Rebecca Tushnet
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Rebecca Tushnet
@rtushnet.bsky.social
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Rebecca Tushnet is an American legal scholar. She serves as the Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law at Harvard Law School. Her scholarship focuses on copyright, trademark, First Amendment, and false advertising. .. more

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Reposted by Steve Peers, Mark D. White, Rebecca Tushnet

daviddarmofal.bsky.social
David Darmofal @daviddarmofal.bsky.social · 1h
A great example of how the @nytimes.com centers white Americans and Trump supporters in its anecdotal political coverage. You never see stories like this about Black Democrats whose cities are cracked in Republican gerrymandering to give them Republican elected officials.
daviddarmofal.bsky.social David Darmofal @daviddarmofal.bsky.social · 1h
They Wanted a Conservative State. They Might Get a Democratic Representative Instead.

The passage of Proposition 50, which redrew California’s congressional map, means that all of the state’s conservative north is likely to be represented by Democrats.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/u...
They Wanted a Conservative State. They Might Get a Democratic Representative Instead.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

design-law.bsky.social
Sarah Fackrell @design-law.bsky.social · 2h
Skimming through this new complaint like: "What is this? Pam Bondi's version of the Epstein files?"

Doe v. Roe, Docket No. 1:25-cv-15664 (N.D. Ill. Dec 25, 2025).
page from a complaint with extensive redactions. the only words left are: "Plaintiff's [redacted] and related design"

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Rebecca Tushnet

charliejane.bsky.social
Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 13h
When the polite, cultured Dr. Pepper consumes a special draught, he turns into the brutish, monstrous Mr. Pibb.

Reposted by Colin F. Camerer, Will Jennings, Steve Peers , and 12 more

johnholbein1.bsky.social
John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 16h
DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Nina Jankowicz, Rebecca Tushnet , and 2 more

annamerlan.bsky.social
Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 17h
Tenet Media founder Lauren Chen, who secretly took money from two people with ties to Russian state media to involve conservative influencers in an unwitting propaganda scheme, is back in the US after being deported to Canada under President Biden. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Anna O. Law, David Rothschild , and 12 more

longtimehistory.bsky.social
LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @longtimehistory.bsky.social · 20h
ICE detain father shopping on Christmas Eve—then steal his family's groceries.

Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.

"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.

"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.

Yakima, Washington

Reposted by Joe R. Feagin, Rosemary A. Joyce, Rebecca Tushnet , and 2 more

rbreich.bsky.social
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 22h
Remember: There's always strength in a union. Solidarity.

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

bonniehonig.bsky.social
Bonnie Honig @bonniehonig.bsky.social · 1d
Follow the grammar… all the way to its betrayals of us.
larryglickman.bsky.social Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d
This is not a “duel,” which suggests both sides are equally culpable, but the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s ideological war on Harvard and higher education.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/u...
In Private Letters, Harvard and Trump Administration Escalate Duel
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Anna O. Law, Lisa W. Fazio , and 4 more

larryglickman.bsky.social
Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d
This is not a “duel,” which suggests both sides are equally culpable, but the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s ideological war on Harvard and higher education.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/u...
In Private Letters, Harvard and Trump Administration Escalate Duel
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

honeyskeleton.bsky.social
NIC ALIVE AND WELL @honeyskeleton.bsky.social · 1d
instead of gawking at authors we could all learn something about how hockey rpf interacts with hostile spaces and how non monetizable sports fic (especially when compared to sports movies) is more policed BECAUSE franchise capital (merch tickets stadiums) is perceived as integral to "real" fans
How Real Are People? Sports-centric Real Person Fiction Between Mainstream and Fanfiction by Judith Louise Tuffentsammer Fictionalizing the True Story in Moneyball: Online vs. Mainstream RPF As mentioned in the previous section, narratives are integral to the promotion of sports, while the narrativization of sports is, in turn, integral to the success of media outlets, as people are particularly drawn to seemingly extraordinary human beings like athletes. Fanfiction and journalism, however, are not the only forms of media occupied with the representation and narrativization of celebrity athlete’s lives. When Stacey Lantagne highlights online RPF’s aggressive fictionality as its defining feature, she contrasts it with what she calls “mainstream RPF”—high profile media productions, particularly biopics, which have been mainstays of awards shows over the past decade. Although this type of media is typically not called “real person fiction,” it in fact interacts with the source material similarly to online RPF. Just like fanfiction written on the internet, these biopics are produced by people and for people who are interested in learning more about the person at the center, and often they, too, are fans (Lantagne 45). Of course, mainstream RPF is also produced about sports, and with great success: One example would be Bennett Miller’s 2011 movie Moneyball, based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Michael Lewis, which chronicles the Oakland Athletics’ 2002 MLB season. The movie follows a baseball team as it achieves significant success after switching to a statistics-based analysis of the game under the leadership of the team’s general manager Billy Beane, portrayed by Brad Pitt. It was commercially and critically successful, earning six Oscar nominations, including for best picture, best actor (Brad Pitt) and best supporting actor (Jonah Hill). Queering the Hypermasculine: Sports RPF’s Intervention So what is the appeal of sports RPF fandoms—if, as discussed, the mainstream fandom is explicitly hostile towards women and queer people, who make up the majority of fandom members? Or, as one Twitter user put it shortly before asserting that they are in fact strongly opposed to RPF, about the popularity of hockey RPF on the internet, “what is in the ice rink water that gets people on ao3 SO heated about the concept of these real life canadian [sic] jocks kissing.” As mentioned in chapter 1, individual athletes are marketed much like other celebrities in order to attract fans to them and the teams, and to convince fans ultimately to spend money. It should therefore not come as a surprise that some fans choose to engage with athletes the same way they do with other stars—with an added twist to many other RPF fandoms. In contrast to the male-dominated and often overtly sexist, homophobic, and transphobic mainstream sports fandom, participating in sports RPF fandoms is a way for people who feel excluded from this mainstream sports fandom, are hesitant to join, or just plainly seek a different type of fandom, to engage with the sport we love in the predominantly queer/female space of fandom. Returning to the Jenkins quotation at the beginning of the previous section, the “contemporary myth” of mainstream sports fandom is that of a masculine sphere—a testosterone- filled series of battles by manly men, for manly men—whereas men’s sports RPF represents an intervention to repair the damage. Deliberate or not, conscious or not—any engagement in sports RPF fandom may be seen as a critical intervention Another marker of this queer female/erotic fantasy space is the frequency in which the cultural environment in the fic—which, as it is RPF, supposedly mirrors the real cultural context— is one in which there is either no homophobia at all, or in which seemingly everyone is gay (or at least bisexual). In fact, many fics include “canon-typical homophobia” as a note (or warning) for the following content, similarly to a trigger warning, which suggests that readers have come to expect that, despite the prevalence of homophobia in real-life sports environments, they do not have to face such content in the space they have built. The worlds created in fics are therefore more similar to the social context of fandom—where visible queerness is significantly more wide-spread than in most people’s real lives—than the real world. While in the real world, plausible deniability of homophobia—i.e., the absence of blatant homophobic statements—is often the best we as queer fans can hope for from male athletes and fans, the fannish queer female space becomes a quasi- utopian world primarily because it explicitly allows and encourages queerness.35 With almost no out queer male athletes to look to, writers turn to RPF and its aggressive fictionality. Yet the characters’ ascribed queerness is not the only aggressively fictional part of online RPF; besides the social context in which the characters are placed in RPF fics, writers also bring parts of themselves to their characters to fill in the gaps of celebrities’ unknowable fictional private selves. This is precisely what Busse alludes to when she discusses what the reader ultimately values most in fic—the way the writer represents the character’s interiority

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

annmlipton.bsky.social
Ann M. Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 1d
@jamellebouie.net already did the trading places discourse, so.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Anna O. Law, Mary Feeney , and 17 more

johnholbein1.bsky.social
John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 1d
Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name.

"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."

rtushnet.bsky.social
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 1d
A well-deserved lump of coal in the stocking for this shady company
no abuse of discretion in PI requiring advertiser to terminate liens that it told homeowners weren't liens
People v. MV Realty PBC, LLC, 2025 WL 3719896, B341121 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 23, 2025) Blogging more in my property law prof hat, but with f...
tushnet.blogspot.com

Reposted by Nina Jankowicz, Lisa W. Fazio, Stephan Lewandowsky , and 20 more

yoyoel.com
Yoel Roth @yoyoel.com · 1d
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:

My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.

Huh? When did I say that?!
A passage from the book In Covid’s Wake, with a highlighted sentence reading: “Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter, states that "the FBI went beyond strategic information sharing and made direct moderation demands," including demands involving domestic speech.”

Reposted by Steve Peers, Juan Cole, Robert C. Richards , and 9 more

justinbaragona.bsky.social
Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 1d
Bari Weiss just sent this Christmas Eve email to the CBS News staff about "building trust," which includes her tripling down on spiking the CECOT piece "to make sure it's comprehensive and fair."

One CBS staffer tells me: "She really has no idea how insulting she comes across."

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social
Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social · 1d
Some thoughts on my tumblr on how good episode 5 of Heated Rivalry was as a feat of TV writing. In the midst of all the conversation about this show, it is not getting nearly enough credit for being damn fine TV. abigailnussbaum.tumblr.com/post/8038380...
Abigail Nussbaum
It's been five days, and I'm still wowed by how good episode 5 of Heated Rivalry was. This has obviously been one of the buzziest shows of the winter, but most of the conversation about it has focused...
abigailnussbaum.tumblr.com

Reposted by John McLaren, Philip N. Cohen, Rebecca Tushnet , and 3 more

charlesgaba.com
Charles GetCovered-ba ✡️ @charlesgaba.com · 1d
"Like Amazon Prime, but with human beings."
"Like Amazon Prime, but with human beings."

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

nmanabe.bsky.social
Noriko Manabe @nmanabe.bsky.social · 1d
I published a thing! This chapter, on the reasons behind the relatively slow transition to music streaming in Japan, is included in a book on streaming around the world, edited by David Hesmondhalgh and team. luminosoa.org/chapters/e/1...
The Japanese Transition to Streaming Music: Corporate Hesitancy and Individual Innovation | University of California Press
luminosoa.org

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Daniel W. Drezner, Rebecca Tushnet

radleybalko.bsky.social
Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 1d
Here's a particularly juicy nugget I found in my reporting . . .

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Lisa W. Fazio, Joe R. Feagin , and 8 more

ryanjreilly.com
Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” @ryanjreilly.com · 2d
“I’m 84 years old. Threats against my life expectancy are kind of hollow. I don’t have much time anyway. I’m more concerned that our democracy is at risk because of the trends against the rule of law.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
Judges who ruled against Trump say harassment and threats have changed their lives
More than 100 pizzas were delivered to the homes of judges and their families this year, some with signs of foreign involvement. Judges say the message is clear: We know where you live.
www.nbcnews.com

Reposted by Steve Peers, Leigh Sparks, Rebecca Tushnet

financialtimes.com
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 2d
US bars former EU commissioner Breton and others over tech rules ft.trib.al/TgoG45B
US bars former EU commissioner Breton and others over tech rules
France hits out at visa sanctions as Washington targets what it calls the ‘global censorship-industrial complex’
ft.trib.al

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

vortexegg.com
Record not found @vortexegg.com · 2d
At long last, we’ve created the Spectacle from classic French critical philosophy book Don’t Invent the Spectacle

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

rauchway.bsky.social
Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 2d
In the early 1920s the US armed forces tested the vulnerability of battleships in the age of air power. Here's a clip I've used in lecture showing the test bombing of the ALABAMA, with Gen Billy Mitchell briefly in it

🗃️

rtushnet.bsky.social
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 2d
Why aren't people talking about all the other uppers that the White House doctor will happily prescribe (or even just hand out)? Asking as a person who has never knowingly been around a person high on any of them.

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

rawstory.com
Raw Story @rawstory.com · 2d
President Donald Trump's administration will reportedly begin seizing wages from up to 5 million student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments.
Trump admin to seize wages of up to 5 million defaulted student loan holders
President Donald Trump's administration will reportedly begin seizing wages from up to 5 million student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments.On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed the plan to CNBC.Borrowers' paychecks have not been at risk since the COVID-19 pandemic. The...
bit.ly

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Steve Peers, Rebecca Tushnet

mjsdc.bsky.social
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 2d
Very funny to see Alito complain about the court skipping full briefing and oral arguments for a quick shadow docket decision when he has signed onto innumerable orders that pull the exact same tricks and rebuked colleagues who complain about it ... www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
In this case, the Court has unnecessarily and unwisely departed from standard practice. It raised an argument that respondents waived below, and it now rules in respondents’ favor on that ground. To make matters worse, the Court reaches out and expresses tentative views on other highly important issues on which there is no relevant judicial precedent and on which we have received scant briefing and no oral argument.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Kim L. Scheppele, Steve Peers , and 12 more

mjsdc.bsky.social
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 2d
NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
The Government asked this Court to stay the District Court's order. After the response and reply were filed, JUSTICE BARRETT referred the application to the Court. We directed the parties to file supplemental letter briefs on an issue that the District Court had addressed but the parties' initial briefs had not: the meaning of the term "regular forces" in §12406(3). In its supplemental brief, the Government argues that the term refers to civilian law enforcement officers, such as those employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Federal Protective Service. Respondents, echoing the District Court, maintain that the term refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-tary. We conclude that the term "regular forces" in §12406(3) likely refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-tary. This interpretation means that to call the Guard into active federal service under §12406(3), the President must be "unable" with the regular military "to execute the laws of the United States." Because the statute requires an assessment of the military's ability to execute the laws, it likely applies only where the military could legally execute the laws. Such circumstances are exceptional: Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the military is prohibited from "execut[ing] the laws" "except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress." 18 U. S. C. §1385. So before the President can federalize the Guard under §12406(3), he likely must have statutory or constitutional authority to execute the laws with the regular military and must be "unable" with those forces to perform that function.

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

socialistdogmom.bsky.social
molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 2d
did a lot of people do a lot of really unspeakably disgusting, evil things? absolutely. but investigative files are full of weird fake tips and they released all of those on purpose to flood the zone so you’ll take the bait 500 times, start feeling foolish, and either go tinfoil hat or give up.

Reposted by Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce, Rebecca Tushnet , and 3 more

sababausa.bsky.social
❀°。Der Siebenschläfer *.ﾟ✿ ⋆ @sababausa.bsky.social · 2d
jesus the Palm Beach Police really sought arrest warrants against underage Epstein victims for coming forward and cooperating, and (purported) admitting to crimes, and it caused the victims to become uncooperative with the federal investigation
. . . very cooperative, but the police at that point had to let [redacted] know that what she had done that she could be facing charges. Q And that was after they had told her earlier that she didn't need an attorney present, correct? A Exactly. Q Okay. So this happens to her with the Palm Beach Police Department and did the Palm Beach Police actually present or propose charging [redacted]? A They did get a probable cause affidavit against [redacted]. Q And is that why Ms. [redacted] and her attorney were concerned about her testimony here? A Yes. Q Now was a subpoena issued for Ms. [redacted] on behalf of this grand jury? A Yes, it was. Q And before Ms. [redacted] would comply with that, did she -- did her attorney request some sort of order? A Yes. Q And what did he ask for? A He asked for immunity for [redacted].

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Eric Goldman, Rebecca Tushnet

lawrencehurley.bsky.social
Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 2d
NEW:

One brought a gun home.

One moved.

Others improved home security.

Life as a federal judge in the age of Trump:

www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
Judges who ruled against Trump say harassment and threats have changed their lives
More than 100 pizzas were delivered to the homes of judges and their families this year, some with signs of foreign involvement. Judges say the message is clear: We know where you live.
www.nbcnews.com