Colin Heath
@colinheath.bsky.social
Tax law clerk. Trojan. Julia Ducournau fan. Currently @Tax Court, formerly @NYU Law.
Filled with so much pride today because Mari wrote this wonderful story for The Atlantic! It's (almost) enough to make me put my running shoes back on.
“I’ve seen parents running to their kids, lovers sprinting toward a kiss, and friends handing a runner a beer so they can shotgun it together.” Mariana Labbate on how marathons have gathered strangers for more than a century in Time-Travel Thursdays:
The Wonder of Watching People Run
Marathons have gathered strangers for more than a century now.
bit.ly
November 6, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Filled with so much pride today because Mari wrote this wonderful story for The Atlantic! It's (almost) enough to make me put my running shoes back on.
Reposted by Colin Heath
Going to break the "favorite" requirement and give two.
1. Science, Literature, and Ethics. Just enough ethics to get me thinking (and reading) throughout undergrad and law school. Plus, I was able to re-read some great novels.
2. International Ballroom Dance.
1. Science, Literature, and Ethics. Just enough ethics to get me thinking (and reading) throughout undergrad and law school. Plus, I was able to re-read some great novels.
2. International Ballroom Dance.
What was your favorite early clas NOT in your eventual major. Mine was Ethnomusicology: an introduction to folk music.
I invariably get, "Ooh anthro that was my favorite class/cool professor" from people I meet. I tend to think soms of it is our outré material, being willing to talk "taboo" subjects in a cross-cultural context.
Ironically MY favorite class was probably Geology 101...
Ironically MY favorite class was probably Geology 101...
July 29, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Going to break the "favorite" requirement and give two.
1. Science, Literature, and Ethics. Just enough ethics to get me thinking (and reading) throughout undergrad and law school. Plus, I was able to re-read some great novels.
2. International Ballroom Dance.
1. Science, Literature, and Ethics. Just enough ethics to get me thinking (and reading) throughout undergrad and law school. Plus, I was able to re-read some great novels.
2. International Ballroom Dance.
Reposted by Colin Heath
i just find this so bizarre. searching through texts and doing the reading for myself is how i actually think through ideas! trying to put together a sentence is how i figure out what i actually want to say!
Everyone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad?
www.nytimes.com
June 18, 2025 at 12:55 AM
i just find this so bizarre. searching through texts and doing the reading for myself is how i actually think through ideas! trying to put together a sentence is how i figure out what i actually want to say!
Super excited this morning because my friend Vito (@vitoemanuel.bsky.social) has a story out on NPR's Morning Edition!! He dug into the "junk fax" phenomenon frustrating pharmacies and medical offices nationwide.
Link: www.npr.org/2025/06/17/n...
Link: www.npr.org/2025/06/17/n...
Many offices and professionals see a rise in spam paper faxes
These days, faxed documents mostly show up on your computer. But doctors and other professionals still rely on paper faxes. And they're getting lots of spam along with important documents.
www.npr.org
June 17, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Super excited this morning because my friend Vito (@vitoemanuel.bsky.social) has a story out on NPR's Morning Edition!! He dug into the "junk fax" phenomenon frustrating pharmacies and medical offices nationwide.
Link: www.npr.org/2025/06/17/n...
Link: www.npr.org/2025/06/17/n...
Reposted by Colin Heath
All Steven Soderbergh does is crank out excellent movies, and it honestly seems unfair and underappreciated
June 16, 2025 at 2:40 PM
All Steven Soderbergh does is crank out excellent movies, and it honestly seems unfair and underappreciated
Reposted by Colin Heath
I reported on a notable single-owner sale of Old Masters paintings that fell sort of high expectations, the multiple factors behind the low sell-through rate, and why certain works still set artist records: www.artnews.com/art-news/mar...
Sotheby’s Landmark Old Masters Sale Disappoints, Yielding Just $64.7 M.
A landmark Sotheby's sale of Old Masters works from the Saunders collection failed to even reach its low estimate.
www.artnews.com
May 23, 2025 at 8:43 PM
I reported on a notable single-owner sale of Old Masters paintings that fell sort of high expectations, the multiple factors behind the low sell-through rate, and why certain works still set artist records: www.artnews.com/art-news/mar...
Reposted by Colin Heath
Absolutely surreal to get a “highly recommended” from @lsolum.bsky.social! For a devoted follower of the Legal Theory Blog like me, this falls somewhere between winning an Oscar and getting blessed by the Pope.
Walser on Interpretive Facts, buff.ly/dRNn3JA - Hannah Walser (New York University School of Law) has posted INTERPRETIVE FACTS: TEXTUALISM, EMPIRICISM, AND THE LAW-FACT DIVIDE on SSRN.
buff.ly
May 13, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Absolutely surreal to get a “highly recommended” from @lsolum.bsky.social! For a devoted follower of the Legal Theory Blog like me, this falls somewhere between winning an Oscar and getting blessed by the Pope.
Reposted by Colin Heath
i’ll just say this: anyone who doubts jimmy should watch avatar 2, which is a masterpiece
James Cameron says the Ash People are the main adversaries of ‘AVATAR:: FIRE & ASH’ alongside the humans
They are former Na’vi filled with rage.
They are former Na’vi filled with rage.
April 4, 2025 at 1:27 AM
i’ll just say this: anyone who doubts jimmy should watch avatar 2, which is a masterpiece
Reposted by Colin Heath
It feels absurd to post about this, but—since the good people of #lawsky patiently encouraged me when I was freaking out about placing my paper, I wanted to share that it has found a home in the Indiana Law Journal. “Interpretive Facts,” coming 2026! (Two images below to fit the full alt text) 1/3
![INTERPRETIVE FACTS: TEXTUALISM, EMPIRICISM, AND THE LAW-FACT DIVIDE
Hannah Walser
ABSTRACT
What a word means may seem to be a paradigmatic question of law. We reach conclusions about the meaning of a word or a sentence through interpretation; interpretation is one of judges’ core tasks in the United States court system; meaning is therefore a matter of law to be determined by judges. Yet thanks to technological advances in corpus linguistics permitting the quantitative analysis of large numbers of texts, as well as methodological shifts that frame ordinary meaning as an empirical question, courts and legal scholars are increasingly apt to frame interpretive inquiries as factual ones.
This Article offers the first systematic examination of where linguistic evidence used in statutory and constitutional interpretation should fit in the federal court system’s division of labor based on law and fact. First, I identify and label “interpretive facts”: generalized empirical evidence about how a particular word or phrase has been used by a population of speakers, understood by a population of listeners, or both. Then, I explain the complications that interpretive facts create for two specific aspects of the law-fact division of labor: the default expectation that questions of fact be submitted to a jury, and the more deferential standard of appellate review that applies to a trial court’s findings of fact. Applying either presumption to interpretive facts would seem to threaten the judiciary’s authority over questions of law and to undermine interpretive consistency. Yet failing to apply these presumptions risks flooding the courts with inaccurate empirical claims about language use—no small problem when the “ordinary meaning” of a legal term, as established through quantitative evidence, may be outcome-determinative.
[Alt text continued in next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pwlygq4vcnwe4wzqxgczcv5u/bafkreiex5srywoxshp52bmyuhs4iacubq6xcc6jsahjrt2rot6c3hhg4qq@jpeg)
March 15, 2025 at 3:18 PM
It feels absurd to post about this, but—since the good people of #lawsky patiently encouraged me when I was freaking out about placing my paper, I wanted to share that it has found a home in the Indiana Law Journal. “Interpretive Facts,” coming 2026! (Two images below to fit the full alt text) 1/3
Reposted by Colin Heath
Cela semble absurde, et j’ai été choqué la première fois que je l’ai compris, mais la France – il n'y a pas d'autre mot – est bien un paradis fiscal pour milliardaire
Explications détaillées 🧵
Explications détaillées 🧵
February 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Cela semble absurde, et j’ai été choqué la première fois que je l’ai compris, mais la France – il n'y a pas d'autre mot – est bien un paradis fiscal pour milliardaire
Explications détaillées 🧵
Explications détaillées 🧵
Reposted by Colin Heath
Clear and cogent analysis on the Birthright Citizenship EO (and, collectively, the "dictatorial theory" of executive power behind all of the recent EOs) from my colleagues Trevor Morrison & @adambcox.bsky.social on @justsecurity.org
www.justsecurity.org/106969/trump...
www.justsecurity.org/106969/trump...
January 28, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Clear and cogent analysis on the Birthright Citizenship EO (and, collectively, the "dictatorial theory" of executive power behind all of the recent EOs) from my colleagues Trevor Morrison & @adambcox.bsky.social on @justsecurity.org
www.justsecurity.org/106969/trump...
www.justsecurity.org/106969/trump...
Reposted by Colin Heath
NEW PAPER! (w/ Ed Fox) We study 1) how much the wealthy borrow, quantifying “buy-borrow-die” for the first time, and 2) how much unrealized gains impact their taxes. The results changed (some of) our thinking on how to tax those at the top.
🧵 w/ findings ⬇️
Paper is here: ssrn.com/abstract=510...
🧵 w/ findings ⬇️
Paper is here: ssrn.com/abstract=510...
January 22, 2025 at 4:05 PM
NEW PAPER! (w/ Ed Fox) We study 1) how much the wealthy borrow, quantifying “buy-borrow-die” for the first time, and 2) how much unrealized gains impact their taxes. The results changed (some of) our thinking on how to tax those at the top.
🧵 w/ findings ⬇️
Paper is here: ssrn.com/abstract=510...
🧵 w/ findings ⬇️
Paper is here: ssrn.com/abstract=510...
Reposted by Colin Heath
If you want to learn about the Biden clemency record so far (aside from the pardon of Hunter) and what he should be doing in the time remaining, please read this piece Mark Osler and I wrote in September begging him to use this power in the time he has left. www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/o...
Opinion | Biden Needs to Work on His Clemency Legacy
It is more important than ever in an era of grossly excessive punishments and mass incarceration.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2024 at 2:55 AM
If you want to learn about the Biden clemency record so far (aside from the pardon of Hunter) and what he should be doing in the time remaining, please read this piece Mark Osler and I wrote in September begging him to use this power in the time he has left. www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/o...