iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Migration is upon us in Texas! I spotted this Northern Yellow Warbler yesterday morning.

A Northern Yellow Warbler sitting on a branch in a tree

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

You even get to see the cutest invasive rodents

Two adult black belly whistling ducks standing on the shore. Behind the ducks is a damp nutria. There is a second nutria and several juvenile black bellied whistling ducks to the right.

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

What they don't tell you is the best place to go birding is a biosolids treatment plant

Barn swallow on a branch. A dragonfly is in the background

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Always nice to meet colleagues from other departments

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Call him William Penn cause this founding father is a quaker

Photo of a white American Pekin in front of a pond

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

This means that we can now capture actions taken by individual justices such as stay denials and administrative stays.

Plot of the number of administrative stays a Supreme Court term from 2003-2025. The plot shows that since 2021, the number of administrative stays has increased

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Since it's a already a shadow docket filled day, a visual representation of how different the Trump administration is in its strategy of seeking emergency relief. From the Shadow Docket Database with @jkastellec.bsky.social

Plot of the number of emergency applications by year. The plot shows higher levels in years where Donald Trump is president

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

When local governments switch into a firm, their lobbying behavior becomes more similar to that of the firm’s existing clients. When local governments switch out of a firm, their lobbying behavior becomes less similar to that of the firm’s remaining clients. 7/🧵

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

So what do we find? First, lobbying behavior is much more similar within lobbyist than across lobbyist. Using cosine similarity, we quantify how similar two local governments' legislative behavior is. We find that similarity is 5x higher within lobbyist. 5/🧵

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Updated WP with the social-medialess Alina Dunlap! What influence do lobbyists have on their clients' decisions? Using data on lobbying in the California legislature by municipalities, we examine how lobbyists structure the actions of their clients. 1/🧵 anthonytaboni.com/wp-content/u...

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Asking the tough questions in class

Presentation slide featuring larry the cucumber and bob the tomato. Text on slide reads, "What is a vegetable? A usually herbaceous plant grown for an edible part that is usually eaten as part of a meal"

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

We can use this data to look at the current court as well. My favorite plot that did make the paper explores the frequency with which the justices vote with one another in non-unanimous cases. 5/🧵

Heat map showing the percent of dockets that individual justices vote with one another in non-unamious cases.

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

We also explore whether the justice’s behavior on the shadow docket mirrors their actions on merits cases. Using non-unanimous decisions, we estimate ideal points for justice between 1994 and 2024. We find that these estimates are highly correlated with Martin-Quinn scores. 4/🧵

Plot showing the correlation between MQ scores and estimates derived from voting on shadow docket decisions. The correlation between estimates is 0.89

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

We use this info to look at the frequency with which Presidents have filed emergency applications over time. We find that in just the first 10 months of 2025, the Trump administration has set a new record in emergency application filings---beating their previous record in 2020. 3/🧵

Plot demonstrating the number of emergency applications filed between 2024 and 2025. The plot has separate lines for death penalty applications, applications by the President, and other parties

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

The discussants at APSA this year look especially intimidating

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Really pleased to announce that my paper "The Path of Law: Legal Uncertainty and Cases of First Impression in the U.S. Courts of Appeals" has been accepted at the APSR. The paper can be found here: anthonytaboni.com/wp-content/u...

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Life hack alert! If you spend six years in grad school and write a dissertation, they add three letters to your name!

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

The world is a lot but my cat fell into the shower this morning and got damp! (She is fine and got towel dried and treats)

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Robin Taboni @robintaboni.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

I think my cat accurately captures my feelings on trying to finish my dissertation in light of *gestures broadly*

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