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Steve Vladeck

@stevevladeck.bsky.social

240K followers 1K following 2.1K posts

@ksvesq.bsky.social’s husband; father of daughters; professor @georgetownlaw.bsky.social; #SCOTUS nerd @CNN.com Bio: www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/stephen-i-vladeck "One First" Supreme Court newsletter: stevevladeck.com Book: tinyurl.com/shadowdocketpb .. more

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Stephen Isaiah Vladeck is an American legal scholar. He is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he specializes in the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice, especially with relation to the prosecution of war crimes. Vladeck has commented on the legality of the United States' use of extrajudicial detention and torture, and is a regular contributor to CNN. .. more

Political science 64%

Law 14%

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Apr 4

I’m really excited about this — and about the chance to work with Allison Lorentzen and the entire @vikingbooks.bsky.social team!

KSV @ksvesq.bsky.social · Apr 4

The best guy I know just sold his (second) book and I COULD NOT BE MORE PROUD!

“The Court We Need” — scheduled for Fall 2026 release. More important than ever.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 20m

Today’s “One First” looks at how #SCOTUS and its defenders have responded to criticisms of the Court’s behavior in Trump cases either by knocking down straw men or by attacking the critics—without meaningfully defending what the Court is actually *doing*:

www.stevevladeck.com/p/183-the-mi...

After all, maybe one can defend the Court granting emergency relief more often than ever before and in cases with far greater real-world (and structural) impacts. And maybe one can defend the Court altering (if not completely scrapping) the traditional balance of the equities in these cases. But does that defense extend to the Court doing so especially in cases in which President Trump is a party—and no others? And does it extend to the Court doing all of this without usually providing written explanations of what it is doing—or why? And even if the answer is somehow “yes,” does it also extend to the Court doing all of this, not usually explaining what it’s doing or why, and nevertheless accusing lower courts who fail to read the justices’ minds of “defying” the Court?

I have a very hard time believing that anyone can genuinely make it through even three of those sentences with a coherent defense of what the Supreme Court has done over the past seven months—let alone all five of them. I’d love to see such an argument, if it exists, but I haven’t been—and won’t be—holding my breath.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 11h

Then she found out I was writing this post:

“Mommy, he’s cyberbullying me!”

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 11h

Sign that your 9YO may have two lawyers for parents:

Me: “You’re not complaining, are you?”

9YO: “No. I’m just stating my feelings in an aggravated tone!”

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 16h

I’ll have a few in tomorrow’s newsletter.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 16h

Writing about this for tomorrow’s issue of my newsletter!

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 22h

It’s the knee-jerk phenomenon in which all criticisms of the current Court are necessarily partisan and/or otherwise illegitimate.

It’s pretty tiresome, it’s not new, and it’s enabling all kinds of behavior that is bad for the Court and the country—a possibility these folks refuse to even consider.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 1d

Or why that’s more important than the underlying *reasons* for the judges’ discontent, which none of the folks loudly complaining about the Times story are even trying to address (let alone provide satisfactory responses to).

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 2d

They wouldn’t be “forced” to do anything, since the Court takes the (to me, correct) view that it has discretion to decline to exercise even its exclusive original jurisdiction.

More on that here: www.stevevladeck.com/p/38-origina...

On IL v. TX, specifically: www.stevevladeck.com/p/176-illino...

38. "Original" Jurisdiction and the Wyandotte Doctrine

Alaska is asking the justices not just to hear as a trial court its challenge to the EPA's veto of the "Pebble Mine," but to overrule a 52-year-old precedent holding that the Court doesn't have to

www.stevevladeck.com

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Reposted by Joseph Schafer, Stephen I. Vladeck

Jay Young @impactofficer.bsky.social · 3d

A good read (as usual) from @stevevladeck.bsky.social on the lack of deterrence:

"[A] federal officer today faces almost no meaningful specter of losing a damages lawsuit even for actions that violate clearly established constitutional rights."

www.stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-182-...

Bonus 182: Damages as a (Missing) Deterrent

It's worth reflecting on how different things might look right now if federal officers—or the federal government itself—faced a meaningful specter of monetary liability for constitutional violations.

www.stevevladeck.com

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 3d

The problem, as the piece notes, is state immunity doctrines—which would bar relief under the FTCA if comparable claims against state officers would be subject to such a defense.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 4d

“A more robust and effective damages regime obviously would not prevent unconstitutional conduct by government officers. But it sure would be an easy way to reduce its frequency—and it would also be a remarkably easy statute to write.”

Me in today’s bonus issue of “One First”:

Bonus 182: Damages as a (Missing) Deterrent

www.stevevladeck.com

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Reposted by Timothy Snyder, James Grimmelmann, Stephen I. Vladeck

Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 5d

Very nice piece from my colleague @stevevladeck.bsky.social in today's Times on the illegality of Trump's troop deployments to American cities. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | No, Trump Can’t Deploy Troops to Wherever He Wants

www.nytimes.com

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 5d

Some of us were not "very comfortable with this," and have been warning about these powers for years.

The reason why Congress delegated this power was the fact that Congress was *out of session* for more than two-thirds of every year, and wasn't in a position to respond immediately to emergencies.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 5d

I know it's tiresome to play the "imagine if the parties were reversed" game, but thinking about how Republicans (and right-wing media) would be reacting if a Democratic-controlled House was refusing to swear in a newly elected *Republican* member may be the apotheosis of this particular meme.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 5d

1) I didn't write the headline.

2) The article itself rather specifically discusses this.

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Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Linda J. Skitka, Gerald Friedman , and 1 more Dorothy Bishop, Linda J. Skitka, Gerald Friedman, Stephen I. Vladeck

Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 5d

Cartoon by @ivan-ehlers.bsky.social.

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, David R. Miller

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 6d

The federal government does and should have the authority to deploy troops into our cities—even without local consent—*when the circumstances actually warrant it.*

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com, me on why the real issue in Portland, Chicago, and elsewhere is the missing / contrived factual predicate:

Opinion | No, Trump Can’t Deploy Troops to Wherever He Wants

www.nytimes.com

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 6d

The first #SCOTUS ruling on an emergency application during the October 2025 Term is a denial, over no public dissents, of Google's application to pause the effect of the Ninth Circuit's latest ruling in its long-running dispute with Epic Games over the Android app store.

More details here:

Google Asks Supreme Court to Intervene in Dispute With Fortnite Creator

www.nytimes.com

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 6d

With the new #SCOTUS term officially beginning today, this week’s “regular” issue of One First looks at the final data on emergency applications from the October 2024 Term—one in which the justices set all kinds of records, almost all of which are positively unhealthy for the Court and the country:

181. Closing the Book on OT2024

As the October 2025 Term officially begins, it's worth taking a moment to highlight the record-setting—and revealing—final statistics for how the justices handled emergency applications during OT2024.

www.stevevladeck.com

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Reposted by Stephen I. Vladeck

Shelley English @shelleyenglish.bsky.social · 7d

Don't obey in advance.

www.stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-180-... @stevevladeck.bsky.social

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 7d

It has to be from the Court region of France. Otherwise, it’s called something else.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 7d

Thanks. Me too.

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 7d

It *was* repealed, as the links in my initial thread and this post explain.

They also explain why that doesn’t help him.

www.stevevladeck.com/p/181-courts...