iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 14/09/2026

This is what the monitor and projector looked like in my first class this morning.

260

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 06/09/2026

Not to inundate people with comics, but my collection is growing.

140

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 01/09/2026

I mentioned I’ve gotten back into collecting comic books. I got my grail book yesterday. I’ve wanted this since Spider-Man 2 came out in 2004.

091

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 28/08/2026

He fathered children with Sally Hemings, one of his slaves. He said black people love each other the same way as white people, but that it was just “lust.” He said black people are brave, but only because they’re too stupid to understand danger.

Excerpt from Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia”

1181

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 27/08/2026

Okay. I very much look forward to reading this paper and/or hearing the lecture if it’s recorded.

431302

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 26/08/2026

Rare picture of Reggie and Abe together.

1140

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 26/08/2026

The University of Austin’s syllabus for an intellectual foundations course. Readings on “civic and political freedom” include Federalist #49 written by an enslaver, and a biography of an enslaver written by an enslaver Chief Justice.

251

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 18/08/2026

Excellent collection of primary sources with an equally excellent introduction by Pitcaithley.

0114

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 17/08/2026

Trivia: Which president is this?

510

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 14/08/2026

My summer conlaw essay question. I love writing these.

171

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 04/08/2026

When you look at the news in 2026…

092

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 03/08/2026

Describe yourself in 4 TV characters.

160

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 26/07/2026

Visited the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop in Chicago today. It’s one of the most incredible stores I’ve ever been to. Here are my purchases.

2241

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 22/07/2026

Picked this up. I’m anxious to see how it compares to Michael Holt’s volume on the election.

161

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 21/07/2026

I was up in northern Wisconsin this weekend.

0150

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 14/07/2026

Trump is apparently laying the groundwork for delegitimization of the midterms.

98828

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 13/07/2026

New one for the office. Original 1960s theatrical re-release.

1100

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 13/07/2026

Mr. Abe sleeping while I watched Band of Brothers.

1110

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 12/07/2026

We shouldn’t celebrate the death of anyone.

541

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 03/07/2026

Gaspare Saladino’s copy of Eric Foner’s classic book. Saladino was a student of Merrill Jensen and an editor of the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution.

070

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 02/07/2026

Me agreeing with Adrian Vermeule? Maybe horseshoe theory is real! Lol.

6170

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 02/07/2026

FYI: Rusk says the federal government can’t strip you of your citizenship unless you consent.

0144

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 30/06/2026

Sharing because it’s not too often my wonderful spouse cares about the Supreme Court (she’s smarter than me).

160

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 29/06/2026

From Barrett's majority: we've progressed since the 19th century and Alito and Thomas think that's a bad thing?? Shocking.

070

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 26/06/2026

These things are silly, yet I can’t resist taking them. Also my Catholic upbringing is apparently very much with me.

3100

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 24/06/2026

“Which is the only goal I care about”

7152

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 24/06/2026

Some really good essays in here.

1100

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 22/06/2026

I am pleased to have contributed to @liberalcurrents.com’s “Reconstruction Papers” project. I’ve attached screenshots of my contribution, “Reconstructing the Executive Branch.”

17218

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 21/06/2026

No joke, it arrived today! @rachelshelden.bsky.social Thank you, @sonyabonczek.bsky.social for sending it my way! Can’t wait to dig in.

3183

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 16/06/2026

This was my most recent interaction with him. Seems unobjectionable, but I’ve found that Kurt gets sensitive if challenged.

150

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 16/06/2026

He’s such an unserious person.

250

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 08/06/2026

@jgienapp.bsky.social wrote a fantastic essay to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gordon Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The book, along with Bailyn’s “Ideological Origins,” set the terms of debate for the next decades. Link to the essay in the next post:

193

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 02/06/2026

@mgraber1.bsky.social, Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil

161

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 02/06/2026

George Van Cleve, A Slaveholders’ Union

120

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 02/06/2026

Sean Wilentz, No Property in Man Wilentz argues that the Constitution was antislavery because the framers did not recognize “property in man.”

120

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 02/06/2026

Paul Finkelman, Slavery and the Founders and Supreme Injustice

120

Pat Sobkowski @patsobkowski.com · 02/06/2026

Don Fehrenbacher, The Slaveholding Republic Fehrenbacher argues that the Constitution itself was more or less agnostic on slavery. But the federal government allowed the institution to survive, both domestically and internationally.

140