Orin Kerr

@robertgraham I confess I think of that 'influencer' as someone at the end of the spectrum, not someone that represents a side of it.

@OrinKerr I picked somebody at random after seen bigger influencers do the same thing. x.com/SethAbramson/s…

I tweet too much about the reflecting pool but that's because both sides are clearly wrong, as well as the mainstream media. There is no political center here, where rational people can have a conversation on facts. There are only people who have chosen a side first and whatever distorted information that supports their side second ... and the media that repeats the claims of one or both sides. Despite their left-wing bias, the mainstream media is particularly bad. They repeat most of Trump's false claims as fact, supporting his narrative that there were problems (leaks, algae) that prior President's couldn't fix, despite knowing that this is Trump's narrative on every issue and is always a lie. There are no "tire tracks". A picture from a different angle shows this. They paused the draining a few times (possibly to clean dirt from the lines), during which wave action pushed sediment to the edges of the water line. You can see this on both edges, at the equivalent water height. Moreover, the motorcade drove down only one side of the pool, and mostly over concrete before the sealant/liner was applied, so can't possibly be the cause of the problems people claim. There was only a minor leaking problem, but relative to evaporation and the need to drain and clean the pool a couple times a year, it wasn't really significant. The National Park Service already had a plan to address it, to re-grout the cracks and joints. There is algae, but that was always the intent. Making the water crystal clear (like in the nearby fountains) would take heroic efforts, so there have only been minimal algae control efforts (ozone bubbles and filters). Now, "nano-bubbler" technology means we can have 5 times more effective control, keeping the water even cleaner, but there will still be algae in the summer. But as far as I can tell, is not actually installed yet (despite media claims), and has nothing to do with these liner issues. The point is that both sides are crazy and we can't have a rational conversation about this.

@ashleytrubin In law, at least, most students are gone over the summer, so they're not around to meet with professors. Seems weird to not answer emails from students, though.

Most of my colleagues don't meet with students over summer and few answer their emails. I'm curious how common this is, so a twitter survey!

NEW: Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett details the chilling threats her family has faced, revealing the terrifying moment her 12-year-old son discovered a bulletproof vest in her bedroom during the fallout of the Dobbs leak. Barrett also recounted a recent "swatting" incident at her home and receiving threatening anonymous deliveries, warning that while federal judges continue to do their jobs without fear or favor, the current threat level is "really high." "I didn't expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was, and why I had to wear one."

@torte81 @ZhangTaisu If that’s all AAUP is— not an organization that represents the interests of professors, but just an organization that represents whoever happened to join a particular chapter— then that’s illuminating.

@OrinKerr @ZhangTaisu It's a membership association. If you want them to represent you and, more specifically, take your views into account, you should become a member.

Isn’t the Yale chapter of the AAUP supposed to at least make sure it’s actually representing the views of faculty before its legal officers openly threaten to sue the university for negotiating with the Trump administration over School of Medicine admissions practices that, to put it diplomatically, may or may not hold up in court?

@DavidEBlau Chatrie sort of suggests that in how it distinguishes Knotts, no?

@OrinKerr Oh, I see. So federal agents are allowed to invade your privacy as long as it's not TOO invasive, got it. By that logic, it's okay to take a photograph inside a person's front window as long as you use a crappy analog camera and not a fancy digital one.🙄

Having previously ruled that forensic border searches require at least some kind of suspicion, CA4 holds that manual border searches—in which the agent looks through the device by hand, not using forensic software—does not require any suspicion. ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/25423… #N

@torte81 @ZhangTaisu I don’t read that as a statement that answers the question. Do you?

@torte81 @ZhangTaisu I would think this can be resolved (either way) by consulting AAUP’s expressed view as to whether it represents faculty interests as a whole or just the subset of interest of those who decide to become members.

@AlisonSomin Il bimbo è mobile qual piuma al vento, scorda ogni regola in un momento.

admittedly, I am also an opera fan hoping to raise opera fans

NYT sources: President Trump was so enraged by NYT coverage of Air Force One security issues that the White House directed Kash Patel to oversee a leak investigation. Patel began running the probe from inside the White House instead of FBI headquarters. nytimes.com/2026/07/11/us/…

A complaint from me, renewed: People who benefit from "capitalism," or a free economy, have no idea they do. They think goods and services, at affordable prices, drop from heaven. Or come from their favorite pol or podcaster. We have a sore need of economic literacy.

This is from my wife’s undergrad friend in New York City—a friend I’ve yet to meet. It’s just one more testament (if I may say so) to the versatile utility of my books. Reference-book authors everywhere can take heart.

@DavidAstinWalsh @nicholasbirns Agreed. Similarly, people criticize law reviews as unserious, but student law review editors painstakingly check the sources to make sure they are accurately described. Academic presses are more likely to just take the manuscript, format it, and publish it.

@nicholasbirns I’m no trade press book snob but there’s something there.

Reminds me of the Bellesiles scandal, and an object lesson that books which flatter the political assumptions of the establishment are subject to little scrutiny even as they are showered with praise and prizes. nytimes.com/2026/07/10/boo…

@damintoell You go from being Mallory’s boyfriend on Family Ties to this, actors gotta pay the bills.

This sucks so bad but at least it also barely even tries to convince anyone to go to Splash Mountain

@robertgraham Probably, yes. This is more of a drafting error and an admin screwup than anything else.

@OrinKerr Given that users change phones faster than the grinding gears of Justice, couldn't such warrants instead specify "whichever phone currently has a SIM/eSIM for that t-mobile account". SIMs are cryptographic identifies that have "specificity" than model number.

Govt gets a warrant to search suspect's iPhone 6S for CSAM based on his t-mobile phone account being used for CSAM. Officers spot man, take his phone—but it's an iPhone 13. Officers search the 13 anyway, find CSAM. CA1: Suppressed, no good faith. ca1.uscourts.gov/sites/ca1/file… #N

@CBHessick "Overturn Citizens United!" -- t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶f̶t̶ the right** ** ok, not necessarily, but close?

This story says Trump’s lawyers are arguing that “news stories produced for revenue-generating media organizations” ought to be treated as “commercial speech” under the First Amendment. I’m no First Amendment expert, but that strikes me as an absolutely bonkers argument.

@dieworkwear Related story from the @WSJ (gift link) wsj.com/style/fashion/…

This makes a lot of sense. I wonder, though, if they would just say there's a different aesthetic for suits popular in some circles today—one that contrasts with classic style—in which suits are worn extra tight to create a sense that the wearer is so physically strong that they are sort of bursting out of it.

It's actually quite rare to see a wealthy person wearing a nice suit. This is because dressing well is more about knowledge than money, and wealthy people are typically not invested in learning how to dress well. I will give you some examples. In slide one, we see two powerful, wealthy men, both in custom-tailored suits. Sunak's jacket is too short, both in the body and the sleeves. Bezos, who is pictured here on his wedding day (when he would have wanted to dress well), is wearing a custom dinner suit but with the wrong waistcoat. The low armholes are also causing his jacket to lift. A famous bespoke tailor in Milan said Bezos's outfit made her heart break. In slides two and three, we see a high school art teacher and an electrician. They are not poor, but their vocations certainly place them several tiers below the former Prime Minister of Britain and one of the wealthiest men in the world. Yet, their clothes fit beautifully, and they are styled in a way that's thoughtful and coherent. In slide four, we see a man who claims he's wearing a bespoke $20,000 suit from one of the finest tailoring houses on Savile Row. Next to him, in the same slide, is a man wearing a $300 Jos A. Bank suit. The $20k blue suit does not fit well because this man interjected too much during the fitting, insisting to his tailor that he make the suit tighter and shorter, which is why the garment is pulling and rippling all over the place. The other man, despite having more modest means, educated himself on how a suit should fit and achieved more with considerably less. Online, you will find all types of influencers and writers hawking the latest trends and designer labels, telling you you have to buy such-and-such thing to have "aura." But in reality, money has very little correlation with style. There's no reason to assume that wealthy people can buy nice suits because it's not as simple as pulling out your credit card. You have to educate yourself a bit on the topic.

@KeithNHumphreys parasite is such a needlessly negative word

For the record, I'm against this