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Jessica K. Lowe

@jessicaklowe.bsky.social
4.7K followers 1.5K following 176 posts

Author, historian, law prof @UVA Law, on leave; OH/KY native, part-owner of a KY holler. Web: www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profil… Book: a.co/d/fRe9crB

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Reposted by Jessica K. Lowe
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
"We become persons by the increase of negations—of finite characteristics—but there is a cat walking over this as I write and I must stop for it gives me no chance." —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., letter to Felix Frankfurter, 1913.
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Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
If you’re in the Princeton area, come and listen to me and @esglaude.bsky.social talk about my newest book, Jefferson a Reader on Race. This Sunday at 3 pm . princetonlibrary.libnet.info/event/16061539
princetonlibrary.libnet.info
Special Event: The Jefferson Paradox
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, joined by Eddie Glaude, discusses her book "Jefferson on Race," examining his ideals of equality and his contradictory life as a slaveholder.. Eve...
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/04/2026
the way this makes sense for RFK is that "healthy people" and "sick people" are ontological categories.
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Melinda Baldwin @mbaldwin.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
If anyone in history ever wants to talk about this, feel free to reach out to me! I had a somewhat unusual contingent academic --> non-academic --> tenured academic career path, but I'm happy to be useful in any way I can on this question. Big supporter of non-academic paths.
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Daryn Henry @jamesdarynhenry.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
For those in Virginia tepid or ambivalent, here’s a clarion and forceful argument to vote “YES” on redistricting tomorrow—from someone who intimately knows the costs and the stakes:
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
"We are pleased to share more than 125,000 U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs. These materials which span nearly two centuries of American law are now freely accessible online." "Includes records and briefs spanning cases from 1830 through 2019."
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John Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · 21/04/2026
Settling into “To Philly With Love,” the Hallmark movie about a historian falling in love with an archivist in Philly. decider.com/2026/04/18/t...
decider.com
Stream It Or Skip It: 'To Philly With Love' on the Hallmark Channel, where a historian researching a Revolution-era romance falls for a local archivist
…and of course there the romance features cheesesteaks, it would be a crime if it didn’t.
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Melanie @macsmail.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Cville peeps - heads up on 20 towards town, police pursuit currently happening.
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CIDRAP @cidrap.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Study links long COVID in kids to worse grades, attention span, and social life. School-aged children with long COVID had more than double the risk of decreased academic performance than those without the condition. 📝 Read more: ow.ly/uLlh50YLc1t
Image of a young student in grade school with their head propped in their hand, appearing to have fallen asleep in class.  A teacher is standing next to the student, appearing to nudge the student to wake up.
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Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
The winner of this year's WaPo Peeps Diorama Contest is "A Shaming of the Shoes." www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...
a bunch of peeps in a gaudy Oval Office wearing too-big shoes.
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John Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · 04/04/2026
Hey, my book comes out on Tuesday!
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Alex Blechman @alexblechman.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
The Supreme Court ruled that nobody is a U.S. citizen Chief Justice Roberts stated “No person can be in this country. We all have to leave. Now.” The judges packed up their robes and are getting on a boat
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Jessica K. Lowe @jessicaklowe.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Helpful survey of briefs and arguments. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
The nonsense case against birthright citizenship
Meet the conservative legal minds telling the Supreme Court to side with Trump.
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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
In 1869, a year after the 14A was ratified, the Lord Chief Justice articulated the common law rule on natural born subjects, shown here. Compare that with Thomas Jefferson’s 1783 notes on the common law. Is there any evidence that the LJC and TJ were wrong, but Professor Wurman et al. are right?
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Dr Kathleen Neal @kbneal.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Hi, Historian here. Just a heads up that the shape of the future is actually not inevitable or fixed. *You help make it happen. So try to make it the one you want*
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American Historical Association @historians.org · 30/03/2026
Grad students: want to publish your work and grow your voice as a historian? The AHA is selecting three grad students to write two columns each for online publication in #AHAPerspectives. It’s a chance to sharpen your writing and reach a wide audience. 🗓 Apply by April 27
historians.org
Want to Write for the AHA in 2026? – AHA
Submit your application by Monday, April 27!
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Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Spotted in the wild!
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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
"Let us not ask what AI can do for Oberlin students, but what Oberlin students can do ourselves, while we still have the brain capacity to think on our own." (Wondering if Luddite clubs might spring up at other schools where students are similarly frustrated with administrators' #AI obsession...)
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Rebecca Fachner @rebeccafachner.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
It’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Day. The fact that everyone knows about the Titanic and no one knows about the largest industrial disaster of the era says a lot about our priorities and how we view class and labor
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Dan Rosen @danrosen.xyz · 22/03/2026
Unfortunately, it was considered a mainstream science, with university depts, faculty, research programs. This doesn't make eugenics right or true, but it was authoritative. We have so much historical evidence about this process b/c important institutions were producing them
An architectural illustration close-up of the School of Architecture and Department of Applied Statistics and Eugenics the University College of London in 1913Twentieth-Century Eugenics at UVA
UVA dominated higher education in the southern United States as a center of eugenic teaching, research, and policy during the first half of the twentieth century. Under the leadership of Edwin Alderman, a southern progressive who became the first president of UVA in 1904, faculty who promoted the emerging “science” of eugenics were recruited to positions across the university, first in the school of education and the medical school, then in biology, psychology, and sociology. Alderman’s leadership was critical to turning the University of Virginia into the “epicenter of eugenics teaching in the state,” as detailed by Gregory Michael Dorr in Segregation’s Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia (2008). University faculty collaborated not only internally but nationally and internationally on eugenics research and educational programs. They moved into senior administrative positions in the university and throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, reinforcing a culture of scientific racism and white supremacy.David Heron’s 1910 monograph, “The Influence of Defective Physique and Unfavourable Home Environment on the Intelligence of School Children,” published by the Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics. A history of Eugenics in the Department of Genetics at U.W. Madison. The U.W. Madison Genetics Department was founded as the Department of Experimental Breeding in 1910, with a focus to apply genetics to agriculture. In 1911, as Eugenics was gaining steam as a public cause in the U.S.A., a number of professors and graduate students across campus, including Experimental Breeding Department Head Leon J. Cole, formed the Eugenics Club at the University of Wisconsin (9). This was created to provide a popular venue for bi-monthly lectures by experts, and began with 75 members and 100 regular attendees. A note in the American Breeders Magazine on club activities advocated both prevention of the reproduction of ‘defectives’ and encouraging academics to rear large and healthy families (9). This focus was recapitulated in specific departments, and Leon J. Cole presented eugenics in Experimental Breeding seminars and repurposed at least one eugenics lecture as a Popular Science Monthly article (10).
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Rather a lovely thread on the histories of science
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
I wrote a lot about Bob Mueller across a lot of chapters of his career. I wanted to share two @wired.com pieces that I wrote about his defining life experiences—both a picture of an era of public service all but lost today: 1) His brave *voluntary* service in Vietnam: www.wired.com/story/robert...
wired.com
The Untold Story of Robert Mueller's Time in Combat
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's job is to make sense of how Russia hacked the 2016 election. But to make sense of Mueller, you have to revisit Vietnam's bloodiest battles.
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Dr Rebecca Hall WakeProductions @wakerevolt.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Also why call it pseudoscience when the are actually still teaching medical racism? Like when I was told in 2024 by my UCSF Cardiologist that Black people have thicker heart muscles and that was why my blood pressure was high.(it was in fact a swollen adrenal gland, heart unrelated).
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
I describe it as such as a historian of disability because I want to remind scientists and the world that the history of science IS the history of eugenics, scientific racism and medical racism, and more. I’m not comforting them with the idea that it was a ‘pseudoscience.’ This is your history.
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Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
For Revolutionary historians it is a gem, and so are some other Thomson letters found in various archives. He was an incisive political analyst. I've often wondered whether he kept detailed notes of debates in the Continental Congress and later destroyed them (sing the historian's lamentations).
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Jessica K. Lowe @jessicaklowe.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
“He plays the violin, he tucks it right under his chin.” In case anyone was wondering when 10-11 yo Jessica started liking early American history….
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Charles Mathewes @ctmathewes.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
This is a big deal. apnews.com/article/juer...
apnews.com
Jürgen Habermas, influential German philosopher, dies at 96
German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has died at age 96. Habermas' work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figur...
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Jessica K. Lowe @jessicaklowe.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
In 2026, I made a resolution: to read through some popular books about the Am Revolution that have been gathering dust on my shelf. I’m picking a book a month, and invited some friends to join me. March’s book is Stacy Schiff’s The Revolutionary. Read with us! open.substack.com/pub/jessical...
open.substack.com
March Book: The Revolutionary
Stacy Schiff on Sam Adams
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GoalieLax @goalielax.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
WBAL in Baltimore helping viewers understand the difference between watches and warnings
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Gautham Rao (pronounced: Knicks in 5) @gauthamrao.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
I would add: even if you don’t call yourself a legal historian but study history involving law-ish stuff, you’ll find a welcoming, friendly and brilliant group of scholars at ASLH!
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American Historical Association @historians.org · 11/03/2026
In #AHAPerspectives, Anna Snyder considers how lawyers can join historians in shaping public conversations about the United States’ 250th anniversary—and reconnect legal history to the story of the founding. 🗃️
historians.org
With Revolutionary History’s Focus on Lawyers, Where Are They in 250th Commemorations? – AHA
What role should lawyers play in conversations about the United States’ 250th anniversary?
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The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 24/02/2026
Christopher Benfey on Jefferson and Madison’s excellent adventure
nybooks.com
Road Trippers | Christopher Benfey
In a thirty-three day ramble along the Hudson and Connecticut rivers in 1791, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison encountered many of the issues that would end up plaguing the United States.
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Jessica K. Lowe @jessicaklowe.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Dems I swear, if I have to type “stop” one more time in a reply text I’m gonna curl into a ball and cry. 10 yesterday! Stop sending me funding requests from random state senators thousands of miles away. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Seriously, call the HELP committee members and your own two Senators to tell them to sink this nomination. When I say Means is bad news, I mean *really bad.*
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Cassandra Good @cgoodhistorian.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Ellis does a disservice by repeating a common misinterpretation of this letter. She is talking about protecting wives from abusive husbands.
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FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Former ICE agent: My first day training new cadets, I received secretive orders to teach them to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a warrant. I watched ICE cut classes that teach our legal system, firearms training, use of force, lawful arrests, and the limits of officers' authority
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Tom Kindlon @tomkindlon.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
The Boston Globe: “A doctor watches his 28-year-old daughter suffer from long COVID. He clings fiercely to hope.” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/20/m... Screenshot from latest Science for ME weekly update #LongCovid #MEcfs #PASC #PwLC #postcovid #postcovid19
The Boston Globe “A doctor watches his 28-year-old daughter suffer from long COVID. He clings fiercely to hope.”
Profile of a woman living with severe Long Covid who has “developed the symptoms of ME/CFS.” “To this day, [her father] gets well-meaning advice from physician friends who show surprising ignorance about his daughter’s condition.”
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Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️ @phdrachel.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
And #HATM on Spotify- Latest episode featuring @hcrichardson.bsky.social on Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunters: 6/ open.spotify.com/episode/1uW8...
open.spotify.com
Episode 183: Heather Cox Richardson on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
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Jason Herbert @herberthistory.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
This week Historians At The Movies talks about the life, death, and memory of Medgar Evers. Join us on Netflix this Sunday, February 22 at 8pm eastern for GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI. If you believe in what #HATM is doing, share this and we’ll see you soon.
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Jon Collins @jcollins.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Two female ICE agents popped the hood of their car and knocked on the door of a mechanic born in Mexico. He went out to help. “A bunch of agents jump out and tackle him, essentially restraining him, and take him away...His six kids are now without their father." www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
mprnews.org
ICE drawdown? Indications point to steady enforcement activity outside the Twin Cities
Some people who observe ICE activity are skeptical about a large scale drawdown of agents in the state. There are indications that activity has decreased in the Twin Cities, but has continued outside ...
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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
You'll be back, time will tell You'll remember that I served you well
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Jessica K. Lowe @jessicaklowe.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
This year, I’m trying a thing. Some IRL friends and I are going to read together some books about the American Revolution, and I thought my online friends — and new ones! — might want to read along. Come join us! More information at the link. open.substack.com/pub/jessical...
open.substack.com
The American Revolutionary Book Club
Come join us.
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Steven L. Johnson @stevenljohnson.org · 12/02/2026
Thank you to @mike-pruitt.bsky.social for being willing to run in the first place and for his continued service on the county BOS
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Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Legendary founder of NPR programming Bill Siemering is enjoying Zoom visiting with students so much that he's asked me to put a second call out. No honorarium necessary. Any takers?
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honor sachs @drhonor.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH A HISTORY MAJOR
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Omg. WTF is Happening? @lalahaenzy.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue
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Jessica K. Lowe @jessicaklowe.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
We Were Top Homeland Security Lawyers. You Can’t Wish Away the Fourth Amendment. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | We Were Top Homeland Security Lawyers. You Can’t Wish Away the Fourth Amendment.
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Linda Monk @lindarmonkjd.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
For me the equivalent was taking a course on the First Amendment with Archibald Cox (in law school).
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Jessica K. Lowe @jessicaklowe.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Never mind the jobs you had; tell me five classes you took in college: 1. Differential equations (yep, started out a math major 2. Death, Dying, & Quality of Life (Biomedical ethics) 3. History of the Am Rev 4. Religion, Politics, & Public Policy 5. History of the Civil Rights Movt w/ Julian Bond
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