Luke Smith Morgan
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slukemorgan.bsky.social
Luke Smith Morgan
@slukemorgan.bsky.social
law professor. democracy. constitutional doctrine. solarpunk enthusiast. hoops. dad.

my opinions are solely my own and not attributable to anyone else.

ssrn: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=6381985
Pinned
increasingly toying with the idea that this is the root of all "rule of law" issues. A democratic theory of the rule of law should begin with the idea that the rule of law emerges from the average citizen's lived experience. And that experience today is being ruthlessly ripped off at all times.
I can’t say it enough: U.S. culture is scam culture. It pervades everything we do. We don’t notice it because it’s the water we swim in. A party would do well to remind everybody how awful this is and propose to fix it.
I think Democrats should offer voters a broadly defined anti-fraud platform. Yes, obviously, start with Trump’s influence peddling, but don’t stop there. Online fraud is massive, almost every phone call you get is a scam, and the solution has to be federal or it just won’t work.
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Can’t you blame people for the reflexively anti-elite politics of our era when these are our elites?
November 16, 2025 at 3:44 AM
this tweet paid for by Senate Democrats
This is real. A government agency calling Americans performing their democratic right of protest “imbecilic morons.” This Trump regime is a poison and never should have gotten power. A total disgrace.
November 15, 2025 at 10:45 PM
really setting in for me how not optimal it is for a SCOTUS justice to just invent adverse findings of fact out of thin air with no record that go to the core of the issue before the Court
they promptly let the individual go
November 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
If bill simmons could read he'd be very mad this was published on his website
More evidence for my thesis that Silver is the worst of the Big Four commissioners. www.theringer.com/2025/11/10/m...
November 15, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
Whoa, if true
While some believe #LLMs can reduce subjective #judge bias by empirically analyzing legal language, this paper argues that interpreting #legal meaning inherently involves normative & discretionary decisions.

Read: spkl.io/63325AjyCH
Subscribe: spkl.io/63329AjyCz
November 13, 2025 at 1:12 PM
I don't think having unlimited toilet paper qualifies as "living it up"
November 14, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
Economic demand for quality journalism is fickle at best, and journalism itself is a public good. Excellent reporters simply cannot consistently capture the economic value they create. A healthy public sphere, including plural media sources, needs public investment of some form.
November 12, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
Alas, probably not:
November 12, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
Justice Louis Brandeis, born on this day in 1856
November 13, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity.

Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.

blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not. | Blog of the APA
Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing ar...
blog.apaonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
truly I saw this and was like I don't care if it's bad I'm going to leave it on in the background for the next month so they keep making stuff like this
A miniseries about Charlie Guiteau’s murder of James Garfield starring Matthew Macfayden, Michael Shannon, and Nick Offerman. Netflix is nailing the algorithm
November 12, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
What a thrill to be part of @talkingpointsmemo.com's series about the past 25 years of digital media! I wrote about why private equity goons destroyed Deadspin and why it matters.
There Are No Weird Blogs Anymore Cause It’s More Fruitful to Drive Them Out of Business
I learned many surprising lessons from my 20 months as editor-in-chief of...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I, uh,

thank you, Michael Wilbon, for staring directly into the camera and stating my thesis...?

(very rough first draft)
November 11, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
The Supreme Court had three religious freedom cases last Term. With @richschragger.bsky.social and @nelsontebbe.bsky.social, our latest comments on them, extending our analysis of religious preferentialism under the First Amendment.

harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
The Structure of Religious Preference - Harvard Law Review
A revolution has occurred in the law of religious freedom. At this point, the picture is reasonably clear. The Supreme Court has greatly expanded the scope of the Free Exercise Clause.
harvardlawreview.org
November 11, 2025 at 1:48 AM
lol
By a vote of 76-24, the Senate agreed to the motion to table the Paul amendment to strike a provision modifying the definition of hemp for purposes of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946.
November 11, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Between this and the student loan changes tossed into the last funding bill with zero public discussion or debate I'm rapidly becoming radicalized on "one subject per bill" rule, which I always thought was kind of silly
A specific brand of Small Business Guy that has flourished in the past few years even in fully criminalized states is about to get nuked by this.
of all the things about this deal that are pissing me off this might have pissed me off the most
November 10, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Judging books by their covers has rarely led me astray. I saw this sitting in a book store in Oak Park and all I got from the back was sci fi / fantasy and Arthurian legend.

Not sure I've ever been so immediately just flat-out bought into and charmed by a book. About 75% done
November 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
Leave it to dems to fold a winning hand. Can’t make this up.
November 10, 2025 at 2:56 AM
hoo hoo hoo hoosiers
Omar Cooper Jr.'s insane touchdown catch to put Indiana ahead 27-24 over Penn State may have been what finally broke Gus Johnson.
November 9, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
My new article "Immigration is Not Invasion" is now up on SSRN. It comprehensively explains why illegal migration and drug smuggling do not qualify as "invasion" under the Constitution and the Alien Enemies Act of 1798: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Immigration is Not Invasion
<div> In recent years, state governments and the second Trump Administration have increasingly advanced the argument that illegal migration and cross-border dr
papers.ssrn.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:42 PM
I'm in a $41 Uber ride and my driver just told me she's getting $14. (And that Uber removed their ability to see how much customers are paying). Unreal.
November 8, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Chicago is really just like "here's what a city should look like, by the way"
November 8, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Luke Smith Morgan
November 8, 2025 at 12:04 AM