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David Froomkin

@dfroomkin.bsky.social
6.1K followers 698 following 1.5K posts

Assistant professor, University of Houston Law Center. I write about democracy and the separation of powers. ssrn.com/author=3062912

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Reposted by David Froomkin
Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 14h
Huh. Former GOP governor Bill Graves on why he's endorsing Democrat @hamilton4kansas.bsky.social for Senate: "I’ve just been terribly disappointed and alarmed at the congressional level in the Republicans’ willingness to yield so easily, so readily, to this executive branch."
By Praveena Somasundaram
Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton, who has unexpectedly turned deep red Kansas into a toss-up, has drawn high-profile Republican supporters as he tries to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the midterms.

Two former GOP governors in Kansas, Mike Hayden and Bill Graves, endorsed Hamilton, writing op-eds, giving interviews and appearing in campaign videos in which they say his opponent, incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, is no longer the right fit for the state.

“I’ve just been terribly disappointed and alarmed at the congressional level in the Republicans’ willingness to yield so easily, so readily, to this executive branch and yielding to actions that a lot of Americans don’t think make a lot of sense,” Graves said in an interview on Friday.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 13h
Have you seen this? harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
harvardlawreview.org
Pack the Union: A Proposal to Admit New States for the Purpose of Amending the Constitution to Ensure Equal Representation Harvard Law Review
For most of the twenty-first century, the world’s oldest surviving democracy has been led by a chief executive who received fewer votes than his...
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 15h
"'The Constitution's high threshold for impeachment failed to contend with partisan politics,' [Froomkin] said. The mechanism is broken, he argued, because lawmakers 'place their partisan loyalty above their oaths.'" www.newsweek.com/impeach-dona...
newsweek.com
To impeach or not to impeach? The Trump question facing Democrats
The prospect is dividing Democrats, with some fearing that impeachment could strengthen President Trump politically.
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Reposted by David Froomkin
James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 20h
The Senate functions as a political "subsidy" for the conservative extremism of the Republican Party. It enables the production of more conservative extremism than a properly functioning political marketplace would otherwise produce.
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🇨🇦DUNK🇨🇦 (Proud Part owner of Canada) @noofieninja.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
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Reposted by David Froomkin
Joel Michaels @jmichaels.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
This paper is titled with apologies to @joshchafetz.bsky.social's amazing work on the end of the legislative veto and corresponding loss of Congressional capacity. It's Chadha all the way down... papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The <i>Chadha </i>Presidency
<p><span>Where is Congress? Why hasn’t it reined in some of the worst abuses of the Trump Administration? This Article argues that a significant part of the ans
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It is a great honor to receive the coveted "Highly Recommended!" Thank you, @lsolum.bsky.social! papers.ssrn.com/abstract=752...
papers.ssrn.com
Beyond Neoliberal Administration
Recent developments in administrative law limit Congress's ability to confer regulatory discretion on its administrative agents. Commentators have tended to vie
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Reposted by David Froomkin
Lawrence Solum @lsolum.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Froomkin on Beyond Neoliberal Administration David Froomkin (University of Houston Law Center) has posted Beyond Neoliberal Administration (in Building Democratic Capacity, forthcoming) on SSRN....
legaltheoryblog.com
Froomkin on Beyond Neoliberal Administration
David Froomkin (University of Houston Law Center) has posted Beyond Neoliberal Administration (in Building Democratic Capacity, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Recent developments in administrative law limit Congress’s ability to confer regulatory discretion on its administrative agents. Commentators have tended to view these developments as undermining progressive social policy, which has operated throughout the twenty-first century primarily through the administrative state.
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Reposted by David Froomkin
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The news just since I left work: -A planned livestream of an execution by firing squad -Trump basically trying to incite a pogrom against Somalis Nothing mysterious or complicated about what's happening.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is an excellent article. Thanks for writing/sharing it.
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Reposted by David Froomkin
Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I wrote about the case for the Montgomery Advertiser in 2022 (Pildes was very helpful with the piece). If I did nothing else with my career, I can say I found a photograph of Jackson Giles, the plaintiff at the center of the case and a remarkable man in his own right.
montgomeryadvertiser.com
The journey of Jackson Giles
In 1902, a janitor and longtime political activist took Alabama to the U.S. Supreme Court over voting rights. The court’s decision poisoned American law.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
CLS and law and economics have the same empirical analysis, just different normative appraisals of it.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"Democracy, Anti-Democracy, and the Canon" by @rickpildes.bsky.social is essential reading on the violent overthrow of the Reconstruction constitutions—and the Supreme Court's acquiescence. Equally important, Rick makes a powerful case for the value of majority rule for bringing about inclusion.
scholarship.law.umn.edu
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The playbook has to be shame, ostracize, and prosecute.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I think the concept of The Witness was literally Myst but with good puzzles.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Being interpretively charitable here, if Texas goes blue, I could definitely see Republicans calling for breaking the state up.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I see, "moderate Republican" now means one who is unwilling to violently overthrow the republic. That is an unfathomably low bar.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
If so, he is timing it pretty weirdly. I think Occam's razor is that he has zero self-awareness.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
At first I read this to be saying the opposite, because that seemed intuitively obvious. Then I assumed he had misspoken. But it seems he is actually saying that judges shouldn't worry about whether they are picking outcomes based on their policy preferences?
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Maybe more than a metaphor. The leader of a political party has made normalizing rape a signature issue, and this story seems like some evidence that his supporters have gotten the message.
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Reposted by David Froomkin
Megan Wachspress @meganwachspress.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
If this isn't the most brutal of metaphors for the status of women in US politics in 2026. She's brave for running against MAGA and brave for reporting and I am wishing Greene-Placentia all the strength and healing I can.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Woke Bill Kristol is delightful.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This guy—often said to be a sane, sensible, moderate Republican—asserts that “January 6 worked itself out” and that the “abhorrent behavior” of the next Democratic President will be worse than Trump’s. It doesn’t matter whether he is delusional or disingenuous. There are no moderate Republicans.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
And for conservatives (presumably correlated).
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
One change is that it would require senators in the minority to be present in order to accomplish their obstruction.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Interesting on both counts!
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Of course Bowsher boils down to Chadha (well, ok, and Myers), so does the Bowsher presidency boil down to the Chadha presidency?
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Reposted by David Froomkin
Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Excited to read this new paper by @jmichaels.bsky.social! I already love the title! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Bowsher Presidency
<div> The power of the purse is the principal source of Congress’s political l<span>everage over the executive branch. Yet in recent years, presidents have&nbs
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Reposted by David Froomkin
Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I highly recommend Froomkin's Salon piece.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Duverger's Law only applies at the district level. I imagine it is at least doing better there.
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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
After 10 years of cravenly and fraudulently presenting the Know-Nothing Nazified Republican Party as one of two sane, understandable choices, major news organizations are not able to report the obvious, which is that U.S. voters seem to be increasingly coming to their senses. Epic, epic fail.
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My cringe but real admission is: I really like the poem Jenny Kiss'd Me. I think this is probably up there in aesthetic circles with admitting you like the Two Headed Calf poem (which I also do like btw) but what can I say I am just basic like that.
Leigh Hunt
Jenny kiss'd me

JENNY kiss'd me when we met,
    Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
    Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
    Say that health and wealth have miss'd me,
Say I'm growing old, but add,
            Jenny kiss'd me.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Demanding the use of original "standards of decency" is exactly the thing I was talking about before that is huge mission creep from focusing on the meaning of words.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It has already started with the Free Speech Coalition case last year.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I think there is a deeper conceptual problem with history and tradition (beyond the problem that it's handwavy and manipulable) which is that it's not getting at original meaning at all! It's a fundamentally different thing from originalism.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
What would the consequence there be?
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Well I doubt even they are going to go all the way, which would mean the free speech clause only applies to prior restraints.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Pretty much the entirety of current First Amendment doctrine is non-originalist.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The original point of originalism, as I understand it, was about the meaning of words. That is, if words take on new meanings later in history, we should stick with the original meaning. And that makes a certain amount of sense. But the approach has morphed into intentionalism divorced from text.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I would think the opposite. Preventing courts from keeping executive actors accountable to law is preventing them from doing the thing they exist to do. Preventing them from refusing to apply the law seems much less objectionable to me.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
You mean that even if review of constitutional claims was barred, courts could still raise the constitutional issues sua sponte?
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Isn't that precisely the kind of jurisdiction-stripping that reformers want? Require courts to apply the law rather than set it aside?
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The article addresses the point about non-parallel readings of the Vesting Clauses (of which I am skeptical but which I assume for the sake of argument).
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
? You can see the context in which I raised it. You then replied, so I assumed you were replying to what was said above, which was about the article.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It tells executive actors (not) to do the things that statutes obligate them (not) to do.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Which goes back to your point about a mismatch between 18th-century assumptions and present practices.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
That seems right, but there is a problem in that Congress can't directly command the army, and ultimately their primary mechanism for holding accountable the person who does is impeachment.
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
(But it sounds like you are largely agreeing with my position in the article. I don't know whether you read it.)
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It says, "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."
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David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It might mean that as well.
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