Worth a read. The purpose of the Citizenship Clause was *precisely* to prevent spun up theories based on hypothesized social contract, virtue, allegiance, community membership, etc., from being used to deny citizenship. The 14th Amendment means what it says.

I dug into the only US source cited by Randy Barnett & Ilan Wurman for their theory - against birthright citizenship - in @nytimes @nytopinion:
Edward Bates in 1862.
He doubly contradicted their argument:

"Birthright Citizenship: The Bates Backfire"
shugerblogcom.wordpress.com/2025/02/16/b...

Per @stevevladeck.bsky.social, the DOJ intends to ask SCOTUS to overrule Humphrey’s Executor. That case has been in pro-unitary executive theorists’ crosshairs for years.

Short thread 🧵 of recommended reading on the unitary executive and independent agencies.

AUSA Hagan Scotten, former clerk for John Roberts, really put some mustard on his resignation letter.

DOJ leadership has put all Public Integrity Section lawyers into a room with 1 hour to decide who will dismiss Adams indictment or else all will be fired. Sending them strength to stand by their oath, which is to support the Constitution, not the president’s political agenda. 🇺🇸

t.co/hi1sM73zXB

Two new pieces from me on the Roberts Court, the presidency and the administrative state:

(1) Separation-of-Powers Lochnerism (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....) and

(2) Taking Legality Seriously: What the Major Questions Doctrine Is - And Isn’t (with @BlochOfra)
(papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....)

Ofc the giant question is whether decisions like Loper Bright construing the APA and limiting agencies will affect SCOTUS’s reading of Article II to limit presidential power. Good news: Most statutes delegate their implementation to agencies. Bad news: civil service laws delegate directly to Prez.

Not to be missed — including a new article by the always brilliant @andreascoseriakatz.bsky.social!

The new issues of the Journal of American Constitutional History is now available:

Happy to see this in print!

jach.law.wisc.edu/regime-of-st...

Basically, I argue that the modern president is built earlier than we generally understand—Reconstruction/Gilded Age—and piece by piece, out of statutes where Congress delegated powers to the office. (1/3)

My co-author @narosenblum.bsky.social and I explain what's wrong with Myers and the Court's current thinking on the presidency (2/2):

columbialawreview.org/content/beco...

Here's some new work of mine. SCOTUS's current view of the president rests largely on one case, Myers v US (1926). But Myers is a false friend: it took a sharp detour from past separation-of-powers cases, misread history and precedent, and created nothing like the presidency we have today (1/2)

Hello Bluesky! I'm tentatively glad to be here.