Sign in

Torey Dolan

@toreydolan.bsky.social
677 followers 159 following 202 posts

Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School. Writing about Federal Indian Law/Voting Rights & stuff. Views are my own. Citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma living on Ho Chunk Land📍

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Torey Dolan
University of Wisconsin Law School @law.wisc.edu · 01/10/2026
For @toreydolan.bsky.social, the Wisconsin Idea means making sure the law serves Tribal communities. From her time as a Hastie Fellow to her work today, she’s committed to scholarship that has practical impact: buff.ly/wwZxHTd.
062
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Good people, good comments, and good vibes!
020
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CONFERENCE!
250
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Dan Walters @profdanwalters.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
New paper 🚨: SCOTUS has made democratic theory a central part of its consolidation of presidential power over agencies, but its democratic vision is chock full of empirical and normative holes, which I unpack in a forthcoming essay in the Duke Law Journal. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
45417
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Feels useful to note at this moment that WI has open primaries.
030
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
If you missed the Rubio and Miller speeches at the “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism” the argument was that leftists are jealous, ugly, and “deformed.”
030
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
So much of today’s media can be explained by television pundits not understanding the lives of large swaths of middle and lower-middle class America.
021
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
“Supreme Court Opinions at 10AM”
Blurry closeup of meowing white kitten that looks like it is screaming.
020
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Probably should be towards the bottom of the court reform list of priorities, but can we get end SCOTUS Justices publishing books while on the bench?
010
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Quinn Yeargain @yeargain.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I was mad about this so I blogged about it for @ballsandstrikes.org
ballsandstrikes.org
Samuel Alito’s Jab at Hawaiian Culture Is Red Meat For Online Conservatives
The justice’s reference to the “spirit of Aloha” betrays his contempt for the very idea of taking Hawaii’s history and legal traditions seriously.
824880
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
John Roberts will want you to forget everything that happened this week at SCOTUS after he confirms that the first sentence of the 14th Amendment means what it says, please do not fall for it
283192801
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Have you considered that the evidence lead him to the block button?
030
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
You’re right, where are my manners! Logic is such a pesky detail. We cannot let it stand in the way of getting the constitution “correct.”
110
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
“The goal is getting the constitution correct” meanwhile he argues that the constitutional reading can change re: Native American citizenship based on…a changing viewpoint?
120
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
The “August” cycle is now colonizing July! 😭
010
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
op-ed with author photo

Vox
Why we don't actually want a world without mosquitoes

(Picture of a mosquito)
302599293
Reposted by Torey Dolan
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/06/2026
i love that vance is like if you flipped the polarity on the most obnoxiously woke millennial imaginable
1203980401
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I read the Vanderbilt report.
static.klipy.com
Ugh.
Alt: Ugh.
000
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
The AAUP chapters at Vanderbilt & Wash U have issued a joint statement denouncing the “State of Scholarship” report commissioned by their chancellors. Please, let’s make this as widely read as the gaslighting to which it responds.
Joint Statement on the "State of Scholarship" Report
The Vanderbilt University and Washington University chapters of the American Association of University Professors express our profound disagreement with the "State of Scholarship" report commissioned by our universities' chancellors. The report distorts the state of humanistic and social scientific scholarship at our universities and in the academy overall. Worse, it proposes a shocking intrusion of university administration into faculty governance and portends greater threats to academic freedom that should concern all faculty.
The report currently appears on Vanderbilt's website under the insignia of both Vanderbilt and Washington Universities. It is already receiving public condemnation. As the American Council of Learned Societies makes clear, the report is founded on false premises and anecdotal evidence and thus does nothing to "ensure deeper and more meaningful relations among scholars and members of the public." No doubt more rebuttals from scholars, departments, and professional societies will follow. It suffices for us to say that the report falls far short of the standards of political neutrality and disinterested inquiry it claims to champion. Historians, literary scholars, and anthropologists are singled out for caricature while the authors fail to acknowledge their own public biases against scholarship performed in the name of social justice. Nor does the report divulge its source of funding or conflicts of interest that may entail - standard practice for any work of humanistic or social scientific scholarship. In sum, the report is itself a clear example of "politicized" research that its authors attempt to decry.
What is most alarming is the guidance the report offers to its intended audience of university chancellors and presidents. By falsely arguing that humanities and social science departments are in the throes of an epistemological crisis, the authors lay the groundwork for university adminis…Weakening faculty governance does nothing to solve the real challenges facing our universities, and undermines our ability to effectively address society's most profound problems and challenges, from the inequalities of wealth and white supremacy to the political consequences of climate change.
Indeed, the direst threats to public trust in higher education are not philosophical debates about the nature of truth. Currently, the federal government is dramatically cutting funding for the humanities and social sciences as well as for the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, public health, and the arts. In response, university administrations have instituted austerity measures, even as administrative salaries and administrative positions have taken up an increasing share of decreasing budgets.
The best way for scholars to cultivate diverse opinions and advance knowledge is by strengthening academic freedom. Political threats to higher education have degraded, and will continue to degrade, the quality of all fields of our universities' research, to the detriment of America's global standing.
We note that the organizations now working most actively and successfully to defend academic free inquiry from politicized federal interference are not university leaders but the American Council of Learned Societies, the Modern Language Association, and the American Historical Association - professional societies of the very disciplines chastised by the report.
We call on our chancellors to rescind the report and affirm their commitment to the intellectual autonomy of faculty, academic departments, and governing faculty bodies. Administrative interference into academic departments, as licensed by this report, is a violation of the standards of academic freedom that have made American universities the envy of the world. Rather than undermining these bedrock principles, administrators should vigorously and publicly defend them.
Vanderbilt University AAUP
vanderbiltaaup@gmail.com
Wa…
5439246
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
It is refreshing to see a State Supreme Court acknowledge Tribal Nations and the history of their state courts in harming Indigenous peoples.
turtletalk.blog
Letter from Washington Supreme Court re Rectifying the Dehumanization of Indigenous People in State Legal Systems
Letter from WA Supreme Court re Rectifying the Dehumanization of Indigenous People in State Legal Systems 6-5-26.pdfDownload The resolution of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians: ATNI Resol…
084
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 09/06/2026
"Do you have unlimited tries?" grand juror to Trump DOJ prosecutor in the now-dismissed "Broadview Six" case. Prosecutors failed to disclose that the grand jury "no true billed" the first indictment. Remarkable exchange
241577349
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Critical cases to watch in the post-SFFA world. apnews.com/article/hawa...
apnews.com
A lawsuit challenges Hawaii homestead leases limited to those with 50% Hawaiian blood
A lawsuit is challenging the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, which provides land to Native Hawaiians with at least 50% Hawaiian blood quantum.
010
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
They’re going to release it when I’m on vacation, I just know it.
010
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Justin Levitt @justinlevitt.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I never want to hear about a Purcell “principle” again. A rule that applies only to lower federal courts and concerns itself only with the state’s equities is not a “principle.” Call it the “Purcell power grab” if you like the alliteration.
1448
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
“It’s only racial gerrymandering if Elbridge Gerry did it himself.” — #SCOTUS, one day soon.
531506227
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Sotomayor comes very close to calling the supermajority a pack of liars for claiming in Callais that they weren’t requiring proof of discriminatory intent then turning around and doing exactly that here. This is a remarkably blunt and caustic accusation. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
The majority’s order grapples with virtually none of this.
Indeed, it does not even acknowledge that the District
Court’s discriminatory-intent finding is reviewed for clear
error. Much of its reasoning rests on its assertion that, even
as to the plaintiffs’ Fourteenth Amendment claim, “the Dis-
trict Court’s analysis departed from Callais.” Ante, at 3.
That is wrong twice over. First, Callais “said not a word
about the standard for Fourteenth Amendment intentional-
discrimination claims.” Caster, 608 U. S., at ___
(SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 4). Instead, Callais
was focused on changing the Court’s law on “exactly what
§2 of the Voting Rights Act demands,” not what the Consti-
tution demands. 608 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 19). Second,
Callais said that its newly fashioned test for §2 disparate-
impact claims is not an intent-based test. It acknowledged
that §2 “does not demand a finding of intentional discrimi-
nation.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 23). It also denied JUSTICE
KAGAN’s charge that the majority’s new test was an intent
test in all but name. Id., at ____ (slip op., at 35). It is hard
to see how the District Court’s finding of discriminatory in-
tent under the Fourteenth Amendment could have de-
parted from an opinion that purported to say nothing about
how to find discriminatory intent under the Fourteenth
Amendment. The Court’s apparently oblivious insistence
to the contrary today cannot be squared with what Callais
said on its face just over one month ago. See id., at ___, n.
5 (KAGAN, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 25, n. 5) (“[T]he major-
ity closes its opinion by suggesting it is not requiring a vote-
dilution plaintiff to present evidence of ‘discriminatory in-
tent.’ Which, if true, would be welcome news” (citation
omitted
262787832
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
It gets a little more wild each time they say it. So if every single Black person votes one way, and every single white person votes the opposite way, every election, that's not even RELEVANT to whether voting is "racially polarized"—as long as this durable disagreement is organized into 'parties.'
they must show that voters engage in racial bloc voting that cannot be explained by partisan affiliationsimply pointing to inter-party racial polarization proves nothingThe mere fact that voters of different races vote for different parties is not relevant to proving racially polarized voting patterns.
17977233
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Can’t Stop Twinkling 💕💚 @proftolson.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I am just exhausted by all of this (*gestures wildly*)
061
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Travis Crum @traviscrum.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Some thoughts on tonight's indefensible shadow docket ruling in the Alabama congressional redistricting dispute. electionlawblog.org?p=156546
electionlawblog.org
The Supreme Court Rewards Alabama's Defiance #ELB
Earlier tonight, in yet another 6-3 shadow docket order, the Supreme Court stayed a three-judge district court’s injunction, thereby allowing Alabama to use a congressional map that was found to be in...
032
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Chim achukma hoke, Tanner! Can’t wait to see what you’ll do!
010
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Corey Rayburn Yung @coreyryung.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I've written a lot about cases involving the prosecution of rape victims for false reporting. Ultimately, it's an enforcement mechanism for rape culture. But prosecuting a rape victim for perjury during a civil defamation trial (that they won) is a new one to me.
1488
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Steve Buscemi from 30 Rock, dressed like a teenager saying “how do you do” with “fellow kids” changed to “fellow LLC’s”
042
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
NEW: Alabama goes back to SCOTUS on redistricting, seeking stays of the lower court rulings from the three-judge and single-judge panel blocking use of the 2023 plan: www.documentcloud.org/documents/28... www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...
411441
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Photo from “Succession” character Logan Roy saying “you are not serious people.”
011
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
BREAKING: Three-judge district court reaffirms earlier rulings, even in light of Callais, that Alabama’s 2023 congressional map cannot be used because it is “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination” and that the court-ordered map is, again, to be used in the 2026 elections.
We now face a critical decision on a very tight timeline. We can either allow
the Secretary of State to administer Alabama's 2026 elections with a legislatively enacted districting plan that we found (after a full trial) intentionally discriminated against Black voters based on race in violation of the Constitution, or we can issue a preliminary injunction two and a half months ahead of Alabama's scheduled special primaries (and some five months before the general election), requiring the Secretary to administer the 2026 elections with the race-blind plan that he used on orders from us and the Supreme Court for Alabama's 2024 elections and May 19, 2026, primary elections. We emphasize that because of the exceptional public importance of this matter, we carefully reviewed the extensive evidentiary record in
these cases with fresh eyes in light of Callais.After that exacting review, we conclude that a preliminary injunction must
issue. Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination. And under the unusual circumstances of this case, we conclude that a limited order requiring the Secretary to continue using this Court's race-blind map will not disrupt Alabama's elections (all candidates ran under the race-blind map until fifteen days ago, and all voters remain districted under the race-blind map in
electoral computer systems).
We do not lightly intrude in state affairs, but our previous review of the undisputed evidence left us in no doubt that Alabama's legislatively enacted plan (the "2023 Plan") intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution. Our re-examination in light of Callais yields the same conclusion.We conclude that it is not. On the unique record before us, we determine that
enjoining the 2023 Plan will not disrupt Alabama's elections. Requiring the use of
the Special Master Plan will forestall an expensive, aggressive, and perhaps
logistically impossible voter reassignment effort. We take extremely seriously the
Supreme Court's command that federal district courts ordinarily should not
5
Case 2:21-CV-01530-AMM Document 537
Filed 05/26/26
Page 6 of 102
intervene on the eve of an election, for risk of causing administrative challenges and
confusion. But the record here is clear: enjoining the unconstitutional 2023 Plan will
improve the administrative situation in Alabama, not worsen it.
As we see it, the irreducible minimum is that federal law requires that all
Alabamians have an opportunity to vote under districting plans untainted by
intentional race-based discrimination. Accordingly, we are duty-bound to
preliminarily enjoin the Secretary from conducting any 2026 congressional elections
according to the 2023 Plan, and we further order the Secretary to administer all
remaining events comprising Alabama's 2026 elections according to the Special
Master's race-blind plan. We also issue a scheduling order for timely proceedings
before qualifying opens for the 2028 primaries in November 2027, and we will
amend it as necessary upon any further districting by the Legislature.The motions are GRANTED only as follows, and pursuant to Federal Rule
of Civil Procedure 65(d), this Court ORDERS the following:
1. The Court PRELIMINARILY ENJOINS the Alabama Secretary of State from conducting the 2026 congressional elections according to the 2023
Plan.
2. The Court further ORDERS the Alabama Secretary of State to administer all remaining events comprising Alabama's 2026 congressional elections according to the Special Master Plan (appended to this Order as Appendix
E). The part of the Court's preliminary injunction set forth in this paragraph EXPIRES upon Alabama's legislative enactment of a new congressional districting plan.
We expressly leave to the State's discretion (as we must) how it addresses
candidate qualification and other matters for the remaining events in Alabama's
2026 congressional elections.
131607427
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
NEW: The transcript of today's sealed hearing in the "Broadview Six" case IS IN. Read it here: cst.brightspotcdn.com/95/75/a403b7...
cst.brightspotcdn.com
301319335
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Of course I think there are grounds to defend the WY districts on federal Indian law principles, but the fact that the VRA has been so thoroughly degraded that elected officials feel emboldened to publicly debate racially motivated disenfranchisement is shameful.
010
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
The relationship between race and Indian status in the election law context is under theorized. That’s a feature of my scholarly agenda. But as pointed out in the Navajo Nation amicus in Callais, making any consideration of race, or correlation with race, legally fatalistic hurts Indian Country.
110
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Relying on Callais, the WY SOS has cast doubt on Native-majority districts w/ the Wind River reservation. My piece with Northeastern Law Review, “American Indian Geopolitical Rights” argues that Tribal-majority districts cannot be viewed solely as majority-minority districts.
rivertonranger.com
Gray calls for HD 33, Fremont Co. redistricting
Just after 1 p.m. today, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray sent an email to Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon and members of the state legislature suggesting that House District 33,
120
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Turtle Mountain v. Howe (whether Section 2 of the VRA can be privately enforced) is vacated and remanded in light of Callais. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
supremecourt.gov
002
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
So, I sincerely ask: what credible ideas are absent in legal education because of DEI?
020
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Some disciplines with lack certain viewpoints by their nature. For example, there’s probably not a lot of “flat earth-ers” in astronomy departments. Does that mean that the astronomy academy is doing something wrong? Would you blame DEI? Of course not.
120
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
I mean this as a sincere yet skeptical question: what “ideas” are not present in legal education because they are stymied by the existence of a diverse student population?
143
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
40 percent of Mississippi residents are Black and overwhelmingly prefer Democratic candidates and there are *checks notes* zero districts that represent their interests. But sure, the VRA isn’t needed.
361134257
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
I much rather read your piece on it!
100
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
This is much clearer articulation of what I was thinking and I hadn’t thought of the pre-reconstruction history, but absolutely.
110
Reposted by Torey Dolan
Atiba Ellis @atibaellis.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Indeed, by evoking the primacy of the states in arbitrating rights, we’re getting thrown back to the time when ‘rights’ were left to the states to protect the settler-colonial slavery political economy every state had. IOW the original Constitution was never meant for this.
121
Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
It is a cruel jurisprudence to point to the democratic process as the means for disempowered people to secure their rights, only to turn around and invite states to destroy electoral viability by destroying the Voting Rights Act.
0166