Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Starting The X-Files tonight! As a Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny enjoyer, I probably should have gotten around to this a few years ago. 010 1
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Finished The Left Hand of Darkness a few days ago and loved it! It was like an antidote for a reading slump: I kept daydreaming about life on Winter and staying up late to read a few extra pages. 010 1
Reposted by Colin HeathSickos Committee @sickoscommittee.org · 06/09/2026Did the Big Ten need to release their statement in the same font as the back of choose your own adventure books? 5265176 651
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Some of the craziest lightning I've ever seen is happening outside right now 000 0
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 05/07/2026Is the Silver Line (from Dulles to Metro Ctr) always so bumpy? I'm heading home from the airport and feel like I'm on a Costco massage chair. 000 0
Reposted by Colin HeathSickosFC @sickosfc.bsky.social · 27/06/2026BEVEL THAT FLAG OF CABO VERDE TOO 333232 332
Reposted by Colin HeathDara Lind @daralind.bsky.social · 27/06/2026I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AN ENORMOUS FAN OF CABO VERDE 424715 247
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 02/05/2026I read One L while waiting for grades during 1L winter break. I do not think it reduced my stress levels, although it was a good read. 000 0
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 28/04/2026Can't wait to see if USC makes the Sweet 19 next year. 000 0
Reposted by Colin HeathSickos Committee @sickoscommittee.org · 28/04/2026*slaps bracket* you can fit so many teams in this thing. 7707 70
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 26/03/2026If anyone has helped countless law clerks get abs, I eagerly await your message 020 2
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 22/03/2026I remember seeing a clip episode from Friends in college and wondering whether something was going wrong with the broadcast! Maybe I had missed the first few minutes, but I couldn't figure out why the scenes kept jumping in time. 041 4
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 12/03/2026One might think this is all sewn up for the US, but once the superdelegates start casting votes anything could happen. 020 2
Reposted by Colin HeathJoshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 09/03/2026This "whom" might as well be a second byline for the copy editor 4925 92
Reposted by Colin HeathFlaming Hydra @flaminghydra.com · 18/02/2026TODAY: @jdconnor.bsky.social on the version of Los Angeles at work in Crime 101. "The rest of the world might not need big-screen certification, but in Los Angeles seeing the city in IMAX—even if wedged in between showings of Wuthering Heights—matters." flaminghydra.com/issue-505/#c...flaminghydra.comMaking it stay / Letting it goJ.D. Connor on L.A. in film, and a new chapter of TEETH BEACH by S.I. Rosenbaum 184 8
Reposted by Colin HeathEvan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 04/02/2026i need 10 hours of emergency pods to understand this from the Cavs perspective immediately 3101 10
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 14/11/2025If you're in line for Hayley Williams pre-sale tickets, STAY IN LINE* *If you're one of the 22,000 people ahead of me, please leave the line 020 2
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 06/11/2025Filled with so much pride today because Mari wrote this wonderful story for The Atlantic! It's (almost) enough to make me put my running shoes back on. 020 2
Reposted by Colin HeathMatt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 10/09/2025this is fun from LitHub and mentions "The Bright Ages!" #booksky lithub.com/no-ones-read...lithub.comNo one’s reading for fun, apparently. Here’s a reading list to fix that.Researchers recently found that “reading for fun in the US has fallen by 40%,” which sucks. The study shows “a sustained, steady decline” over about twenty years, which I agree with the scientists … 3295 29
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 29/07/2025Going to break the "favorite" requirement and give two. 1. Science, Literature, and Ethics. Just enough ethics to get me thinking (and reading) throughout undergrad and law school. Plus, I was able to re-read some great novels. 2. International Ballroom Dance. 000 0
Reposted by Colin Heathjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/06/2025i just find this so bizarre. searching through texts and doing the reading for myself is how i actually think through ideas! trying to put together a sentence is how i figure out what i actually want to say!nytimes.comEveryone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad? 688153211544 15.3K
Colin Heath @colinheath.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Super excited this morning because my friend Vito (@vitoemanuel.bsky.social) has a story out on NPR's Morning Edition!! He dug into the "junk fax" phenomenon frustrating pharmacies and medical offices nationwide. Link: www.npr.org/2025/06/17/n...npr.orgMany offices and professionals see a rise in spam paper faxesThese days, faxed documents mostly show up on your computer. But doctors and other professionals still rely on paper faxes. And they're getting lots of spam along with important documents. 020 2
Reposted by Colin HeathEvan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 16/06/2025All Steven Soderbergh does is crank out excellent movies, and it honestly seems unfair and underappreciated 7689 68
Reposted by Colin HeathKaren K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · 23/05/2025I reported on a notable single-owner sale of Old Masters paintings that fell sort of high expectations, the multiple factors behind the low sell-through rate, and why certain works still set artist records: www.artnews.com/art-news/mar...artnews.comSotheby’s Landmark Old Masters Sale Disappoints, Yielding Just $64.7 M.A landmark Sotheby's sale of Old Masters works from the Saunders collection failed to even reach its low estimate. 2267 26
Reposted by Colin HeathHannah Walser @hkpmw.bsky.social · 13/05/2025Absolutely surreal to get a “highly recommended” from @lsolum.bsky.social! For a devoted follower of the Legal Theory Blog like me, this falls somewhere between winning an Oscar and getting blessed by the Pope. 2112 11
Reposted by Colin Heathjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 04/04/2025i’ll just say this: anyone who doubts jimmy should watch avatar 2, which is a masterpiece 9187854 878
Reposted by Colin HeathHannah Walser @hkpmw.bsky.social · 15/03/2025It feels absurd to post about this, but—since the good people of #lawsky patiently encouraged me when I was freaking out about placing my paper, I wanted to share that it has found a home in the Indiana Law Journal. “Interpretive Facts,” coming 2026! (Two images below to fit the full alt text) 1/3 149312 93
Reposted by Colin HeathGabriel Zucman @gabrielzucman.bsky.social · 07/02/2025Cela semble absurde, et j’ai été choqué la première fois que je l’ai compris, mais la France – il n'y a pas d'autre mot – est bien un paradis fiscal pour milliardaire Explications détaillées 🧵 3919651364 2K
Reposted by Colin HeathMaggie Blackhawk @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social · 28/01/2025Clear and cogent analysis on the Birthright Citizenship EO (and, collectively, the "dictatorial theory" of executive power behind all of the recent EOs) from my colleagues Trevor Morrison & @adambcox.bsky.social on @justsecurity.org www.justsecurity.org/106969/trump... 096 9
Reposted by Colin HeathZach Liscow @zliscow.bsky.social · 22/01/2025NEW PAPER! (w/ Ed Fox) We study 1) how much the wealthy borrow, quantifying “buy-borrow-die” for the first time, and 2) how much unrealized gains impact their taxes. The results changed (some of) our thinking on how to tax those at the top. 🧵 w/ findings ⬇️ Paper is here: ssrn.com/abstract=510... 33511 35
Reposted by Colin HeathRachel Barkow @rachelbarkow.bsky.social · 02/12/2024If you want to learn about the Biden clemency record so far (aside from the pardon of Hunter) and what he should be doing in the time remaining, please read this piece Mark Osler and I wrote in September begging him to use this power in the time he has left. www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/o...nytimes.comOpinion | Biden Needs to Work on His Clemency LegacyIt is more important than ever in an era of grossly excessive punishments and mass incarceration. 46124 61
![INTERPRETIVE FACTS: TEXTUALISM, EMPIRICISM, AND THE LAW-FACT DIVIDE
Hannah Walser
ABSTRACT
What a word means may seem to be a paradigmatic question of law. We reach conclusions about the meaning of a word or a sentence through interpretation; interpretation is one of judges’ core tasks in the United States court system; meaning is therefore a matter of law to be determined by judges. Yet thanks to technological advances in corpus linguistics permitting the quantitative analysis of large numbers of texts, as well as methodological shifts that frame ordinary meaning as an empirical question, courts and legal scholars are increasingly apt to frame interpretive inquiries as factual ones.
This Article offers the first systematic examination of where linguistic evidence used in statutory and constitutional interpretation should fit in the federal court system’s division of labor based on law and fact. First, I identify and label “interpretive facts”: generalized empirical evidence about how a particular word or phrase has been used by a population of speakers, understood by a population of listeners, or both. Then, I explain the complications that interpretive facts create for two specific aspects of the law-fact division of labor: the default expectation that questions of fact be submitted to a jury, and the more deferential standard of appellate review that applies to a trial court’s findings of fact. Applying either presumption to interpretive facts would seem to threaten the judiciary’s authority over questions of law and to undermine interpretive consistency. Yet failing to apply these presumptions risks flooding the courts with inaccurate empirical claims about language use—no small problem when the “ordinary meaning” of a legal term, as established through quantitative evidence, may be outcome-determinative.
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