Robert L. Tsai
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robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai
@robertltsai.bsky.social
15K followers 600 following 2.6K posts

Author of DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE (@WWNorton.com), amzn.to/45LFzNg | Next: BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF COAL COUNTRY (NYU Press) | Prof & Harry Elwood Warren Scholar, Boston U | constitutional law & politics, legal history, democracy | https://linktr.ee/roberttsai .. more

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Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · Dec 15
Just a photo of me with my 2024 spring child

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 2d
Some news

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 3d
“Ugh no one.”
Poll: Democrats have no idea who their leader is
Only one person hit double digits.
www.politico.com

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 3d
Lower down the list

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 3d
“Don’t Know” and “Nobody” doing better than Schumer or Jeffries

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 3d
next season!

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 3d
Sad to see a mighty cultural institution reduced to this: “Audiences are staying away. Internal sales figures obtained by The New York Times showed ticket sales down by about 50 percent from same period last year…..Dozens of employees, many with decades of experience, have been fired or quit.”
The Kennedy Center Crackup
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Robert L. Tsai

aaronrosspowell.com
Aaron Ross Powell ☸️ @aaronrosspowell.com · 4d
Jury nullification is good and it's a good sign for America's path out of authoritarianism that juries are recognizing their power to nullify.

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 4d
Congrats!

Reposted by Robert L. Tsai

stephenwest.bsky.social
Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 4d
“Do you know that I consider it immoral to teach in the schools that the Constitution of the United states is too sacred to change, almost to touch? Why, what are we, a lot of degenerates?"

- Charles Beard, 1915

Reposted by Richard Price, Steve Peers, Maarten Vink , and 4 more

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 5d
The many different pronunciations of advocate Neal Katyal today before the Supreme Court (by others)

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 5d
Catch-all
Cat-y’al
Catty-all
Katyal

Reposted by Robert L. Tsai

emptywheel.bsky.social
emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 5d
Katyal (playing on right wing fears): If the govt wins, another govt could declare climate emergency and impose huge tariffs.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Samuel L. Perry, Rosemary A. Joyce

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 7d
@mgraber1.bsky.social reviews Justice Barrett’s book:
“By presenting judging as a realm of pure law, insulated from politics, the justices offer a picture so implausible that it makes the opposite claim—that judging is nothing but politics—more credible.”
Justice Barrett’s Campaign Biography
Amy Coney Barrett’s book, "Listening to the Law," claims the Supreme Court is above politics. Its very existence proves otherwise.
washingtonmonthly.com

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 7d
bit.ly/46CzS73

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Kim L. Scheppele, Sanford F. Schram , and 1 more

marcelias.bsky.social
Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 8d
NBC's new poll say the most important issue for deciding who to support for Congress is: "Protecting constitutional rights/protecting democracy."

If you agree, I suggest you subscribe the news outlet that focuses like a laser on just that. Sign up for Democracy Docket today. hubs.ly/Q03M8rql0

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 9d
I’m with Kagan if opportunities to narrow a ruling or influence lower court judges and non-judicial actors seems possible
robertltsai.bsky.social Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 9d
“Justice Kagan’s approach goes like this: Even on a 6-to-3 court, the Democratic appointees can sometimes strategize their way into narrower rulings, smaller losses or even outright victory…. Justice Jackson, on the other hand, is aiming for an audience beyond the court, speaking to the public”
The Debate Dividing the Supreme Court’s Liberal Justices
www.nytimes.com

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 9d
“Justice Kagan’s approach goes like this: Even on a 6-to-3 court, the Democratic appointees can sometimes strategize their way into narrower rulings, smaller losses or even outright victory…. Justice Jackson, on the other hand, is aiming for an audience beyond the court, speaking to the public”
The Debate Dividing the Supreme Court’s Liberal Justices
www.nytimes.com

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 10d
This shouldn’t be a surprise
jonseidel.bsky.social Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 10d
#BREAKING The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sides against U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who had asked Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino to appear in her Chicago courtroom on a daily basis.

The appeals court finds that her order "infringes on the separation of powers."
After the district court issued a temporary restraining order affecting some aspects of immigration-law enforcement in the Chicago area, the judge on her own motion entered a further order requiring Gregory Bovino, a Chief Patrol Agent at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to appear in court at 5:45 p.m. every weekday “to report on the use of force activities for each day.” The judge justified this order by stating that she had seen videos that led her to question whether the TRO was being obeyed. The order was not, however, a response to any motion by counsel for the plaintiffs (and the videos to which the judge referred apparently do not deal with behavior involving any of the plaintiffs). The federal defendants seek a writ of mandamus with respect to this aspect (and only this aspect) of the district court’s rulings. We issued a stay of the order requiring Chief Bovino to appear and report daily, and we now GRANT the petition for mandamus. While this litigation presents very challenging circumstances, the district court’s order has two principal failings. First, it puts the court in the position of an inquisitor rather than that of a neutral adjudicator of the parties’ adversarial presentations. Second, it sets the court up as a supervisor of Chief Bovino’s activities, intruding into personnel management decisions of the Executive Branch. These two problems are related and lead us to conclude that the order infringes on the separation of powers. Review by appeal at the end of the case would not solve the problems created in the interim, which justifies review by a prerogative writ. See In re Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 941 F.3d 869 (7th Cir. 2019). Cf. Cheney v. United States District Court, 542 U.S. 367 (2004).

Reposted by Robert L. Tsai

jonseidel.bsky.social
Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 10d
#BREAKING The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sides against U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who had asked Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino to appear in her Chicago courtroom on a daily basis.

The appeals court finds that her order "infringes on the separation of powers."
After the district court issued a temporary restraining order affecting some aspects of immigration-law enforcement in the Chicago area, the judge on her own motion entered a further order requiring Gregory Bovino, a Chief Patrol Agent at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to appear in court at 5:45 p.m. every weekday “to report on the use of force activities for each day.” The judge justified this order by stating that she had seen videos that led her to question whether the TRO was being obeyed. The order was not, however, a response to any motion by counsel for the plaintiffs (and the videos to which the judge referred apparently do not deal with behavior involving any of the plaintiffs). The federal defendants seek a writ of mandamus with respect to this aspect (and only this aspect) of the district court’s rulings. We issued a stay of the order requiring Chief Bovino to appear and report daily, and we now GRANT the petition for mandamus. While this litigation presents very challenging circumstances, the district court’s order has two principal failings. First, it puts the court in the position of an inquisitor rather than that of a neutral adjudicator of the parties’ adversarial presentations. Second, it sets the court up as a supervisor of Chief Bovino’s activities, intruding into personnel management decisions of the Executive Branch. These two problems are related and lead us to conclude that the order infringes on the separation of powers. Review by appeal at the end of the case would not solve the problems created in the interim, which justifies review by a prerogative writ. See In re Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 941 F.3d 869 (7th Cir. 2019). Cf. Cheney v. United States District Court, 542 U.S. 367 (2004).

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 10d
This is going to be an interesting race. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 10d
In a populist age, the willingness to fight is more valuable to voters than other traits

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 11d
“This revocation is part of Trump and his hogmen’s reworking of America’s immigration and visa system….This move also seems clearly to be part of a wider, authoritarian attack on things the government considers un-American: people of color, literary culture, and those it considers critics.”
The U.S. has revoked the visa of Nobel winner Wole Soyinka.
The American government has revoked the visa of Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian author who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in literature, according to Al Jazeera. The writer received what he called a “rather c…
lithub.com

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet, Claire L. Adida, Steven S. Taylor , and 1 more

democracydocket.com
Democracy Docket @democracydocket.com · 12d
BREAKING: In a 51-42 vote, the Virginia House advances a measure proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to redraw its congressional map until 2030 “in response to actions taken by another state.”
Virginia House Advances Democratic Plan to Counter GOP Gerrymandering
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 12d
Our full conversation @bulaw.bsky.social.
A Conversation with Fiona Hill and Robert Tsai
A discussion of Fiona Hill's new book, There is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century.
bit.ly

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 12d
When I reminded Fiona Hill about the risk of working for Michael Flynn

Reposted by Robert C. Richards, Robert L. Tsai, Manisha Sinha

jbf1755.bsky.social
Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 13d
Lots of you have been asking for the syllabus for the lecture course -- "America at 250" -- that I'm teaching with David Blight and Beverly Gage.

Here you go:
president.yale.edu/sites/defaul...
president.yale.edu

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 13d
Mm hmm. bit.ly/46CzS73

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 13d
It’s about time: “In a critical diagnosis, the report also faults the Biden administration for being too naive about the bad-faith hostility of large swaths of the courts—and the true intentions of the conservative judicial revolution that remade them—to progressive governance.”
Why Is Trump Autocracy Rising? These Dems Have an Unnerving Answer.
A new Biden administration autopsy, based on internal assessments from many government insiders, has crystal clear lessons for the future.
newrepublic.com

robertltsai.bsky.social
Robert L. Tsai @robertltsai.bsky.social · 13d
More of this kind of self-diagnosis