Dan Farbman

@danfarbman.bsky.social

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Law Professor at BC Law, Historian of social movements and local government. Writing a book about Abolitionist Lawyering.

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Presenting a draft of my new paper "Towns or Counties" today at the Chicago Public Law Workshop. It tells the divergent origin stories of local government in the colonial US (towns in New England, counties in the South) and why "the framers" chose the town over the county in the Northwest Territory.

What’s really crazy is that this answer is worse than the one Jefferson Davis or George Wallace would have given.

"What do you want me to say about slavery?" should be the end of Nikki Haley's political career.

Ironically for the discourse, Chris Rufo seems to have embraced the insane citation standards of an anxious subciter on the Harvard Law Review.

@samuelmoyn.bsky.social is taking heat for this piece, but it's mostly right? The problem is conceptualizing "democracy" as limited to elections. It isn't and can't be that thin. Neither courts nor ballot boxes will save us, but both can be sites for building power and active political struggle.

The Liberal Plot Against Democracycompactmag.com Compact Magazine, a radical American journal

This is so much like the villain at the end of the movie carefully revealing all the details of his nefarious plot. Makes sense as a manifestation of sociopathy...maybe a little less as a form of political argument?

Rufo is laying out the next steps the far right is going to use the centrists within the democratic party to demonize all opposition to the fascist agenda, and people are still pretending this is not happening believe these people when they tell you what they are and what their plans are.

My kids’ elementary school teachers are underpaid. Nine unelected fancy lawyers are doing just fine…even when they don’t whoopsie onto yachts.

"blundered"

On the one hand, this is brave, amazing, and at least plausibly legally correct. On the other hand, the courts will not save us, no matter how fervently we wish them to.

BREAKING: The Colorado Supreme Court holds, 4-3, that Trump "is disqualified" to be president under the Fourteenth Amendment, and "it would be a wrongful act" for him to be listed on the Colorado presidential primary ballot. More to come at Law Dork: www.lawdork.com

There’s something almost honest about Thomas’s corruption. It’s not particularly devious, there are no offshore accounts, he just has power, asked for money, and then got it. For a guy who wants to return us all to the Gilded Age, he’s really walking the walk.

Hmmm. I wonder what King said about white moderates in that letter? This really is exhibit 201,457 in "poor reading comprehension of MLK in service of preserving white authority."

Making up a cancellation to get mad at

This is an accurate description of how spectacular @jocelynsimonson.bsky.social’s new book is.

Working on a review of @jocelynsimonson.bsky.social’s essential “Radical Acts of Justice,” which for my money is the best book published by a law prof this year—in part because it doesn’t feel like it was written by one. If you haven’t yet, get it. thenewpress.com/books/radica...

Radical Acts of Justice | The New Pressthenewpress.com From reading books on mass incarceration, one might conclude that the way out of our overly punitive, racially disparate criminal system is to put things in the hands of experts, technocrats able to t...

A map of life expectancy disparities in the U.S. Another for the depressing ongoing file of "maps that show the long shadow of the Confederacy."

So, yesterday I got the chance to explain "congressional hearings," "performative political outrage," and "philosemitic antisemitism" to my kids on the first night of Hanukkah...Eight Crazy Nights! www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/...

We delegate the state’s monopoly on the use of force to local police (who are often functionally ungoverned/ungovernable by local elected officials). Sometimes this seems less than ideal.

Oooookay

Annual birthday txuleton.

Jerry’s writing changed the way I see the world. His teaching has shaped the way I do my job. And his mentorship was always a guidepost in my wandering. I know I’m just one of many for whom this is true. What a loss for all of us. hls.harvard.edu/today/in-mem...

If anyone knows a spare millionaire that wants to help save this amazing place in the woods that shaped the lives of some of the best people I know...hit me up. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB3q...

The last few months of Thomas revelations have been been pretty good for Jerome Frank.

I still don’t think any of the bribes changed any of Thomas’s votes. But he and Alito are really doing a lot of the necessary demystifying and delegitimizing of “The Court” for us.

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Dan Farbman

Congress should pass a law making Justice Alito ride circuit, just to show it can

Justice Alito seems to have read a biography of Justice McReynolds and nodded to himself, "this is the way."

There comes a time in every graduate of the program formerly known as "History of American Civilization" where you just can't avoid writing about the Puritans...we are all caricatures of ourselves in the end.

For those of you who sometimes dabble in the less rationalist (more woo-woo?) side of things, take a look at the slate of fall programming being offered by Rowe (a place whose summer camp changed my life). https://rowecenter.org/programs/

Programs - The Rowe Centerrowecenter.org

In 1770, nearly every named place on the map of Virginia was a plantation. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4444277

I am happy to report that my research agenda increasingly requires me to look at old maps, which is basically what I've wanted to do since I was six years old.

It's an amazing time to be at BC Law, and we're hiring again this year. I'm on appointments and I'm very happy to talk to anyone who'd like to chat about BC or the law hiring rigamarole more broadly. Here's a link to our hiring announcement:

Boston College Law Appointments Posting July 2023.docxdocs.google.com BOSTON COLLEGE LAW SCHOOL added 8 tenure-track faculty appointments during the past two years, and we continue our appointments momentum as we welcomed our new dean, Odette Lienau, in January 2023.W...

I have just returned from a family trip to Montreal. I’m happy to report that I’ve successfully raised my children to construe vacation as primarily (only?) a time to eat.

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