The constitutional text already contains the tools for transformation. What remains is the institutional will to use them ❤️🇵🇷
05.03.2026 22:08
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The constitutional text already contains the tools for transformation. What remains is the institutional will to use them ❤️🇵🇷
It further argues dignity grounds affirmative state duties in healthcare, environment, housing, and food.
The article proposes a three-factor test for identifying §19 rights and applies it to two urgent domains: the right to earn a living (threatened by Act 4-2017) and bodily autonomy (under systematic legislative assault post-Dobbs).
Read alongside §1’s inviolable human dignity guarantee, it transforms the Bill of Rights into a living instrument—a “symphonic” whole where enumerated and unenumerated rights reinforce each other to secure the conditions dignity demands.
Central to the argument: §19 operates within a dignitarian constitutional framework.
The article recovers the natural law heritage embedded in PR’s Constitution and traces the dual architecture of Baby Ninths and Lockean natural rights clauses across American state constitutionalism—provisions affirming inherent, pre-political rights that no government may legitimately extinguish.
Section 19 prohibits the restrictive construction of fundamental rights and recognizes unenumerated rights “belonging to the people in a democracy.” No other Baby Ninth Amendment in American constitutionalism combines these features. Yet PR courts have largely ignored it.
New draft article: “From Lockstep to Liberation: Activating Puerto Rico’s Dignitarian Unenumerated Rights Clause Through State Constitutional Lessons.” A thread on why Art. II, §19 matters now more than ever. 🧵
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
State Court Report's @cisozaki.bsky.social outlines some extra tools state law gives litigators to counter originalism. Learn more:
State constitutions shape young people’s lives — from voting to LGBTQ+ policy to climate action to our schools. Yet fewer than half of Americans know their state has one. Join State Court Report at @sxswedu.com for a panel on how constitutions can empower and protect young people.
We talked to MI Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Welch about AI in the legal profession, whether courts are too politicized, the most memorable decisions she's participated in, and more:
State constitutions shape young people’s lives — from voting to LGBTQ+ policy to climate action to our schools. Yet fewer than half of Americans know their state has one. State Court Report's @erings.bsky.social joins experts at @sxswedu.com
to discuss how constitutions can empower & protect youth.
Politicians Must Fear the People More than They Fear Big Tech: Privacy and the Slide to Authoritarianism
@raybrescia.bsky.social x @daniel-solove.bsky.social
🔗 substack.com/@legalaf/not...
A big part of the authoritarian playbook is war. War takes over the news. War blots out criticism. War divides a nation’s people, subjecting those against it to being called unpatriotic. War grants leaders all sorts of emergency powers. War consumes everything else.
We mustn’t let this war do so.
Doubly crazy because not only is Iran a war of choice—one that doesn't happen if the 2024 election goes the other way—but also the reason things got here is Trump chose to renege on the JCPOA in 2018.
This isn't the inevitable march of history. It's the election and foreign policy of one guy.
what
the
fuck
Under a new policy released Thursday, the Trump Administration will test conversion therapy on trans people in prisons. It explicitly states that it aims to help trans people “recover,” all the while forcibly detransitioning them both medically and socially.
transitics.substack.com/p/the-trump-...
if people are using classified information to place bets, then theoretically others can analyze betting behavior to find signals that reveal classified information.
I personally was deeply appalled that there was a Polymarket betting market where people wagered on someone's death.
In unrelated news, I wonder what the oil markets are going to do tomorrow.
#Satire
How curious, right? Turns out Israel and the US have the technology and logistics to locate and surgically eliminate the leader of a country whenever they feel like it. WOW, WHAT PRECISION. But of course, to take out Hamas, they needed to level all of Gaza and murder over 30,000 children.
The only reason why this argument doesn’t make sense to Ilan is because he’s— again— shown himself to be wholly ignorant of basic history.
Medieval warfare in England was much more concerned with “Quelle surprise! We have taken your fort!” than some kind of roving foreign occupation of the shires.
Two photos. The first shows Catturd tweeting: Name one US inspired regime change that hasn't ended in absolute disaster The next tweet shows him posting an AI illustration of Khamenei turned into a pile of dust. It says "I'm eliminated."
Two tweets. The first shows Laura Loomer promoting her show, where she says "A message has been sent that we are not interested in going back to the way politics were prior to Donald Trump, prior to 2016. We don't want warhawks. We don't want any more Neocons. We want American First. Period. End of discussion." The next tweet says: Today is a great day. Our military is amazing. @PeteHegseth is an absolute killer. Now you see why the Deep State worked so hard against him. It’s great having a Sec War who has Infidel literally tattooed on his body. He actually gets it. God bless him.
Two tweets. The first shows Will Chamberlain tweeting: The Republican Party is no longer the party of regime change and endless wars. If you want to be its standard-bearer that is a non-negotiable position. The next tweet shows him posting "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead." The tweet has a USA flag attached.
Two tweets. The first shows Gunther Eagleman tweeting: "Warmonger Lindsey Graham just rushed to Fox to advocate for U.S. involvement as soon as he could. He is also pushing for a US-backed regime change in Iran. I would like to renominate Graham to get a one-way ticket to the frontlines of every war he wants America involved in." There's an attached video of Graham speaking. The next shows Eagleman tweeting: UST IN! President Trump is HARD AT WORK all weekend after the massive strikes on Iran! He’s already on the phone with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte! Trump is a machine!" There's an attached video of a news segment about the war in Iran.
manufacturing consent through lowly paid influencers
WOW. 19 people, all who were imprisoned and mistreated in a foreign prison at the direct command of the United States, are brave enough to say “We are innocent, and we will endure more time imprisoned to prove that.”
I can only admire the enormous courage such a move takes.
As usual Mike Dorf is right on top of things. “Donald Trump's attack on Iran violates both international law and the U.S. Constitution.” www.dorfonlaw.org/2026/02/trum...
I read that Amici and the one presented by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Both amici are 🔥🔥
Amicus briefs aren't just court filings. The best are compact and compelling reads from leading scholars on the biggest issues of the day... and they're FREE!
All of which is to say, check out the latest from @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social on birthright citizenship ⬇️...
✈️👨💻🧐
Just got an email through the AALS Evidence listserv from a professor who seems keen on getting other professors to test out his AI grading device (patent pending!), but only after signing an NDA.
It's inspiring to see my coauthors continuing their valuable work: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Guava pastries 👅🐷
The strikes on Iran are blatantly illegal. I explained in June why the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were unlawful under US and international law. Everything I wrote then is true today, but this is a far larger assault with far graver consequences.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/o...