Chris Morten
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cmorten.bsky.social
Chris Morten
@cmorten.bsky.social
Associate professor of law at @nyulaw.bsky.social‬. Director of the Science, Health & Information Clinic (SHIC). He/him. https://chrismorten.com/
Pinned
New paper!
Karim Sariahmed, Janice E. Graham, Matthew Herder & Christopher J. Morten, Public Sector Innovation and the Constraints of “Platform Thinking”: An Account of Johnson & Johnson’s Viral Vector Vaccines, 387 Social Science & Medicine 118687 (2025).
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Public sector innovation and the constraints of ‘platform thinking’: An account of Johnson & Johnson's adenoviral vector vaccines
Scholarship on political economy of vaccines in the COVID-19 era has focused on mRNA. Yet Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) vaccine based on recombinant adeno…
www.sciencedirect.com
Reposted by Chris Morten
The latest evaluation of bike lane projects in Boston continues to show that if you build bike infrastructure, people will use it.

Full report: www.boston.gov/sites/defaul...
November 24, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
Our legal victory in AAUP v. Trump ensures that the Trump administration cannot use civil rights laws to pull federal research funds from universities, which undermines our 1st and 10th amendment rights.

AAUP General Counsel Veena Dubal explains why this is a major victory for higher ed workers.
November 22, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
BREAKING: Federal judge rejects DOJ's effort to subpoena the names and medical records of children who have received gender-affirming medical care from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
November 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
“scientific orthodoxy” must be the tortured wildfire metaphor version of “scientific evidence”
Breaking News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism. The move underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy — in this case, that vaccines save lives — and bend the health department to his will.
RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC to Change Vaccines and Autism Language on Website
In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.
nyti.ms
November 21, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
TRUMP [after spending 5 minutes with Zohran]: surplus value, it’s a very wonderful thing, very wonderful, and they’re stealing it. Can you believe that?

We’re going to be looking very strongly at the bourgeoisie, what they’re up to
November 21, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.
November 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
NEW: As Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick drives billions of dollars in foreign payments to help build AI data centers in the US, his sons help run a company earning tens of millions in fees helping finance AI data centers. A NYT investigation. (Free link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...
Family Affair: Commerce Secretary’s Sons Cash In on A.I. Frenzy
www.nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
I hope to see reporters asking the Red Sox today if this was just for the special events at Fenway over the past week, and either way, why they think it's appropriate to allow signs for the company trying to moneyball ICE deportations.
guess how excited i am today to no longer work at fenway park and spend 81+ days staring at the signs on the green monster
November 20, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
Palantir update via www.wired.com/story/alex-k...
November 11, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
LEAD CHANGE: Katie Wilson is now ahead of Mayor Harrell by... 91 votes.

That's out of ≈270K!

Seattle counted roughly 39K ballots today, & they broke in favor of Wilson by 11.4%, erasing the entirety of the incumbent's lead.
November 10, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
we are going to win
NEW: Dems easily flipped the sheriff's office in Pennsylvania's Bucks County, a big swing county in the Philly suburbs.

So? The incumbent GOP sheriff had contracted with ICE. His Dem challenger promised to end the contract.

Now he wants other swing-state Dems to look at his victory as a lesson:
Voters Ousted This Pennsylvania Sheriff After He Signed Up to Collaborate With ICE - Bolts
A populous, swing county replaced its GOP sheriff on Tuesday after months of controversy over his joining ICE’s 287(g) program. The Democratic winner promises he’ll end the contract.
boltsmag.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by Chris Morten
November 10, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Chris Morten
this “deal” is embarrassingly bad and every Dem who supports it deserves to be primaried

Trump is reeling right now, his popularity is crumbling, and he keeps flailing and making stupid decisions. bailing him out now is fucking insane
Welp, that’s the Senate side of the shutdown over, it seems.
November 9, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
this is what will show up if you invite me to your ai & copyright law conference
November 6, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
The US is the purple line bottoming out. Our economy may still roar, but we’re killing ourselves. Hoarding wealth, refusing to even ensure our kids have enough to eat. That line is an indictment. It reflects our warped values.
This graph never fails to be shocking: "The US has experienced the earliest and greatest slowdown in life expectancy improvements among higher-income countries, reported Eileen Crimmins. “We have horrible life expectancy—and it’s getting worse and worse”"

www.prb.org/resources/se...
November 1, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Chris Morten
Also- the implication that people have not been paying for healthcare for the past 5 years shows that this person has no idea how normal people live and the challenges they face 🤬
“I think most people are going to say, OK, I had a great deal during COVID,” said Club For Growth President David McIntosh. “But now it’s back to business as usual, and I should be paying for health care.”
Republicans Face Voter Anger Over Rising Health Care Premiums
Notices of rising health insurance premiums are landing in voters' mailboxes and sending some to Republican town halls to vent their frustration.
buff.ly
October 30, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
This stuff really freaks me out. They see their future as one where the decisionmakers live in military installations, where the civil and military functions of government become merged.
And actually astonishing when you think about it: The Trump administration's top officials are choosing to separate themselves from the public—more to the point: separate themselves from any visible protest—and live on military bases.

Gift link here: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Top Trump Officials Are Moving Onto Military Bases
Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, and others have taken over homes that until recently housed senior officers.
www.theatlantic.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
October 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
Let's play, "Who said it: Donald Trump, the Grand Wizard of the Klan, Pamela Geller, or Andrew Cuomo?"
So here's Andrew Cuomo reacting to Maria Bartiromo wondering if Mamdani will "change the look of New York" and have Muslim women "completely covered up," telling her that Mamdani "doesn't understand New York culture" because he has "dual citizenship" and "he's a citizen of Uganda."
October 29, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
Excuse me? So the company the President currently owns is teaming up with a cryptocurrency company to create a prediction market, which will take bets... on things the President himself has quite a lot of control over?

Gosh, I'm sure nothing bad will happen.

www.ft.com/content/4855...
October 29, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Chris Morten
Justice Kavanaugh: "and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States."
"According to his running club, the man, who is a U.S. citizen, was returning from a team run when agents pulled him out of his vehicle, tackled him to the ground and kneeled on top of him, allegedly breaking six ribs and causing internal bleeding"
US citizen, 67, ‘has six ribs broken’ by Border Patrol agents, his running club says
The incident unfolded Saturday in Chicago’s Old Irving Park neighborhood, where residents say federal agents disrupted a children’s Halloween parade
www.independent.co.uk
October 28, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
Three times in the past two weeks, editorials at the 'Washington Post' failed to disclose that they focused on matters in which owner Jeff Bezos had a material interest. n.pr/3X0UZtS
'Washington Post' editorials omit a key disclosure: Bezos' financial ties
Three times in the past two weeks, editorials at the 'Washington Post' failed to disclose that they focused on matters in which owner Jeff Bezos had a material interest.
n.pr
October 28, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
Food bank director: “for every meal that a food bank provides, the SNAP program provides nine. There’s no way we can meet that gap.”
October 27, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
SNAP benefits are about to lapse because of the shutdown. Reminders:
1. About 1 in 2 children will receive SNAP benefits at some point and 1 in 4 children are receiving benefits in a given month.
2. Trump is already planning to cut SNAP in other ways.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-big-be...
The Big Beautiful Bill has a SNAP Poison Pill
How states will get the blame for massive cuts to food stamps
donmoynihan.substack.com
October 26, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Chris Morten
This is all good, but my hot take is we need public production of lots of generic drugs. The market just doesn't provide enough of a reward for private manufacturers not to cut corners.

www.propublica.org/article/lawm...
Senators Propose Sweeping Changes to Generic Drug Oversight
Citing a ProPublica investigation, lawmakers are calling on the FDA to conduct more drug testing and to alert hospitals and other purchasers when foreign manufacturers with safety failures are given a...
www.propublica.org
October 28, 2025 at 1:33 AM