Austin Steelman
@austinsteelman.bsky.social
Historian of conservatism and evangelicalism in Modern U.S. | Alum @StanfordHistory @Harvard_Law | Professor | Former litigator | Avid hiker
My new article “The Birth of the Dead Constitution: Arthur Machen Jr.’s Early Twentieth-Century Originalism” is out in the Journal of Constitutional History. Give it a read! It’s about white supremacy, anti-Progressivism, and the deep political origins of constitutional originalism.
November 15, 2025 at 3:33 PM
My new article “The Birth of the Dead Constitution: Arthur Machen Jr.’s Early Twentieth-Century Originalism” is out in the Journal of Constitutional History. Give it a read! It’s about white supremacy, anti-Progressivism, and the deep political origins of constitutional originalism.
From the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy archive…I wonder if anyone ever got paid
October 3, 2025 at 8:36 PM
From the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy archive…I wonder if anyone ever got paid
Good reminder for everyone to go read @hildelstephens.bsky.social Family Matters!
So this happened today. The man whose work I’ve spent years stdying is gone. He was so influential ans powerful at the height of his career. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u....
James Dobson, Influential Leader of the Religious Right, Dies at 89
www.nytimes.com
August 21, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Good reminder for everyone to go read @hildelstephens.bsky.social Family Matters!
Poignant and spot-on criticism of Medicaid cuts from a good friend
New here and sharing my op-ed in @washingtonpost.com today on Medicaid under the “big, beautiful bill” and my story as a young cancer patient and student on Medicaid.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
@americancancersoc.bsky.social @elephantsandteamag.bsky.social @lymphomaaction.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
@americancancersoc.bsky.social @elephantsandteamag.bsky.social @lymphomaaction.bsky.social
Opinion | I assumed I’d never need Medicaid. I was wrong.
As a student with cancer, I needed help. Cuts to the program will make life harder for others like me.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 2, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Poignant and spot-on criticism of Medicaid cuts from a good friend
Reposted by Austin Steelman
The real enemy of this administration is cosmopolitanism. Whether in Los Angeles or South Africa, multiracial pluralistic democracy is a threat to them because it means their “us or them” model of the world is wrong. So they stir up trouble on purpose and gleefully lie.
Kristi Noem calls Los Angeles a “city of criminals”
“They are not city of immigrants, they are a city of criminals”
“They are not city of immigrants, they are a city of criminals”
June 10, 2025 at 1:28 AM
The real enemy of this administration is cosmopolitanism. Whether in Los Angeles or South Africa, multiracial pluralistic democracy is a threat to them because it means their “us or them” model of the world is wrong. So they stir up trouble on purpose and gleefully lie.
Reposted by Austin Steelman
#BREAKING: In Oklahoma religious charter school case, #SCOTUS splits 4-4 (with Justice Barrett recused), which means the lower-court ruling (barring the religious charter school) stands without a (precedential) opinion:
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
www.supremecourt.gov
May 22, 2025 at 2:09 PM
#BREAKING: In Oklahoma religious charter school case, #SCOTUS splits 4-4 (with Justice Barrett recused), which means the lower-court ruling (barring the religious charter school) stands without a (precedential) opinion:
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
Reposted by Austin Steelman
my buddy @resnikoff.bsky.social off the top rope with some actual class analysis www.thenation.com/article/soci...
A YIMBY Theory of Power
Pro-housing advocates offer an analysis of class relations that is more sophisticated and has more explanatory power than the one held by many critics of the “abundance agenda.”
www.thenation.com
April 28, 2025 at 1:08 PM
my buddy @resnikoff.bsky.social off the top rope with some actual class analysis www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Your periodic reminder that the 22nd Amendment was passed to punish the four-term success of a popular liberal president and blocked the run of a popular liberal president who very likely could have beaten Trump in 2016.
President Donald Trump on Sunday declined to rule out seeking a third presidential term — an unconstitutional act explicitly barred under the 22nd Amendment — saying that “there are methods which you could do it.”
Trump suggests ‘methods’ exist for bid for unconstitutional third term
President Donald Trump again raised the idea of running for a third term in office, an unconstitutional idea that would run afoul of the 22nd Amendment.
www.washingtonpost.com
March 31, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Your periodic reminder that the 22nd Amendment was passed to punish the four-term success of a popular liberal president and blocked the run of a popular liberal president who very likely could have beaten Trump in 2016.
Reposted by Austin Steelman
Trump/MAGA are all about tearing down government.
Dems need to offer an alternative vision that delivers, in abundance, what we need — housing, clean energy, scientific innovation, etc.
Dems, for decades, have made it too hard to do things. We need to make it easier. That’s the antidote to Trump.
Dems need to offer an alternative vision that delivers, in abundance, what we need — housing, clean energy, scientific innovation, etc.
Dems, for decades, have made it too hard to do things. We need to make it easier. That’s the antidote to Trump.
The Political Fight of the Century
For the first time in decades, America has a chance to define its next political order. Trump offers fear, retribution, and scarcity. Liberals can stand for abundance.
www.theatlantic.com
March 19, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Trump/MAGA are all about tearing down government.
Dems need to offer an alternative vision that delivers, in abundance, what we need — housing, clean energy, scientific innovation, etc.
Dems, for decades, have made it too hard to do things. We need to make it easier. That’s the antidote to Trump.
Dems need to offer an alternative vision that delivers, in abundance, what we need — housing, clean energy, scientific innovation, etc.
Dems, for decades, have made it too hard to do things. We need to make it easier. That’s the antidote to Trump.
Reposted by Austin Steelman
“This is one reason why conservatives (and fellow travelers like Arnade) hate liberalism so much: free choice disproves their biological essentialism.”
Most Men Don't Want To Be Heroes (And That's Okay)
Despite the self-pity of some, there has never been a better time to be a man.
www.liberalcurrents.com
March 17, 2025 at 12:51 PM
“This is one reason why conservatives (and fellow travelers like Arnade) hate liberalism so much: free choice disproves their biological essentialism.”
Sharing some history behind the current effort to eliminate the Department of Education thanks to TIME's Made By History
time.com/7216493/trum...
time.com/7216493/trum...
The Long Fight Against the Department of Education
Trump's cuts to the Department of Education are part of a nearly long crusade by conservative Christian groups.
time.com
March 12, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Sharing some history behind the current effort to eliminate the Department of Education thanks to TIME's Made By History
time.com/7216493/trum...
time.com/7216493/trum...
Today in "the aughts are a foreign country": In 2002, the (then Dixie) Chicks put out the brilliant pro-immigrant "Long Time Gone" music video to no criticism and then got blacklisted the next year for criticizing the Iraq invasion. Exact opposite would be the case for the today's American right.
March 3, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Today in "the aughts are a foreign country": In 2002, the (then Dixie) Chicks put out the brilliant pro-immigrant "Long Time Gone" music video to no criticism and then got blacklisted the next year for criticizing the Iraq invasion. Exact opposite would be the case for the today's American right.
From today's class on US political history and country music
February 19, 2025 at 5:48 PM
From today's class on US political history and country music
Jesus: Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters...cannot be my disciple.
Vance: There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then...
Vance: There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then...
January 31, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Jesus: Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters...cannot be my disciple.
Vance: There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then...
Vance: There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then...
Reposted by Austin Steelman
i am constantly hearing that the left is elitist but if it is elitism to stand up for basic values of citizenship and decency against a bunch of cruel dumbasses who have no greater ambition than to tell bad jokes and hear the braying laughter of their dumbass friends, then i am an elitist
these people make me into a social conservative but for social democratic values
January 27, 2025 at 8:20 PM
i am constantly hearing that the left is elitist but if it is elitism to stand up for basic values of citizenship and decency against a bunch of cruel dumbasses who have no greater ambition than to tell bad jokes and hear the braying laughter of their dumbass friends, then i am an elitist
So shameful.
The Air Force is stripping Tuskegee Airmen lessons from basic training curriculum because of our White supremacist government.
Put that in a headline.
www.expressnews.com/news/article...
Put that in a headline.
www.expressnews.com/news/article...
January 25, 2025 at 4:46 PM
So shameful.
Calling this "speaking truth to power" misses the point. This is unabashed moral elitism from a leader of one of America's richest, most educated, and least theologically representative denominations. As opposition substance and strategy, it's a rejection of populism (centrist or leftist).
Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde to Trump: "I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender people in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives ... and the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals"
January 22, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Calling this "speaking truth to power" misses the point. This is unabashed moral elitism from a leader of one of America's richest, most educated, and least theologically representative denominations. As opposition substance and strategy, it's a rejection of populism (centrist or leftist).
Some thoughts on Carter's faith for @religiondispatches.bsky.social religiondispatches.org/dont-call-hi...
Don't Call Him Evangelical — How to Remember Jimmy Carter’s Faith, And How Not To
Jimmy Carter was an evangelical. A liberal evangelical. A liberal evangelical in the age before the Christian Right supported a conservative revolution that swept Republican Ronald Reagan into power. ...
religiondispatches.org
January 8, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Some thoughts on Carter's faith for @religiondispatches.bsky.social religiondispatches.org/dont-call-hi...
ASCH was delightful as always with great scholars and great conversations with old and new friends. Looking forward to running in back in Chicago next year!
January 6, 2025 at 9:04 PM
ASCH was delightful as always with great scholars and great conversations with old and new friends. Looking forward to running in back in Chicago next year!
Reposted by Austin Steelman
Jimmy Carter had a monument judicial legacy, achieving a revolutionary diversification of the federal courts in a very short period of time. (Which, sadly, Trump will work feverishly to undo). slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Is Undoing Jimmy Carter’s Greatest Accomplishment
Carter’s reshaping of who gets to interpret the Constitution is one of the greatest and most unheralded achievements in presidential history.
slate.com
December 29, 2024 at 10:20 PM
Jimmy Carter had a monument judicial legacy, achieving a revolutionary diversification of the federal courts in a very short period of time. (Which, sadly, Trump will work feverishly to undo). slate.com/news-and-pol...
Reposted by Austin Steelman
"President Carter appointed more women and people of color to the federal judiciary than all previous presidents combined" civilrights.org/blog/preside...
December 29, 2024 at 9:21 PM
"President Carter appointed more women and people of color to the federal judiciary than all previous presidents combined" civilrights.org/blog/preside...
Reposted by Austin Steelman
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, has died at 100 reut.rs/41UZDh0
Jimmy Carter, former US president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, dead at 100
He was an earnest Georgia peanut farmer who struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt.
reut.rs
December 29, 2024 at 9:40 PM
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, has died at 100 reut.rs/41UZDh0
Finished grading and the first semester is in the books. Time flew by with some great students in US Legal History since 1865 and Religion and the US Constitution
December 14, 2024 at 12:06 AM
Finished grading and the first semester is in the books. Time flew by with some great students in US Legal History since 1865 and Religion and the US Constitution
Searched a line from Bryan’s closing argument in the Scopes Monkey Trial and Google’s AI told me it was from Clarence Darrow and the defense, and now I feel way more justified for warning my students AI can make huge mistakes that will ruin their papers.
December 3, 2024 at 10:16 PM
Searched a line from Bryan’s closing argument in the Scopes Monkey Trial and Google’s AI told me it was from Clarence Darrow and the defense, and now I feel way more justified for warning my students AI can make huge mistakes that will ruin their papers.
Seems like a great time for Congressional Dems to push an amendment that bans presidential pardons of family and limits the presidential immunity from Trump v. US
December 2, 2024 at 1:36 AM
Seems like a great time for Congressional Dems to push an amendment that bans presidential pardons of family and limits the presidential immunity from Trump v. US