, but that’s the legal question.

submitted 15 hours ago • 5 comments

"How can [we] listen to their wishes for peace, when they have broken that peace?...The case is actually as if in breaking a man’s head I at the same time assured him of my friendship....Your Ambassadors talk about peace, and have broken the Treaties." -- Ottoman Foreign Minister Pertev Pasha, 1827.

submitted 16 hours ago • 1 comment

He follows in a long tradition of major western powers claiming that they could use force without being at war. I wrote an article about this tradition—actually I wrote it in the Sterling Law Building at Yale, while JD was hosting accused white nationalist Ron Unz downstairs.

submitted 16 hours ago • 0 comments

The third traunche of Byrd bath results is out! Unsurprising but very welcome news - Republicans may not limit the ability of federal courts to issue preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders www.budget.senate.gov/ranking-memb...

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

War powers are a good example of a one-way ratchet. Every time a president uses force, that's seen as a precedent. But when a president DOESN'T use force, believing he lacks the authority, that sinks without a trace. So Kosovo (1999) expanded war powers, but Syria (2013) didn't limit them.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Side-by-side statements from NH's members of Congress. Pappas's is slightly stronger, but they both dance around the obvious words "unconstitutional" and "illegal."

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

This may be true. But the whole point is, there’s a constitutional order. Trump didn’t get to leapfrog it just because he thinks he has the votes in Congress. Instead, he asks Congress to take the vote.

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

This article was incredibly prescient. From March 1, 2017--when Trump's FIRST term was younger than his SECOND term is now. And yet it nails the dynamic from Trump and much of the press. web.archive.org/web/20170307...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

The US strikes amount to a manifest violation of art. 2(4) of the UN Charter. They also entail complicity in Israel’s preexisting & ongoing violation of the same. Lacking congressional approval, they are unconstitutional. And they are likely counterproductive on their own terms.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

i guess this is a pivot to Asia in one sense. Because a regional military command dragging the country into war is Imperial Japan-core

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

The United States should not wage war against Iran. Donald Trump’s bombing of Iran is unconstitutional. Only Congress can declare war — and the Senate must vote immediately to prevent an another endless war. This is a horrific war of choice.

submitted 1 day ago • 824 comments

Trump's attack on Iran is manifestly illegal, another usurpation of Congress's constitutional authority, and a fundamental assault on the rule of law in the United States and internationally.

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

Oh wow I forgot it's already June 22nd in Iran. Inauspicious!

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Iran has a lot of targets they can hit in the Gulf to retaliate against the US and its allies, using weapons that wouldn’t reach Israel. In effect, US involvement increases the size of their arsenal.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

This is not about the merits of Iran’s nuclear program. No president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachable offense.

submitted 1 day ago • 1106 comments

🧵 Quick legal thoughts on Trump's attack on Iran. It was patently illegal. And a further egregious assault on the rule of law in the US. 1/n

submitted 1 day ago • 26 comments

A Dem lawmaker and her husband were killed by a guy for their political views and it’s already out of the news.

submitted 1 day ago • 650 comments

Senate Republicans would like to light hundreds of millions of your taxpayer dollars on fire for no reason other than spite by forcing the Postal Service to mothball EV delivery vehicles and rip out already-installed charging infrastructure. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

submitted 1 day ago • 8 comments

How the NYT quoted Mahmoud Khalil's wife Noor Abdalla vs her full quote (reposted for side by side and clarity, credit to @naomilachance.bsky.social for the original post on Twitter)

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

I cannot say often enough that for all his narcissistic swanning about the stage "agonizing" about "his" decision, the Constitution flatly forbids Trump from attacking a sovereign country that has not attacked the US without obtaining congressional consent.

submitted 1 day ago • 54 comments

Has to be pointed out: Harvard waited until after commencement + reunions to start negotiating with the administration The leadership got a lot of $$ and adulation from alums and recent grads for putting up a fight And then waited until they all left to start negotiating

submitted 1 day ago • 14 comments

The thing about the neocons is they were always true believers and never gave a damn about oil.

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

I don’t know what’s more disgraceful: that Harvard may surrender to lawless extortion even as they’re winning in court, or that the NYT presents this as a “feud” with two sides. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/u...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

One of the surrender firms, I assume.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Richard is a metastatic cancer patient whose life could be saved by a custom cell therapy — one that is currently sitting unused in a freezer because of Trump's NIH cuts.
 Yet another example of the real impacts of the Trump Admin's attacks on science and our federal workforce.

submitted 2 days ago • 22 comments

Any corporate executive who signs off on a bribe to Trump should be prepared to explain their crimes in front of Congress and to the public when Democrats retake power

submitted 2 days ago • 275 comments

Awful. As @peterbeinart.bsky.social notes, neither @schumer.senate.gov nor @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social have signed on to requiring Trump to get cong authorization for war with Iran. As I argued (see below) there should be a bipartisan coalition here. Where is it? www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/o...

submitted 2 days ago • 53 comments

My piece: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/ice-believ...

submitted 2 days ago • 27 comments

The history department and CRES program at Reed are hiring a TT Professor of Indigenous Latin American History. Feel free to ask questions! www.reed.edu/dean_of_facu...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

A Syria/Lebanon model. But it may be harder to sustain a campaign like this from 1,000 miles away.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

No Kings 2.0 is on July 4th

submitted 5 days ago • 103 comments

論文　タンズィマート改革に対するオスマン・ユダヤ人の反応　イズミルのユダヤ人共同体内の対立 Borovaya, Olga. 2025. “The Gabela Crisis in Izmir in 1846–1847: A Response of Ottoman Jews to the Tanzimat Reforms.” Middle Eastern Studies, June, 1–19. otmn doi.org/10.1080/0026...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

An interesting window into how Iranian-Americans feel: Rep. Ansari was AIPAC-backed, ran a very pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian campaign. But she’s also the first Iranian-American woman in Congress. You can see from her statement: no love for the IRI. But no one thinks war will help.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Andry José Hernández Romero, I remember you, even if I do not know how to articulate my horror, rage, & sorrow at your treatment by my government. No one has heard from you in 97 days. As vigil, I’m posting a photo (or video) of you every day until you are returned from El Salvador.

submitted 3 days ago • 295 comments