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dorfonlaw.bsky.social
Cornell Law Prof specializing in constitutional law but a dilettante in many other fields. I use my account mostly to provide links to my work, especially my Verdict columns & blog posts (as well as those of my co-bloggers). I also occasionally post snark.
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The complaint in the AP's lawsuit over Trump's retaliation against the news organization for its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" is excellent. It shows how Trump's Ministry of Truth is commanding newspeak. War is Peace! Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength!

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Prof Neil Buchanan finds solace in the fact that sometimes Trump & Musk do stupid but probably harmless things -- like taking a field trip to check that the gold in Fort Knox is really there -- that distract them from their main agenda of awful things.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

On Tuesday, Trump signed an Executive Order purporting to assert control over independent agencies. The move is of a piece with his administration's broader promotion of the unitary executive theory. On the blog, I explain which parts of the latest EO are permissible and which parts shouldn't be.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

It is widely assumed (including by SCOTUS) that presidential pardons cannot be undone by courts. As Mark Kende explains on the blog, that's not true in many other countries. He proposes that Democrats push the view that pardons are reviewable.

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

There's so much wrong with what Elon Musk is doing to our government. Underlying it all is the unprecedented power that has been granted to an unelected private actor, as this Thomas Edsall column explains--including a long-ish quote from me.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Resigning in protest is a form of whistle blowing that, in the MAGA age, may seem futile. The resignations by federal prosecutors were nonetheless justified as acts of principle. They also now seem to have triggered a cascade of events that could end the mayoralty of Eric Adams. Details on the blog.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

A recent NYT op-ed by two law profs claims that Trump's redefinition of birthright citizenship presents a closer constitutional question than critics assume. They're wrong on their own terms and, as Prof Buchanan explains on the blog, their argument relies on familiar right-wing kick-down cruelty.

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

I’m trying to decide whether to update all my maps now to say “Gulf of America” or to wait until President-for-Life Musk renames the country “X” and thus renames the body of water “Gulf of X.” Advice welcome.

submitted 5 days ago • 4 comments

In my latest column for @justiaverdict.bsky.social, I examine the decisions by federal prosecutors to resign rather than file Trump's corrupt motion to dismiss charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams through the prism of a dangerously expansive version of the unitary executive theory.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

On the blog, Prof Neil Buchanan discusses a few of the ways in which Trumpism will end--eventually, and certainly before the heat-death of the universe. Hope!

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

@espinsegall.bsky.social recounts how his "SCOTUS is not a court" thesis was at first dismissed but has gained traction over time, and he draws lessons about the value of scholars calling it as they see it.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Thread: In fall 2023, Rutgers Law School and the Cornell Law Review jointly hosted a symposium celebrating the life and work of Sherry F. Colb, who spent most of her extraordinary but too-short academic career as a faculty member at Rutgers and Cornell.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

The main tool a federal court has to secure compliance with judicial orders--contempt backed by the threat of fines and/or jail time--will be ineffective against a president committed to disobeying. Is that a constitutional design flaw? A character flaw of the current president? Both? Details below.

submitted 10 days ago • 4 comments

New on the blog: A short and punchy piece by Prof Mark Kende on the insanity of gutting the CFPB.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

In today's installment of "Wait, Can He Actually Do That?," I consider procedural and substantive objections to Trump's executive order aimed at banning transgender girls and women from participating in girls' and women's sports. Spoiler alert to answer: Probably not, but he might get away with it.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Republicans in Congress have no power to cross Trump, so why don't they follow their own advice and cut their own government jobs? So asks Prof Neil Buchanan on the blog. The only plausible answer is they all want to be President after Trump dies (or, quaintly, leaves when his term is over).

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

Prof Buchanan explains that most of Trump's awful minions (Hegseth, Patel, etc.) are replaceable by/ other awful minions but that Elon Musk is uniquely atrocious, because his "success" in cutting $2 trillion from the government spending would cause the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.

submitted 15 days ago • 2 comments

It's been less than a week since Trump placed tariffs on goods from China, Mexico, and Canada (and then halted the latter two for a month), but already the deluge of crazy has pushed them out of the news. On the blog, I question their legality in another installment of Wait, Can He Actually Do That?

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Trump's unconstitutional effort to eliminate birthright citizenship is enjoined--for now. If the plan went forward, it would destabilize proof of citizenship for nearly everyone, not just undocumented immigrants, as guest blogger Prof Jacob Hamburger explains.

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

After Egypt, Jordan, and every other Middle Eastern country refuses to participate in forcible resettlement of 2 million Gazans, which US colony will Trump propose as their new involuntary home? 1️⃣ Panama 2️⃣ Greenland 3️⃣ Canada 4️⃣ Random "Shithole" Country 📊 Show results

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Trump's proposal that the U.S. ethnically cleanse Gaza (and turn it into Trump-branded resorts, no doubt) is, of course, insane (as well as immoral and illegal). Perhaps he can be persuaded that he should instead simply impose tariffs on Gazan goods, given his belief in the magical power of tariffs.

submitted 17 days ago • 5 comments