Chad Oldfather
@oldfatherc.bsky.social
Marquette lawprof / State & fed con law, judicial process / Deeply Minnesotan / Out now: Judges, Judging, & Judgment (Cambridge U Press 2025) / Next: Glacial Morainebilly Elegy (placeholder title / about growing up rural in Tim Walz’s neck of the woods)
If you’re looking for rules to live by, allow me to suggest “Stop at every lemonade stand.”
(Photo at a distance to respect the privacy of the grandmother helping her two young granddaughters sell lemonade to raise money for Milwaukee public schools.)
(Photo at a distance to respect the privacy of the grandmother helping her two young granddaughters sell lemonade to raise money for Milwaukee public schools.)
August 16, 2025 at 7:30 PM
If you’re looking for rules to live by, allow me to suggest “Stop at every lemonade stand.”
(Photo at a distance to respect the privacy of the grandmother helping her two young granddaughters sell lemonade to raise money for Milwaukee public schools.)
(Photo at a distance to respect the privacy of the grandmother helping her two young granddaughters sell lemonade to raise money for Milwaukee public schools.)
The landscape of my youth, under a Canadian-wildfire-created haze.
August 1, 2025 at 9:06 PM
The landscape of my youth, under a Canadian-wildfire-created haze.
I'm talking to Milwaukee Public TV this morning about Chief Justice William Rehnquist. His boyhood home is just a few blocks from where I live, and I often walk the dogs down that street.
This is from a yard across the street and a few houses down. Definite vibe shift on Prospect Ave since the 40s.
This is from a yard across the street and a few houses down. Definite vibe shift on Prospect Ave since the 40s.
July 7, 2025 at 2:05 PM
I'm talking to Milwaukee Public TV this morning about Chief Justice William Rehnquist. His boyhood home is just a few blocks from where I live, and I often walk the dogs down that street.
This is from a yard across the street and a few houses down. Definite vibe shift on Prospect Ave since the 40s.
This is from a yard across the street and a few houses down. Definite vibe shift on Prospect Ave since the 40s.
Recently reminded of just how strongly positive an impression the brick sidewalks of Cambridge made on my young Midwestern soul several decades ago.
Glad I don’t have to shovel them, though.
Glad I don’t have to shovel them, though.
June 11, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Recently reminded of just how strongly positive an impression the brick sidewalks of Cambridge made on my young Midwestern soul several decades ago.
Glad I don’t have to shovel them, though.
Glad I don’t have to shovel them, though.
Imagine Google’s surprise when I finished the query with “a Delta Sky Club member.”
June 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Imagine Google’s surprise when I finished the query with “a Delta Sky Club member.”
A colleague once shared with me that the author of one of the letters supporting my promotion to full prof invoked Karl Llewellyn in describing my work.
I’m a dollar-store version at best, for sure, but one page into this piece (which I’d somehow missed) the shoe still seems to fit:
I’m a dollar-store version at best, for sure, but one page into this piece (which I’d somehow missed) the shoe still seems to fit:
June 4, 2025 at 2:26 PM
A colleague once shared with me that the author of one of the letters supporting my promotion to full prof invoked Karl Llewellyn in describing my work.
I’m a dollar-store version at best, for sure, but one page into this piece (which I’d somehow missed) the shoe still seems to fit:
I’m a dollar-store version at best, for sure, but one page into this piece (which I’d somehow missed) the shoe still seems to fit:
Area professor stumbles on new metaphor for teaching law.
June 1, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Area professor stumbles on new metaphor for teaching law.
I aspire to this level of relaxation.
June 1, 2025 at 5:57 PM
I aspire to this level of relaxation.
Reminds me of when my broomball team—a bunch of 20-something lawyers who wore college sweatshirts as our jerseys—played a team from an auto parts store.
“You guys must be smarter than us,” one of them said.
“That would be ‘smarter than we,’” a teammate replied.
(They then kicked our asses.)
“You guys must be smarter than us,” one of them said.
“That would be ‘smarter than we,’” a teammate replied.
(They then kicked our asses.)
May 28, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Reminds me of when my broomball team—a bunch of 20-something lawyers who wore college sweatshirts as our jerseys—played a team from an auto parts store.
“You guys must be smarter than us,” one of them said.
“That would be ‘smarter than we,’” a teammate replied.
(They then kicked our asses.)
“You guys must be smarter than us,” one of them said.
“That would be ‘smarter than we,’” a teammate replied.
(They then kicked our asses.)
It’s always a tricky thing to be a strident advocate of intellectual humility, and even more so these days.
Also a tricky thing to get people to pay attention to one’s new book, timely though it may be.
But here’s an interview. With me! About my new book! Find out what all the fuss is about!
Also a tricky thing to get people to pay attention to one’s new book, timely though it may be.
But here’s an interview. With me! About my new book! Find out what all the fuss is about!
May 13, 2025 at 12:20 PM
It’s always a tricky thing to be a strident advocate of intellectual humility, and even more so these days.
Also a tricky thing to get people to pay attention to one’s new book, timely though it may be.
But here’s an interview. With me! About my new book! Find out what all the fuss is about!
Also a tricky thing to get people to pay attention to one’s new book, timely though it may be.
But here’s an interview. With me! About my new book! Find out what all the fuss is about!
I don’t imagine any of you are out there wishing I’d start talking about my book again.
But, just in case, here’s a Q&A I did on it, complete with an (almost) perfectly timed reference to the movie Conclave.
And I’ll gladly accept the label “countercultural” given the world we live in.
But, just in case, here’s a Q&A I did on it, complete with an (almost) perfectly timed reference to the movie Conclave.
And I’ll gladly accept the label “countercultural” given the world we live in.
May 12, 2025 at 9:51 PM
I don’t imagine any of you are out there wishing I’d start talking about my book again.
But, just in case, here’s a Q&A I did on it, complete with an (almost) perfectly timed reference to the movie Conclave.
And I’ll gladly accept the label “countercultural” given the world we live in.
But, just in case, here’s a Q&A I did on it, complete with an (almost) perfectly timed reference to the movie Conclave.
And I’ll gladly accept the label “countercultural” given the world we live in.
Justice Souter's Harvard speech gets more press, but for my money his remarks at Gerald Gunther's memorial get more to the heart of his approach.
(From David H. Souter, Gerald Gunther, 55 Stan. L. Rev. 635 (2002)
(From David H. Souter, Gerald Gunther, 55 Stan. L. Rev. 635 (2002)
May 9, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Justice Souter's Harvard speech gets more press, but for my money his remarks at Gerald Gunther's memorial get more to the heart of his approach.
(From David H. Souter, Gerald Gunther, 55 Stan. L. Rev. 635 (2002)
(From David H. Souter, Gerald Gunther, 55 Stan. L. Rev. 635 (2002)
Musk claimed the future of civilization is at stake. Naturally, CBS thought to themselves, “We gotta get Oldfather’s take.”
April 1, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Musk claimed the future of civilization is at stake. Naturally, CBS thought to themselves, “We gotta get Oldfather’s take.”
Quaint, anachronistic achievement unlocked: Quoted above the fold.
(Spoiler: The answer is “No.”)
(Spoiler: The answer is “No.”)
March 21, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Quaint, anachronistic achievement unlocked: Quoted above the fold.
(Spoiler: The answer is “No.”)
(Spoiler: The answer is “No.”)
Two views of the inside of The Word, taken just before the world shut down five years ago, one view of Atlantic News, taken last year.
(9) Fred Eaglesmith
(10) Moosehead
(11) Sitting in a chair overlooking the Bay of Fundy drinking a Moosehead and listening to Fred Eaglesmith
#Canada
(9) Fred Eaglesmith
(10) Moosehead
(11) Sitting in a chair overlooking the Bay of Fundy drinking a Moosehead and listening to Fred Eaglesmith
#Canada
March 14, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Two views of the inside of The Word, taken just before the world shut down five years ago, one view of Atlantic News, taken last year.
(9) Fred Eaglesmith
(10) Moosehead
(11) Sitting in a chair overlooking the Bay of Fundy drinking a Moosehead and listening to Fred Eaglesmith
#Canada
(9) Fred Eaglesmith
(10) Moosehead
(11) Sitting in a chair overlooking the Bay of Fundy drinking a Moosehead and listening to Fred Eaglesmith
#Canada
Ninth Avenue sidewalk and also pretty solid album cover.
March 11, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Ninth Avenue sidewalk and also pretty solid album cover.
If only there were a word for a biography about oneself that’s written in the first person.
March 10, 2025 at 12:05 PM
If only there were a word for a biography about oneself that’s written in the first person.
Yes, many more important things that I could be (& am!) working on. But, inspired by a colleague I asked AI to write a parody of a law review article written by me.
Reactions: (1) footnotes are amusing, (2) it’s a little over the top, but I could see myself writing it, & (3) the AI is warning us.
Reactions: (1) footnotes are amusing, (2) it’s a little over the top, but I could see myself writing it, & (3) the AI is warning us.
February 28, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Yes, many more important things that I could be (& am!) working on. But, inspired by a colleague I asked AI to write a parody of a law review article written by me.
Reactions: (1) footnotes are amusing, (2) it’s a little over the top, but I could see myself writing it, & (3) the AI is warning us.
Reactions: (1) footnotes are amusing, (2) it’s a little over the top, but I could see myself writing it, & (3) the AI is warning us.
As succinct an encapsulation of what ails us now as I’ve seen in a while.
February 23, 2025 at 7:02 PM
As succinct an encapsulation of what ails us now as I’ve seen in a while.
Last two pages here:
February 20, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Last two pages here:
Reposting, together with screenshots of (most of) the draft principles we generated.
February 20, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposting, together with screenshots of (most of) the draft principles we generated.
Seems like it might be an appropriate time to remind the world of a conference on The Ethics of Legal Scholarship that Carissa Hessick, Paul Horwitz, and I put on several years back.
Transcript and essays here:
scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol101/...
Transcript and essays here:
scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol101/...
February 20, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Seems like it might be an appropriate time to remind the world of a conference on The Ethics of Legal Scholarship that Carissa Hessick, Paul Horwitz, and I put on several years back.
Transcript and essays here:
scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol101/...
Transcript and essays here:
scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol101/...
If someone could please direct the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s attention to Chicago Manual of Style paragraph 7.86 I’d be grateful.
February 11, 2025 at 10:30 PM
If someone could please direct the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s attention to Chicago Manual of Style paragraph 7.86 I’d be grateful.
Finally got copies of my book, 15 days after publication. Seems fitting. A book extolling the value of things like stable norms, practical wisdom, and intellectual humility def feels like too little, too late.
For now I’m taking solace in fn 71 to ch 6: “Like sap through a leaf.” Here’s hoping.
For now I’m taking solace in fn 71 to ch 6: “Like sap through a leaf.” Here’s hoping.
February 1, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Finally got copies of my book, 15 days after publication. Seems fitting. A book extolling the value of things like stable norms, practical wisdom, and intellectual humility def feels like too little, too late.
For now I’m taking solace in fn 71 to ch 6: “Like sap through a leaf.” Here’s hoping.
For now I’m taking solace in fn 71 to ch 6: “Like sap through a leaf.” Here’s hoping.