Mark Tushnet
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marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet
@marktushnet.bsky.social
1.5K followers 610 following 310 posts

Emeritus professor of constitutional law, including free expression and comparative constitutional law. Still trying to stay intellectually active.

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Mark Victor Tushnet is an American legal scholar. He specializes in constitutional law and theory, including comparative constitutional law, and is currently the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Tushnet is identified with the critical legal studies movement. .. more

Political science 50%
Law 32%
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marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 7d
Even if the premise is true the conclusion doesn’t follow: The advice is to refuse an illegal order, which by his premise you won’t ever get, so the advice is to obey the orders you receive.

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 7d
For those interested in sortition as a governance matter. There’s a stronger example in Belgium of binding law made by randomly selected citizens—not merely advice to legislators.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/w...
Democracy Is in Trouble. This Region Is Turning to Its People.
www.nytimes.com

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 8d
The title of the new episode of Supreme Betrayal says it all: supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/the...
open.spotify.com/episode/0khs...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
The Voting Rights Case and the Constitution After Trump | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
After some reflections on how the oral arguments in the tariff case affect our expectations about what the Court might do, we turn to the Court’s pending decision in a case challenging the constitutio...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

Reposted by Eric J. Segall

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 10d
Meanwhile, try the Supreme Betrayal podcast by Mark Tushnet and Mike Seidman, on RSS feed, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts😀.

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 12d
Reporting indiates that this is a direct 15th amendment case, not a VRA sec. 2 case. So why wd Callais be relevant? (Not to deny that Brennan's rule of five might operate)

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 14d
2/ But see Youngstown, though maybe not a “signature program."

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 14d
1/ People dumping on Scott Bessent for saying SCt doesn’t overturn signature programs: N is small b/c most presidents don’t have signature programs of the relevant type but as a descriptive matter Bessent’s in the ballpark of being right. (Obvious—only?—examples are FDR/NLRB and Obamacare.) ...

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 17d
New Supreme Betrayal: Constitutionalism After Trump & multiculturalism, trans issues, religion—choose between me and Seidman on strategies:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
open.spotify.com/episode/0Ah0...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/con...
Conversation with Richard Re | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
Our conversation with Richard Re focuses on his Foreword to the Harvard Law Review’s annual Supreme Court Review. The Foreword argues that the Roberts Court today is a conservative version of the Warr...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 17d
“Exulting in Epstein Files” is today’s “Wallowing in Watergate."

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 18d
👋

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 20d
Coming on Friday: a new episode of Supreme Betrayal, dealing with some additional aspects of Constitutionalism After Trump, including muticulturalism, religion, and trans rights! (We’re getting our act together just as we might be running out of ideas!—not really😀)

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 20d
Trump on tariffs fits the definition of chutzpah (“I killed my parents, have mercy on me, an orphan”): I collected so much money illegally that giving it back would be a disaster. (More formally, the fact that giving it back would be a disaster is a reason for saying it wasn’t collected illegally.)

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 23d
What I’ve been reading: Ian McEwan, What We Can Know—astonishingly beautifully written though I can’t explain how. It looks like (in part) a novel of ideas, but the ideas are as much characters as the characters are—fully realized, as critics like to say, but existing (only) in imagination.

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 24d
2/ Mostly seeming successes that turned out to fail, but at least 1 seeming failure that turned out OK. Despite the editor’s hopes, no generalizations whatever seem available—except maybe that outsiders don’t do much help even when well-motivated, which they aren’t always.

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 24d
1/ Wisdom of Chou En-lai (“What do you think of the events in France? Too soon to tell”): Read a 2010 book w/ 19 case studies of constitution making from 1978-2005. As of today probably 1/2 are completely out of date. ...

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 24d
Interpreting jury nullification in Sandwich Man case: Jury q. to judge re bodily injury/harm suggests they were looking 4 some linguistic hook that wd let them say elements weren't satisfied b/c officer wasn’t really “hurt.” So, not a pure “give me a break this is a ridiculous prosecution” verdict.

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 25d
Ah, Great Britain—the home of liberty, where you—yes, you (or at least a lot of you)—can apply to be appointed to the Supreme Court: www.supremecourt.uk/about-the-co...
Judicial Vacancies: Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom - UK Supreme Court
Judicial Vacancy Justice of the Supreme Court Judicial recruitment
www.supremecourt.uk

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 25d
My favorite cross-tabs factoid: In VA, of those who thought that Jay Jones’s texts were disqualifying 9% voted for him. Cue Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 26d
open.spotify.com/episode/4D6u...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/con...
Conversation with Richard Re
open.spotify.com

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 26d
New Supreme Betrayal episode: A conversation with Richard Re about why he describes the Roberts Court as a conservative Warren Court, and a dialogue about critical legal studies and his analysis: supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/con...
Conversation with Richard Re | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
Our conversation with Richard Re focuses on his Foreword to the Harvard Law Review’s annual Supreme Court Review. The Foreword argues that the Roberts Court today is a conservative version of the Warr...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Oct 31
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
open.spotify.com/episode/16OT...
Constitutionalism After Trump Part One | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
If we manage to extricate ourselves from our current constitutional plight, what might things look like? Or, alternatively, what sorts of constitutionally inflected policies should Democrats offer as ...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Oct 31
New episode of Supreme Betrayal: Constitutionalism After Trump Part One—against restorationism/Schumerism, some suggestions for institutional reform going forward. supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/con...
Constitutionalism After Trump Part One | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
If we manage to extricate ourselves from our current constitutional plight, what might things look like? Or, alternatively, what sorts of constitutionally inflected policies should Democrats offer as ...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Oct 18
Chevy Chase DC an hour in

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Oct 17
Must be missing something abt Johnson's refusal to swear in "Rep" Grijalva to avoid discharge vote on Epstein Transparency ACT. Even if passed by the House and Senate, it would be subject to a presidential veto. Is the thought that any vote against Trump will be like the dam breaking a la Watergate?

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Oct 17
Learn how to think (in constitutional terms) about the Jimmy Kimmel kerfuffle in the latest episode of Supreme Betrayal: supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/the...
creators.spotify.com/pod/show/2ao...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The Jimmy Kimmel Kerfuffle and How to Think About It | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
We talk about the Jimmy Kimmel episode, a small victory in the fight against Trumpism. We range more widely, though, in identifying no fewer than five groups who have competing First Amendment interes...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Oct 7
In a forthcoming episode of Supreme Betrayal (to be recorded next week, we hope), we offer our take--less detailed but in the same ballpark--on these issues.

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Oct 5
Judge Immergut was appointed to the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by CJ Roberts.

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Oct 4
Why are the birthright citizenship cases not such a big deal and a big deal? Find out why in supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/bir...
open.spotify.com/episode/0eTv...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
Birthright Citizenship | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
Why are the birthright citizenship cases both not such a big deal and a big deal? After going through the arguments for the Trump administration’s position in some detail (the arguments against it are...
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 27
2/ supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/a-c...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
A Conversation with Will Baude | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America
Our conversation with Will Baude covers his ideas about originalism as "our law" and the implications of his position for a constitution--ours, perhaps--that isn't normatively attractive overall.
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

marktushnet.bsky.social
Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 27
1/ Latest episode of Supreme Betrayal dropped--conversation with Will Baude about originalism as "our law" and the implications if the constitution is, as ours might be, unattractive: open.spotify.com/episode/1BLi...
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com