Karen Tani
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kmtani.bsky.social
Karen Tani
@kmtani.bsky.social
8.9K followers 1.3K following 240 posts
Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor in History & Law @Penn. Co-runs the Legal History Blog. Research focuses on modern U.S. history, including poverty, disability, rights, federalism, agencies, the state, LPE.
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kmtani.bsky.social
Astute analysis re: the South Carolina Planned Parenthood decision (Medina) from @sbagen.bsky.social:
"The damage extends far beyond provider choice. Gorsuch's narrow definition of "rights" threatens to block Medicaid beneficiaries from enforcing other crucial protections — like requirements that states provide services promptly or guarantee home health care to avoid nursing home placement. For decades, patients could sue when states violated these guarantees. Now that's in doubt. The result? Millions of Americans will have to rely on the federal Executive Branch — which may be unable, or in some administrations unwilling, to enforce the law. Congress wrote these protections for a reason. The Supreme Court just made them much harder to enforce."
June 27, 2025 at 7:09 PM
kmtani.bsky.social
From our article: "[A]t the Supreme Court, disability cases have continued to provide the site for new retrenchments in Congress’s spending power, alongside robust assertions of the Court’s own authority."
Excerpt from Eyer & Tani Yale Law Journal article: "B. Disability and the Contemporary Threat to Spending Clause Legislation." "Even before Justice Rehnquist’s retirement, many observers had declared the Rehnquist Revolution effectively over. But as we detail in this Section, there is at least one area in which the Revolution has never ended: efforts at the Supreme Court to restrain the scope of Congress’s spending power. As in the earlier history we have traced, disability cases have been and continue to be key. This Section illustrates how recent disability cases (often building on older ones) have provided the site for arguments that narrow the scope of Congress’s spending power—and could provide the basis for even further, more radical retrenchments."
June 12, 2025 at 3:11 PM
kmtani.bsky.social
I am still digesting the Complaint, but it looks pretty sweeping to me. On page 37 of the Complaint, the plaintiffs characterize Section 504 [the law, not just one particular administrative interpretation] as "unconstitutional."
"239: Because Section 504 is coercive, untethered to the federal interest in disability, and unfairly retroactive, the Rehabilitation Act is not constitutional under the spending clause."
February 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
kmtani.bsky.social
Find yourself a BFF who wants to celebrate special days by sending you a box full of pignoli from the bakery she grew up on in the Bronx 😊. Can't believe I've never tried this cookie before! So good!
A box of pignoli (almond flavored cookies covered in pine nuts)
November 15, 2024 at 11:46 PM
kmtani.bsky.social
I give you a joyful dog on a deserted beach.
black and white staffordshire bull terrier leaping joyfully on an empty beach black and white staffordshire bull terrier chewing happily on an orange ball on an empty beach black and white staffordshire bull terrier in a playful position, covered with sand after digging a hole on the beach.
November 10, 2024 at 9:34 PM
kmtani.bsky.social
We poured one out for the late Richard B. Bernstein at this year's ASLH. May he rest in peace and may we continue to be inspired by his research, mentorship, and high standards for historical writing.
Glass of whiskey next to a votive candle on a wooden table.
October 30, 2023 at 4:34 PM
kmtani.bsky.social
FYI for Penn folks. More info here: aaup-penn.org/september-th...
flyer for "A Fall Series of Faculty Conversations on Union Organizing at Penn."
September 29, 2023 at 4:48 PM
kmtani.bsky.social
Katie Eyer & I have been busily revising our disability/federalism article, documenting the load-bearing role of disability cases in the Court's "new federalism" revolution - & questioning whether that revolution is truly over. Stay tuned for publication in Vol. 133 of of the Yale Law Journal!
Abstract for "DISABILITY AND THE ONGOING FEDERALISM REVOLUTION," 133 YALE L. J. __ (forthcoming) KATIE EYER AND KAREN M. TANI. The Supreme Court’s “new federalism” revolution remains one of the most important developments in recent U.S. legal history. The Court revitalized “states’ rights” doctrines under the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments, rendering states partially or wholly immune from many types of federal litigation. Simultaneously, the Court retrenched the authority of national legislators and aggrandized its own authority, by limiting what Congress may do under its Commerce Clause, Spending Clause, and Fourteenth Amendment powers. But one important facet of this “new federalism” revolution has gone unappreciated: the load-bearing role of earlier disability-related cases. . . .
July 30, 2023 at 8:02 PM