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Kat Macfarlane

@katmacfarlane.bsky.social
5.6K followers 2.6K following 875 posts

Law prof interested in civil rights, disability, and procedure. At war with my immune system. I have the best dog. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAu…

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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 24m
For those who cannot receive the MMR vaccine or booster (or must stop their life-altering meds for months to do so), this is chilling. I had to stop my meds for a horrible 6-month stretch in my 30s to get the MMR (couldn’t as a JRA baby) and haven’t been well enough since to stop them for a booster.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 22h
I know that Swifties have a strong claim on Fall but I like to think of this as Patty Griffin season. Let’s put on our sweaters and too-thin scarves, drink our coffee black and listen to Patty’s sadness.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 22h
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 22h
Looking forward to seeing my Ed OCR friends and emerging scholars at this upcoming scholars forum! See you @georgetownlaw.bsky.social
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My journey into the thriller genre continues and I’m really enjoying Heather.
us.macmillan.com
Heather
A small-town detective reopens an unsolved case, sending shock waves across generations of women in this gripping new mystery from the Edgar Award–winning ...
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Visited the Brownsburg Museum’s Interwoven exhibit today. Such a kind reaction when I shared what I do for a living.
thebrownsburgmuseum.org
HOME | Brownsburg Museum, Big things come in small places.
The Brownsburg Museum is a small all-volunteer award-winning community history museum.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Consistent with the overall backlash against anything perceived to be an accommodation. Ableism all around.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The Prosser Torts casebook includes a discussion of Rondini and the sexual consent Rstmt section, which we covered recently in class. Which made the recent news coming out of Cornell much easier to contextualize. Including this material (and teaching it) matters!
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Edward Hopper @edwardhopper.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Hopper painted Railroad Sunset (1929) from memories of American train journeys. It places a stark railroad signal tower against a biblical-scale sunset. The precise geometry and vast sky embody his vision of modernity amid eternal landscapes.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A new wave of higher ed policies are targeting accommodations and time. Always happy to talk to student journalists about what’s going on. Keep your eye on disability in higher ed.
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Law Dork @lawdorknews.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Thread from @chrisgeidner.bsky.social on today's rare en banc D.C. Circuit arguments over Judge Boasberg's effort to consider whether Trump admin officials should be held in contempt for their Alien Enemies Act flight actions in March 2025. It did not go well for the DOJ lawyer. —>
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The gift we all needed
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Cooper wishes you all a great week and offers these contemplative poses to help you get there
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Trying to be slick and sneak away followed by the reaction to having to get back inside the porch
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Will always have a soft spot for enterprising student journalists. Spoke to a wonderful reporter chasing down a disability story for their college newspaper today and was super impressed. @thedailynu.bsky.social set the bar high and I love it when young people remind me of their power.
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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Does the Supreme Court usually have to do a little PS that explains exactly what the district court and the court of appeals are *not* to do. No, no they do not. bsky.app/profile/stev...
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This dog is almost too happy out and about with his dog walker. Look at these adventures.
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Andi Zeisler @andizeisler.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A woman was drugged, raped, and sexually trafficked to members of a fraternity. Two of the men involved were expelled. Five were given the opportunity to mitigate suspension by *writing an essay.* The dozens of other men who knew this was happening and said nothing? You already know the answer.
cornellsun.com
EDITORIAL | Cornell Won’t, We Will
The Editorial Board demands that Cornell stops protecting the alleged Chi Phi rapists through the University's opaque sexual assault policies.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
dredf.org
National Disability Organizations Condemn the Federal Government’s Abandonment of Its Commitment to Community Integration for People with Disabilities, as Approved by the Court in Texas v. Kennedy - D...
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I love those people what a funny thing to do every day
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
“Every day 4%”
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
And, they're back. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/09...
nytimes.com
Trump Press Ban Live Updates: CNN, MS NOW and Politico Return to White House After Fight Over Access
A federal court ordered the Trump administration to reverse its ban on the outlets, but reporters were initially denied entry to the White House grounds on Thursday.
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Doron Dorfman @dorfmandoron.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🚨 New Paper Alert 🚨 Thrilled to share my new article, Subordination Through Healthcare Reform, forthcoming in the Ohio State Law Journal! It examines how OBBBA/H.R. 1 reshapes access to Medicaid and the ACA Marketplace through an anti-subordination lens. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
For more than a century, American healthcare policy has been shaped by a persistent tension between viewing healthcare access as a collective right versus a privilege hinged on individual deservingness. The healthcare reform initiated by the second Trump administration has clearly embraced the latter view. Yet it has not done so through the sweeping “repeal and replace” efforts that animated debate in the 2010s. Instead, the administration has pursued a more granular strategy of “death by a thousand cuts.” By targeting the technical rules encompassing public health insurance programs, including enrollment and eligibility procedures, caregiver payment rules, and cost-sharing structures, it has pursued the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid, an effort that largely escapes public scrutiny despite being projected to produce devastating coverage losses.
This Article analyzes the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), also known as H.R. 1, through the prism of anti-subordination theory: a framework that focuses on how policies perpetuate social hierarchies and structurally disadvantage marginalized groups. The analysis focuses on two aspects of the current assault on healthcare access. The first is the sweeping fraud investigations targeting Medicaid’s Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs, coupled with cuts to federal funding for those programs, and explicit threats to reverse the shift from institutionalization to community-based living for people with disabilities. The second is the restructuring of Medicaid and ACA Marketplace enrollment, including new administrative burdens such as work requirements, periodic eligibility redeterminations, the repeal of Special Enrollment Periods for low-income enrollees, and new barriers to obtaining premium tax credits. This analysis makes two contributions. First, it shows how “mundane” regulatory changes can produce structural discrimination as harmful as sweeping “repeal and replace” efforts.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Expulsion from a benefits program for supposed fakery never works. This is another facet of @dorfmandoron.bsky.social’s fear of the disability con work. The underlying premise here—that so many are undeserving of healthcare—breaks my heart. Imagine the interruptions and heartache this will cause.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Cooper and I are having a wonderful semester here in Lexington VA. But he wants me to know that I can always do better.
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KFF @kff.org · 16/09/2026
“There are more than enough needs to go around in American health care, but if I had to pick the one group that struggles the most with costs and access, it would be people with chronic illnesses who are also uninsured,” writes KFF’s Drew Altman. More in his new column: on.kff.org/4Aji0ef
on.kff.org
The Group that Struggles the Most in American Health Care
In a new column, Dr. Drew Altman, KFF's Founding President and CEO, previews findings about the chronically ill uninsured from a large KFF survey of 25,000 Americans focusing on the cost and access ch...
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Really appreciate the new sexual consent unit in the latest Prosser & Keeton casebook. To the co-author who added this section, well done (including the TM info).
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Seth Rockman @sethrockman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is a big one: Brown University is searching for the next director of the Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Please help us identify excellent candidates to lead this signature program into the future. Please write me with ideas; please share in your networks; please apply.
networks.h-net.org
Brown University - Professor and Director of the Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice | H-Net
1. Academic Accomplishment. We seek a scholar with a strong scholarly record, including excellence in both research and teaching, appropriate for appointment at the level of full professor in a social science, humanities, or arts department at Brown.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Cooper wishes you a good week but will also judge you
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
We owe our students much, much more.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This piece also includes a history of disability resource centers, and a review of what they offer today. I searched for disability resource centers that offer something beyond information about reasonable accommodations--and a good resource was hard to find.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Accommodation officers were moved into DEI spaces but not much else happened with respect to disability. Of course, accommodations are simply legal obligations that pre-date DEI and (in theory) survive its demise.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"When Disability Is Different: Reasonable Accommodations and Higher Ed DEI," is out in the Case West L Rev. and takes a hard look at what DEI meant for students with disabilities in higher ed. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
When Disability Is Different: Reasonable Accommodations & Higher Ed DEI
This essay examines how the dismantling of higher education diversity, equity, and inclusion ("DEI") has impacted the range of services provided to st
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Corey Rayburn Yung @coreyryung.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Prisoners paying off kids' school lunch debts speaks to the US's failures at so many levels.
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 03/09/2026
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem, a major voice in the U.S. women’s movement for more than six decades, has died. She was 92. to.pbs.org/4zYGZTW
An image of Gloria Steinem with the years 1934-2026.
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Corinne Blalock @corinneblalock.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
still one of my favorite things we’ve ever put on the blog!!
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Picked up some great books at a local Lexington VA bookstore this weekend including Frank X. Walker’s beautiful Load In Nine Times collection.
wwnorton.com
Load in Nine Times
A stirring and historically substantive tribute to literal freedom fighters that provides inspiration and instruction for all who believe in liberation in illiberal times. —Cortney Lamar CharlestonSou...
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I will eventually get over it but it is VERY exciting to see female VMI cadets out and about here in Lexington.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Great first week of classes here @wlulaw.bsky.social! Lovely view from my office and so many welcoming colleagues and students.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
My piece Disability and Constitutional Legitimacy sought to counter arguments, statutory or otherwise, about the viability of a class of non-disabled people who challenge disability-friendly law. I compared Section 504's language to Title VI's --explaining why disability law is, for now, different:
washingtonlawreview.org
Disability and Constitutional Legitimacy - Washington Law Review
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I had to say thank you.
meditationsinanemergency.com
In Praise of Dolly Parton, 1946-2026, Our Goddess of Kindness
We will always love her, and there will never be another like her, this artist who came out of deep rural poverty in the 1960s to become not just a staggeringly great performer and songwriter but phil...
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Doron Dorfman @dorfmandoron.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Delighted to be quoted in this excellent @bloomberglaw.com piece on employment discrimination lawsuits brought by plaintiffs with Long Covid. And especially to be cited alongside colleagues I deeply admire: Nicole Porter, Wendy Parmet, and Joe Seiner 🔥 news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-...
news.bloomberglaw.com
Long Covid Bias Cases Fight Long Odds Even Before Reaching Court
Federal courts have rarely ruled on whether long Covid qualifies as a disability afforded protections under workplace anti-bias law, even as the condition remains more prevalent in the population than...
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
#BREAKING: Over dissents from the three Dem. appointees, #SCOTUS has *granted* the Trump administration’s request to freeze a district court injunction that had blocked the mail-in ballots executive order. But Trump’s EO remains blocked by a different injunction in a different case—at least for now:
supremecourt.gov
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Yes Lindsay!
sportsbusinessjournal.com
Major League Volleyball names Lindsay Amstutz president of L.A. expansion franchise
Major League Volleyball has named veteran sports media exec Lindsay Amstutz president of its L.A. franchise ahead of the team’s inaugural 2027 season as it prepares to enter one of the country’s most ...
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Jennifer Oliva @jennoliva.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I wrote a short essay for The Conversation about the U.S. government’s ever more expansive collection of sensitive health care data domestically and abroad AND theconversation.com/us-governmen...
theconversation.com
US government is pushing to gain unprecedented access to your medical records – as data protections are weakening
Large datasets can be useful research tools, but current government efforts to gather medical records depend on policy and technology that falls short of protecting people’s privacy.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I’ve been taking Cooper to land that people rent out on an app called Sniff Spot (which really should be called ‘Bad Dog Dog Parks’) where you and your bad dog get the entire space to yourselves. It’s been amazing for both of us.
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Very happy in nature not so happy about the post-nature bath
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Kat Macfarlane @katmacfarlane.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Way to go my friend! Your work is groundbreaking.
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Michael Smith @msmith750.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
NYU Law Review has a nice AI disclosure requirement that lets you include an optional explanation of your philosophy regarding AI use in drafting legal scholarship at the end of the document. Always happy to share my thoughts.
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Scott MacFarlane @macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
FLASH: Justice Dept seeks to dismiss Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn Trump Admin acknowledges: "Damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor"
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