Jeff Tulis
@jktulis.bsky.social
Professor of Government Emeritus @UTAustin; sculler; loon counter. Essays: in The Bulwark, Atlantic, WaPo, Public Seminar. Books: Legacies of Losing in American Politics; The Rhetorical Presidency, -in progress, Constitutional Thinking In Trouble
Friend of the Court brief challenging the President's claim to unilateral authority regarding tariffs.
democracyforward.org/updates/prom...
democracyforward.org/updates/prom...
Prominent Scholars Highlight Congressional Authority on Tariffs in Supreme Court Brief - Democracy Forward
democracyforward.org
October 28, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Friend of the Court brief challenging the President's claim to unilateral authority regarding tariffs.
democracyforward.org/updates/prom...
democracyforward.org/updates/prom...
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
People are constantly asking me — what can I do? Here are five, practical next steps you can take to make a difference. https://youtu.be/8W-lVRQQGtI?feature=shared
Five Ways to Fight Trump's Fascism
Robert Reich
youtu.be
September 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
People are constantly asking me — what can I do? Here are five, practical next steps you can take to make a difference. https://youtu.be/8W-lVRQQGtI?feature=shared
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
This @washingtonpost.com editorial doesn’t make it past the second paragraph without a glaring (and telling) factual error.
President Washington didn’t create the War Department in 1789; *Congress* did:
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
President Washington didn’t create the War Department in 1789; *Congress* did:
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
September 6, 2025 at 2:31 AM
This @washingtonpost.com editorial doesn’t make it past the second paragraph without a glaring (and telling) factual error.
President Washington didn’t create the War Department in 1789; *Congress* did:
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
President Washington didn’t create the War Department in 1789; *Congress* did:
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
Exceptionally well done and important. Trump is not thinking big, he is thinking bad. He is not changing governing policy, he is destroying governing capacity.
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
Ungoverning America
The logic behind Trump’s assault on the administrative state.
www.foreignaffairs.com
September 5, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Exceptionally well done and important. Trump is not thinking big, he is thinking bad. He is not changing governing policy, he is destroying governing capacity.
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
“Trump is different from other authoritarian leaders. Most don’t want to appear authoritarian. This is a government that is advertising its authoritarianism,” says Steven Levitsky.
www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...
www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...
Armed troops in US streets? For many, Trump makes that seem normal.
Armed troops patrol streets in the nation’s capital, and many residents shrug their shoulders. President Trump’s ability to normalize such dramatic actions is at play – but isn’t the end of the story.
www.csmonitor.com
September 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
“Trump is different from other authoritarian leaders. Most don’t want to appear authoritarian. This is a government that is advertising its authoritarianism,” says Steven Levitsky.
www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...
www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
“He said, ‘We’ll notify next of kin if she dies.’ And at that moment, I knew that I was no longer dealing with humans.”
“I knew I was dealing with someone that is sick in the head, and this was the person who made the decision to incarcerate her, Rosa said.”
“I knew I was dealing with someone that is sick in the head, and this was the person who made the decision to incarcerate her, Rosa said.”
“Jimenez Rosa, a legal permanent resident and mother of four U.S. citizens, was detained over what her lawyer believes was a decades-old, personal-use marijuana charge, which is no longer a crime in Massachusetts today… “I was just like, ‘Girls, we might never see your mother again in this country’”
ICE released this Mass. mom with no phone, 30 miles from home in the rain after detainment for a sealed marijuana conviction
Federal authorities refused to tell the Canton woman's husband or lawyer on what grounds she was being detained until shortly before her release.
www.masslive.com
August 24, 2025 at 8:06 PM
“He said, ‘We’ll notify next of kin if she dies.’ And at that moment, I knew that I was no longer dealing with humans.”
“I knew I was dealing with someone that is sick in the head, and this was the person who made the decision to incarcerate her, Rosa said.”
“I knew I was dealing with someone that is sick in the head, and this was the person who made the decision to incarcerate her, Rosa said.”
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
This is the key point in Sotomayor’s dissent in the majority decision in Trump v CASA:
“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates.”
“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates.”
June 27, 2025 at 3:41 PM
This is the key point in Sotomayor’s dissent in the majority decision in Trump v CASA:
“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates.”
“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates.”
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
Headline at left, from 'Independent' in UK.
Headline at right, from "most prestigious" news org in US.
-Hard to believe they're about same event.
-All too easy to believe that NYT again went with sane-washing.
Headline at right, from "most prestigious" news org in US.
-Hard to believe they're about same event.
-All too easy to believe that NYT again went with sane-washing.
May 25, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Headline at left, from 'Independent' in UK.
Headline at right, from "most prestigious" news org in US.
-Hard to believe they're about same event.
-All too easy to believe that NYT again went with sane-washing.
Headline at right, from "most prestigious" news org in US.
-Hard to believe they're about same event.
-All too easy to believe that NYT again went with sane-washing.
"America has been flung into a constitutional crisis in the most massive and fundamental way imaginable, ruled by a regime which is not merely doing unconstitutional things but is anti-constitutional at its very core."
www.theunpopulist.net/p/there-is-n...
www.theunpopulist.net/p/there-is-n...
There Is No Piecing Back Our Badly Shattered Constitutional Order
We are past the point of crisis and have entered an era when our political disputes will be settled by the raw exercise of power, not the law
www.theunpopulist.net
May 25, 2025 at 12:47 PM
"America has been flung into a constitutional crisis in the most massive and fundamental way imaginable, ruled by a regime which is not merely doing unconstitutional things but is anti-constitutional at its very core."
www.theunpopulist.net/p/there-is-n...
www.theunpopulist.net/p/there-is-n...
This deserves your attention and wide circulation to break through normalization.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/o...
Opinion | We Study Fascism. And We’re Leaving the U.S.
www.nytimes.com
May 14, 2025 at 1:22 PM
This deserves your attention and wide circulation to break through normalization.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/o...
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
Great and beautiful essay
Boulder kept my dad alive. So did the government
My father never quite understood how I could live in New York City. He always preferred Montana, open rather than dense, prairie rather than concrete. Great Falls was his birthplace,
www.boulder-monitor.com
April 28, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Great and beautiful essay
Compelling, important and vital.
Today’s “One First” takes a (very) deep dive into Justice Alito’s Saturday night dissent in the A.A.R.P. Alien Enemy Act case—and how it attempts to invent a series of procedural objections to the majority’s intervention that … simply don’t exist:
www.stevevladeck.com/p/145-justic...
www.stevevladeck.com/p/145-justic...
145. Justice Alito's Misbegotten Dissent in A.A.R.P.
Justice Alito's after-the-fact opinion dissenting from the Court's early-Saturday-morning Alien Enemy Act ruling rests on a revealing array of misrepresentations, misstatements, and non-sequiturs.
www.stevevladeck.com
April 21, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Compelling, important and vital.
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
Hey NBC and Seth Meyers, y’all need to book the largest possible venue in D.C. on April 26th and do a competing fundraiser and comedy show that actually celebrates the First Amendment. Televise it. Make Amber Ruffin the central act. Send a message that free speech is non-negotiable.
March 30, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Hey NBC and Seth Meyers, y’all need to book the largest possible venue in D.C. on April 26th and do a competing fundraiser and comedy show that actually celebrates the First Amendment. Televise it. Make Amber Ruffin the central act. Send a message that free speech is non-negotiable.
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
The asshole who talked about putting USAID "into the woodchipper," and childishly grinned when prancing around with his chainsaw, is now having hurt feelings because Tim Walz made fun of him.
Even Trump is going to recognize pretty soon that this is a "brand-image minus" for him.
Even Trump is going to recognize pretty soon that this is a "brand-image minus" for him.
Musk: I mean, have you Tim Walz, who is a huge jerk, running on stage with the Tesla stock price.. What an evil thing to do. What a creep, what a jerk. Like who derives joy from that?
March 29, 2025 at 9:17 PM
The asshole who talked about putting USAID "into the woodchipper," and childishly grinned when prancing around with his chainsaw, is now having hurt feelings because Tim Walz made fun of him.
Even Trump is going to recognize pretty soon that this is a "brand-image minus" for him.
Even Trump is going to recognize pretty soon that this is a "brand-image minus" for him.
Fear is paralyzing university presidents. Proud to see Chris Eisgruber step up. We all need to step up.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Cost of the Government’s Attack on Columbia
American universities have given the country prosperity and security. The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom endangers all of that.
www.theatlantic.com
March 19, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Fear is paralyzing university presidents. Proud to see Chris Eisgruber step up. We all need to step up.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Making some good trouble in Vermont
March 1, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Making some good trouble in Vermont
More than one thousand political scientists, whose personal views span the partisan political spectrum, have signed this petition describing what is perilous and anti-constitutional about the current political moment in the United States.
drive.google.com/file/d/1lGk2...
drive.google.com/file/d/1lGk2...
Political science statement.pdf
drive.google.com
February 22, 2025 at 7:10 PM
More than one thousand political scientists, whose personal views span the partisan political spectrum, have signed this petition describing what is perilous and anti-constitutional about the current political moment in the United States.
drive.google.com/file/d/1lGk2...
drive.google.com/file/d/1lGk2...
Sometimes small things can reveal big and important transformations. Insightful, as usual, from Jeffrey Isaac.
www.commondreams.org/opinion/gulf...
www.commondreams.org/opinion/gulf...
Defending the Gulf of Mexico From Trump's Totalitarianism | Common Dreams
How serious is Trump’s Orwellian effort? Can it really succeed in reshaping public discourse? We can hope not. But can we be sure?
www.commondreams.org
February 17, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Sometimes small things can reveal big and important transformations. Insightful, as usual, from Jeffrey Isaac.
www.commondreams.org/opinion/gulf...
www.commondreams.org/opinion/gulf...
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
We all need to start using the word "coup." They're well past the point where Hitler starts dictates his Enabling Act. I talk to Very Serious People who actually believe courts telling Trump that they he is breaking the law will stop this. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/u...
Vance Says ‘Judges Aren’t Allowed to Control’ Trump’s ‘Legitimate Power’
The declaration by the vice president came as court orders have temporarily blocked parts of the Trump administration’s agenda.
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2025 at 11:36 PM
We all need to start using the word "coup." They're well past the point where Hitler starts dictates his Enabling Act. I talk to Very Serious People who actually believe courts telling Trump that they he is breaking the law will stop this. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/u...
Reposted by Jeff Tulis
Trump did a Friday Night Massacre, firing 15 inspectors general, completely ignoring the law that prevents him from doing this, essentially asserting monarchical authority over the government. Total contempt for democracy. Here is how the Times is covering it
January 25, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Trump did a Friday Night Massacre, firing 15 inspectors general, completely ignoring the law that prevents him from doing this, essentially asserting monarchical authority over the government. Total contempt for democracy. Here is how the Times is covering it
Excellent analysis of Trump's dangerous rhetorical instinct.
Here's an example of Trump being a "cognitively irresponsible" leader. These kinds of leaders are authoritarians who refuse to give good reasons for their actions. They would prefer if we just accepted "because I said so" as an explanation.
REPORTER: You would agree it's never acceptable to assault police officers?
TRUMP: Sure
REPORTER: Among those you pardoned is a guy who used a stun gun on a police officer. Why does he deserve a pardon?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know
TRUMP: Sure
REPORTER: Among those you pardoned is a guy who used a stun gun on a police officer. Why does he deserve a pardon?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know
January 22, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Excellent analysis of Trump's dangerous rhetorical instinct.