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Mark Tushnet

@marktushnet.bsky.social

1.5K followers 610 following 280 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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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 9d

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.

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 11d

Judge Immergut was appointed to the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by CJ Roberts.

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 12d

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

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 18d

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

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 18d

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

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 19d

4/ "would deny ... the attorney for the Government the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation, taking into account the exercise of due diligence." (You can snarkily imagine what such a motion would say about the time Halligan needs to prepare.)

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 19d

3/ and disputes about admissibility of evidence) suspend the clock. & the gov't can move for a continuance once trial is scheduled by showing (in a simple case) that failing to grant the continuance ...

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 19d

2/ appears (at the low end of the annual statistics) to be about 10 months. FWIW, time to trial for the Florida attempt on Trump was just under a year. Comey's entitled to insist on a trial w/in 30 days but consideration of pretrial motions, if any (like vindictive prosecution...

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 19d

1/ A note on a term that's likely to bandied about misleadingly: The ED VA has what's known as a rocket docket but the term was invented to describe time to trial for civil cases, not criminal ones. (Use your favorite search engine to confirm that.) Average time to trial for criminal cases ...

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 23d

I wonder whether Homan declared the $50k as 2024 income last April. (Still has time to amend the return, I suppose.)

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 23d

Only time will tell whether John Roberts is a modern Roger Taney (endorsed an evil regime & contributed to causing a literal civil war) or a modern Melville Fuller (Who? precisely; let the Gilded Era's domination by wealth go unchecked but followed by Progressive Era).

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 23d

Now let's see what's on the menu for TACO Tuesday.

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 23d

I feel vindicated, having told folks that I'd bet (with narrow odds) on Kimmel's reinstatement relatively quickly. (Waited to post this until I saw it on the NYT website.)

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 23d

Listening to excerpts from Leavitt's briefing today I had this flash: These people don't believe that they have immortal souls that can be endangered by lying. The crosses many of them wear must stand for some other beliefs.

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 24d

As an experiment I asked Perplexity for a 250 word biographical statement and it produced a perfectly serviceable one. I did a little editing and now might use it rather than the somewhat longer one I've been using.

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 28d

To quote DJT, I am designating ICE & leaders Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem a major terrorist organization. His & my designations have exactly the same legal effect though his is likely to have a larger practical effect than mine (though given that Antifa doesn't exist, maybe not that much larger)..

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · 29d

Wordle 1,551 2/6

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Three days in a row! This can't last.

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 16

Wordle 1,550 2/6

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Two days in a row!

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 16

I hope political scientists are taking notes for a study of the relative power of The State and Civil Society (first Harvard, now the Ford Foundation) in the United States. I'd take narrow odds favoring Civil Society.

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 15

Andthe RSS feed for our episode onTrump's Tariffs:
supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com/episodes/rec...

Recap and Trump's Tariffs | Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America

We pick up after our summer break with a recap of our arguments about constitutional theory. Then we discuss the pending Supreme Court decision about President Trump’s power to impose tariffs, getting...

supreme-betrayal-how-the-supreme-court-and-constitutional.simplecast.com

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 15

Wordle 1,549 2/6

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 14

I missed when this went up--Judicial Time: A Research Note: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers..... No law review to which it was submitted was interested in it, but (no surprise) I think it offers a new and helpful perspective on some current matters of interest to both law folks and political scientists.

Judicial Time: A Research Note

<p>This Research Note is an effort to lay out some ways of thinking about the relation between political time and judicial time. Political time identifies two g

papers.ssrn.com

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 14

The Apple Podcast link for our episode on the tariff case: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

Recap and Trump's Tariffs

Podcast Episode · Supreme Betrayal: How the Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Have Failed America · 09/14/2025 · 45m

podcasts.apple.com

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 14

Returning after our summer break, a new episode of Supreme Betrayal, on the pending tariff decision, going into the weeds and guessing somewhat tentatively that the Court will OK the tariffs (link to Apple Podcasts to come when I figure it out): open.spotify.com/episode/4m2L...

Recap and Trump's Tariffs

open.spotify.com

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 13

I gave a presentation to a seminar at Miami Law School on constitutional hardball. It's available, along with other presentations to the seminar, here: www.discourse.net/2025/09/miam...
FWIW there's a brief discussion of whether the term "constitutional crisis" is helpful (I'm on the "no" side).

MiamiLaw Constitutional Crisis Seminar – Discourse.net

I am proud to announce the University of Miami Constitutional Crisis Seminar Series. The series includes thirteen lectures, almost all of which will be available on line, with new ones appearing weekl...

www.discourse.net

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 11

Wordle 1,545 2/6

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 8

I can't be the first to say this but it hasn't appeared in my feed. We really do appear to have a Marxist administration (in this case, Chico not Groucho): "Who you gonna believe, me or your eyes?" (from Duck Soup)

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 7

Wordle 1,541 2/6

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Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 6

Looks like the Anthropic settlement may get me more than the royalties on a number of the books I've written. Fingers crossed!

Mark Tushnet @marktushnet.bsky.social · Sep 1

I had Wordle 1,535 2/6

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