Ellie Margolis
@elliemargolis.bsky.social
Law professor @TempleLaw, suburban gardener, avid reader. Happy to nerd out about legal writing anytime.
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
Without ChatGPT, my dog Spot and my cat Tiger would not have names.
Thanks, ChatGPT!
Thanks, ChatGPT!
The parents of the first baby born in 2026 in this county outside Baltimore got their name ideas from ChatGPT. Hudson Oakley Winkler.
www.baltimoresun.com/2026/01/01/c...
www.baltimoresun.com/2026/01/01/c...
ChatGPT named Carroll County’s first-born baby in 2026
The first baby born in Carroll County in 2026 was named with help from ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot.
www.baltimoresun.com
January 2, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Without ChatGPT, my dog Spot and my cat Tiger would not have names.
Thanks, ChatGPT!
Thanks, ChatGPT!
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
universalize this please
If you are a resident of California, the state now has a portal where you can demand deletion of your personal data from 500+ registered data brokers with a single request form, for free.
consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov
consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov
consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov
January 2, 2026 at 3:35 AM
universalize this please
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
Zohran’s inauguration brimmed w/the energy that NYC is “a shining beacon of possibility” per @jumaane.bsky.social.
Amidst the darkness of authoritarianism, inequality & hate, we have a chance to show what’s possible.
That’s always been our mission as New Yorkers—it was profoundly renewed today.
Amidst the darkness of authoritarianism, inequality & hate, we have a chance to show what’s possible.
That’s always been our mission as New Yorkers—it was profoundly renewed today.
January 1, 2026 at 9:44 PM
Zohran’s inauguration brimmed w/the energy that NYC is “a shining beacon of possibility” per @jumaane.bsky.social.
Amidst the darkness of authoritarianism, inequality & hate, we have a chance to show what’s possible.
That’s always been our mission as New Yorkers—it was profoundly renewed today.
Amidst the darkness of authoritarianism, inequality & hate, we have a chance to show what’s possible.
That’s always been our mission as New Yorkers—it was profoundly renewed today.
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
In 2026 I want all of the decent people to remember one thing.
You aren’t meant to be this disciplined, this self-sacrificing to survive. The environment is supposed to support good living. We can have that. You are not a failure. That is politics.
That is all.
You aren’t meant to be this disciplined, this self-sacrificing to survive. The environment is supposed to support good living. We can have that. You are not a failure. That is politics.
That is all.
January 1, 2026 at 10:30 PM
In 2026 I want all of the decent people to remember one thing.
You aren’t meant to be this disciplined, this self-sacrificing to survive. The environment is supposed to support good living. We can have that. You are not a failure. That is politics.
That is all.
You aren’t meant to be this disciplined, this self-sacrificing to survive. The environment is supposed to support good living. We can have that. You are not a failure. That is politics.
That is all.
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
My New Years Resolutions:
-Re-elect Gov. Shapiro + expand the PA House margin + flip the PA state senate
-Raise the minimum wage in PA
-Flip the US House and Senate
-Keep making MAGA mad
-Re-elect Gov. Shapiro + expand the PA House margin + flip the PA state senate
-Raise the minimum wage in PA
-Flip the US House and Senate
-Keep making MAGA mad
January 1, 2026 at 6:51 PM
My New Years Resolutions:
-Re-elect Gov. Shapiro + expand the PA House margin + flip the PA state senate
-Raise the minimum wage in PA
-Flip the US House and Senate
-Keep making MAGA mad
-Re-elect Gov. Shapiro + expand the PA House margin + flip the PA state senate
-Raise the minimum wage in PA
-Flip the US House and Senate
-Keep making MAGA mad
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
This is astounding: "According to The Washington Post, plaintiffs in roughly 75 percent of the lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive orders during his first term were represented by large top-tier law firms. Only 15 percent of such plaintiffs were represented by top firms in 2025."
January 1, 2026 at 6:45 PM
This is astounding: "According to The Washington Post, plaintiffs in roughly 75 percent of the lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive orders during his first term were represented by large top-tier law firms. Only 15 percent of such plaintiffs were represented by top firms in 2025."
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
Happy Public Domain Day! Jan 1 marks the date when eligible works pass into the public domain in the United States. Notable works entering the public domain this year include certain early Mickey Mouse cartoons, the novel As I Lay Dying, and the Gershwin composition Embraceable You.
#copyright
#copyright
Public Domain Day 2026 | Duke University School of Law
January 1, 2026 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1930 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1925! By Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle[1] CC BY 4.0 Please note that this site is only about US l...
web.law.duke.edu
January 1, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Happy Public Domain Day! Jan 1 marks the date when eligible works pass into the public domain in the United States. Notable works entering the public domain this year include certain early Mickey Mouse cartoons, the novel As I Lay Dying, and the Gershwin composition Embraceable You.
#copyright
#copyright
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
The Trump admin’s censorship agenda is chilling & relentless. I counted 200+ attempts in 2025 to muzzle press, protesters, public servants, judges, law firms, universities, corporations. But resistance has blunted this campaign & we must fiercely defend free speech: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/o...
Opinion | I Counted Trump’s Censorship Attempts. Here’s What I Found.
www.nytimes.com
December 31, 2025 at 4:04 PM
The Trump admin’s censorship agenda is chilling & relentless. I counted 200+ attempts in 2025 to muzzle press, protesters, public servants, judges, law firms, universities, corporations. But resistance has blunted this campaign & we must fiercely defend free speech: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/o...
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
fireworks for a muppet’s nye: thread
January 1, 2026 at 12:38 AM
fireworks for a muppet’s nye: thread
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
Uh… check out what ChatGPT allegedly told a man before he killed his mother and then himself.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
December 31, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Uh… check out what ChatGPT allegedly told a man before he killed his mother and then himself.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
These weren’t all huge hits, but here are my favorite mushrooms of 2025
December 31, 2025 at 5:32 PM
These weren’t all huge hits, but here are my favorite mushrooms of 2025
If anyone is sending me DMs, I'm currently visiting a state that requires age verification and I refuse to do it, so I'm not going to see your message for a couple of days.
December 31, 2025 at 8:29 PM
If anyone is sending me DMs, I'm currently visiting a state that requires age verification and I refuse to do it, so I'm not going to see your message for a couple of days.
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
Every last Senator & Rep who voted for the Big Ugly Bill owns this and worse. They each voted to fund ICE to the tune of $170 Billion. (link threaded below to one of the many warnings about this before the bill's passage)
New: We got an internal ICE document revealing its $100 million ad plan to bring in 14,000 new hires: deals with "tactical" influencers; ads to gun & military buffs; and geo-targeting phones around NASCAR races and gun shows.
A "wartime recruitment" mode with paramilitary branding: wapo.st/44QrP5j
A "wartime recruitment" mode with paramilitary branding: wapo.st/44QrP5j
ICE plans $100 million ‘wartime recruitment’ push targeting gun shows, military fans for hires
An internal ICE document shared among immigration officials details plans to use influencers and geo-targeted ads to rapidly hire thousands of deportation officers.
wapo.st
December 31, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Every last Senator & Rep who voted for the Big Ugly Bill owns this and worse. They each voted to fund ICE to the tune of $170 Billion. (link threaded below to one of the many warnings about this before the bill's passage)
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
THIS THIS THIS. ALL OF THIS
THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context
THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context
December 30, 2025 at 1:50 AM
THIS THIS THIS. ALL OF THIS
THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context
THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
Oh look, @marcelias.bsky.social ! Here’s a sneaky new way they’re trying to steal our votes.
USPS quietly changed its postmark rules — mail is no longer dated when you drop it off. The “official” date is when it hits automated sorting — sometimes days later
Which could have major implications for mail in voting — it’s a clever way to disenfranchise voters that’s going largely overlooked
Which could have major implications for mail in voting — it’s a clever way to disenfranchise voters that’s going largely overlooked
December 29, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Oh look, @marcelias.bsky.social ! Here’s a sneaky new way they’re trying to steal our votes.
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
Annnnd hitting for Margolis is her co-author, here to say, @elliemargolis.bsky.social and I wrote an article about this very exact precise thing! And you can have it FOR FREE! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
What Law Schools Teach When They Don’t Teach About State Constitutions
State constitutional law has always been an essential component of federalism and a key to understanding the fabric of American law. It is even more important t
papers.ssrn.com
December 29, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Annnnd hitting for Margolis is her co-author, here to say, @elliemargolis.bsky.social and I wrote an article about this very exact precise thing! And you can have it FOR FREE! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The scream we screamt
🦅🦅🦅
🦅🦅🦅
December 29, 2025 at 12:31 AM
The scream we screamt
🦅🦅🦅
🦅🦅🦅
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
Just opened a 14 page brief in Adobe Acrobat and it gave me a popup saying "this appears to be a long document, would you like an AI summary?" and I feel like a whole bunch of Gen Z lawyers are gonna lose their licenses if law schools don't warn them about this shit.
December 28, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Just opened a 14 page brief in Adobe Acrobat and it gave me a popup saying "this appears to be a long document, would you like an AI summary?" and I feel like a whole bunch of Gen Z lawyers are gonna lose their licenses if law schools don't warn them about this shit.
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
good morning, gameday morning. go birds.
December 28, 2025 at 2:02 PM
good morning, gameday morning. go birds.
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
The 'kin' of ‘napkin’ means "little."
‘Nap’ comes from ‘nape,' which means “tablecloth.”
So a napkin is a little tablecloth.
10/10, no notes.
‘Nap’ comes from ‘nape,' which means “tablecloth.”
So a napkin is a little tablecloth.
10/10, no notes.
December 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
The 'kin' of ‘napkin’ means "little."
‘Nap’ comes from ‘nape,' which means “tablecloth.”
So a napkin is a little tablecloth.
10/10, no notes.
‘Nap’ comes from ‘nape,' which means “tablecloth.”
So a napkin is a little tablecloth.
10/10, no notes.
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
When people ask what I teach students in my #legalwriting classes, I should just show them this screenshot and say, “The exact opposite of this.”
This sort of thing is what tenure is really for. I am sitting on a plane chortling so loudly that I’m at risk of being removed for apparent drunkenness before we take off
December 27, 2025 at 11:50 PM
When people ask what I teach students in my #legalwriting classes, I should just show them this screenshot and say, “The exact opposite of this.”
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
"Most concerning is the inverse relationship we discovered between manipulation subtlety and detection difficulty: the smallest edits often produce the most believable deceptions, precisely because they preserve maximum authentic context while changing critical semantic elements." 👀
Something else to be worried about: not deepfake video but fake parts in real videos (e.g., face swap):
FakeParts: a New Family of AI-Generated DeepFakes
arxiv.org/pdf/2508.21052
FakeParts: a New Family of AI-Generated DeepFakes
arxiv.org/pdf/2508.21052
arxiv.org
December 27, 2025 at 7:17 PM
"Most concerning is the inverse relationship we discovered between manipulation subtlety and detection difficulty: the smallest edits often produce the most believable deceptions, precisely because they preserve maximum authentic context while changing critical semantic elements." 👀
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
“The U.S. government just banned five people from entering the country because it doesn’t like their speech. This ban, according to the State Department, is necessary to protect free speech.
If that sounds insane to you, congratulations on your reading comprehension.”
Via @mmasnick.bsky.social
If that sounds insane to you, congratulations on your reading comprehension.”
Via @mmasnick.bsky.social
Opinion | Marco Rubio is using real censorship to fight fake censorship
Mike Masnick: In the name of protecting free speech, the U.S. government just banned five Europeans from entering the country because it doesn’t like their speech.
www.ms.now
December 27, 2025 at 6:03 PM
“The U.S. government just banned five people from entering the country because it doesn’t like their speech. This ban, according to the State Department, is necessary to protect free speech.
If that sounds insane to you, congratulations on your reading comprehension.”
Via @mmasnick.bsky.social
If that sounds insane to you, congratulations on your reading comprehension.”
Via @mmasnick.bsky.social
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
this is exactly what the legal industry is dealing with
No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.
December 26, 2025 at 9:06 PM
this is exactly what the legal industry is dealing with
Reposted by Ellie Margolis
It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.
"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction."
"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books
We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.
www.publicbooks.org
December 24, 2025 at 7:39 PM
It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.