Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 6h

This is a model not only for academics but for anyone who wants to ask how universities and colleges should be acting as their fundamental autonomy is endangered.

tomginsburg.substack.com/p/on-the-com...

2

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 6h

Instead of memorandum, it would be better to say fiat, ukase, or diktat.
And instead of saying "expanding his administration's authority," it would be better to say "usurping the venerable authority of Congress" to control the budget.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 11h

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.

Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money

The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.

nyti.ms

1 2 12

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 11h

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.

Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money

The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.

nyti.ms

340 150 280

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 2d

Lucky Jim.

4

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 18d

True. But the point in contention was SCOTUS’s gross misstatement of a basic constitutional matter, not the fecklessness of Congress.

1 3

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 18d

A simpler way to put it is that while the executive branch conducts relations with foreign governments, the foreign policy of the US in respect to commerce tariffs, and foreign aid is determined by Congress acting legislatively. It's not done by presidential diktat, fiat, or ukase.

Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 19d

This is a ridiculously broad understanding of the President's foreign affairs powers -- that the Executive Branch experiences "harms to [its] conduct of foreign affairs" when it is must spend foreign aid money appropriated in a bill signed by the President. Whither Congress's power of the purse?

And, on the record before the Court, the asserted harms to the Executive’s conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh the potential harm faced by respondents.

2 5 10

Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 19d

This is a ridiculously broad understanding of the President's foreign affairs powers -- that the Executive Branch experiences "harms to [its] conduct of foreign affairs" when it is must spend foreign aid money appropriated in a bill signed by the President. Whither Congress's power of the purse?

18 140 350

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 23d

The main point UE advocates neglect is that the Framers emphasized responsibility as the key duty and perpetual obligation of a unitary executive while the ostensible virtues of energy, vigor, dispatch, and secrecy were only advantages of decision-making that would be exercised only occasionally..

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23d

genuinely crazy to me how unitary executive advocates read the vesting clause as granting a huge scope of essentially royal "inherent" powers. one would think that if the framers intended to give the president royal authority, they would have just said so.

2 14

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23d

genuinely crazy to me how unitary executive advocates read the vesting clause as granting a huge scope of essentially royal "inherent" powers. one would think that if the framers intended to give the president royal authority, they would have just said so.

210 1.2K 8K

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 29d

Some counterfactual musings for our 238th Constitution Day (hopefully not our last, but who knows?). A few typos have to be corrected, hopefully before you awaken, but it should give you something serious to think about (exactly what we don't need).

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/09/17/c...

The Great Might-Have-Been of the Constitutional Convention

The U.S. Senate and the nation's history might different if the Constitutional Convention had structured the chamber differently.

washingtonmonthly.com

2 3 9

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 29d

I'm heading 12 time zones away to get a fresh perspective.

1 1

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 29d

As I have argued previously, when one is living as we are in an ongoing constitutional crisis, that term loses its analytical meaning. The better term is constitutional failure, meaning that our institutions are no longer capable of fulfilling their responsibilities.

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 29d

👇🎯 Folks look at you like you’re crazy when you say we’re in the midst of the worst Article I constitutional crisis in 🇺🇸 history, & then, well, 👇🤷‍♂️

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 29d

To sum up: the President is not enforcing the law about TikTok access in order to structure the timing and sale of another giant social media platform to his political allies.

1 10 28

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 29d

👇🎯 Folks look at you like you’re crazy when you say we’re in the midst of the worst Article I constitutional crisis in 🇺🇸 history, & then, well, 👇🤷‍♂️

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 29d

To sum up: the President is not enforcing the law about TikTok access in order to structure the timing and sale of another giant social media platform to his political allies.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 29d

* ORACLE, SILVER LAKE, ANDREESSEN TO CONTROL TIKOK IN US: WSJ

$ORCL

7 120 400

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 11

certainly a typo and not a F-slip, though perhaps the concept is worth exploring in a dystopian key

1 2

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 10

Not sure we have to go that far, Erin, but if one thinks of federalism as an inherently flexible system, there are lot of ways to imagine redistributing functions. A comprehensive health scare system based on the Pacific states would be feasible financially and strong on the research side as well.

1 2

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 10

Proud to contribute an essay on "A Brief Biography of the Second Amendment" to this amazing collection.

www.vitalcitynyc.org/issues/issue...

Vital City | Issue 13

The supply side of America's gun problem

www.vitalcitynyc.org

1 8

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 10

Interesting questions and a lot to speculate on. An Articles of Confederation-style emphasis on "internal police" would have interesting implications for tax policy. But as you note, the deeper division is not between states but rather between different kinds of communities.

2

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 10

So the challenge today would be, how would the US maintain its status as a superpower while allowing red and blue states to go their own ways domestically. As a Californian, I could feel sympathy (an important topic in 18th c. thinking, see Adam Smith TMS) for red state residents, but so what?

2 2

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 10

he underlying conception of the Articles was that states would control their internal police. The underlying problem of the Articles was that the states were failing to fulfill their federal obligations. (Cf. item 7 of Madison's Vices of the Political System of the U. States).

1 2 3

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 10

This is a really smart piece which draws some strong inferences about the deteriorating condition of the federal Union. As a historian of the Articles of Confederation (my first book), I have wondered if its model of governance might be a better option for us now.
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Red and Blue States’ Fight Is Reaching a Dangerous Level

We’re seeing the greatest strain on the nation’s cohesion since the Civil War.

www.bloomberg.com

2 4 6

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 7

Now I get it. My sister is the only pro-feline member of our family. We had one dog in my youth, named for my dad's mentor, Hans Morgenthau. Had an awkward incident when he came to our house for lunch once, Hans put his paws on the table, and I said, Hans, get down.

7

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 7

I need to know more about your notions of iconology.

1 3

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 7

It is hardly unique to Baker, though. Prerogative is often used generically, without awareness of its specific historical usage. But if you're not aware of that history, you won't fully understand what is at stake constitutionally.

1 1

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 7

Which is why I find myself thinking we're back in a 17th-c. world, where what John Adams called "the execrable race of Stuarts" has been replaced by "the execrable race of Trumps."

1 5 27

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 7

Over the centuries, the House of Commons had won various PRIVILEGES--e.g., the right to initiate legislation, to have its members be free from arrest. Our current Congress, with its craven feckless leadership (arguably in both parties) is renouncing or forfeiting its privileges.

1 6 20

Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · Sep 7

There is a curious but common misstatement here. PREROGATIVE was something that always belonged to the Crown. Americans are still arguing how much of the royal prerogative was incorporated in the presidency. This is a big component of the spurious United Executive Theory.

Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · Sep 7

Trump's administration further erodes the power of Congress, trampling on its constitutional prerogatives in ways large and small as Republicans in charge mostly shrug and at times even applaud the loss of their own authority. @julianbarnes @CatieEdmondson www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...

Trump Tramples Congress’s Power, With Little Challenge From G.O.P.

www.nytimes.com

2 11 28

Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · Sep 7

Trump's administration further erodes the power of Congress, trampling on its constitutional prerogatives in ways large and small as Republicans in charge mostly shrug and at times even applaud the loss of their own authority. @julianbarnes @CatieEdmondson www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...

Trump Tramples Congress’s Power, With Little Challenge From G.O.P.

www.nytimes.com