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Jake Charles

@jacobdcharles.bsky.social
6.8K followers 2.1K following 2.4K posts

Law prof, Pepperdine Law; Affiliated Scholar, Duke Center for Firearms Law. I write about constitutional law, especially the Second Amendment. Views my own. Bio: t.co/yVUcs14NoK Papers: bit.ly/3HleQND

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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I was raised conservative & joined the College Republicans in undergrad. There’s been a shift since, but sometimes I wonder abt whether I could still position myself to go after that $1 million award for heterodox opinions. Alas, I don’t think the kind I have is the kind the award is oriented to.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Wowww he doesn’t even call it The Trump Strait…sheeesh smdh
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
THATS *MORE THAN* HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS IN ONE YEAR. I’m sorry but everything is Monopoly money now. That’s just how it is - I don’t make the rules.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is a fun flight update to get. It’s fine that my connection leaves before I get to the connecting airport, right??
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Brianne Gorod @briannegorod.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
If you're a law student who wants to spend your summer working in the public interest & is interested in appellate advocacy, apply to join the @myconstitution.bsky.social team this summer! www.theusconstitution.org/legal-intern... 1/2
theusconstitution.org
Legal Internship Summer 2027 | Constitutional Accountability Center
About CAC Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) is a nonprofit law firm and think tank dedicated to fulfilling the inherently progressive promise of the Constitution’s text, history, and values. ...
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The cat apparently thought these shoes just might fit her
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Wait, is it the same DOJ making laughable arguments in defense of Trump that said just says ago it will not even defend duly enacted federal gun laws that many lower courts have upheld as constitutionally permissible? @mikesacks.bsky.social
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I’m not exaggerating when I say that the second proposal here is a raw violation of VanDyke’s oath to uphold the Constitution. The 10th Amendment & federalism be damned if one state has a gun law that others don’t. The full dissent is worse & VanDyke writes alone again bc no one joins tantrums.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Unreasonably excited for my most recent book haul—spanning quite a decent time span!
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Michael Smith @msmith750.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My essay, "The Absence of Original Meaning in Second Amendment Cases," is forthcoming in the Quinnipiac Law Review! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... I argue that the Court's Second Amendment cases from 2022 to last term indicate an increasing unwillingness to engage in historical, textual meaning.
The Absence of Original Meaning in Second Amendment Cases
45 Quinnipiac Law Review (Forthcoming 2027)

23 Pages Posted: Last revised: 21 Sep 2026
Michael L. Smith
University of Oklahoma - College of Law

Date Written: September 21, 2026

Abstract
In New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, the Supreme Court set forth a two-step analysis for adjudicating Second Amendment challenges. At step one, courts are to consider whether the behavior the challenged law restricts falls under the Second Amendment’s plain text. If it does, courts should proceed to step two, where the burden is on the government to demonstrate that the law is consistent with a historical tradition of analogous firearm restrictions. Proving such a tradition is difficult, and results remain unpredictable. Governments and courts hoping to avoid such a historical quagmire might be inclined to decide cases at the first step of the analysis by concluding that a case involves individuals, activities, or arms beyond the Second Amendment’s plain text. One might think that the Court would be receptive to such arguments, as it has emphasized the importance of the original meaning of the Second Amendment’s text in its early cases.

One would be wrong. The Court’s latest rulings in United States v. Hemani and Wolford v. Lopez render Bruen’s first step illusory. In Hemani, the Court bypassed the first step, concluding it had been conceded. More significantly, in Wolford, the Court relied on a prolonged hypothetical analysis of conduct the law at issue might burden, and limited consideration of historical evidence to the second step of the analysis where the burden is on the government to prove up a historical tradition that grounds the modern restriction. If such analysis is enough to overcome Bruen’s step one, just about anything will.

This development demonstrates the Court’s unwillingness to engage with original public meaning—an approach that Justices and scholars frequently proclaim to be…
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
#ICYMI
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Trump’s DOJ says it will not enforce the federal law barring gun sales to 18-20 year olds because it violates the 2nd Amendment. SCOTUS has so far declined every opportunity to resolve the circuit split. www.justice.gov/olc/media/14...
(Slip Opinion)
Application of 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) to
Young Adults
prevents young adults, who are members of "the people" to whom the Second
Nation's tradition of firearm regulation, which it cannot do.
September 17, 2026
MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Our laws deem an eighteen-year-old "mature enough to be drafted, vote, serve as a juror, and be sentenced to deathại One such eighteen-year-old represented the United States at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, shooting skeet? Yet, due to statutes predicated on concerns over an eighteen-year-old's ability to handle a pistol as a responsible adult, it would have been a federal felony if a licensed dealer had sold her such a firearm before she left or after she returned to her studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. See 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(1), (c)(1). You have asked whether that restriction may be enforced against otherwise law-abiding citizens between the ages of eighteen and twenty who seek to purchase a handgun consistent with the individual right to keep and bear arms recognized by District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), and
"fleshed out," Wolford v. Lopez, 146 S. Ct. 2032, 2043 (2026), in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022). It may not. Section 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) may not be enforced to impose criminal penalties on dealers who sell handguns to a class of law-abiding adults who, in nearly every other relevant respect, are members of the political community.In sum, because the modern federal age restrictions limit young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty from obtaining arms, they "fall[] within the plain text of the Second Amendment" and are "presumptively unconstitutional." Wolford, 146 S. Ct. at 2044. As we have not identified
"any analogue or collection of analogues" that "is 'relevantly similar' to the modern law," our view is that the government is unable to overcome this presumption. Id. (quoting Bruen, 142 S. Ct. at 2132).
In reaching this conclusion, we are aware that we are not writing on a
government (state or federal) to bar young adults from obtaining firearms has deeply divided members of the federal bench. 42 Having carefully considered these courts' decisions, we do not think that their reasons for reaching a contrary conclusion under Bruen can be reconciled with the Court's intervening clarifications in Hemani and Wolford. 4 Thus, we do
advice it gives you as you assist the President in the performance of his independent constitutional duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." U.S. Const. art. II, § 3; see also Application of the Rehabilita-
Patients with Severe Mental Illness or Disabilities, 50 Op. O.L.C. _, at
*12 (June 18, 2026); Section 1715 at *14; cf. Eric S. Fish, Prosecutorial Constitutionalism, 90 S. Cal. L. Rev. 237, 254 (2017) (noting that "a number of important constitutional rights go underenforced by judges"_and
42 Compare Reese, 127 F.4th 583 (invalidating the federal age restrictions at issue here), Worth, 108 F.4th 677 (invalidating Minnesota's age-based public-carry re-
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, 121 F.4th 96 (sustaining Colorado's age-based purchase restrictions).
1687.that Executive Branch officials should "supplement judges' enforcement
ing processesằ_.
We conclude by noting, however, a few limits on this opinion. For ex-ample, we do not address the age-neutral conditions and qualifications on commercial sales, the prohibition on the possession of handguns by those under eighteen, 18 U.S.C. § 922(x), or even the enhanced investigative period Congress has prescribed for purchasers under twenty-one, id.
§ 922(t) (1)(C); see also generally McRorey v. Garland, 99 F.4th 831 (5th Cir. 2024). And nothing in this opinion should be read to cast doubt on the distinct prohibitions of section 922(g), certain of which the Supreme Court has recently discussed with approval. See Hemani, 146 S. Ct. at 1692 n.6.
tion as it applies to sales to persons under eighteen, who-though part of
"the people" for the purposes of the Constitution-may constitutionally be subject to certain legal disabilities until they reach the age of majority,
Part II.B.2; cf. Paxton, 145 S. Ct. at 2300.
Instead, we conclude only that section 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) may not be enforced to impose criminal penalties on dealers who sell handguns, the
"quintessential self-defense weapon," Heller, 554 U.S. at 629, to a class
of the political community.
T. ELLIOT GAISER
Assistant Attorney General
Office of Legal Counsel
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
NEW: I have a more staid, in-depth look at the Second Amendment assault weapon case the Supreme Court will hear in December in this piece over at the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. 📝 chkbal.substack.com/p/the-suprem...
chkbal.substack.com
The Supreme Court’s Coming Assault Weapon Stress Test
The justices will grapple with the brittleness of Bruen’s past-bound test in the face of vast change
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LSM @slukemorgan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I'm going to write about this (soon) but in the context of a practically unamendable constitution it is logically incoherent to treat decisions about constitutional rights coverage in particular as in any way "democratic"
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Gift link to my @slate.com piece criticizing the assault weapon challengers' invocations of democracy. One response to the argument I make is that the Constn is the expression of We The People & so arguing to strike these laws isn't anti-democratic. Two points in reply 🧵 slate.com/news-and-pol...
slate.com
We Found the Most Galling Argument of the Upcoming Supreme Court Term (Gift Article)
This fall, the Supreme Court will entertain a Second Amendment challenge to the prohibition of assault weapons in Viramontes v. Cook County.
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Niko Bowie @nikobowie.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Here's a gift link to our piece today in Slate
slate.com
John Roberts’ New Role Model Demonstrates Everything Wrong With the Supreme Court (Gift Article)
If the court is curling up anywhere, it is at the feet of a presidency increasingly unchecked by law.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Gift link to my @slate.com piece criticizing the assault weapon challengers' invocations of democracy. One response to the argument I make is that the Constn is the expression of We The People & so arguing to strike these laws isn't anti-democratic. Two points in reply 🧵 slate.com/news-and-pol...
slate.com
We Found the Most Galling Argument of the Upcoming Supreme Court Term (Gift Article)
This fall, the Supreme Court will entertain a Second Amendment challenge to the prohibition of assault weapons in Viramontes v. Cook County.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
New from me in @slate.com: the challengers who want to invalidate assault weapons ban cloak themselves in the language of democracy, but their goal is to undermine the people's right to govern, not preserve or protect it. 👇 slate.trib.al/qePXfCA
slate.trib.al
We Found the Most Galling Argument of the Upcoming Supreme Court Term
This fall, the Supreme Court will entertain a Second Amendment challenge to the prohibition of assault weapons in Viramontes v. Cook County.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Am I the only one who gets embarrassed to be so enthusiastically congratulated on *standing up* after sitting for an excessively long time?? I mean, heck, I’ll take the praise where I can get it, but it still feels like a few rungs below a participation trophy.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
NEW: Incoming impact of Wolford--federal court concludes several Delaware ghost gun regulations violate the Second Amendment. I'm grateful for the cite here, but I'm not sure the court's view on manufacturing makes much sense. 🧵 www.ded.uscourts.gov/sites/ded/fi...
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Since the govt decided to charge a firearms crime, wonder if we will get the chance to see the historical tradition that supports this law against Second Amendment challenge, a law which SCOTUS precedent suggests must be presumed to be unconstitutional?
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Joel Johnson @joeljohnson13.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Vanderbilt Law Review will be publishing my latest, “Legality Canons.” It argues for a new way to understand many of the so-called substantive canons that the Supreme Court now employs. 🔗 👇🏻
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Jamal Greene @jamalgreene.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
In which my colleague Dave Pozen and I articulate the (uneasy) case for a constitutional convention. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Back to Philadelphia? The Uneasy Case for a New Constitutional Convention
<p><span>No country has ever had a written constitution in longer continuous operation than the United States. Such resilience is cause for commemoration. But f
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Had a great time chatting with @alextyoung.bsky.social for the Guns Unpacked podcast about all things Second Amendment. This summer sure gave us a lot to talk about! 🎙️ rss.com/podcasts/gun...
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Watching Father of the Bride II with the kids & it’s kinda offensive how old they portray people in their mid-40s.
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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Very interesting looking new piece from Joseph Blocher and David Pozen! balkin.blogspot.com/2026/09/cons...
balkin.blogspot.com
Balkinization: Constitutional Law and “Common Sense” Gun and Drug Regulation
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Woo! 👇
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Tommy Bennett @tommybennett.com · 08/09/2026
I'm happy to announce a new resource for Supreme Court watchers: supremecourt.report. Read on for more 🧵
supremecourt.report
Supreme Court Report
Every case the Supreme Court is asked to hear, what it asks, and the odds it is granted — rebuilt three times a day from the Court's own docket.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This analogy is so instructive bc it highlights that repeating stuff like this from enough places of power actually *does* change Law.
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Niko Bowie @nikobowie.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The Jeffersonians also increased the number of justices for partisan reasons! (After a lame duck Congress decreased the number to prevent them from appointing anyone.) People can make up “history and tradition” all they want, incanting the phrase doesn’t make it on their side
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Listen I’m not an expert but I just don’t see why athletes wouldn’t qualify as securities under the ‘34 Act. The SEC should rethink this decision.
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Oren Tamir @orentaoren.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
🌵CfP for the best constitutional law conference of the year is now officially out! Please circulate widely and consider joining us in lovely Tucson On March 12-13, 2027. More details about how to apply/register here: myemail.constantcontact.com/National-Con...
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This fall the Supreme Court will hear a case on whether the 2nd Amendment permits states & localities to ban assault weapons, like the AR-15. You'll hear a lot about how "only" 11 states have such bans. But their combined population is more than 115 million, subjecting 1 in 3 Americans to such laws.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Feels like we need to get someone on requiring rigorous cost-benefit analyses before kids’ extracurriculars can hold “mandatory parent meetings.”
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think lawyers should say false things in a brief, even if they are quoting a Supreme Court justice saying them. This (left) is from the Viramontes petr's brief & it's been debunked so many times it's nauseating. Here (right) is from J. Blocher's most recent piece.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Exciting news on the fall submission cycle: rejections are still coming through. Remember, if you are in line to receive a rejection, stay in line!
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Boy am I glad Bruen’s test limits judicial discretion…. These vague yet load-bearing descriptions, open to an interpretive breadth limited only by the eye of the beholder, seem like not much more than than cursory conclusions designed to fit the case.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
CA3 rejects 2nd Amendment challenge to the federal ban on machine gun possession. Trump judge writes unanimous panel opinion for Obama and Biden judges. www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/242...
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
WOLFORD OVERRULED RAHIMI AND REINSTATED BRUEN
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Quinn Yeargain @yeargain.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I'm very happy to announce that I'm hosting the THIRD Annual Democracy and Public Law Works-in-Progress Conference at Michigan State from April 2–3, 2027. The registration portal is below, where there's additional information about the schedule and timing. msu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
the entrance to the Michigan State University College of Law
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I’m not joking that if the next potus does this the formalists on the Court will absolutely with a straight face—& in a condescending manner—argue that Trump clearly has standing in that case bc of his close tie to the ballroom, making him injured more authentically than the Trust today.
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Duke Center for Firearms Law @dukefirearmslaw.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
5 new Cert petitions filed this week, including one that asks the Court to recognize a self-defense exception to 922(g)(1). Plus, 43 cases listed for the Court's first OT26 conference on 9/28--34 of which are felon-in-possession challenges. firearmslaw.duke.edu/2026/08/scot...
firearmslaw.duke.edu
SCOTUS Gun Watch 8/31/2026 | Duke Center for Firearms Law
The Court received 5 new cert petitions on firearms law issues in the last week. They are: 1 challenge to 922(g)(1) (felons), 1 to 922(g)(3) (drug users & addicts), 1 regarding interstate reciprocity ...
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Jamal Greene @jamalgreene.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
And since, in the posture of this decision, the Court must assume his action to be ultra vires, the dissent’s description is clearly more appropriate.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
If Trump had done it, this Court woulda been like, "In April 1952, the federal government seized the nation's steel mills."
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Something remarkably telling in how the majority (left) and dissent (right) ascribe the actor undertaking the demolition project. Much easier to ignore illegality if you imagine the conduct as that of the whole fed govt. The president doesnt even show up as an agent at all in the majority's opinion.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
This is one heck of a "cf." -- apparently the majority reads CASA to stand for the inability of courts to enjoin coordinate branches! Dem presidents would get a kick out of this.
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
P3: "the decision whether a type of arm is too dangerous for ordinary Americans to possess is one that the people are entitled to make, not one that courts are empowered to make for them." Uh..the people did decide by making law; the complaint here is that cts didnt OVERRULE that democratic choice
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Banger post from @kevinschascheck.bsky.social up at @dukefirearmslaw.bsky.social. Does a great job demonstrating how Wolford enacts a shift in Second Amendment methodology that makes it harder for policymakers to defend gun laws. firearmslaw.duke.edu/2026/08/wolf...
firearmslaw.duke.edu
Wolford and Methodological Choice | Duke Center for Firearms Law
The Supreme Court is often accused of adjudicating cases with political ends in mind. The Court’s broader methodological moves, however, are equally concerning. Those moves were on display in the Supr...
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Okay I have noob question about British monarchy for historians or those up on these things (I bet @anthonymkreis.bsky.social will laugh at this): why is George I the start of the Hanoverian line when his great grandad is James I? Why wouldn’t that make him a continuation of the Stuart house?
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Jake Charles @jacobdcharles.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Trying to find the genesis for language in North Carolina's outlawry statute & came across something interesting here, I think.
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