A few months ago I realized my rare and valuable skill—writing code as a historian—was still valuable but no longer rare. Now I'm thinking about what it means when the technical barriers to digital history drop away.
The abstract for the Equity Docket, available in full at the link in the post.
Tom Schmidt isn’t on socials, and I rarely post—not great for coining a term, but we hope you’ll give the Equity Docket a try anyway!
A historical way of evaluating what the Supreme Court does with most of its time now: More equity, less shadow, not so interim.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
I look forward to the cottage industry of 1948 originalists hashing this out. Maybe some of them can remember the moment!
Awesome. I’ve been wondering for a while if equitable remedies scholars should be paying more attention to 1948. Looking forward to digging in.
Which is another reason “Yankees” is improbable. The author is pointedly avoiding slurs.
Further support for my reading of “Junkers” is that the public, recorded debates had several references to “Gypsies” accompanying references to the “Chinese,” “Mongolians,” and “Chinamen.” Trumbull is keeping the sequence of disfavored groups but using the more polite terms.
“Yankees” is extremely doubtful. “Irish or Junkers as well” is what I read, a common term for Prussian/Polish immigrants at the time.
My guess is “Irish or Junkers as well,” meaning Prussians or Poles at the time. No comma after Irish because it’s an “or” and the mark after Jun is the hyphen to continue the word. He consistently dots his i’s, so the hangover part has an e. But yeah, 0% chance it’s Yankees.
Orange sun with prominent sunspots. Captured in New Mexico at noon on 12/5/25
Arrived in sunny New Mexico just in time to catch the #sunspots more or less centered on their way around.
Crowd of No Kings protestors in front of the Battle of Princeton monument in downtown Princeton, New Jersey
“Even Princeton,” as they say. #NoKings
My only other comment on the order is that it’s so vague it will mean whatever the AG wants it to mean, which is to say only blue jurisdictions can expect to be defunded, whatever their bail practices are. Basically every jurisdiction in America uses some mix of cash and cashless bail.
I guess it’s as good a time as any to say I have new writing on the history of bail. Fun fact for today: what the President’s order attacks as “cashless bail” was the only kind of bail system America had for its first hundred years.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
On a quick glance it would seem to me the only funds that could be readily sequestered to punish bail reform jurisdictions would be the funds that go to militarize the local police. Donald Trump: big fan of defunding the police. Put it in the papers.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
From Smithsonian description: "This ambitious chart presents U.S. political history on a single page. Moving from left to right, a timeline of parties, policies, persons, and events courses like a river through graphic space marked in four-year intervals. The analogy between politics and springs and rivulets (that jump and rejoin their banks) is the most conspicuous feature of the timeline. The parties appear in different colors. The ascendance of a party is gauged as its stream rises above the centerline, and above the streams of other parties. The thickness of a stream indicates the party’s strength. The diagram is meant to dramatize U.S. political history in a more accessible shape for educators and to offer a ready reference for scholars, statisticians, and statesmen. The chart itself, titled “Diagram of the Rise and Fall of American Political Parties, from 1789 to 1880, inclusive,” is from the Conspectus of the History of Political Parties and the Federal Government, by Walter R. Houghton, 1880"
Absolutely incredible graphic from 1880 tracing the history of political parties in the United States.
Thank you to @lukenorris.bsky.social @profk.bsky.social and others at U. Richmond Law for hosting the 10th Civ Pro workshop. Lots of great papers there, as usual, but the one thing I will highlight here, because it’s a book, is …
Basically what the Court did in Biden v. Nebraska, right? A national injunction against student loan forgiveness, but not a word from any justice about remedial authority when the merits were so “clear.”
Exciting to see so many colleagues whose work I admire on this list. Congratulations to @marthasjones.bsky.social @kbgraubart.bsky.social @annetteyreed.bsky.social @kellenfunk.bsky.social @jimdowns.bsky.social @francinejharris.bsky.social and many not on here.
Congrats to the new class of Guggenheim Fellows!
Thrilled to see @jimdowns.bsky.social, @marthasjones.bsky.social, @kellenfunk.bsky.social and so many more.
Apologies in advance for the hazing rituals.
www.gf.org/stories/anno...
Blown away by amazing presentations, mostly from early career historians and archivists, at the Archives as Data conference this morning! (before heading over to #aha25 later this afternoon...)
iserp.columbia.edu/events/archi...
I mourn the loss of my colleague Henry Paul Monaghan, a giant in federal courts and constitutional law, a phenomenal mentor to more junior scholars, and an institution at Columbia Law School. He will be greatly missed.
There is so much to say about my dear mentor, Henry Monaghan. His work was foundational. His critiques, devastating. His praise, life changing. More to say in an appropriate medium, but for now: I will miss him.
Call for Papers - 14th Annual Junior Federal Courts Workshop - Cornell Law School, 4/25/2025. Junior scholars in fields of federal courts, civil procedure, civil rights litigation, constitutional law are encouraged to apply. Abstracts due 1/15/25.
community.lawschool.cornell.edu/junior-facul...
A bit more fun with mapping 18th century London crime, via www.locatinglondon.org
Two new district judge retirement announcements: Judges Lance Africk (EDLA) and Lee Rosenthal (SDTX) will assume senior status later this year.
In the 1890s a discerning buyer could purchase a poster-size facsimile of the bail bond of Jefferson Davis from 1867. Keep in mind when you see “I’m voting for the felon” merchandise thirty years hence.
On Friday a federal district court preliminarily enjoined Georgia's unconstitutional restrictions on charitable bail funds, relying in part on "Bail at the Founding." Cool cool cool. harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
Today @rrchnm.bsky.social released Antisemitism, U.S.A., our newest history podcast. www.r2studios.org/show/Antisem... The narrative podcast tells the history of U.S. antisemitism in ten episodes, featuring interviews with dozens of experts on the subject.
Millions of people are incarcerated pre-trial because they can't make cash bail. But where did the system of cash bail come from? @kellenfunk.bsky.social and Sandra Mayson offer a history of "Bail at the Founding" in the Harvard Law Review. harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
Thousands of ordinary Philadelphians were caught up in the system every year, as also were leading founders like William Penn and Aaron Burr. If you or your students find ways to make use of the records we found, we’d love to hear from you.
