Brad Snyder
@bradsnyderprof.bsky.social
Georgetown Law professor. Author of You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads. W.W. Norton. Books on Felix Frankfurter, House of Truth, Curt Flood, Grays.
Pinned
Brad Snyder
@bradsnyderprof.bsky.social
· Feb 28
Brad Snyder — You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon's Fight for Free Speech - with Stephen I. Vladeck — at Conn Ave
politics-prose.com
D.C. Friends: Join me and my superstar colleague @stevevladeck.bsky.social for a conversation about my new book, You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads @wwnorton.bsky.social, tonight at 7pm at Politics and Prose on Conn. Ave. politics-prose.com/brad-snyder
Reposted by Brad Snyder
Paul Butler on Judith Resnik on abolition and the carceral state. I'll just stand over here
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Balkinization: The Reformist Trap: Why Anti-Ruination Cannot Transform the Carceral State
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Paul Butler on Judith Resnik on abolition and the carceral state. I'll just stand over here
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Reposted by Brad Snyder
Today is Pauli Murray's 115th birthday. If you're a law student (or just a curious person) and don't know who they are, look them up! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_M...
(And if you're in Durham, go check out @paulimurraycenter.bsky.social ! I had the privilege of visiting yesterday and it's great.)
(And if you're in Durham, go check out @paulimurraycenter.bsky.social ! I had the privilege of visiting yesterday and it's great.)
Pauli Murray - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 20, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Today is Pauli Murray's 115th birthday. If you're a law student (or just a curious person) and don't know who they are, look them up! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_M...
(And if you're in Durham, go check out @paulimurraycenter.bsky.social ! I had the privilege of visiting yesterday and it's great.)
(And if you're in Durham, go check out @paulimurraycenter.bsky.social ! I had the privilege of visiting yesterday and it's great.)
Reposted by Brad Snyder
I am thrilled to be the new #ASLH president, receiving the gavel yesterday from former president Barbara Welke at our Detroit conference awards ceremony. My term is 2025-27. Excited to get to work! #legalhistory
November 16, 2025 at 10:51 PM
I am thrilled to be the new #ASLH president, receiving the gavel yesterday from former president Barbara Welke at our Detroit conference awards ceremony. My term is 2025-27. Excited to get to work! #legalhistory
Happy Birthday, Felix Frankfurter. Born OTD in 1882. He encouraged generations of law students and law clerks to go into public service. And he was the last justice who espoused James Bradley Thayer's theory of justice restraint.
November 15, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Happy Birthday, Felix Frankfurter. Born OTD in 1882. He encouraged generations of law students and law clerks to go into public service. And he was the last justice who espoused James Bradley Thayer's theory of justice restraint.
Reposted by Brad Snyder
Reposted by Brad Snyder
So excited to be at the annual meeting of the American Society for Legal History over the next few days! Check out the program here: aslh.net/wp-content/u... #ASLH #LegalHistory
aslh.net
November 13, 2025 at 3:37 PM
So excited to be at the annual meeting of the American Society for Legal History over the next few days! Check out the program here: aslh.net/wp-content/u... #ASLH #LegalHistory
Reposted by Brad Snyder
Reminder for 2025 Detroit #ASLH people: check out our *new* table for recently pub. legal history books not otherwise represented @ book sale! Authors donate a copy & everyone else can enter raffle for each book. I'll pull names of winners on Sat. morning & winners pick up books before end of day
November 13, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reminder for 2025 Detroit #ASLH people: check out our *new* table for recently pub. legal history books not otherwise represented @ book sale! Authors donate a copy & everyone else can enter raffle for each book. I'll pull names of winners on Sat. morning & winners pick up books before end of day
Reposted by Brad Snyder
“Nearer to Thee”: The Still Evolving Legacy and Politics of Sam Cooke by Mark Anthony Neal medium.com/@tnimixtape/... 🤎
“Nearer to Thee”: The Still Evolving Legacy and Politics of Sam Cooke by Mark Anthony Neal
All I knew was that there was something that I heard in the man’s voice. This was me, in the mid-1970s watching TV in our South Bronx…
medium.com
June 29, 2025 at 6:30 AM
“Nearer to Thee”: The Still Evolving Legacy and Politics of Sam Cooke by Mark Anthony Neal medium.com/@tnimixtape/... 🤎
Great column by @jamellebouie.net on how a future Congress can wield its "broad array of powers" to restore our democracy. With quotes from excellent books by @richardprimus.bsky.social and my @georgetownlaw.bsky.social colleague @joshchafetz.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Opinion | The Empty Promises of Trump’s Imperial Presidency
www.nytimes.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Great column by @jamellebouie.net on how a future Congress can wield its "broad array of powers" to restore our democracy. With quotes from excellent books by @richardprimus.bsky.social and my @georgetownlaw.bsky.social colleague @joshchafetz.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Reposted by Brad Snyder
George Downing (b. 1818) was an entrepreneur & civic leader who participated in the Underground Railroad & achieved the desegregation of Newport, RI schools. His father, Thomas Downing, born in Virginia to formerly enslaved parents in 1791, was Manhattan’s 1st eminent purveyor of oysters.
November 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
George Downing (b. 1818) was an entrepreneur & civic leader who participated in the Underground Railroad & achieved the desegregation of Newport, RI schools. His father, Thomas Downing, born in Virginia to formerly enslaved parents in 1791, was Manhattan’s 1st eminent purveyor of oysters.
Reposted by Brad Snyder
I am delighted to announce that I have signed a contract with Cambridge University Press to publish my new book, “One Nation Under Law: The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence.” Look for it in 2026, for the 250th anniversary!
October 21, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I am delighted to announce that I have signed a contract with Cambridge University Press to publish my new book, “One Nation Under Law: The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence.” Look for it in 2026, for the 250th anniversary!
Great job Centre College for honoring Justice John Marshall Harlan. Every law student should read Harlan's dissent in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883. www.centre.edu/news/john-ma...
Centre College celebrates legacy of ‘The Great Dissenter’ with new campus sculpture
Centre College started homecoming weekend by dedicating a new statue to honor one of its most distinguished alumni, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan.
www.centre.edu
October 20, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Great job Centre College for honoring Justice John Marshall Harlan. Every law student should read Harlan's dissent in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883. www.centre.edu/news/john-ma...
Reposted by Brad Snyder
One of Charles Sumner’s greatest lines came out of the debate over a bust of the chief justice: “If a man has done evil in his life, he must not be complimented in marble.”
I found it pretty charming to learn that after Roger Taney died, sitting lawmakers called his death a "victory for liberty and the Constitution," suggested that he was probably burning in hell, and joked (?) that they'd rather hang him in effigy than do literally anything to honor his memory
Roger Taney’s Contemporaries Hated Him As Much As You Probably Do
Ordinarily, members of Congress do not publicly suggest that recently deceased Supreme Court justices are burning in hell. But Roger Taney was no ordinary Supreme Court justice.
ballsandstrikes.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 5:21 PM
One of Charles Sumner’s greatest lines came out of the debate over a bust of the chief justice: “If a man has done evil in his life, he must not be complimented in marble.”
Reposted by Brad Snyder
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry began on October 16, 1859.
October 16, 2025 at 6:33 PM
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry began on October 16, 1859.
Reposted by Brad Snyder
Congratulations to @gauthamrao.bsky.social!!
Some books just take their time. I am inspired that yours is out!
Some books just take their time. I am inspired that yours is out!
Took about 20 years. And I never thought a book about enslavers using deputization to give themselves policing power would be relevant to our times. But we are where we are.
My book, White Power: Policing American Slavery, is now available for preorder.
a.co/d/29c7EIP
My book, White Power: Policing American Slavery, is now available for preorder.
a.co/d/29c7EIP
September 29, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Congratulations to @gauthamrao.bsky.social!!
Some books just take their time. I am inspired that yours is out!
Some books just take their time. I am inspired that yours is out!
Do you remember . . .
a man singing into a microphone with the words " do you remember the 21st night of september " below him
ALT: a man singing into a microphone with the words " do you remember the 21st night of september " below him
media.tenor.com
September 21, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Do you remember . . .
Reposted by Brad Snyder
Check your public television schedules. “Becoming Thurgood” will air multiple times this week and throughout the month. Catch it!
WATCH: Tonight on public television across the nation, the premiere of the new documentary “Becoming Thurgood.” It’s so good. Check your PBS and public television schedules. It is part of #HBCUWeek on PBS.
September 10, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Check your public television schedules. “Becoming Thurgood” will air multiple times this week and throughout the month. Catch it!
Reposted by Brad Snyder
For folks who are wondering just how long #SCOTUS has had the power to behave the way it’s behaving on emergency applications (mostly since 1925), and whether the Court’s recent behavior is meaningfully different from, say, prior to 2015 (it sure is), you might find my book at least somewhat useful:
The Shadow Docket
An instant New York Times bestseller: An acclaimed legal scholar’s “important” (New York Times) and “fascinating” (Economist) exposé of how the ...
www.basicbooks.com
September 10, 2025 at 12:22 PM
For folks who are wondering just how long #SCOTUS has had the power to behave the way it’s behaving on emergency applications (mostly since 1925), and whether the Court’s recent behavior is meaningfully different from, say, prior to 2015 (it sure is), you might find my book at least somewhat useful:
Reposted by Brad Snyder
Must-watch: “Becoming Thurgood.”
In NYC, it will be on starting in 10 minutes.
In NYC, it will be on starting in 10 minutes.
WATCH: Tonight on public television across the nation, the premiere of the new documentary “Becoming Thurgood.” It’s so good. Check your PBS and public television schedules. It is part of #HBCUWeek on PBS.
September 10, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Must-watch: “Becoming Thurgood.”
In NYC, it will be on starting in 10 minutes.
In NYC, it will be on starting in 10 minutes.
Reposted by Brad Snyder
Charles Sumner, 1875, by #AnneWhitney (American, 1821-1915), who was born #otd, Sept 2. Located in General MacArthur Square, Cambridge, MA.
#womenartists #artherstory
#womenartists #artherstory
September 2, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Charles Sumner, 1875, by #AnneWhitney (American, 1821-1915), who was born #otd, Sept 2. Located in General MacArthur Square, Cambridge, MA.
#womenartists #artherstory
#womenartists #artherstory
Reposted by Brad Snyder
In the NIH funding case, Justice Gorsuch (joined by Justice Kavanaugh) claimed that this was the third time in recent weeks that lower courts had "defied" a #SCOTUS ruling.
As today's "One First" explains, that claim is not only nonsense; it's enabling a dangerous anti-court narrative on the right:
As today's "One First" explains, that claim is not only nonsense; it's enabling a dangerous anti-court narrative on the right:
174. Justice Gorsuch's Attack on Lower Courts
Just like the earlier rulings that Justice Gorsuch claims lower courts are defying, his concurrence in the NIH grant cutoffs case would be a lot more convincing if it showed more of its work.
www.stevevladeck.com
August 25, 2025 at 11:46 AM
In the NIH funding case, Justice Gorsuch (joined by Justice Kavanaugh) claimed that this was the third time in recent weeks that lower courts had "defied" a #SCOTUS ruling.
As today's "One First" explains, that claim is not only nonsense; it's enabling a dangerous anti-court narrative on the right:
As today's "One First" explains, that claim is not only nonsense; it's enabling a dangerous anti-court narrative on the right:
Reposted by Brad Snyder
That's a great question. I think I do because I read the secondary literature first& I often have other historians' thoughts on the matter top of mind. But I also keep a timeline/chronology right there too. "OK this was written in March 1922. What happened in February 1922 that may have shaped this"
Forgive me, I teach IB history, so a very different level, but our students conduct a historical investigation looking at primary sources.
From studying the context/time period, do you have a working thesis in mind as you read primary sources?
(Obvs a longer convo but curious on your thoughts.)
From studying the context/time period, do you have a working thesis in mind as you read primary sources?
(Obvs a longer convo but curious on your thoughts.)
August 24, 2025 at 7:41 PM
That's a great question. I think I do because I read the secondary literature first& I often have other historians' thoughts on the matter top of mind. But I also keep a timeline/chronology right there too. "OK this was written in March 1922. What happened in February 1922 that may have shaped this"
Reposted by Brad Snyder
This Day in Labor History: August 23, 1927. The state of Massachusetts executed two Italian immigrant anarchists by the names of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for the murder of two men in a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree. Their real crime: being Italian anarchists!
August 23, 2025 at 12:37 PM
This Day in Labor History: August 23, 1927. The state of Massachusetts executed two Italian immigrant anarchists by the names of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for the murder of two men in a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree. Their real crime: being Italian anarchists!
Reposted by Brad Snyder
51 years ago, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency on national TV. Later that night, according to Jimmy Breslin’s account in How the Good Guys Finally Won, Nixon called a friend and said, “Yes, a lot of heads of state have gone to jail. Gandhi went to prison, you know.” loa.org/books/788
August 8, 2025 at 2:51 PM
51 years ago, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency on national TV. Later that night, according to Jimmy Breslin’s account in How the Good Guys Finally Won, Nixon called a friend and said, “Yes, a lot of heads of state have gone to jail. Gandhi went to prison, you know.” loa.org/books/788