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mgraber1.bsky.social
Professor at Maryland Carey Law, legal historian, amateur comparative constitutionalist, chess nut and loyal New York Giant fan
136 posts 3,154 followers 335 following
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The Dow will go up; the Dow will go down. Often the Dow goes up when people are thrown out of work. What is deeply wrong with the Trump Administration has nothing to do with the state of the Dow.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

I continue to sign my name with the best of them. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

No relation. But maybe I should try to find one.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Gerard Magliocca has an important book forthcoming on Jackson and Youngstown.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Silly me. How about mobilizing people to win an election first. I confess to not be impressed that "Impeach Trump" is an appeal that gets you the constitutional majority.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

My latest. What Americans were thinking when the 13th amendment was ratified (and it was not about what became Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment). wm.billofrightsjournal.org/wp-content/u...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Trump Administration officials continue to engage in a contest between stupidity and bigotry. scontent-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

An American/Global prisoner's dilemma. Playing it safe is the best strategy for Democratic incumbents, business leaders, university presidents, etc, for individual success. If everyone plays it safe, we lose democracy. We need to find ways to reward resistance and weaken safety strategies.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Democrats need to be present tonight. They do not need to be present in the Capitol Building. Many who are present in the Capitol Building will be absent in a deeper sense. But Democratic officers as individuals and as a party need to be present as in visible tonight, no matter where they are.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

If the university/college elects to end the protest, they may have made a judgment that the protest violates university/college rules, but they are now not tolerating the illegal protest. Again, no funding cutoff. 2/2

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

If the university/college elects not to break up a protest, they have in effect made a judgment that this protest at this point in time should not be considered to violate university/college rules. Given there is no illegal protest, there is no funding cutoff. 1/2

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Has anyone noticed that most college protests may violate university rules, but they do not violate federal laws or even state laws. No one, for example, is subject to state prosecution who violates the Maryland Law free speech policy.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

The cheap answer is that I am a student of American constitutional development and not a political organizer. We should be posting everywhere we can with an emphasis on sites that attract diverse citizens. Board of education meetings. County fairs. Block parties.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Politics is a venue for creating and activating interests/values as well as a site for satisfying interests/values. Unless Democrats aggressively activate American commitments to maintaining democracy around the world, those commitments will atrophy. Same with other commitments.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

I see too many good friends in this account. How about simply, we are the party that supports democracy at home and abroad. We are the party that does not burn down longstanding government programs without an alternative. We believe in science and vaccines, etc. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/o...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Folks, to defeat Trump, we will have to get past disagreements. No centrist efforts to push the left out. No left efforts to push the center out. We believe in vaccines. We support Ukraine. We believe in democracy. We can resolve differences later.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Waiting for Democrats to announce they are anti-Putin. Does Chuck Schumer think the time is not right and he needs to run 7 focus groups. Same with the imitation Japanese detention centers now housing deported persons. Is the Democratic Party willing to stand for anything? Dems, please respond.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Turns out, as any real conservative could tell you, once you burn something down, you cannot easily rebuild. www.politico.com/news/2025/02.... See also David French's column in the NYT today.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

The story may be that these are people Democrats are failing to mobilize into politics. The party needs to go into small towns in the Midwest, provide them with an account of current events and explain why politics matters.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

These are the people impacted by the Trump/Musk administration, not some faceless bureaucrat you never heard of and could not care less about. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Not to mention most of the Confederate south before the war respecting free speech and voting rights (even for white persons)

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

"Faceless bureaucrats" lose jobs. Human beings should not. The resistance must show the faces of those who have been fired without reason and not just in sites populated by persons sympathetic to the resistance. Your neighbor, the kid you went to school with, the parent of your kid's best friend.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Dear All: I wish to announce my candidacy for the Republican nomination for [the office of your choice]. I am running against the Pythagorean Theorem. It's un-American and none of the liberals in the university permit any dissent. Other campaigning ideas greatly appreciated.

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

An excellent essay. Now if we had political leaders on our side of the fence willing to execute (and remember how effectively Trump takes advantage of the petty corruptions on the left). www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Should we refer to him as the "Afrikaner Elon Musk." Seems ashamed to forget the underlying commitment to some of the worst forms of white supremacy (not that there are good forms).

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

Do they feel stigmatized?

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Most Ivies accept kids from red states who lack the traditional qualifications of kids from blue states (particularly Jewish and Asian kids from the NY/Boston and suburbs). In this vein, should we speak of J.D. Vance as a DEI admit to Yale? Should these programs be tossed?

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

welcome

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

"even lawmakers within his party have feared for their personal safety, and at least one has told confidants that it has swayed his decision-making" "Tillis told people that the FBI warned him about 'credible death threats' when he was considering voting against Pete Hegseth’s nomination"

submitted 21 days ago • 224 comments

And they will advertise this as lowering your taxes.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Julia just got her first copy. Order while the book is hot. www.amazon.com/Persuasion-H...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

I’m the dairy farmer running to replace Elise Stefanik in New York’s 21st Congressional District. Can you repost this, give me a follow, and help spread the word?

submitted 23 days ago • 143 comments

The backlash is not going to happen by itself. Political leaders will have to publicize and tell stories that explain--for example--research on your illness has been halted--may mean a shorter life span.

submitted 23 days ago • 4 comments

I wonder whether there will be substantial overlap between the same people who insisted the president was not an officer of the United States and those who insist the Fourteenth Amendment does not constitutionalize birthright citizenship (with some honorable exceptions).

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

For almost all republicans, the 13th amendment made African-American citizens.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Part II of a letter to the National Anti-Slavery Standard making clear that children of parents temporarily in the US are citizens of the US, that in a democracy children do not suffer for the sins of the parents.

submitted 25 days ago • 2 comments

Part I of a letter published by the National Anti-Slavery Association on what would become the citizenship clause. Rather clear that children of people temporarily in the US enjoy citizenship, that children do not suffer for the sins of their parents.

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

Democrats where are you? When Trump says he has saved money, why are you not grabbing the media and calling him a liar? When I was growing up, once in a while, a star athlete would give his paycheck to charity when he had a bad month. Are you listening Chuck Schumer?

submitted 25 days ago • 2 comments

Waiting for Trump to fail is a lower. Trump and his political allies are and will tell a story in which their actions are an astounding political success. If prominent Democrats do not tell a counterstory, whatever the "objective" facts, Trump will be perceived as a success.

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

Another parallel between real Confederates and Confederate supporters and neo-Confederates. Slaveholders maintained power by gerrymandering southern states. MAGA retains power through similar gerrymanders.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Working up a parallel between the 1860s and MAGA. 1) Democrats in the 39th Congress condemned every measure Republicans proposed as for the benefit of black people (nastier phrases used). MAGA insists DEI is at the root of all national ills. More coming.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Last question for American Jews. For years, anti-Semites have sought to convince our children that Jewish values are antithetical to their best values. Has anyone pursued this anti-Semitic project with more fervor than Netanyahu, his ministers, the settlements, and the yeshivas.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Question 3 for American Jews. Is Israel destined to become a mere outpost for American Christian nationalism? If Netanyahu thought he could best retain power by claiming he had found Jesus Christ, would he do so.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Question 2 for American Jews. Jews are commanded to be "a light unto the world." By that standard, is the government of Israel Jewish? Are the yeshivas in Israel Jewish? Are the settlers on the West Bank Jewish?

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

Question 1 to American Jews. Hillel teaches that the essence of Judaism is "what is hateful to you do not do to others." By that standard, is the government of Israel Jewish? Are the yeshivas Jewish? Are the settlers on the West Bank Jewish?

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Cruelty is become our central constitutional and political commitment, but at home and abroad. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/b...

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Rather than a coup, might we think of this as a massive and voluntary transfer of power into private hands in a fashion likely to make recapturing that power difficult. In a traditional coup, powerholders resist the transfer. Here they have voluntarily signed the documents and bought the popcorn.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

It's the right message for every Democratic incumbent who got reelected. It may not be the right message for those who want to gain national majorities.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u... Am I right in thinking that this is a big victory for Democratic incumbents who want the DNC to adopt what are winning strategies form them locally, even if they are losing strategies for Democrats nationally.

submitted 39 days ago • 1 comment

Headline Hog this weekend WBAL radio--around 6:15 PM EST today on birthright citizenship, pardons and FEMA WJZ (CBS, Baltimore)--8:45 AM EST Sunday I suspect on similar. Hoping for a sitcom in the fall.

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments