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I'm only on my third cup of coffee. A slow morning for me.

So many moral stains on our country these days. But Trump's abandonment of Ukraine (slow, in fits and starts, with some congressional pushback, but clear in its direction) is definitely one of them.

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Edward Swaine @edswaine.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i no longer understand what's on the ballot

Brad Pitt and daughter are on the ballot

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 17h

This David Bateman article on "democracy-reinforcing hardball" came out in Comparative Political Studies but here it is ungated (it's important) www.davidalexbateman.net/uploads/1/1/...

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 15h

JD Vance’s not so subtle point is that the United States belongs to white Christian men, and the rest of us who don’t meet all three qualifications only belong here insofar as our betters choose to tolerate us.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14h

1) vance has this weird preoccupation with demanding that people show him gratitude 2) this is just another expression of the idea that some americans don’t count and at most should be seen and not heard

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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 13h

"Police said officers also discovered weapons, hundreds of rounds of rifle ammunition, tactical equipment, body armor and a patch containing imagery associated with white supremacist extremism at Paporakis’ home." @congressmanraja.bsky.social & his family were at that temple on Sunday.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 23h

Exactly what @lioneltrolling.bsky.social says here. This is why the Omar search and investigation is such a big deal. open.substack.com/pub/johnganz...

open.substack.com

What’s at Stake in the Omar Case

Trump’s Attack on Omar is an Attack on America

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

@katierogersnyt.bsky.social: accusations of being gay used as a slur, a weapon to denigrate is homophobic. Full-stop. Just saying this is a political strategy for the moment doesn't cut it. What is does do is whitewash, gives permission to hate from the @nytimes.com. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/14/u...

nytimes.com

Vance’s Talarico Attacks Show His Penchant for Personal Broadsides (Gift Article)

At a rally in Texas, the vice president suggested the Democratic Senate nominee is gay, a comment criticized as homophobic.

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hilzoy @hilzoy.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Stripping people of their citizenship should be vanishingly rare. If someone said he was a garage mechanic in Germany when in fact he ran Auschwitz, fine. But that’s not what’s at issue here. This is a danger to every citizen.

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

We're planning a public execution. We only admit white "refugees" from a former apartheid state. Our domestic security service uses white nationalist messaging. And the president routinely appears to encourage or endorse violence against his opponents & the media. Nothing subtle or complicated here.

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Katherine Eban @katherineeban.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Additional details on what @standupforscience.net found when it sent an on-the-ground investigator to Guinea-Bissau to examine the ethics approval process for the controversial hep B vaccine trial: 🧵👇

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

(I, or a top member of my staff, would also have been following the proceedings in the case in real time given the obvious White House interest. We wouldn't just be waiting for an email from DOJ to tell us what was happening. Given how this Admin works, I'd be shocked if the same wasn't true here.)

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I don't know, man. When I was General Counsel for a cabinet agency, if we had been enjoined in a high-profile case like this, I would have gotten a phone call right away from DOJ making sure I knew about the injunction so we could comply. Quaint, I know. www.washingtonsun.com/legal/judge-...

The Justice Department apologized Monday, explaining that government counsel forwarded the order to agency lawyers Sunday night, but they did not see the email until the following morning.

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

the ukraine news is giving me flashbacks to the 2019 impeachment, not in a good way

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Edward Swaine @edswaine.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I've slowly and very tardily come to understand that things like this, that we may perceive as clichés, need repetition and recirculation. Don't fear the bromide (h/t Blue Öyster Cult).

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

A gutting, powerful piece that kicks off what looks like it will be an essential series.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

That's exactly the fight that's playing out right now in A2. Anyway, watch this space in three weeks!

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Read the whole thing: www.roberthjackson.org/speech-and-w...

roberthjackson.org

The Federal Prosecutor

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Quoting this Robert Jackson speech may seem like a cliché, and maybe it is, but more people need to read it.

If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted. With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm-in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views, or being personally obnoxious to or in the way of the prosecutor himself.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I saw that one, which was a while ago. Right now the question before Ann Arbor voters is whether the path you wrote about (which is great!) is enough, or whether we should move to full-fledged public power. Was wondering if you'd written about that. www.detroitnews.com/videos/news/...

detroitnews.com

Ann Arbor public utility board decision on the ballot

Ann Arbor for Public Power educates voters on Proposal E on Sept. 20, 2026 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Have you written at all about the pending ballot measure to create a publicly owned power utility in Ann Arbor?

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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 14/10/2026

It’s increasingly clear that higher admins at many universities don’t respect (maybe don’t even like) the mission of higher education generally

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

1. The Congressional Review Act which rescinds agencies can pass on a simple majority. 2. Congress can sue as a representative body. 3. Congress can change its own internal rules to allow citizen petions to the floor.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Even with a Dem Congress, there are some ways this all gets worse before it gets better (though it certainly gets worse without a Dem Congress). A Dem Congress won't solve everything. But it can help slow the destruction of our democratic republic.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

And effective oversight can create political pressures that will cause the admin to back off. Certainly not all the time, and not on their biggest, worst priorities. But it can make a meaningful difference.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Trump can veto legislation coming from Congress, but he relies on Congress to fund his doing many things he wants to do. Trump can resist subpoenas and not prosecute those who defy them, but Congress can enforce subpoenas itself civilly and subpoena private parties who have no executive privileges.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I'm all in favor of setting realistic expectations -- there are limits to what a Dem-controlled Congress can do to restrain Trump, no one thing will ever "save us," and we need broader institutional reform -- but this piece undersells what Congress can do. www.liberalcurrents.com/checks-and-b...

liberalcurrents.com

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Every bit of this, from Katie Rainwater guest-posting on @aaup.org 's Academic Freedom on the Line newsletter. academicfreedomontheline.substack.com/p/sociology-...

academicfreedomontheline.substack.com

Sociology Is Being Used as a Wedge to Destroy the Research University

Solidarity across disciplines is a must.

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Yale researchers say terminated, delayed and paused grants have made it difficult to plan or finish studies of vector-borne and poverty-related diseases. One described the effect of the uncertainty as “paralyzing.” yaledailynews.com/articles/fed...

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I’m a quantum mechanics guy on this one.

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Matt Ortega @mattortega.com · 14/10/2026

Mike Collins is hating life in this debate.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Absolutely one of the best. Such a loss. RIP.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

In other words, what Trump is doing threatens exactly the sort of tyranny that basically *everyone* associated with the Founding tried to prevent by giving Congress the power of the purse. Even if you're not an originalist (I'm not), you should care about this, because the threat is serious today.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Here's Hamilton in the New York ratification convention to similar effect (and responding to similar anti-federalist arguments).

But when the purse is lodged in one branch, and the sword in another, there can be no danger. All governments have possessed these powers. They would be monsters without them, and incapable of exertion.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Here's Madison in the Virginia ratification convention. (Note that he's responding to anti-federalists like Patrick Henry and George Mason who thought the Constitution didn't do enough to separate purse from sword. Madison says yes it does, b/c Congress has the purse & the Executive the sword.)

Mr. Madison. Mr. Chairman, the honorable gentleman has laid much stress on the maxim, that the purse and sword ought not to be put in the same hands, with a view of pointing out the impropriety of vesting this power in the general government. But it is totally inapplicable to this question. What is the meaning of this maxim? Does it mean that the sword and purse ought not to be trusted in the hands of the same government? This cannot be the meaning; for there never was, and I can say there never will be, an efficient government, in which both are not vested. The only rational meaning is, that the sword and purse are not to be given to the same member. Apply it to the British government, which has been mentioned. The sword is in the hands of the British king; the purse in the hands of the Parliament. It is so in America, as far as any analogy can exist. Would the honorable member say that the sword ought to be put in the hands of the representatives of the people, or in other hands independent of the government altogether? If he says so, it will violate the meaning of that maxim. This would be a novelty hitherto unprecedented. The purse is in the hands of the representatives of the people. They have the appropriation of all moneys. They have the direction and regulation of land and naval forces. They are to provide for calling forth the militia; and the President is to have the command, and, in conjunction with the Senate, to appoint the officers. The means ought to be commensurate to the end. The end is general protection. This cannot be effected without a general power to use the strength of the Union.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

That's why they consistently talked about the need to separate the "purse" from the "sword." When they said "sword," it wasn't a metaphor for the Executive Branch generally; it was literal (and a metaphor for lots of people with lots of cannon, muskets, pistols, and bayonets).

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Our Constitution's founders took the congressional power of the purse -- and especially the need for Congress to have that power for the specific purpose of preventing the Executive from unilaterally building the military -- as a given.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

The prevailing side in the Glorious Revolution saw Parliament's power of the purse as an important way of restraining the possibly oppressive use of military power by the King, which is why they put the standing army recitation right next to the levying money recitation.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

(There's also a lot of other good stuff in the Declaration that formed the basis for our own Bill of Rights, and a lot of repulsive anti-Catholic stuff that the US tradition rightfully rejected.)

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

"By levying money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament; By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace without consent of Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law"

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Look at the 1689 English Declaration of Rights -- the foundation of our Constitution's grant of the power of the purse to Congress. Among the abuses of "the late King James the Second" (RIP?) that impelled the Revolution and Parliament's assertion of control, two are listed next to each other:

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I'm really glad to see folks outside of my nerdy corner of the world highlighting the way Trump may be using Venezuela to create a self-funding Pentagon. Trump's effort flies in the face of the key reason Congress has the power of the purse -- to keep the executive from self-funding the military.

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