Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Blake Emerson

@blakeprof.bsky.social

13K followers 2.1K following 2.2K posts

Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law. Administrative law, political theory. Author: The Public’s Law. Personal views only. https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/blake-emerson

law.ucla.edu

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · Feb 11

THE PUBLIC’S LAW is out now in paperback. The book identifies the dangers of the plebiscitary presidency and develops a participatory alternative grounded in the Progressives’ democratic transformation of Hegelian state theory. global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Picture of Blake Emerson, The Public’s Law.

8 26 120

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 11h

Congrats! Also, yay law!

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 2d

Probably, I just heard firsthand reports of the trial testimony.

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 2d

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Commentary: L.A.'s federal public defender says Trump has inundated his office with immigration cases

With the same first name as the last Aztec emperor, it’s not surprising that Cuauhtémoc Ortega chose to be a fighter.

www.latimes.com

Reposted by Blake Emerson

Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 2d

Made by @aaup-penn.bsky.social member!

54 180

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 2d

1 3 8

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 2d

If I didn’t know better I’d think this was identity politics.

Sally Jenkins @sallyjenx.bsky.social · 2d

This is really smart. Amazed at the hysteria over the ascendance of a woman entrepreneur who clearly knows how to cover and sell news and who's not afraid to take on a mob. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss

The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.

www.theatlantic.com

1 9

Reposted by Blake Emerson

Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine.bsky.social · 2d

We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences.

790 6.9K 25K

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 2d

Here’s an idea: you could just not accept the emergency petition and let the process play out as it ordinarily does. Ridiculous

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."

7 11 72

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 2d

“Why do you make me hit you” vibes

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 2d

Also, Vance is a craven liar. What you do if necessary is furlough the workers. They want to illegally fire people to destroy the government established by law

1 2 12

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 2d

Troops are bureaucrats. The original bureaucrats.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

WELKER: During the 2019 shutdown when Trump was president, no federal workers were laid off. Why are these firings necessary?

VANCE: Who do we care more about- federal bureaucrats or the troops getting the payment they need?

WELKER: But layoffs are a priority?

VANCE: They have forced us to choose

2 2 9

Reposted by Blake Emerson

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

70 1.4K 3.3K

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah I blocked him a couple weeks ago. A bridge too far too many times

1 2

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

Is this that Winn fellah?

Reposted by Blake Emerson

Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social · 3d

DOJ lawyer: something something Fuhrerprinzip
Judge appointed in 1982: wtf are you talking about

1 11 120

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

The other piece is just: any hierarchy is good?

1 2

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

That’s the Pascale part. Trick yourself into believing anti modern things for cost/benefit reasons

1 1

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

Yes I do have a unified theory but it’s too embarrassing to spend the intellectual energy to spell it out in public. Suffice it to say: He’s vocal about Elster’s influence on him, and Pascale’s wager is Elster’s central precommitment move. I think this explains some things

1 1

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

The key to all of that is Jon Elster and Pascale’s wager

2 1

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

This is almost as bad the ucla faculty survey on confidence in university leadership.

2 3 46

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

Remember when everyone thought Roberts was an “institutionalist”?

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 3d

Roberts is presiding over, and driving, a stunning collapse in faith in the U.S. Supreme Court, not just among the public, but among federal judges.

What a failure. The Titanic captain of chief justices.

Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 3d

“More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court’s flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary’s image with the public.”

1 7 29

Reposted by Blake Emerson

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 4d

New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."

Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump's "Compact"

The Trump administration has proffered a “compact” to universities that would require them to surrender their independence and academic freedom. How many First Amendment violations can we identify in ...

www.cato.org

23 420 1.4K

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

It sounds programmatic to me

1 5

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 3d

Only reason we aren’t seeing a 1929 stock market event is massive investment in inflatable animals.

Alicia Victoria Lozano @aliciavlozano.bsky.social · 5d

Someone showed up with a cart of inflatables. The protest is now a dance party outside the PDX ICE facility. Federal police have mostly stood back but did unleash a toxin into the air @nbcnews.com

1 6 23

Reposted by Blake Emerson

James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 3d

"labor union for the agency’s workers said the administration is laying off almost all employees below the director level at the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.... Jesus
apnews.com/article/gove...

Firings of federal workers begin as White House seeks to pressure Democrats in government shutdown

Mass firings of federal workers have begun. That was the announcement Friday from the White House as Republicans worked to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers to end the government shutdown.

apnews.com

2 13 17