Beth Wilensky
@bethwilensky.bsky.social
#LegalWriting Professor at University of Michigan Law School. #WilenskyOnStyle. Cardinals and cooking and kids oh my. https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty/beth-h-wilensky
Yikes! If this accurately reports all of the facts then firing this teacher is a bad decision. I suppose it matters a bit what course it was and whether the students are - e.g. - 9th graders or 12th graders. But if she had no notice that the admin disapproved of the materials, this is not OK. /1
Here's the story about the firing of Community High School English Teacher Emma Hamstra at last night's #a2schoolboard meeting. Hamstras had the students read poems by @fannychoir with writes on mature themes around sexism and racism. www.mlive.com/news/ann-arb...
Ann Arbor teacher fired over poems taught in class despite outcry from supporters
Supporters of the Community High School educator said Emma Hamstra was denied true due process before her employment was terminated.
www.mlive.com
June 26, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Yikes! If this accurately reports all of the facts then firing this teacher is a bad decision. I suppose it matters a bit what course it was and whether the students are - e.g. - 9th graders or 12th graders. But if she had no notice that the admin disapproved of the materials, this is not OK. /1
Randolph and Mortimer Duke, co-principals of Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers, have endorsed Andrew Cuomo.
June 24, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Randolph and Mortimer Duke, co-principals of Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers, have endorsed Andrew Cuomo.
Reposted by Beth Wilensky
This whole, "sexual assault and harassment is bad when Trump does it, but ok when our side does it," is sending a really clear message that the old guard of Democratic leadership only cares about women when it's politically advantageous.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...
Former critics who once demanded Cuomo resign are now endorsing him
A POLITICO review of Cuomo’s touted endorsers found that few of them stood by him in 2021.
www.politico.com
June 23, 2025 at 1:06 PM
This whole, "sexual assault and harassment is bad when Trump does it, but ok when our side does it," is sending a really clear message that the old guard of Democratic leadership only cares about women when it's politically advantageous.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...
The Ann Arbor weather shields are in full effect.
June 18, 2025 at 11:41 PM
The Ann Arbor weather shields are in full effect.
One of my dresser drawers has been broken for *years* and I finally decided to try to fix it and discovered it required merely replacing one little screw and now I haven’t stopped talking about “that time I fixed the dresser myself instead of calling a handyman.”
Once again it is Father’s Day, which means it’s time to share the most Dad* thing you did in the last year. As is custom, I will go first:
Watching YouTube videos for small repair jobs around the house has turned into watching YouTube videos for large repair jobs I cannot and should not attempt.
Watching YouTube videos for small repair jobs around the house has turned into watching YouTube videos for large repair jobs I cannot and should not attempt.
June 16, 2025 at 12:06 PM
One of my dresser drawers has been broken for *years* and I finally decided to try to fix it and discovered it required merely replacing one little screw and now I haven’t stopped talking about “that time I fixed the dresser myself instead of calling a handyman.”
🎶 A celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with meeeeeeeee! 🎶
June 15, 2025 at 1:15 AM
🎶 A celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with meeeeeeeee! 🎶
Given the combination of the success of the No Kings protests and the failure of the President’s $45 million birthday thingy, I fear for what horrors he will unleash this week to soothe his ego.
June 14, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Given the combination of the success of the No Kings protests and the failure of the President’s $45 million birthday thingy, I fear for what horrors he will unleash this week to soothe his ego.
Update to this: UofM is "terminating all contracts with external vendors to provide plainclothes security on campus," per an email that just went out from our interim President.
This is really gross. Concerns about protestors breaking campus rules and committing low-level offenses don’t justify this level of surveillance and, frankly, harassment - from a money or campus culture perspective.
“The University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations, the Guardian has learned”
June 9, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Update to this: UofM is "terminating all contracts with external vendors to provide plainclothes security on campus," per an email that just went out from our interim President.
This is really gross. Concerns about protestors breaking campus rules and committing low-level offenses don’t justify this level of surveillance and, frankly, harassment - from a money or campus culture perspective.
“The University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations, the Guardian has learned”
University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protesters
Revealed: security trailing students on and off campus as video shows investigator faking disability when confronted
www.theguardian.com
June 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
This is really gross. Concerns about protestors breaking campus rules and committing low-level offenses don’t justify this level of surveillance and, frankly, harassment - from a money or campus culture perspective.
Amendment: All this AND Phinease & Ferb returns AND @richardprimus.bsky.social's new book drops? It's a good week.
June 6, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Amendment: All this AND Phinease & Ferb returns AND @richardprimus.bsky.social's new book drops? It's a good week.
All this AND Phineas & Ferb returns? Oh happy day!
June 6, 2025 at 3:19 AM
All this AND Phineas & Ferb returns? Oh happy day!
Don’t let Rubio off the hook here either.
Nature ran a piece finding that 25 million people could die as a result of ending USAID. This puts Trump and Musk in the category of the most brutal leaders of the 20th century in terms of unnecessary lives lost.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
May 30, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Don’t let Rubio off the hook here either.
This essay is an excellent rejoinder to the views that Deborah Lipstadt expressed in that Chotiner interview.
Thanks but no thanks, Pharaoh. Jews don’t need this kind of “protection.” www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...
The Situation: Thanks But No Thanks
I really don’t need this sort of defense from antisemitism.
www.lawfaremedia.org
May 28, 2025 at 11:12 PM
This essay is an excellent rejoinder to the views that Deborah Lipstadt expressed in that Chotiner interview.
Go Blue! (I assume that Kyle's victory was due in part to the legal writing skills he learned in my class, right? RIGHT?) www.freep.com/story/news/l...
University of Michigan Law School grad wins 'Survivor.' What to know about winner
Fraser lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is from Roanoke, Virginia. He graduated from U-M Law School in 2021.
www.freep.com
May 22, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Go Blue! (I assume that Kyle's victory was due in part to the legal writing skills he learned in my class, right? RIGHT?) www.freep.com/story/news/l...
Reposted by Beth Wilensky
Make no mistake: antisemitic hate inevitably leads to antisemitic violence. Anyone who claims to believe in the dignity & rights of all people has an obligation to name this shooting for what it is — vile & violent antisemitic terror — and to speak out against this increasingly-normalized bigotry.
JCPA Statement on Shooting of Israeli Embassy Aides in Washington - Jewish Council for Public Affairs
jewishpublicaffairs.org
May 22, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Make no mistake: antisemitic hate inevitably leads to antisemitic violence. Anyone who claims to believe in the dignity & rights of all people has an obligation to name this shooting for what it is — vile & violent antisemitic terror — and to speak out against this increasingly-normalized bigotry.
I've been looking for an excuse to give up exercising and I think I just found it.
May 20, 2025 at 9:04 PM
I've been looking for an excuse to give up exercising and I think I just found it.
The law firm is Butler Snow, which is widely known among law geeks primarily for its clever annual holiday cards. Until now.
It's happened again -- lawyers caught using AI with made up citations. This time in a prison case, Johnson v. Dunn, 2:21-cv-1701-AMM (SD Ala.)
![3. The thrust of Defendant’s argument is his assertion that “[t]he Eleventh
Circuit and district courts routinely authorize incarcerated depositions when proper
notice is given and the deposition is relevant to claims or defenses, notwithstanding
other discovery disputes.” Doc. 174 at ¶ 5. Defendant bolstered this assertion with
a lengthy string citation of legal authority and parentheticals that appeared to support
Defendant’s proposition. But the entire string citation appears to have been made
up out of whole cloth.
4. First, Defendant states that “United States v. Baker, 539 F. App’x 937,
943 (11th Cir 2013)” “confirm[s] broad discovery rights under Rules 26 and 30.”
Doc. 174 at ¶ 5. While United States v. Baker, 529 Fed. Appx. 987 (11th Cir. 2013)
is an actual case, it is an appeal challenging a criminal’s sentencing enhancement.
The case makes no mention of discovery, much less of Rule 26 or Rule 30. The
actual case found at 539 F. App’x 937 is styled Williams v. Morahan, and it likewise
does not discuss discovery. See Williams v. Morahan, 539 F. App’x 937 (11th Cir
2013). The pincite of page 943 in Defendant’s citation does not exist.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:purwgefqj4hh536crvjlxb7c/bafkreigorgy4vy66jnsubtq7thqecelb4yvix6mzc7u4atzc5xhubfkf3i@jpeg)
May 19, 2025 at 9:21 PM
The law firm is Butler Snow, which is widely known among law geeks primarily for its clever annual holiday cards. Until now.
I think we learned the answer to this question when Nancy Pelosi's husband was brutally assaulted.
We’re about to learn whether a bunch of people who’ve turned Biden bashing into their personal income stream have a shred of decency and humanity.
May 18, 2025 at 10:26 PM
I think we learned the answer to this question when Nancy Pelosi's husband was brutally assaulted.
Argus makes the NYT! This is a great local institution with a great concept. I'm so glad to see it getting national attention. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/b...
What if a Grocery Store Was More Like a Farmers’ Market?
www.nytimes.com
May 18, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Argus makes the NYT! This is a great local institution with a great concept. I'm so glad to see it getting national attention. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/b...
Reposted by Beth Wilensky
How does anti-Zionism become antisemitism? When a community garden requires its members to pledge that theyre anti-Zionist in order to join. Seriously, this is ridiculous.
gothamist.com/news/a-queen...
gothamist.com/news/a-queen...
A Queens community garden said its members must be anti-Zionist. Now it's facing eviction.
Parks department officials wrote the statement of values at Sunset Community Garden in Ridgewood amounted to a “litmus test” and “improper requirement for membership.”
gothamist.com
May 14, 2025 at 7:38 PM
How does anti-Zionism become antisemitism? When a community garden requires its members to pledge that theyre anti-Zionist in order to join. Seriously, this is ridiculous.
gothamist.com/news/a-queen...
gothamist.com/news/a-queen...
Worth reading the full concurrence for a thoughtful explanation from this judge about why he disapproves of (cleaned up).
On one hand, the Indiana Court of Appeals used (cleaned up) in an opinion!
On the other hand: "I cannot agree with the majority’s use of “cleaned up” in a citation. As a result, I concur only as to the result."
#LegalWriting
cc: @scotusplaces.bsky.social
public.courts.in.gov/Decisions/ap...
On the other hand: "I cannot agree with the majority’s use of “cleaned up” in a citation. As a result, I concur only as to the result."
#LegalWriting
cc: @scotusplaces.bsky.social
public.courts.in.gov/Decisions/ap...
![Bailey, Judge, concurring in result.
[4] I concur with the majority that Malott lacked standing to complain about the injury to his sister. However, I write separately to address the majority’s use of “cleaned up” to indicate that changes had been made to a quotation from Hoosier Contractors, LLC. Because I do not agree with the use of this phrase, I concur only in the result.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:o6o2u2byc2cellhzzisujort/bafkreie6zn3go7dwkqfsi5lo2yexetd5377xorh54udatppq5yc3mcy5k4@jpeg)
May 11, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Worth reading the full concurrence for a thoughtful explanation from this judge about why he disapproves of (cleaned up).
This reminds me of the time a SCOTUS atty, while waiting to argue the 2nd case of the morning, heard one of the Justices read part of a majority op from the bench, realized it could be helpful to his case, read the full op. during the 1st arg., and cited the case as precedent during his arg. /1
This Second Circuit ruling denying a stay of the release order in Mahdawi's case was just mentioned by Ozturk's lawyer before Judge Sessions, where the hearing over her bail request is ongoing.
May 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
This reminds me of the time a SCOTUS atty, while waiting to argue the 2nd case of the morning, heard one of the Justices read part of a majority op from the bench, realized it could be helpful to his case, read the full op. during the 1st arg., and cited the case as precedent during his arg. /1
Hummus. (Using the Zahav recipe that starts with dried beans.)
17. What is the most 'worth it' thing you make from scratch instead of buying it from the grocery store?
May 7, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Hummus. (Using the Zahav recipe that starts with dried beans.)
Tahini. It easily works with both sweet and savory dishes.
2. What is the most versatile cooking ingredient?
May 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Tahini. It easily works with both sweet and savory dishes.