Sue McMahon
@suemcmahon.bsky.social
Law prof at UC Irvine, writing about criminal law, mental disability, law reform, and legal writing. Fan of desert sunsets and national parks.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
Look, I know this weaponization of male academic interest is the oldest story in the book, but it’s just so, so pernicious. It’s awful to the women directly involved, but it’s also awful to *all* women in the academy, who have to live in its shadow all the time.
November 17, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Look, I know this weaponization of male academic interest is the oldest story in the book, but it’s just so, so pernicious. It’s awful to the women directly involved, but it’s also awful to *all* women in the academy, who have to live in its shadow all the time.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
The fact that many Democratic Senators are profoundly trapped in an unreal matrix of DC-media assumptions is a disaster on an epic scale. But it’s also an opportunity.
You have to wait years to primary most Senators, but you can fight to change those assumptions now.
Let me explain…
You have to wait years to primary most Senators, but you can fight to change those assumptions now.
Let me explain…
November 10, 2025 at 4:24 PM
The fact that many Democratic Senators are profoundly trapped in an unreal matrix of DC-media assumptions is a disaster on an epic scale. But it’s also an opportunity.
You have to wait years to primary most Senators, but you can fight to change those assumptions now.
Let me explain…
You have to wait years to primary most Senators, but you can fight to change those assumptions now.
Let me explain…
Reposted by Sue McMahon
much of this stems from a gross misunderstanding of writing as “the act of sitting down to write”. writing is the 10,000 other things that you do before you sit down. it is light cast through a window hitting the far wall, it is the memory of that time you saw that one bird, it is the act of living
People who aren’t writers think writer’s block is at least as big and real a problem as I thought quicksand would be, as a child.
AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief
Publisher last week reported jump in revenue in academic and professional arm thanks to AI licensing deal
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 7:33 PM
much of this stems from a gross misunderstanding of writing as “the act of sitting down to write”. writing is the 10,000 other things that you do before you sit down. it is light cast through a window hitting the far wall, it is the memory of that time you saw that one bird, it is the act of living
Reposted by Sue McMahon
Here’s where it gets personal for me. When I was 9, I started experiencing suicidal ideation … disinterested in living, and at least some of the time contemplating death and how it might happen … It’s easy to imagine how I would have used programs like these chatbots.
Perry: How can AI be used ethically when it’s been linked to suicide?
"It’s not on us, on you and me, to use AI ethically or responsibly. It’s on the companies to build safe, reliable, ethical products," David M. Perry writes.
www.startribune.com
October 26, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Here’s where it gets personal for me. When I was 9, I started experiencing suicidal ideation … disinterested in living, and at least some of the time contemplating death and how it might happen … It’s easy to imagine how I would have used programs like these chatbots.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
I'd like to commend the lawyers who wrote this complaint on behalf of the professors and employees of the University of California against the Trump administration.
It's a sober legal document with strong claims, but also, this is a fight for public opinion, and this reads like the writers know it.
It's a sober legal document with strong claims, but also, this is a fight for public opinion, and this reads like the writers know it.
AAUP-UC-Trump Lawsuit -- Uploaded by Jaweed Kaleem of the Los Angeles Times
www.documentcloud.org
September 17, 2025 at 2:27 AM
I'd like to commend the lawyers who wrote this complaint on behalf of the professors and employees of the University of California against the Trump administration.
It's a sober legal document with strong claims, but also, this is a fight for public opinion, and this reads like the writers know it.
It's a sober legal document with strong claims, but also, this is a fight for public opinion, and this reads like the writers know it.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
The fate of the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship still hangs in the balance.
Let’s get educated.
Let’s get educated.
You can now register for the 14th Amendment Center’s webinars on birthright citizenship.
The sessions will be held on September 16th and 17th with a line-up of experts. REGISTER NOW:
howard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
The sessions will be held on September 16th and 17th with a line-up of experts. REGISTER NOW:
howard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
September 7, 2025 at 2:46 PM
The fate of the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship still hangs in the balance.
Let’s get educated.
Let’s get educated.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
UC workers, alums, community members, please send Governor Newsom and your state legislators encouraging them to sue the federal government like Harvard did and release the feds' demand letter so Californians know what is at stake.
It takes 2 minutes: actionnetwork.org/letters/uc-s...
It takes 2 minutes: actionnetwork.org/letters/uc-s...
September 5, 2025 at 7:43 AM
UC workers, alums, community members, please send Governor Newsom and your state legislators encouraging them to sue the federal government like Harvard did and release the feds' demand letter so Californians know what is at stake.
It takes 2 minutes: actionnetwork.org/letters/uc-s...
It takes 2 minutes: actionnetwork.org/letters/uc-s...
I’m thrilled to be part of this webinar series on competence to stand trial, co-hosted by @nacdl.org and @statecourts.bsky.social. Our first session on Wednesday (11a PST) lays out the current state of play across the U.S. Join us!
ncsc-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
ncsc-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Competency and Restoration Reimagined from Practice to Possibility: Level Setting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining th...
Competency and Restoration Reimagined from Practice to Possibility
This three-part webinar series will provide insight and recommendations on how to make improvements in competency to stand trial sys...
ncsc-org.zoom.us
September 5, 2025 at 4:02 PM
I’m thrilled to be part of this webinar series on competence to stand trial, co-hosted by @nacdl.org and @statecourts.bsky.social. Our first session on Wednesday (11a PST) lays out the current state of play across the U.S. Join us!
ncsc-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
ncsc-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
My fearless colleague David Kaye, speaking truth to power.
👀 Jim Jordan held a House Judiciary Committee hearing on . . . how Europe censors Americans. Nigel Farage came along! Let's just say I have a slightly different view than them. My written and oral testimony are here: ijclinic.law.uci.edu/2025/09/03/h...
Here are my concluding paras:
Here are my concluding paras:
September 4, 2025 at 2:20 AM
My fearless colleague David Kaye, speaking truth to power.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
Friendly reminder that things don’t go back to normal if he kicks the bucket. They could even get worse! And even when they lose an election there’s years, decades, generations of repair and remaking to be done.
August 30, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Friendly reminder that things don’t go back to normal if he kicks the bucket. They could even get worse! And even when they lose an election there’s years, decades, generations of repair and remaking to be done.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
also, responses matter—social opprobrium at institutions that caved helped push other institutions to stand up, and institutions that stood up made it more difficult for others to cave
one way to read this is that the administration expected everyone to roll over for them, was shocked when they didn't, and didn't really have much of a plan beyond that
Trump Wants Universities to Show Him the Money, or No Deal
www.nytimes.com
August 20, 2025 at 1:51 AM
also, responses matter—social opprobrium at institutions that caved helped push other institutions to stand up, and institutions that stood up made it more difficult for others to cave
So very proud to have my name on this excellent letter. Huge thanks to my UC colleagues who took the laboring oar in putting it together.
🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...
August 15, 2025 at 9:09 PM
So very proud to have my name on this excellent letter. Huge thanks to my UC colleagues who took the laboring oar in putting it together.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
“We have committed our professional lives to learning and free inquiry, working together with students to advance truth for the collective benefit of society. Unlike our distant governing boards, we will not give up so easily — no matter what kind of deals are signed in our name.”
Harvard faculty won’t cave to Trump demands - The Boston Globe
Unlike our distant governing boards, we will not give up easily — no matter what kind of deals are signed in our name.
www.bostonglobe.com
August 14, 2025 at 9:18 PM
“We have committed our professional lives to learning and free inquiry, working together with students to advance truth for the collective benefit of society. Unlike our distant governing boards, we will not give up so easily — no matter what kind of deals are signed in our name.”
Reposted by Sue McMahon
I'm so tired of hearing that we need to "teach our students how to use AI" when the thing they most need to use it is a critical-thinking skill set that can only be acquired by NOT using it. I'm tired of hearing that it's inevitable. I'm tired.
August 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM
I'm so tired of hearing that we need to "teach our students how to use AI" when the thing they most need to use it is a critical-thinking skill set that can only be acquired by NOT using it. I'm tired of hearing that it's inevitable. I'm tired.
“You think I showed up with ChatGPT? . . .Dickinson? Obsessed. David Foster Wallace built a temple of footnotes in my name. I am not some sleek, futuristic glyph. I am the battered, coffee-stained backbone of writerly panic—the gasping pause where a thought should have ended but simply could not.”
July 27, 2025 at 11:49 PM
“You think I showed up with ChatGPT? . . .Dickinson? Obsessed. David Foster Wallace built a temple of footnotes in my name. I am not some sleek, futuristic glyph. I am the battered, coffee-stained backbone of writerly panic—the gasping pause where a thought should have ended but simply could not.”
Reposted by Sue McMahon
Democracies collapse not just through force, but through the naïve self-confidence of elites. What should alarm us isn’t that strongmen follow similar playbooks, but that our elites do too. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...
Opinion | I Watched It Happen in Hungary. Now It’s Happening Here.
The real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially those with power, justify their acquiescence.
www.nytimes.com
July 23, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Democracies collapse not just through force, but through the naïve self-confidence of elites. What should alarm us isn’t that strongmen follow similar playbooks, but that our elites do too. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...
Reposted by Sue McMahon
A reminder that our profession is not just big firms, and that countless lawyers are stepping up in this critical moment. GIFT LINK
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/u...
Big Law Firms Bowed to Trump. A Corps of ‘Little Guys’ Jumped in to Fight Him.
www.nytimes.com
July 22, 2025 at 11:29 AM
A reminder that our profession is not just big firms, and that countless lawyers are stepping up in this critical moment. GIFT LINK
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/u...
Reposted by Sue McMahon
Video of me teaching legal research and writing in the fall.
a woman wearing a mask stands on a red carpet in front of a street
Alt: woman filming workout video as military coup happens in the background.
media.tenor.com
July 15, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Video of me teaching legal research and writing in the fall.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
Here’s the thing with universal injunctions.
I’m agnostic on them, generally. I think there’s great scholarship on both sides (anti: Bagley & Bray) (pro: Mila Sohoni).
But if there’s any reason for courts to have the power, it’s for attempts at unilateral constitutional amendment.
I’m agnostic on them, generally. I think there’s great scholarship on both sides (anti: Bagley & Bray) (pro: Mila Sohoni).
But if there’s any reason for courts to have the power, it’s for attempts at unilateral constitutional amendment.
June 29, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Here’s the thing with universal injunctions.
I’m agnostic on them, generally. I think there’s great scholarship on both sides (anti: Bagley & Bray) (pro: Mila Sohoni).
But if there’s any reason for courts to have the power, it’s for attempts at unilateral constitutional amendment.
I’m agnostic on them, generally. I think there’s great scholarship on both sides (anti: Bagley & Bray) (pro: Mila Sohoni).
But if there’s any reason for courts to have the power, it’s for attempts at unilateral constitutional amendment.
Finally got a terrible first draft done.
Time to tear it apart.
Time to tear it apart.
a man in a suit and goggles is holding a hammer and breaking a wall .
Alt: a man in a suit and goggles is holding a sledgehammer and breaking a wall .
media.tenor.com
June 19, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Finally got a terrible first draft done.
Time to tear it apart.
Time to tear it apart.
Reposted by Sue McMahon
“magical realist Zohran Mamdani” would be like if everyone on his team was human except for his ghost campaign manager and you could see a bodega cat levitating in one of his ads
June 19, 2025 at 6:12 PM
“magical realist Zohran Mamdani” would be like if everyone on his team was human except for his ghost campaign manager and you could see a bodega cat levitating in one of his ads
Reposted by Sue McMahon
I'm in the minority, and maybe a small one, but I think these administrative stays are genuinely harmful and should not be treated as routine.
A federal court has ruled that a dramatic step of national significance was illegal and unconstitutional. It ruled.
1/
A federal court has ruled that a dramatic step of national significance was illegal and unconstitutional. It ruled.
1/
June 13, 2025 at 5:23 PM
I'm in the minority, and maybe a small one, but I think these administrative stays are genuinely harmful and should not be treated as routine.
A federal court has ruled that a dramatic step of national significance was illegal and unconstitutional. It ruled.
1/
A federal court has ruled that a dramatic step of national significance was illegal and unconstitutional. It ruled.
1/
Reposted by Sue McMahon
It’s a writing day and every paragraph is followed by a little note like [ugh] or [fix this] or [YUCK].
Twenty-plus years into this whole writing thing and first drafts never get easier.
Twenty-plus years into this whole writing thing and first drafts never get easier.
June 3, 2025 at 8:51 PM
It’s a writing day and every paragraph is followed by a little note like [ugh] or [fix this] or [YUCK].
Twenty-plus years into this whole writing thing and first drafts never get easier.
Twenty-plus years into this whole writing thing and first drafts never get easier.