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Rick Hills

@rickhills.bsky.social
5.5K followers 432 following 467 posts

William T Comfort III Professor of Law, NYU Law School, studying & teaching local gov’t, landuse regulation, const’l law, fed courts, admin law, legislation, and federalism. Forlorn hope: reduce stakes and polarization by decentralizing divisive decisions.

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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
😊 gothamist.com/news/new-apa...
gothamist.com
New apartments are coming and there’s nothing these 12 neighborhoods can do to stop it
The Mamdani administration released a list of 12 community districts subject to a “fast-track” housing approval process first initiated by his predecessor.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
SCOTUS in Cook relied on the precedent of the Banks of the United States to uphold the Fed’s independence. But that’s historical amnesia: The BUS was ultimately rejected as unconstitutional in 1841, because it was thought by Congress to be unaccountable to democracy. prawfsblawg.com/cook-v-trump...
prawfsblawg.com
Cook v. Trump and the Banks of the United States as a Case Study in Judicial Amnesia: How Judges Selectively Forget Dissensus in Minting New Political Precedents
The SCOTUS has lately been going long on the idea that post-enactment political precedents can settle constitutional controversies. Their latest investment in this principle is Trump v. Cook’s idea…
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Members wisely safeguard precious resource of Secret Congress: “[Rep.] Gottheimer declined to answer questions [about negotiations w/ Sen. Mullin over ICE enforcement]. ‘As a rule…I won’t discuss any ongoing negotiations with my colleagues, he said in a statement.’” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/21/u...
nytimes.com
Mullin Explored Bipartisan Deal to Rein in Immigration Crackdown
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Here’s a proposal, worth considering IMHO, to defuse passions over immigration with federalism: Let each state adopt their own visa policies. (Lest you think that idea mad, read Cristina Rodriguez, “The Significance of the Local in Immigration Regulation” (2008)). open.substack.com/pub/daviddfr...
open.substack.com
Immigration: The Federal Solution
The conflict over immigration has become something close to a civil war, with the federal government blocking state action against federal agents arguably guilty of murder.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
To bad there’s not a simple way for DHS to avoid this sort of criminal fraud by masked imposters. 🤔 www.wired.com/story/fbi-wa...
wired.com
FBI Warns of Criminals Posing as ICE, Urges Agents to ID Themselves
In a bulletin to law enforcement agencies, the FBI said criminal impersonators are exploiting ICE’s image and urged nationwide coordination to distinguish real operations from fakes.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Congrats to NYC’s voters: Housing won big today. www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/04/n...
nydailynews.com
NYC voters approve ballot questions aimed at boosting housing, limiting Council control
As New York City tackles a pervasive affordability crisis, New York City voters were poised to pass three reforms to fast-track affordable housing development, despite pushback from the City Counci…
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
A fine thread from @richardprimus.bsky.social on Judge Immergut’s opinion barring use of the National Guard in Portland. As SCOTUS observed in Dep’t of Commerce v NY, “Our review is deferential, but we are ‘not required to exhibit a naiveté from which ordinary citizens are free.’”
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Maybe the first time ever I’ve agreed 100% with Mother Jones. It’s time to unhook the Federalism fire escape. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
It’s time for soft secession
How blue states can use their economic clout to stand up to Trump’s agenda—starting with California.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
I strongly recommend this fine essay by Caleb Nelson evaluating the originalist basis of the theory that all executive officers must serve at the President’s pleasure. Nelson, committed to originalism, sees nothing in Art II requiring such a presidential power. democracyproject.org/posts/must-a...
democracyproject.org
Special Feature: Must Administrative Officers Serve at the President’s Pleasure?
A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Good morning, Brooklyn!
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
Another essay explaining what’s wrong with Blue Sky. (TL;DR: Too many keyboard warriors competing for Fiercest Invective against The Bad Guys Award). Posting it in hopes that my tiny little corner of this place might get better. open.substack.com/pub/conspicu...
open.substack.com
Against Bluesky (and Blueskyism)
Politics, echo chambers, and the difference between persuasion, propaganda, and performance on social media
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
Tanner Greer’s analysis of Kirk’s significance to young people on the Right. The viewpoint here is alien to BlueSky. If you react with as little vitriol as this essay contains, then — congrats! — you’ll have shown a level of empathy atypical of social media. scholarstage.substack.com/p/bullets-an...
scholarstage.substack.com
Bullets and Ballots: The Legacy of Charlie Kirk
What did Charlie Kirk mean to the Young Right?
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
A clip of my mom in 1976 touting (1) federal subsidies for housing and (2) this new fangled thing called “solar energy.” She’s a Republican, folks. youtube.com/watch?v=Tptf...
youtube.com
HUD Secretary Carla Hills Tours A Solar Home North Of Dallas - October 1976
YouTube video by SMU Jones Film
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
“‘They’re dragging your ass on Bluesky’ is a statement that strikes fear into the heart of practically no one.” open.substack.com/pub/noahpini...
open.substack.com
The Bluesky-ization of the American left
Progressives discovered a seemingly invincible weapon. One day it stopped working.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
A question for immigration law profs like @adambcox.bsky.social : Has there been litigation on the meaning of DHS rule (287.8(c)(2)(iii)) requiring officers to identify themselves as soon as it is practical and safe to do so? Masking seems to be in tension w/ the rule. www.ecfr.gov/current/titl...
ecfr.gov
8 CFR 287.8 -- Standards for enforcement activities.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
“Humorless, scoldy neuroticism, often rationalized by the view that one must be on ‘war footing‘ because the world is self-evidently in crisis.” open.substack.com/pub/natesilv...
open.substack.com
What is Blueskyism?
And why is it so toxic for political persuasion?
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Sam Kriss on ChatGPT 5.0: “still essentially just a weighted average of all the fanfiction ever posted online.” substack.com/@samkriss/no...
substack.com
Sam Kriss (@samkriss)
gpt-5 was released the other day. it was probably the most expensive ai ever built and has five trillion parameters, and by all accounts it’s a very minor improvement on the last model. obviously you ...
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Having spent dozens of hours digging up a rogues’ gallery of weeds (Russian Thistle, tumble weeds the size of beach balls, globemallow, punture weed loaded with goats’ heads, etc), I am sparing this 6’ Palmer’s Pigweed growing out of a cement block out of sheer respect for its tenacity.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
As @zhangtaisu.bsky.social @bridgetfahey.bsky.social and Lin note, there are many areas in which states can provide a check on federal manipulation of data. Jobs and inflation, however, are two areas where this safeguard fails, because states lack the state capacity to generate reliable numbers.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Because the BLS provides information that political appointees can review and reject, Noah and I argue that Congress can always insulate BLS staff from serving at the Prez’s pleasure. But, as Abbe Gluck notes, loose language in Braidwood puts that position at risk. www.scotusblog.com/2025/07/expe...
scotusblog.com
Expertise after Chevron: A potentially pyrrhic victory on executive control over preventive care
This is part of SCOTUSblog’s term in review series, in which scholars analyze some of the most significant cases of the 2024-25 Supreme Court term. With so much going on, […]
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
McEntarfer is the epitome of the apolitical civil servant. She started at the Census Bureau 20 years ago as a labor economist and has worked at calculating jobs numbers ever since. She was confirmed by the Senate 86-8 in 2024, at the height of partisan polarization. www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...
nbcnews.com
Trump fires labor statistics boss hours after weak jobs report
The president implied that the BLS commissioner, longtime federal employee Erika McEntarfer, manipulated the data "for political purposes."
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
“…you shouldn’t treat the fact that you don’t believe the same dogma as everyone else as meaning you’re immune from dogma.” benthams.substack.com/p/the-freeth...
benthams.substack.com
The "Freethinkers" Who Aren't
How the “heterodox” became what they hated
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Insightful essay on why the culture of impatience captured by “TL;DR” is destroying your capacity to think, grow, and feel. It really isn’t TL: Give it an R. open.substack.com/pub/maalvika...?
open.substack.com
compression culture is making you stupid and uninteresting
why the death of nuance should scare you -your fav gen z philosopher xx
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Evaluation of Minneapolis’ reducing zoning constraints in suggests that deregulation reduced housing costs by 15-23%—even without adding a lot of new units, because density alone may reduce construction costs. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Effects of Minneapolis Upzoning on House Prices: Evidence from the Minneapolis 2040 Plan
The Minneapolis 2040 Plan, which came into effect in January 2020, introduced sweeping re- forms to housing regulations. One of the most significant aspect of t
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
“Our politics revolve around the idea that scarce resources mean keeping people out. We are utterly unprepared for a world in which perhaps the scarcest resource will be people.” www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Something Extraordinary Is Happening All Over the World
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
open.substack.com/pub/noahpini...
open.substack.com
How to take our country back
The America you grew up in is under attack from technologies that we ourselves invented.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Do the Coffee Beans Procedure for being a law prof, and you’ll discover that, if you like that job (I do!), then you are indeed crazy. open.substack.com/pub/experime...
open.substack.com
Face it: you're a crazy person
OR: why your brain needs a boxcutter
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
This is the quotidian quagmire, multiplied by thousands across the country, too routine and boring to get attention from anyone w/o a nearby down payment at stake, that has brought us the housing crisis.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Andrew Sullivan, an anti-Trump conservative: “This is the Israel we have gone to war for. It is not the Israel of the 20th Century. It is a belligerent, ethno-nationalist country, run in part by ugly racists and those who wish Israel were Arab-free.” andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-conseq...
andrewsullivan.substack.com
The Consequences Of Israel's Hegemony
The two-state solution is nailed to the perch. The settlement project is super-charged.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Aside from being the right thing to do as a matter of policy IMHO, state & local law enforcement’s demanding to see the identity and warrant of these feds would be a great way to set limits on Ableman v Booth and Tarble’s Case (which -again IMHO- is an important thing to do as a matter of doctrine).
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Reading Skrmetti this morning, I realize how astute @jdmortenson.bsky.social and Rich Friedman were to include Geduldig in their conlaw casebook — and how much I regret not including that case in my syllabus. That opinion is really amenable to bad-faith nonsense like that found in footnote 3.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I’m aware of the irony in posting on Bluesky an essay about curing attention deficit disorder brought about by social media. Nevertheless…stay on Bluesky just long enough to retrieve this essay and take its advice by stopping your scrolling (as I will do right now). open.substack.com/pub/contempl...
open.substack.com
how to pay attention again (the neuroscience of focus in the age of everything)
on the attention economy, and reclaiming your brain’s right to choose
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
“In science fiction, the typical worry is that machines will become human-like; the more pressing problem now is that, through the thinning out of our interactions, humans are becoming machine-like.” nationalaffairs.com/publications...
nationalaffairs.com
The Erosion of Deep Literacy
Digital technology has been transforming our society and culture. Among other things, it is clearly changing how we read, and in turn how (and why) we write and even think. This threatens to rob us of...
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Prediction: The American Farm Bureau Federation will be a mightier and more effective opponent of Stephen Miller’s daft deportations than even the biggest and best organized No Kings protests. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...
truthsocial.com
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs b...
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I’ve been teaching an writing about the 10th amendment anti-commandeering doctrine for more than a quarter century and have always used Art I’s militia clauses as examples of a commandeering power. (Sec 5, 14th amendment is another). So Newsom’s 10th amend argument strikes me as pretty weak…
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Just a reminder that the number of federal sworn and badged officers is dwarfed by the number of non-federal peace officers. Seattle’s PD *alone* has close to 1,000. The entire ICE force? ≈ 6,000 *nationwide*. So, no, I doubt ICE will be arresting police chiefs. www.kuow.org/stories/seat...
kuow.org
Seattle Police Chief Barnes says he expects to be jailed for resisting Trump's orders
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes told City Council members Tuesday that he plans to stand up for the First Amendment rights of Seattle residents and expects to be jailed at some point for making that ...
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
“Like the containment dome over a nuclear reactor, Bluesky serves the important safety purpose of ensuring that whatever meltdowns occur within produce minimal fallout.” www.joshbarro.com/p/bluesky-is...
joshbarro.com
Bluesky Isn't a Bubble. It's a Containment Dome.
Pray that Bluesky doesn't die entirely — we need it so the worst liberal posts are kept in a place where the broader public won't ever see them.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Sound advice on how to engage with political opponents that Blue Sky denizens routinely ignore. open.substack.com/pub/karintam...
open.substack.com
Why Debating Republicans (Almost) Never Works—And What to Do Instead
The real reason GOP voters seem impervious to facts and reason.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
So absolutely true, even today, eight years later. (I live in Gowanus btw). open.substack.com/pub/blakenel...
open.substack.com
PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN (2017) “Café Life”
I had lived in every form of youth ghetto that existed. Now, for my own safety, it was time to live around yuppies.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
open.substack.com/pub/andrewsu...
open.substack.com
The Infanticide That Won't End
Israel is committing moral and strategic suicide by ramping up the war in Gaza again.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
A searing condemnation of Netanyahu’s pointless massacre of civilians from someone with zero sympathy for the American campus Left. Sullivan is living proof that opposition to the latter is no excuse for condoning the former. open.substack.com/pub/andrewsu...
open.substack.com
The Infanticide That Won't End
Israel is committing moral and strategic suicide by ramping up the war in Gaza again.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Great questions from my representative, Dan Goldman (NY 10).
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Is there a way on Blue Sky to get custom-tailored interaction settings— i.e., sort of like starter packs for people to follow (law, land-use, US history, etc) but for comments, etc?
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
“She has pleaded not guilty, and her lawyers contend she is immune from prosecution for official judicial acts.” This makes a nice exam question pitching national supremacy against state autonomy. I’m inclined to agree w/ Clement, but I wonder what other profs think? abcnews.go.com/US/video-sho...
abcnews.go.com
Video shows Milwaukee judge's interaction with ICE agents prior to her arrest for alleged attempt to aid undocumented man
Video shows Milwaukee judge's interaction with ICE agents prior to her arrest for alleged attempt to aid undocumented man.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
“‘This is nonsense, they are a group of thugs that are running the state of Israel these days and the head of the gang is Netanyahu - this is a gang of thugs,’ Olmert said.” Olmert is a right-of-center politician: His saying you’re a thug is likely not Left propaganda. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Israel-Gaza war: Netanyahu accuses Starmer of siding with Hamas
The UK, France and Canada condemned the expanded Israeli military operation in Gaza this week.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
We’re doomed—and not because of generative AI. Generative AI is just the undertaker burying the corpse: our collective literacy died a long time ago. open.substack.com/pub/kittenbe...
open.substack.com
College English majors can't read
They have one job and they can't do it
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
“The Fed Reserve is a…quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the 1st and 2nd Banks of the US.” Giving the Fed a pass for *this* reason is wacky originalism, because the BUS’s private status made it suspect to framers like Madison. www.politico.com/news/2025/05...
politico.com
Supreme Court signals Trump can't fire Fed's Powell
The order is a win for the central bank, particularly given the president's longstanding criticism of the Fed chief.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
In Property Law, I didn’t teach document fraud (eg lessees’ sneaking in options-to-buy in leases that working class owners unwittingly sign). But it’s actually an important topic given how much of property law rests on presumed authenticity of underlying documents. www.thecity.nyc/2025/05/19/s...
thecity.nyc
The Terrible Truth About Sherita, Brooklyn’s Beloved Billboard Dinosaur
The vanished icon of Atlantic Ave. was the relic of a secretive family who grabbed buildings from immigrant owners across the booming borough.
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
@williambaude.bsky.social gives a shout-out for Daniel Slate’s article, “Infringed,” in the Journal of American Const’l History. open.substack.com/pub/divideda... Issue is here: jach.law.wisc.edu/infringed/. Slate describes how framers thought govt could restrict a right w/o violating it.
open.substack.com
Things to Read This Week (5/19)
a casebook review, an investigation of a case you've never heard of, the history of rights regulation, and the interpretation of codifications
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Rick Hills @rickhills.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
“…her professor had accidentally posted a back-and-forth with ChatGPT. It included the grading rubric the professor had asked the chatbot to use and a request for some ‘really nice feedback’ to give Marie.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/t...?
nytimes.com
The Professors Are Using ChatGPT, and Some Students Aren’t Happy About It
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